The Bible affirms the value of celibacy for both lay Christians and church leaders, most notably in 1 Corinthians 7. In this passage, Paul speaks of his own unmarried state vv. Paul emphasizes the liberty unmarried Christians have in contrast to the obligations married Christians have to their families. It is important to note that, alongside its discussion of celibacy, 1 Corinthians 7 also clearly affirms Christian marriage.
Further, multiple passages of Scripture speak directly about married church leaders, including specific instructions about married bishops or overseers 1 Tim. Priestly celibacy was discussed and debated by Christian leaders during the earliest centuries of the church, including at the Council of Nicaea. While some at that time upheld celibacy as an ideal state for clergy, others opposed requiring it.
Within Catholicism, clerical celibacy continued to be viewed as ideal by many, and various ecclesial rulings in the early centuries of Christendom supported this view. The expectation that Catholic priests be celibate was clarified and more strictly enforced beginning in the 11th century under Pope Gregory VII. After the Reformation, many Protestant leaders notably Martin Luther affirmed marriage and family life for clergy.
Today, it is important to note that within Eastern Catholic rites married men are commonly ordained as priests; the emphasis on priestly singleness and celibacy is found primarily within the Latin or Western rite of the Catholic church. In some rare cases, the Latin rite also allows married men to become priests if they previously served as ministers within specific Protestant denominations prior to their conversion to Catholicism.
Christianity Today has examined the topic of clerical celibacy in a variety of ways throughout the years. Here are some of our most important articles on this topic:. While the Council of Nicaea in A.
This article explains why the council decided not to require it. A person cannot be married and be perfect. However, most priests were married. Fourth Century Council of Elvira, Spain, decree a priest who sleeps with his wife the night before Mass will lose his job. Proclaimed the Nicene Creed. This suggests that before this time there was ordination of women. Decreed that priests may no longer sleep with their wives.
Fifth Century St. Augustine wrote, Nothing is so powerful in drawing the spirit of a man downwards as the caresses of a woman. Sixth Century 2nd Council of Tours: any cleric found in bed with his wife would be excommunicated for a year and reduced to the lay state. Seventh Century France: documents show that the majority of priest were married.
Eighth Century St. Boniface reported to the pope that in Germany almost no bishop or priest was celibate. Ninth Century -Council of Aix-la-Chapelle openly admitted that abortions and infanticide took place in convents and monasteries to cover up activities of uncelibate clerics.
Ulrich, a holy bishop, argued from scripture and common sense that the only way to purify the church from the worst excesses of celibacy was to permit priests to marry. Benedict IX dispensed himself from celibacy and resigned in order to marry. Fourteenth Century Bishop Pelagio complains that women are still ordained and hearing confessions. Sixteenth Century Council of Trent states that celibacy and virginity are superior to marriage.
Eighteenth Century American Declaration of Independence. These decrees still possess a symbolic value in the context of modern debates. But if the recommendations of the synod are accepted, this would not be the first time that a local exception has been made to the discipline of celibacy in the Roman Catholic church. Those married priests who left the Church of England after its decision to ordain women in , for example, were permitted to be ordained as Catholic priests without making any commitment to celibacy.
By , former Anglican clergy accounted for up to one in ten English Catholic priests, and in the United States, more than married former Episcopal clergy have been ordained in the Catholic church. Such precedents hammer home the importance of the distinction between the marriage of priests and the ordination of married men to the priesthood.
Instead, the recommendation is presented as a direct response to the needs of the Amazon region, and the shortage of priests to serve its communities. But days before the Amazonian synod opened, the Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, argued that married priests cannot be seen as a quick a solution to pastoral problems in Latin America and beyond The publication of this new book — and the furore around it — is a warning that watering down the requirements of celibacy for priests is not universally accepted as a positive response to the needs of the church.
This post first appeared on The Conversation , 22 January Professor Helen Parish is a University of Reading historian with interests in religion and belief in early modern Europe. She has written on the history of clerical celibacy and marriage in the western Church, as well as debates over superstition, miracles, magic, witchcraft, and early modern natural history.
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