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| A priest in the truest sense of the word |
With the decreasing number of Catholic priests to administer the sacraments coupled by a growing number of cases of paedophilia, ephebophilia, rape, and other forms of sexual harassment and abuse by notorious (mostly homosexual) Catholic clergymen, the Catholic Church at large finds itself in a desperate situation to fill the gap made by these tragic moments in the history of Catholicism, at least in the Latin Rite. One example is the widespread though relatively unknown practise of ordaining as priests married male converts to Catholicism from mostly mainline Protestant denominations, while continuing their regular marital relations with their (lay) wives. In some cases, older men, single, divorced, or widowed, enter the priesthood as well (the so-called "late vocations"). The fact is, however, these solutions do little to alleviate the steady decline in the number of men wanting to become clergymen.
To make things worse, some dissident voices within the Church are suggesting that the Catholic hierarchy ordain husbands, homosexuals, and women to the clergy, as well as allow single and widowed clerics, respectively, to get married and remarried (such as the priest-fathers in Iloilo). Schismatic "Catholic" groups are now doing them outside the auspices of the Church, as do rogue Catholic bishops in their respective dioceses (one sad case being the illegal ordination of seven women to the priesthood by Bishop Romulo A. Braschi of Argentina in a cruise ship in the River Danube back in 2002), with their actions being rewarded with excommunication.
These groups do have some point in justifying their actions (fighting inequality and injustice against women, restoring the original practise of the early church, eliminating sexual abuse by clergy, etc.), yet what they tend to forget is that they are not solving the shortage of clergymen in a properly appropriate way. They have no idea how to increase vocations to the clergy without having to resort to breaking the canon law and apostolic tradition. Clerical celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma, but the Church may only go as far as ordaining husbands as priests, only to prohibit them for getting remarried should they become widowed. The Church would even think twice as to whether it could let single and widowed clerics, respectively, get married and remarried, or not. However, I think that there is a way for the Church to permit the latter to happen without stepping on both apostolic tradition and canon law.
What is Clerical Celibacy?
Narrowly defined, clerical celibacy (Celibacy came from the Latin adjective caelebs, meaning "unmarried", so celibacy should be synonymous with "singlehood", not "abstinence from copulation", contrary to what the so-called "celibacy advocates" perpetuate) refers to a rule of ordaining only bachelors (and occasionally, divorced men and widowers) and prohibiting them from getting married (and in cases of divorced men and widowers, getting remarried) to ensure continence (abstinence from copulation) on their part.
When Did the Church Start to Implement Clerical Celibacy?
We must recognize that the polity of the Christian church in the first century AD given in the Christian Greek Scriptures ("New Testament") is scanty. Nevertheless, we can infer from them that the early church ordained married fathers. Matthew 8:14, Mark 1:30, and Luke 4:38 narrated that Jesus Christ healed the penthera, which literally means "mother of the wife" in Greek, of his apostle Simon Peter (although it is possible that either Simon Peter was widowed, or he and his brother Andrew had other siblings who were married, thus accounting for the fact that they had a penthera. Father Joseph Francis Sheehan argued a century earlier that penthera could also mean "stepmother"). 1 Timothy 3:2 and 12 and Titus 1:6 instructed leaders of local churches to ordain a mias gunaikos andra, which literally means "man of one woman" in Greek, who keeps "his children under control", as a bishop, priest, or deacon. Yet, Paul considers singlehood as superior to marriage in 1 Corinthians 7:8 and 34. Furthermore, he advises younger widows to get remarried in 1 Timothy 5:14. He warned his readers of people who would hinder anybody from getting married and who abstain from food in 4:1-5. Hebrews 13:4 praises marriage yet indicts sexual transgressors. In 1 Corinthians 9:5, Paul asks his readers whether he had the authority to "lead about" a "sister-woman" during his missionary journeys or not.
It was only after the apostolic period that the early Christian church came up with a clarified teaching on celibacy and continence of the clergy. Let us take an example from the Council of Elvira from about 305 AD:
Throughout the medieval period, the church attempted in vain to enforce the norm with limited success. In fact, most of married clerics continued marital relations with their wives, and single clerics even got married after ordination. Corruption and nepotism was widespread as married clergymen passed their Only in 1139 AD did the church succeed when it decided that it would only ordain bachelors and widowers and ruling out marriage and remarriage for them after ordination.
Problems still ensued with the celibate clergy, however. Bishops, priests, and deacons siring children outside marriage was one of the issues from the late Middle Ages up to the time of Reformation, when Martin Luther and other Christian religious reformers denounced clerical celibacy as contrary to scriptural teaching. Subsequently, Protestant Christian churches dropped the requirement of celibacy for their ministers.
Today, only the Orthodox Catholic Church and the eastern Catholic churches regularly ordain married men to as deacons and priests (but not as bishops, who must be either single or widowed), although marriage and remarriage is off-limits for single, divorced, and widowed clerics after ordination.
The Latin rite of the Catholic Church currently ordains married former ministers who converted from mostly mainline Protestant Christian denominations to Catholicism, provided that they remain widowed should their wives predecease them. It ordains widowers and divorced men as well. It is in the Latin rite that the faithful are starting to feel the worldwide shortage of clergymen to administer the sacraments.
Why Did the Church Implement Clerical Celibacy?
Several factors contributed to the requirement of celibacy, widowerhood, and continence for single, widowed, and married clerics, respectively. The prevailing reason is the desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ, who was single himself. Another reason is the desire to devote more time to ministry, as per Paul's recommendation in 1 Corinthians 7:8, 25-33. Some speculated that the church instituted clerical celibacy to prevent ecclesiastical property from being passed to the wives and children of clerics, or keep the ministers pure of defilement from copulation, which the church no longer holds today.
Some of you are complaining, "But you have still not said how this relates to solving the issue of clerical celibacy!" Well, let me explain how the church can allow both its single and widowed clerics, respectively, to get married and remarried.
How Can the Catholic Church Let Its Single and Widowed Ministers Get Married and Remarried While Remaining Faithful to Tradition?
Before we discuss the solution to the issue of clerical celibacy, we must acknowledge that the Catholic Church have enacted laws that govern the requirements for its clergy, which include celibacy. Some examples are:
Therefore, the Catholic Church can do something to get around the ambiguities in these canons and allow ordination of married men and marriage for single clerics as well as remarriage for widowed clerics. How can we do that? The answer is very simple: narrow the definition "laity", such as this one as defined in paragraph 31 of Lumen gentium, promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1964 November 21 (my revised translation):
Furthermore, the church must organize the religious institutes as orders of their own, in addition to the orders of bishop, priest, and deacon. This way, we can give the voice to women without having to ordain them as bishops, priests, and deacons. (Medievalist Nathaniel Campbell originally had this idea, so I credit him for that.) Make membership in any religious institute an impediment to the sacred orders. For example, a monk or a friar may not become a priest unless he leaves the religious institute of which he is a member. This would eliminate instances of having regular clergy, who are members of religious institutes, and secular clergy, who are not. Furthermore, this would allow single and widowed clerics who take no vow of chastity to be free to get married and remarried to whom they want, as long as they are not laywomen.
Of course, we cannot expect the Catholic hierarchy to do these steps very immediately. I think that the Catholic Church is still in the process of getting used to having married clergy (again) alongside celibate clergy, so it needs a long period of adjustment. This adjustment consist of the following steps:
Step 1.) For now, the Catholic hierarchy could ordain more and more mature, sane, and non-predatory older widowed fathers, whose children are all grown up and financially independent, and it should. As the entire Catholic Church is getting more used to them, the hierarchy can take steps to ordain married fathers.
Step 2.) The Catholic hierarchy is ready to ordain mature, sane, and non-predatory married fathers, whose children are all grown up and financially independent. It would later take further steps to allow single and widowed clerics to get married and remarried, but only to women in the religious institutes.
Step 3.) The Catholic hierarchy now both recruits married fathers to the clergy, and allow both single and widowed clerics to get married and remarried and raise families of their own.
Step 4.) The Catholic hierarchy ordains only older men as priests. After all, the English word priest came ultimately from the Greek masculine comparative adjective presbuteros, which means, "older". Then, the hierarchy decides to have each priest specialize in only one specific sacrament. That is, the first category of priests would only perform baptisms. The second category would only do confessions. The third category would only officiate at marriages. The fourth category would only anoint the sick. The fifth category would preside at funerals. The sixth category would only celebrate the Eucharist.
You may ask, "How can we even support clergymen with large families without having to resort to increased stipend or tithing?"
There is a simple solution to that. We could simply have the clergy contract a type of arrangement wherein they can pool their resources, thereby passing the property to other clergymen should one of them die, instead of their family, preventing nepotism and corruption. Their wives could do the same.
In addition to that, we need more orthodox and more conservative formation of the clergy if the Catholic ministry is to survive. Of course, the Catholic Church will never permit divorce and marriage between two persons of the same gender.
Conclusion
Everybody deserves a life full of happiness, ease, and serenity. We must leave nobody starving for healthy relationships, especially with the opposite gender. I wrote this article out of concern for single and widowed Catholic clergymen struggling with living alone and without support from a wife. Marriage is definitely enjoying though not absolutely blissful. If the Catholic Church to avoid being included among those mentioned in 1 Timothy 4: 1-3, allowing limited clerical marriage may be the answer. You can comment on this article, as long as it is polite. You may even suggest other ideas on solving the celibacy issue on the comments section, but make sure to be polite.
I post this article at the risk of being scrutinized by many.
It was only after the apostolic period that the early Christian church came up with a clarified teaching on celibacy and continence of the clergy. Let us take an example from the Council of Elvira from about 305 AD:
(Canon 33): It is decided that marriage [and remarriage] be altogether prohibited to [single and widowed] bishops, priests, and deacons, or to all clerics placed in the ministry [to laywomen], and that they keep away from their [lay] wives and not beget children; whoever does this shall be deprived of the honor the clerical office.Here is another example from the Council of Carthage from 390 AD:
(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 endeavor to keep... It pleases us all 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.The canons mentioned above were clear that the early church prohibited married clerics from copulating with their wives, whom the church numbered among the laity, and from getting remarried should they become widowed. Moreover, the church prohibited single clerics from getting married once the church ordained them.
Throughout the medieval period, the church attempted in vain to enforce the norm with limited success. In fact, most of married clerics continued marital relations with their wives, and single clerics even got married after ordination. Corruption and nepotism was widespread as married clergymen passed their Only in 1139 AD did the church succeed when it decided that it would only ordain bachelors and widowers and ruling out marriage and remarriage for them after ordination.
Problems still ensued with the celibate clergy, however. Bishops, priests, and deacons siring children outside marriage was one of the issues from the late Middle Ages up to the time of Reformation, when Martin Luther and other Christian religious reformers denounced clerical celibacy as contrary to scriptural teaching. Subsequently, Protestant Christian churches dropped the requirement of celibacy for their ministers.
Today, only the Orthodox Catholic Church and the eastern Catholic churches regularly ordain married men to as deacons and priests (but not as bishops, who must be either single or widowed), although marriage and remarriage is off-limits for single, divorced, and widowed clerics after ordination.
The Latin rite of the Catholic Church currently ordains married former ministers who converted from mostly mainline Protestant Christian denominations to Catholicism, provided that they remain widowed should their wives predecease them. It ordains widowers and divorced men as well. It is in the Latin rite that the faithful are starting to feel the worldwide shortage of clergymen to administer the sacraments.
Why Did the Church Implement Clerical Celibacy?
Several factors contributed to the requirement of celibacy, widowerhood, and continence for single, widowed, and married clerics, respectively. The prevailing reason is the desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ, who was single himself. Another reason is the desire to devote more time to ministry, as per Paul's recommendation in 1 Corinthians 7:8, 25-33. Some speculated that the church instituted clerical celibacy to prevent ecclesiastical property from being passed to the wives and children of clerics, or keep the ministers pure of defilement from copulation, which the church no longer holds today.
Some of you are complaining, "But you have still not said how this relates to solving the issue of clerical celibacy!" Well, let me explain how the church can allow both its single and widowed clerics, respectively, to get married and remarried.
How Can the Catholic Church Let Its Single and Widowed Ministers Get Married and Remarried While Remaining Faithful to Tradition?
Before we discuss the solution to the issue of clerical celibacy, we must acknowledge that the Catholic Church have enacted laws that govern the requirements for its clergy, which include celibacy. Some examples are:
(Canon 277.1): Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. They are therefore bound to celibacy. Celibacy is 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 services of God and their neighbor. Clerics are to behave with due prudence in relation to persons whose company can be a danger to their obligation of preserving continence or can lead to scandal of the faithful.
(Canon 1087): Those who are in sacred orders invalidly attempt marriage.
(Canon 1042): The following are simply impeded from receiving orders: 1.) a man who has a wife, unless he is lawfully destined to the permanent diaconate.Indeed, the canons bar ordination for married laymen, marriage for single clerics, and remarriage for clerics. However, does canon 1087 specify to whom single and widowed clerics cannot get married? I do not think so. Does canon 1042 specify in which state is a married man unable to receive orders? No.
Therefore, the Catholic Church can do something to get around the ambiguities in these canons and allow ordination of married men and marriage for single clerics as well as remarriage for widowed clerics. How can we do that? The answer is very simple: narrow the definition "laity", such as this one as defined in paragraph 31 of Lumen gentium, promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1964 November 21 (my revised translation):
The term laity is here understood to mean all the faithful except those in holy orders and those in the state of religious life specially approved by the Church. These faithful are by baptism made one body with Christ and are constituted among the People of God; they are in their own way made sharers in the sacerdotal, prophetic, and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world.That is, we must define "laity" as a group that belongs to neither clergy or religious institutes. This way, the church can revise its canon law to prohibit marriage and remarriage of single and widowed clergy only to laywomen, allowing the former to settle down with women in the religious institutes (though a laywoman can join any religious institute should she fall in love with a cleric, which is some sort of practical).
Furthermore, the church must organize the religious institutes as orders of their own, in addition to the orders of bishop, priest, and deacon. This way, we can give the voice to women without having to ordain them as bishops, priests, and deacons. (Medievalist Nathaniel Campbell originally had this idea, so I credit him for that.) Make membership in any religious institute an impediment to the sacred orders. For example, a monk or a friar may not become a priest unless he leaves the religious institute of which he is a member. This would eliminate instances of having regular clergy, who are members of religious institutes, and secular clergy, who are not. Furthermore, this would allow single and widowed clerics who take no vow of chastity to be free to get married and remarried to whom they want, as long as they are not laywomen.
Of course, we cannot expect the Catholic hierarchy to do these steps very immediately. I think that the Catholic Church is still in the process of getting used to having married clergy (again) alongside celibate clergy, so it needs a long period of adjustment. This adjustment consist of the following steps:
Step 1.) For now, the Catholic hierarchy could ordain more and more mature, sane, and non-predatory older widowed fathers, whose children are all grown up and financially independent, and it should. As the entire Catholic Church is getting more used to them, the hierarchy can take steps to ordain married fathers.
Step 2.) The Catholic hierarchy is ready to ordain mature, sane, and non-predatory married fathers, whose children are all grown up and financially independent. It would later take further steps to allow single and widowed clerics to get married and remarried, but only to women in the religious institutes.
Step 3.) The Catholic hierarchy now both recruits married fathers to the clergy, and allow both single and widowed clerics to get married and remarried and raise families of their own.
Step 4.) The Catholic hierarchy ordains only older men as priests. After all, the English word priest came ultimately from the Greek masculine comparative adjective presbuteros, which means, "older". Then, the hierarchy decides to have each priest specialize in only one specific sacrament. That is, the first category of priests would only perform baptisms. The second category would only do confessions. The third category would only officiate at marriages. The fourth category would only anoint the sick. The fifth category would preside at funerals. The sixth category would only celebrate the Eucharist.
You may ask, "How can we even support clergymen with large families without having to resort to increased stipend or tithing?"
There is a simple solution to that. We could simply have the clergy contract a type of arrangement wherein they can pool their resources, thereby passing the property to other clergymen should one of them die, instead of their family, preventing nepotism and corruption. Their wives could do the same.
In addition to that, we need more orthodox and more conservative formation of the clergy if the Catholic ministry is to survive. Of course, the Catholic Church will never permit divorce and marriage between two persons of the same gender.
Conclusion
Everybody deserves a life full of happiness, ease, and serenity. We must leave nobody starving for healthy relationships, especially with the opposite gender. I wrote this article out of concern for single and widowed Catholic clergymen struggling with living alone and without support from a wife. Marriage is definitely enjoying though not absolutely blissful. If the Catholic Church to avoid being included among those mentioned in 1 Timothy 4: 1-3, allowing limited clerical marriage may be the answer. You can comment on this article, as long as it is polite. You may even suggest other ideas on solving the celibacy issue on the comments section, but make sure to be polite.
I post this article at the risk of being scrutinized by many.
