Priesthood

Christ's call to priestly celibacy

Fr Thaddeus Doyle

Contents - Oct 2005 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Health of Church and health of family connect - Michael Gilchrist Benedict XVI speaks out on the crisis of faith in Australia - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Books: The Incredible Da Vinci Code falsehoods exposed - Frank Mobbs Juventutem: Young Latin Mass Catholics attend World Youth Day - Fr Glen Tattersall Youth: The lasting impact of World Youth Day - Sannon Donahoo Society: The latest marriage statistics: implications - Zenit News Agency Dies Domini: Armidale Diocese promotes Sunday observance - Bishop Luc Matthys Conference: C.S. Lewis: defender of objective truth - Adam Glyn Cooper Culture: How the Catholic Church built Western civilisation - Thomas E. Woods Jr Priesthood: Christ's call to priestly celibacy - Fr Thaddeus Doyle Letters: Reverence? - P.R. Smith Letters: Blasphemy - Alan Onraet Letters: A sense of sin - Henk Verhoeven Letters: Contraception - Anne Lastman Letters: Watered-down faith - Paula Gartland Letters: A treasured priest: Fr William Ross - Tom King Letters: Anti-Christian media - Frank Bellet Letters: Sacrifice of the Mass - A. Bono Letters: New hymn lyrics for Come As You Are Books: Your Life is Worth Living: The Christian Philosophy of Life, by Fulton J. Sheen - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: What is Opus Dei?, by Dominique le Tourneau - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: A Beautiful Story to be Told: The Legion of Mary in Oceania 1932-2005 - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Events: Who's Afraid of Vatican II? Seminars October-December 2005 Books: More good reading from AD Books Reflection: What the early Church tells us about the celebration of Mass - Fr Sebastian Camilleri OFM

When I was ordained, I didn't believe that celibacy was God's will. I was aware that Peter was a married man, and that there were married priests in the early Church, and I believed that since Jesus selected married men that so too should the Church.

It is that, while married men were ordained in the early Church, as soon as they were ordained they were expected to renounce the use of their marriage and to live as brother and sister with their wives.

This clearly was the rule in the early Church. Around 217 Pope Callistus was bitterly opposed by St Hippolytus on the basis that he wasn't suspending those who broke this rule.

The Council of Elvira was held in Spain sometime between 300 and 309 AD. Canon 33 concerns clerics "who must live in abstinence with their wives." It lays down that clerics are forbidden to have relations with their wives or procreate children. Anyone who broke this rule was to be suspended.

In the early Church the rule was the same in Western Europe, in North Africa, in Rome, in Palestine and in the East. Married men could become priests, but once ordained, they were expected to abstain from marital relationships. A single person, once he was ordained a priest or even a deacon, could not marry; nor was a priest free to remarry if his wife died.

This rule could not have been introduced without major controversy, if it didn't come from the practice of the Apostles. There is no evidence of such a controversy. If it goes back to the Apostles, they must have derived it from their understanding of the teaching of Jesus Himself.

I firmly believe that several men left the priesthood who would not have left had they beeen told the full truth concerning the apostolic origins of priestly celibacy.

I believe that there has been a serious failure on the part of our Church leaders to ensure that all priests are given the full details concerning the apostolic origins of priestly celibacy.

First published in 'The Irish Catholic'.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 18 No 9 (October 2005), p. 13