On a lark, I looked up celibacy as it pertains to Roman Catholic priests. OK, not on a lark. I am a recovering Catholic, 35 years in remission. But back to my story. I had heard that many priests are actually married. I wanted to know more. Here’s what about.com has to say [1]:
You aren’t likely to hear a great deal about married Roman Catholic priests, but they do exist. First there are the priests who are part of the Eastern Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern Rite, who can be found in places like the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, the Ukraine, and other nations along the border between Western and Eastern Christianity. These churches are under the jurisdiction of the Vatican and they recognize the authority of the pope; however, their practices and traditions are much closer to those of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and one of those traditions is allowing priests to marry.
They are Roman Catholic priests and many are married – so many, in fact, that some estimates place their number at around 20% of all Roman Catholic priests in the world. This would mean that 20% of all Roman Catholic priests are officially and legally married, even though celibacy continues to be a requirement. But marriage is not limited to priests who are part of the Eastern Catholic Churches – we can also find about 100 Catholic priests in America who are married and who are part of the Western Catholicism that comes to mind when most think of Roman Catholicism.
I’m naive about many religious customs, I’ll admit. But I’ve never heard that marriage has been an impediment to those 20% of priests doing their jobs. If being married were a problem, the Church would have cut those married priests loose, right? But they are still priests.
Despite the good productivity of all of those married priests, the Catholic church adamantly refuses to allow unmarried priests to get married. What’s really going on? I can almost predict that Jason Rayl would (correctly) jump in to remind me that the church sees the human body as naughty–especially the sex organs–and they just can’t bear to think of the remaining 80% of their priests doing those naughty kinds of things. Those priests might find it pleasurable to have sex with a woman. And then … and then… they might do it again and again. And then–God forbid–the nuns would want it too. These disturbing thoughts would certainly keep the highest ranking clergy up all night, soaking in their own panicky sweat, pondering the images of their subordinates home in their cozy beds cuddling with their spouses. Despite the fact that this sort of thought didn’t apparently bother St. Peter, who was married. [2]
Or is it that the high clergy can’t bear to think of all of those priests being influenced by wives? Good grief! Those wives might convince their priests husbands that it’s OK to use birth control to decide when and if to have babies. They might convince their husbands that women shouldn’t be second-class citizens in the church. And Jesus said (somewhere, I’m sure) that women are “second-class citizens.” I think it’s somewhere in St. Paul’s writings.
It wasn’t until 1139, with the Second Lateran Council, that celibacy was made mandatory for all priests. [3] But there were many exceptions to that rule. Quite a few “exceptional” popes [4], as it turns out.
Check out the Wikipedia article on Pope Alexander IV, [5] for example. He was Pope for ten years, starting in 1492. This guy’s rap sheet was extensive–it makes me wonder who listens to the confessions of Popes. This excerpt will give you an idea of how bad things got:
But it was not long before his passion for endowing his relatives at the church’s and his neighbours’ expense became manifest. To that end he was ready to commit any crime and to plunge all Italy into war. Alexander VI had four children by his mistress (Vannozza dei Cattani), three sons and a daughter: Giovanni, Cesare, Goffredo (or Giuffre) and Lucrezia.
That youngest daughter was really special [5]. Lucrezia ended up marrying “Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, the ceremony being celebrated at the Vatican Palace with unparalleled magnificence.” Wikipedia even shows us a Janet-Jacksonesque [6] painting of Lucrezia, one that no doubt made her pop proud. Oh, Lordy!
I know several Catholic fellows who are currently married, guys who were each in the seminary until they were tempted to leave as a result of the charms of members the fairer sex. I suspect that they would each give up their psychologist, letter carrier, lawyer and teacher jobs so that they could lend a hand to their morally misguided Church in a leadership capacity–if only priests were allowed to marry. It sure seems like the Church could use some new blood. Most Catholics I know think of it as a good Sunday as long as their priest’s sermon is not insulting or boring. That’s an incredibly low bar for men who supposedly serve as God’s special representatives on Earth.
I’ve been told “Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.” If that’s true, I’ve never really left the Church. Yet I won’t be in a position to help out if the marriage ban is lifted, since I don’t believe in things like virgin birth, walking dead people, cannibalistic ceremonies [7] or that Big Fatherly Fellow who condemns many of his children to everlasting torture. Such things simply don’t have a ring of truth to me. Other than those belief-impediments, though, I too would be there to lend a hand as a married cleryman, I can assure you.
Print this post [8]
[9]