Written by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo
Self-appointed reformers always arise in times of crises offering “brilliant” solutions that attempt to demolish the Church’s most venerable traditions.
Priestly celibacy, a glorious trait of the Latin Church, has been a constant target of these so-called reformers.
Curiously enough, abolishing priestly celibacy comes hand-in-hand with destroying the indissolubility of marriage. This is easy to understand since it is based on the idea that chastity is impossible to observe. Thus, not only celibate continence is cast aside but also conjugal chastity and fidelity in marriage. Historically this happened with Eastern Orthodox schismatics, Protestants, Anglicans and others. The total or partial abolition of priestly celibacy either came together with or was preceded by permission to divorce.
Pseudo Arguments Against Celibacy
The present sex scandals, so trumped up by the media, have served as a pretext to intensify the campaign against priestly celibacy. Sectors of the media, as well as organizations of married priests and liberal Catholics, are insisting on this matter.
In addition to pseudo-scientific arguments used to prove the impossibility of observing chastity, we often find the claim that celibacy is a purely disciplinary policy introduced only later in Church legislation. It can therefore be abolished. Others say that it should at least be made optional.
Actually there are many studies, some very recent, totally debunking this supposedly historic-canonical argument.
Let us cite three among the most important studies:
- Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy, by Fr. Christian Cochini, S.J.(Ignatius, San Francisco, 1990);
- The Case for Clerical Celibacy, by Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler (Ignatius, San Francisco, 1995);
- Celibacy in the Early Church,by Fr. Stefan Heid, (Ignatius, San Francisco, 2000).
Early Church Tradition
Based on solid documentation, these authors show that although one cannot speak of celibacy in the strict sense of the word (not being married), it is certain that since apostolic times the Church had as a norm that men elevated to the deaconate, priesthood and the episcopate should observe continence. If candidates happened to be married — a very common occurrence in the early Church — they were supposed to cease, with the consent of their spouses, not only marital life but even cohabitation under the same roof.
Let us limit ourselves to the short yet substantial book by the late Cardinal Stickler (1910-2007), a well-respected Canon Law historian, expert on Roman Congregations, and former head of the Vatican Library.
He explains that both the apostolic and early Church did not require that a man be single or widowed in order to be ordained priest or designated bishop.
Since a large number of Christians were adult converts, (a typical example is Saint Augustine, who converted at 30), it was common for a married man to be ordained priest and made bishop.
However, the Epistles of Saint Paul to Titus and Timothy clearly state a bishop had to be a “man of only one woman” (I Tim 3:2; 3:12; Titus 1:6).
According to the interpretation commonly adopted in the early Church (and attested to by the Fathers of the Church), a candidate could not be married more than once. Thus, a widower who remarried was ineligible.
Moreover, Church officials believed a person in those conditions would hardly have sufficient strength to halt marital relations and live under the same roof.
Cardinal Stickler emphasizes that because of the mutually self-giving nature of matrimony; a separation would always take place only with the full consent the wife, who, for her part, would make a commitment to live in chastity in a community of women religious.
The Apostolic Tradition
Among the Apostles, only Saint Peter is known to have been married due to the fact his mother-in-law is mentioned in the Gospels. Some of the others might have been married but there is a clear indication that they left everything, including their families, to follow Christ.
Thus, in the Gospels, one reads that Saint
Peter asked Our Lord, “What about us? We left all we had to follow you.”
The Divine Master answered: “I tell you solemnly, there is no one who
has left house, wife, brothers, parents or children for the sake of the
kingdom of God, who will not be given repayment many times over in this
present time and, in the world to come, eternal life” (Lk 18:28-30, cf.
Mt 19:27-30; Mk 10:20-21).
Early Church Councils Reaffirm Practice
This brief overview does not allow us to look at the whole history of celibacy amply documented by Cardinal Stickler. Let us present some of the most outstanding cases. The Council of Elvira in Spain (310) dealt with priestly chastity (canon 33), and presented perfect continence as a norm that must be maintained and observed and not as an innovation. The lack of any revolt or surprise attested to its widespread practice.
At the Council of the Church of Africa
(390) and above all at the Council of Carthage, (419), which Saint
Augustine attended, similar norms were adopted. These councils recalled
the ecclesiastical praxis of the obligation of perfect chastity,
affirming that such praxis is of apostolic tradition.
Pope Siricius answering a specific
consultation about clerical celibacy in 385 affirmed that bishops and
priests who continue marital relations after ordination violate an
irrevocable law from the very inception of the Church that binds them to
continence.
Several other popes and regional councils,
particularly in Gaul, present day France, continued to recall the
tradition of celibacy and punish abuse.
Saint
Gregory VII (1073-85) when struggling against the intervention of the
Holy Roman Emperor in church affairs, had to fight simony – the purchase
of Church posts – and Nicolaitism – the heresy that preaches, among
other things, priestly marriage.Some mistakenly conclude that Saint Gregory VII introduced the law of celibacy into the Church. Quite the contrary. What Saint Gregory VII, and later the Second Lateran Council (1139) did was not to “introduce” the law of celibacy but simply confirm that it was in force and issue regulations for its observance. Since most recruiting for the priesthood was already among the unmarried, the Second Lateran Council forbade priestly marriage, declaring it null and void in the case of priests, deacons or anyone with a solemn vow of religion.
The Case of Paphnutius
The main argument of those who deny the
apostolic tradition of priestly continence comes from an incident during
the first Council of Nicea (325). Paphnutius, a bishop from Egypt, was
reported to have protested in the name of tradition when the Conciliar
Fathers tried to impose priestly continence. Because of his protest, the
Council is said to have refused to impose such continence.
Cardinal Stickler adeptly deals with the
case. He points out that Eusebius of Cesarea, the Council’s historian,
was actually present during the whole event. He makes no reference to
any such protest, which he certainly would have noted had it really
happened.
The story of Paphnutius only appears almost
a century after the Council of Nicea in the writings of two Byzantine
authors, Socrates and Sozomen. The first cites as his source his
conversation as a young man, with an elderly man who claimed he was at
the Council. The veracity of this story is questionable since Socrates
was born more than fifty years after the Council. His interlocutor had
to be at least seventy years old when he was born and practically in his
nineties at the time of the supposed conversation.
The story of Paphnutius’ protest was also
always held in suspicion because his name was not on the roster of
Fathers who came from Egypt to participate in the Council of Nicea. This
was affirmed by Valesius, editor of the works of Socrates and Sozomen
in the Greek Patrology of Migne.
However, Cardinal Stickler claims the
decisive argument against the Paphnutius story comes from the second
Council of Trullo (691). During this council of the Eastern Church, the
Council Fathers, under pressure from the Emperor, allowed matrimony for
priests (not for bishops) — going against the tradition both in the East
and West. These same Fathers failed to present the testimony of
Paphnutius to justify their break with the tradition of priestly
continence even though they had everything to gain by doing so. Instead
of citing Paphnutius, they sought to justify their position, never
recognized by the Western Church, by invoking the Council of Carthage.
However, this Council clearly ruled in
defense of the apostolic tradition of continence. Thus, they resorted to
falsifying its decrees, a fact even schismatic historians now
recognize.
Cardinal Stickler laments that historians
of weight like Funk, at the end of the nineteenth century, accepted the
story of Paphnutius as valid even as his contemporaries had already
rejected it as false. One of the people responsible for spreading this
error was the Frenchmen, E. Vacandard, through the prestigious
Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique.
An Identity Crisis
Finally, Cardinal Stickler argues that the
reason for priestly celibacy is not a functional one. Unlike the Old
Testament, where the priesthood was merely a temporary function received
by way of inheritance, the priesthood in the New Testament is a
vocation, a calling that transforms the person and confiscates him
entirely. He is a sanctifier, a mediator.
Above all, the priesthood in the New
Testament is a participation in the Priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the High Priest. And, therefore, the priest has a mysterious and
special bond with Christ, in whose name and by whose power he offers the
bloodless sacrifice (in persona Christi). The most profound reason for
priestly celibacy comes from this supernatural bond with the Savior.
The Cardinal points out that the main
reason celibacy is in question today is because the clergy faces an
identity crisis. Only by restoring the true identity of the priest, can
the profound reasons for celibacy be understood and practiced.
This identity crisis cannot be resolved by
returning to “the origins of the Church,” a solution proposed by
proponents favoring married priests and their sympathizers. Those
origins would simply not allow them to cohabit with their wives and
continue to exert their priestly ministry.
Let us hope that, with the help of grace,
the true identity of the Catholic priest will be restored soon so that
all the present-day madness may come to an end.
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