Clerical celibacy is the discipline within the Catholic Church by which only unmarried men are ordained to the priesthood in the Latin Church (one of the 24 sui iuris churches of the Catholic Church with some particular exception and in some autonomous particular Churches), and similarly to the diaconate. In other sui iuris (autonomous) particular churches, the discipline applies only to the episcopate. According to Jason Berry of The New York Times, "The requirement of celibacy is not dogma; it is an ecclesiastical law that was adopted in the Middle Ages because Rome was worried that clerics' children would inherit church property and create dynasties." For several hundred years after the imposition of celibacy on secular (non-monastic/religious) clergy the sale of church offices continued (known as the sin of Simony). The first male issue of non-married concubines of celibate clergy became set to continue the dynasty (a form of nepotism). To curtail this clerical abuse, the Latin Church imposed a ban on the ordination of children born to unmarried parents. This policy ended almost 800 years later in the 20th century.
The Catholic church in particular which principally follows this discipline is the Latin Church; this discipline does not also apply to the Eastern Catholic Churches, which permit married men to be ordained to priesthood with the exception of the Ethiopian Catholic Church. All particular Churches of the Catholic Church require bishops to be celibate as was the practice of the ancient church as bishops were chosen from monastics who always practiced celibacy.
In this context, the word celibacy retains its original meaning of 'unmarried'. Though even the married may observe abstinence from sexual intercourse, the obligation to be celibate is seen as a consequence of the obligation to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Advocates see clerical celibacy as "a special gift of God by which sacred ministers can more easily remain close to Christ with an undivided heart, and can dedicate themselves more freely to the service of God and their neighbour."
In February 2019, the Vatican acknowledged that the policy has not always been adhered to and that rules had been secretly established by the Vatican to handle clergy who violated their vows of celibacy. Prefect for the Congregation for Clergy Cardinal Beniamino Stella also acknowledged that child support and transfer have been two common ways for such clergy to maintain their clerical status.
Description The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, in general, rule out ordination of married men to the episcopate, and marriage after priestly ordination. Throughout the Catholic Church, East as well as West, a priest may not marry after ordination. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, a married priest is one who married before being ordained.
The Roman Catholic Church considers the law of clerical celibacy to be not a doctrine, but a discipline. Exceptions are sometimes made, especially in the case of married male Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant clergy who convert to the Catholic Church, and the discipline could, in theory, be changed for all ordinations to the priesthood.
Theological and scriptural foundations Theologically, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that priesthood is a ministry conformed to the life and work of Jesus Christ. Priests as sacramental ministers act ('in the person of Christ'). Thus the life of the priest conforms, the church believes, to the chastity of Christ himself. The sacrifice of married life is for the "sake of the Kingdom" (Luke 18:28–30, Matthew 19:27–30), and to follow the example of Jesus Christ in being "married" to the church, viewed by Catholicism and many Christian traditions as the "Bride of Christ" (following Ephesians 5:25–33 and Revelation 21:9, together with the spousal imagery at Mark 2:19–20; cf. Matthew 9:14–15).Angelo Amato, Il Celibato di Gesù, Libreria Editrice Vaticana (2010), pp. 29–31.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) in Salt of the Earth saw this practice as based on Jesus' words in Matthew 19:12: "Some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it." He linked this celibacy "because of the kingdom of heaven" with God's choice to confer the Old Testament priesthood on a specific tribe, that of Levi, which unlike the other tribes received no land from God, but which had "God himself as its inheritance" (Numbers 1:48–53).
Paul, within a context of having "no command from the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:25), recommends celibacy, but acknowledges that it is not God's gift to all within the church: "For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am[...] I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife. There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction" (1 Corinthians 7:7–8, 7:32–35). Peter Brown and Bart D. Ehrman speculate that for early Christians celibacy had to do with the "imminent end of the age" (1 Corinthians 7:29–31).Cf. Bart Ehrman in
Historical origins In the earliest years of the church, the clergy were largely married men. C. K. Barrett points to 1 Corinthians 9:5 as clearly indicating that "apostles, like other Christians, have a right to be (and many of them are) married" and the right for their wife to be "maintained by the communities in which they [the apostles] are working."C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 2nd Edition (1971), A&C Black, London, p 203. However, Paul himself was celibate at the time of his ministry,Calvin J. Roetzel, Paul: The Man and the Myth (Continuum International 1999 ), p. 157-163See e.g. and there is no consensus that inclusion among the requirements for candidacy to the office of "overseer" of being "the husband of one wife" meant that celibate Christians were excluded.Carl R. Triebs, "About Celibacy, I Have No Instructions from the Lord" An Inquiry into the Origins of Clerical Celibacy (Trafford Publishing 2004 ), pp. 93–95 According to Jason Berry of The New York Times, "The requirement of celibacy is not dogma; it is an ecclesiastical law that was adopted in the Middle Ages because Rome was worried that clerics' children would inherit church property and create dynasties."
Studies by some Catholic scholars, such as the Ukrainian Roman Cholij and Christian Cochini, have argued for the theory that, in early Christian practice, married men who became priests—they were often older men, "elders"—were expected to live in complete continence, refraining permanently from sexual relations with their wives.BONIVENTO, Cesare. Priestly Celibacy. Ecclesiastical Institution or Apostolic Tradition? ; Thomas McGovern,Priestly Celibacy Today; Cochini, Christian, The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy, Ignatius Press (October 1990). .Celibacy in the Early Church: The Beginnings of Obligatory Continence for Clerics in East and West, Stefan Heid, p. 15. When at a later stage it was clear that not all did refrain, the Western Church limited ordination to unmarried men and required a commitment to lifelong celibacy, while the Eastern Churches relaxed the rule, so that Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches now require their married clergy to abstain from sexual relations only for a limited period before celebrating the Eucharist. The Church of the East, which in the fifth century became separated from the Catholic Church, decided at the end of that century to abolish the rule of continence and allow priests to marry, but recognized that it was abrogating an ancient tradition. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, whose separation, along with the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, came slightly later, allows deacons (who are ordained when they are boys) to marry after ordination, but not priests: any future priests who wish to marry must do so before becoming priests. The Armenian Apostolic Church, which also belongs to Oriental Orthodoxy, while technically prohibiting, like the Eastern Orthodox Church, marriage after ordination to the sub-diaconate, has generally let this rule fall into disuse and allows deacons to marry up to the point of their priestly ordination, thus continuing to maintain the traditional exclusion of marriage by those who are priests.On Oriental Orthodoxy's exclusion of marriage after ordination to priesthood, see Deacons Focus of Oriental Orthodox-Roman Catholic Consultation. Archived from the original on 2 March 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2021. This theory would explain why all the ancient Christian Churches of both East and West, with the one exception mentioned, exclude marriage after priestly ordination, and why all reserve the episcopate (seen as a fuller form of priesthood than the presbyterate) for the celibate.
Some Catholic scholars, such as Jesuits Peter Fink and George T. Dennis of Catholic University of America, have argued that it cannot be known if priests in early Christianity practised sexual abstinence. Dennis says "there is simply no clear evidence of a general tradition or practice, much less of an obligation, of priestly celibacy-continence before the beginning of the fourth century."Dennis, George T., on Cochini, C. The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy (book review), Theological Studies, 52:4 (1991:Dec.) p.738 Fink says that a primary book used to support apostolic origins of priestly celibacy "remains a work of interpretation. There are underlying premises that seem to hold firm in this book but which would not stand up so comfortably to historical scrutiny."
The earliest textual evidence of the forbidding of marriage to clerics and the duty of those already married to abstain from sexual contact with their wives is in the fourth-century decrees of the Synod of Elvira and the later Council of Carthage (390). According to some writers, this presumed a previous norm, which was being flouted in practice:
Synod of Elvira () (Canon 33): "It is decided that marriage be altogether prohibited to bishops, priests, and deacons, or to all clerics placed in the ministry, and that they keep away from their wives and not beget children; whoever does this shall be deprived of the honor of the clerical office." Council of Carthage (390) (Canon 3): "It is fitting that the holy bishops and priests of God as well as the Levites, i.e. those who are in the service of the divine sacraments, observe perfect continence, so that they may obtain in all simplicity what they are asking from God; what the Apostles taught and what antiquity itself observed, let us also endeavour to keep[...] It pleases us all that bishop, priest and deacon, guardians of purity, abstain from conjugal intercourse with their wives, so that those who serve at the altar may keep a perfect chastity."
Among the early Church statements on the topic of sexual continence and celibacy are the and decretals of Pope Siricius (), which asserted that clerical sexual abstinence was an apostolic practice that must be followed by ministers of the church.