www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West A Married Priest Looks At Celibacy

It is simply not believable that celibacy was the rule for clerics in the West in early times.
Writing in the first half of the Fifth Century, St Patrick, a Briton and the apostle of Ireland, proudly claims to be the son of a deacon and the grandson of a priest.
About this time the Roman legions were withdrawn from Britain and contact with Western Europe became difficult. The Celtic Churches continued to have married clergy until the Middle Ages. The Gaelic surname MacTaggart (mac an t-sagairt = son of the priest) shows that the practice continued until quite recent times, in spite of Romanisation in Scotland and Ireland by the 13th Century.
Christianity was introduced to the Britons before Constantine was proclaimed emperor at York, and a tradition of clerical celibacy going back beyond that period would not have been overturned by new christians on the edge of the Empire.

Beyond all this there are a couple historical anecdotes that I've run across. The first is that when clerical celibacy was imposed on the clergy in Germany, the archbishop of Mainz had to have the civil authorities called in to rescue him from his clergy. Seems that when he declared their marriages void there was quite a riot that took place. The other is the furor caused at the Council of Trent when the bishops from the Scandinavian countries showed up with their wives and children in tow. According to some Lutheran friends, the fact that they were not admitted contributed to their returning home and following the Reformation.

BOB

as far as some one trying to pastor a church and hold down a full time job, here is my reply:in the Mormon church, there are no paid clergy, so 99.9% of the time, the ward bishop (pastor)is a family man holding down a full time secular job. it is a great and delicate balancing act for sure to satisfy the demands of family, job, and ward (that is the order the LDS Church rate everything), but it can be done. of course, the bishop has a ward in which everyone participates, thus the work is shared. as a one time LDS (Mormon) who returned home to Rome many years ago, I speak of what I know.
Much Love,
Jonn

I'm used to these tedious Latin apologias for celibacy, but seldom have I seen one so shoddily argued. Not only is the history bad and the scholarship selective and tendentious, but he can't even get basic facts straight.

First claim: "The fact is, priestly celibacy is an apostolic institution." In support of this demonstrably absurd claim (was not Peter, presumably a priest and supposedly a bishop and first bishop of Rome, married?) he cites himself and some tract he recently published. That is hardly credible.

Second problem: he slyly equates Arles and Elvira with Nicaea. The latter is an ecumenical council whereas the first two are not. There is a world of difference between them. And Ryland's treatment of Nicaea is highly tendentious and selective.

Third: as has been noted above, Ryland's dismissal of the Council of Trullo is totally erroneous.

Fourth: he calls Pastores Dabo Vobis ("I will give you shepherds") from 1992 an "encyclical." This is incorrect. It was a "post-synodal apostolic exhortation." Once again, there is a vast difference between these types of documents, with encyclicals classed by Latin canonists as having far greater weight and authority than an exhortation.

Fifth, as noted above he relies on now thoroughly discredited scholarship.

Sixth and finally, he gets in a few sly digs at "Eastern Orthodox" positions, totally failing to pay attention to the balanced and generous (which cannot be said of this article) views afforded a married priesthood in, eg., Pope John Paul's *Orientale Lumen* and elsewhere (including the universal catechism, no. 1580), which irenically and excellently feel no need to take a dig at the Eastern tradition in order to bolster the Latin.

since celibacy for Latin priests is a canon law and not a dogma, and not a tradition, I can't understand why Rome can't do away with it, and make it optional.I guess it will stay because there are still a few pithecanthropoi in power that see sex as something filthy and a celibate priest won't do the sex thing (and these same pithecanthropoi want lay Catholics to breed like rabbits, so I guess that lay people are inherently inferior to these self made eunuchs), that's the whole crux of the matter. oh, speaking of married bishops from Scandinavia who gave Rome the figs when they were barred from attending the Council earlier mentioned, isn't it a fact that the first Pope, Peter was married? don't give me any pious crap of a tradition that he lived in holy celibacy with his wife (she becoming like a sister). I'll bet anything that after a hard day running the Church, Pope Peter came home to his wife and they did what other normal married couples do to celebrate their love for each other. and as far as wolverine type priests, Sts Peter and Paul, after Father Rudisill (eternal memory) left, we got one of those wolverines who was so nasty that he would have made the Pope turn Protestant,and he was about as popular as Adolph Hitler at a Bar Mitzvah, and after an exodus of faithful to other Latin parishes, the Bishop finally transferred to wherever.
Much Love,
Jonn

A far better article on the history of clerical celibacy can be found here:

A Critical Consideration of The Case for Clerical Celibacy [east2west.org]

By the way, the author of that article is Anthony T. Dragani.

-- John

So, who is going to post a rebuttal of Fr. Ryland's article on the Catholic Answers website and in the Letters to the Editor in This Rock Magazine?

Well, since you brought it up . . . you're a pretty good writer, Dr. Eric . . .

-- John

LOL

Excellent post, Adam! Thanks for doing this analysis.

And thanks, John, for posting Anthony Dragani's article. It is quite good.

Gordo

I was thinking of Adam DeVille who did an excellent job a few posts back, or Todd (Apotheoun.) I'm going to play Moses and say that I don't speak (write) well.

Dr. Anthony Dragani has written an article that is on his website at
http://east2west.org/Celibacy.htm

On the subject of the priesthood and celibacy, when my wife and I were on holiday in Crete a few years back, we got talking to a cafe owner whose father was an Orthodox priest. The son told us that married priests are buried face down to show they were earthbound, while unmarried priests are buried face up.
This certainly seems to indicate a higher regard for celibacy than marriage.

That is very strange. It that supposed to be an indication of Latinization by the hordes of Wsterners going through Crete? I find this hard to believe.
I have been to a lot of clerical funerals in both the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox, including family members; I can verify this is not a Slavic tradition.

I've never heard of this one either - although it might be a local Cretan custom.

Fr. Serge