Celibacy and the Catholic Church

In light of the recent news from Miami I thought I would bring up why our priests are required to remain celibate.

Fr. Cutie was found to be 'with' a woman on a local beach. Photographers captured this on camera and from there rose the most recent scandal.

I started to read the 'opinions' of AOL readers listed below the article and it seriously made me feel sick. There was so many slams against the church mainly highlighting the 'ridiculousness' of celibacy. There were many erroneous claims and it got me thinking about how much the faithful actually knows about why our priests don't marry.

Here are a few points that may be helpful when talking to those who aren't aware of why:

1. The tradition in the Western or Latin-Rite Church has been for priests as well as bishops to take vows of celibacy, a rule that has been firmly in place since the early Middle Ages. (This is different then the Eastern rite where some priests are married. There are rules bound to this priesthood and marriage as well). www.catholicanswers.com

2. Some believe that celibacy is unbiblical, or even "unnatural." "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28); Paul commands that "each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband" (1 Cor. 7:2). It is even argued that celibacy somehow "causes," or at least correlates with higher incidence of, illicit sexual behavior or perversion. www.catholicanswer.com

- All of this is false. Although most people are at some point in their lives called to the married state, the vocation of celibacy is explicitly advocated—as well as practiced—by both Jesus and Paul. www.catholicanswers.com

-Celibacy is neither unnatural nor unbiblical. "Be fruitful and multiply" is not binding upon every individual; rather, it is a general precept for the human race. (This is not to be confused with the calling of married couples... they are to be fruitful and multiply. But that is for another post). Otherwise, every unmarried man and woman of marrying age would be in a state of sin by remaining single, and Jesus and Paul would be guilty of advocating sin as well as committing it. www.catholicanswers.com

3. The Catholic Church forbids no one to marry. If a priest decides to become a priest he does so with the voluntary notion that he will remain celibant. www.catholicanswers.com

4. Pope John Paul II spoke about priestly celibacy during a general audience in 1993. He spoke of the Scripture:
"I will make you Fishers of Men" (Mt 4:19, Mk 1:17, Lk 5:10)
It is followed by "they left everything and followed him". (Lk 5:11, Mt 4:20, Mk 1:18,20)

JP II writes "This did not only mean renouncing material possessions, such as "house" or "lands," but also being separated from loved ones: "brothers or sisters or mother or father or children," according to Matthew and Mark, and "wife or brothers or parents or children," according to Luke (18:29)."

5. The Second Vatican Council gave the reasons for this "inner consonance" of celibacy and the priesthood: "Through virginity, then, or celibacy observed for the kingdom of heaven, priests are consecrated to Christ by a new and exceptional reason. They adhere to him more easily with an undivided heart; they dedicate themselves more freely in him and through him to the service of God and men, and they more expeditiously minister to his kingdom and the work of heavenly regeneration, and thus they are apt to accept, in a broad sense, paternity in Christ." They "evoke the mysterious marriage established by Christ, and fully to be manifested in the future, in which the Church has Christ as her only spouse. They give, moreover, a living sign of the world to come, by a faith and charity already made present, in which the children of the resurrection neither marry nor take wives" (PO 16; cf. PDV 29, 50; CCC 1579).

6. These lofty, noble spiritual reasons can be summarized in the following essential point: a more complete adherence to Christ, loved and served with an undivided heart (cf. 1 Cor 7:32-33); greater availability to serve Christ's kingdom and to carry out their own tasks in the Church; the most exclusive choice of a spiritual fruitfulness (cf. 1 Cor 4:15); leading a life more like that definitive one in the world to come, and therefore, more exemplary for life here below. Above taken from Vatican-General Audience

It's important for Catholics to be able to explain why the Church asks its priests to be celibate. There are so many misconceptions, many which might be right in our own families. Let us continue to pray for priests and their celibacy as it is a great gift to God.