CLERICAL CELIBACY AND MARRIAGE OF THE CHRISTIAN PRIEST

PROF. BEN ONYEUKWU (REV.)

NCE(Eng.) ND/HD (Journalism); BA (Hons) MA, PhD.

                                                           

                   CLERICAL CELIBACY AND MARRIAGE OF THE CHRISTIAN PRIEST..

INTRODUCTION

            From a general standpoint, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia defines celibacy as the lifestyle of someone who is, and is striving to remain unmarried all his/her life. It also uses the term to describe a state of life where one chooses to abstain from all sexual activities… Ministerially, however, “clerical celibacy” is defined by the same source as the practice in various religion traditions, in which the clergy adopt a celibate life, refraining from marriage and sexual relationships, including masturbation and impure thoughts, such as, sexual visualization and fantasies.

            The first definition above portrays the fact that celibacy as a vocation may be independent of religious vows, whereas the second cites the clergy as prominent in the calling. Nevertheless, this is not to suggest that celibacy is restricted to the clergy or priests, as there is also voluntary lay celibacy, as well as celibacy outside and within the circle of marriage.

CLERICAL CELIBACY AND NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGION

            The rule of celibacy in the Buddhist religion, whether Mahayana or Theravada has a long history. It was advocated as an ideal rule of life for all monks and Nuns by Gautama Buddha. However, in Japan, it is not strictly followed due to historical political developments in that country. Suddharatha Guatama, later known as the Buddha is very well known for his renunciation of his wife princess Yasidhara and child, Rahula in order to pursue an ascetic life.

In Hinduism, celibacy is usually associated with the sadlus (holy men) ascetics who withdraw from worldly ties. Also, in Hindu culture, celibacy is observed when the young child leads a student life “Brahmacharya”. The life was divided into four parts namely, “Brahmachryashram” (period of learning till age 25) “Gruhathahram” (married life from age 25) “Vanaprasthashram” and  “Sangasthashram”.  Hindu  renunciates may take the vow of celibacy at any age when they have understood that living for material/sensual pleasures will never bring the perfect happiness that their soul desire. Thus, their lives become centered on surrender, to Guru and God with the firm hope of the realization of God and perfect happiness. (Universal celibacy, Wiki letter wi sug)

But, Islam does not promote celibacy, rather it promotes marriage. In fact, according to Islam, the purpose of marriage is to enable one attain the sacred spiritual bond. It disagrees with the concept that marriage acts as a form of distraction in attaining nearness to God. All the same, this spontaneous and basic reaction appear today to be undergoing certain developments, as there are now cases of voluntary celibacy in the Islamic world among both men and women, and have recently become more frequent… (Abstinence and celibacy, Wiki letter wi srg).

CLERICAL CELIBACY AND CHRISTIAN RELIGION

            “Before the middle ages, it was allowable for catholic priests to have multiple wives and mistresses (concubines). But, with concern for protecting church property from inheritance Pope Pelagius 1 made new priests agree that off-springs could not inherit church property. As part of the game, Pope Gregory then declared all sons of priests illegitimate… In 1022, Pope Benedict Viii banned marriages and mistresses for priests and in 1139, Pope Innocent 11 voided all marriages of priests, and new priests had to divorce their wives. This had nothing to do with morality …( History of Catholic celibacy, liberated Christians, Cyber Swing/---).

            The error of celibacy is often hinged on the teaching of Jesus which states that, …”some are eunuchs because they were born that way, others were made that way by men, and others have renounced marriages because of the kingdom of God”,(Matthew 19:12). In this connection, the “NIV” study Bible (1995 Edition) cites in a commentary, the examples of person for whom Jesus meant in Matthew 19 Verse 12- those who may or “have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of Heaven. Those who have voluntarily adopted a celibate life-style in order to give themselves completely to God’s work. And finally, it remarks that, “under certain circumstances celibacy is recommended in the scripture (of 1 Corinthians 7:25-38), but it is never presented as superior to marriage”.

Furthermore, a proper exegesis of the teaching of Jesus on the subject-matter would definitely prove that He had no intention for clerical or institutionalized celibacy. One good way to show this, is that none of his apostles became a celibate before or after that expository encounter. On this note, it becomes vital to bring to the fore that celibacy is not a compulsory clerical pattern for the Christian church, nor is it a point for a let down on the married clergy. Rather, celibacy is designed for those individuals who possess the grace to handle it,(Matthew 19:12). In line with this, the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7 that,”it is good for a man not to touch a woman (sexually). But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband (verses 1-2). In citing what may be deemed his celibate pattern of life, the apostle also remarks that it was good if people remained as he was (unmarried or widower). But, said they could marry if they lacked the grace to remain unmarried, pointing out that it is better to marry than to burn with (sexual) passion”. (verses 7-9).

            Without mincing words, one of the monsters that drag the vast majority of the Catholic Priests into sexual immoralities is the “mandatory celibacy” which is imposed on those of them that are not gifted for such a consecration. Media reports and statistics show that the catholic priesthood parades the most significant number of the clergy that display the depravity of sexual sins. With this ugly trend in focus, one wonders why the Catholic leadership has not considered it necessary to liberalize the tradition of celibacy, in keeping with the other segment of the Catholic Church which today harbour married priests. Our source reveals that, “opposition to ending the requirement of celibacy for Catholic priests is strong-but isn’t it strange that despite this requirement, there are so many married Catholic priests who seem to be doing as good a job as the unmarried priests? If celibacy is so vital, why do married Catholic priests exist at all? For example, “most married Catholic priests 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. One of those traditions is allowing priests to marry”.

            “Some estimates place the number of married priests at about 20% of all Catholic Priests in the world. This would mean that 20% of all 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 American who are married and who are part of the Western Catholicism that comes to mind when most people think of Catholicism”. This makes it imperative for the Vatican to strike a balance by liberalizing the tradition of celibacy to allow the Catholic Priests choose or drop such a consecration, as a way of saving the weak ones from the damnation of hell. This is because there is no sexually immoral individual (clergy or layperson) that will inherit the kingdom of God, (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

CHRISTIAN PRIESTHOOD AND MARRIAGE

            One of the criteria of the Apostle Paul for the engagement of a church leader (pastor or priests) into the pastorate is moderation in marriage and not celibacy. This informs his remark that, “a church leader must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife”… (1 Timothy 3:2). In biblical times, many wives, concubines and breeders were common and never spoken against other than by Apostle Paul to the elders of Timothy and Titus. In Tanakh, Jewish priests suggest four wives were probably about the right number. In fact, this polygamous concept of marriage also affected the Catholic priesthood of that era, as already has been noted in section two of this write-up.

            Regrettably, while the Apostle Paul was drawing attention to the monogamous concept of marriage for the Christian clergy, the Catholic Bishops were perfecting plans to impose the tradition of celibacy on the priests in their jurisdiction of authority, whereby institutionalizing a system which is foreign to the Christian pastorate.

            If the Apostle Paul who is widely believed to be a celibate (as his teaching in 1 Corinthians 7 suggests) was able to make a frantic case for the marriage of the Christian clergy, it becomes a doctrinal aberration on the part of the then leadership of the Catholic Church to have introduced celibacy on mandatory basis. It is true that nowadays some Catholic apologists have come up with the idea that celibacy is not mandatory, that one wishing to denounce the vow could do so, provided they also bow-out of the Catholic priesthood. But, this is not the biblical concept of celibacy. From Apostle Paul’s example, one can choose or reject celibacy while functioning as a priest.

            Another adduced reason for celibacy in the Catholic Church is the doctrine that sexual intercourse with a woman makes a man unclean. Based on this, married priests were prohibited from celebrating the Eucharist for a full day after sexual intercourse with their wives. Because the trend was to celebrate Eucharist often, sometimes even daily, priests were  forced  to become  celibates just to fulfill their basic religious functions – and eventually they were prohibited from ever having sexual with their wives… This concept is biblically out of place, as Hebrews 13  verse 4 holds that, “marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. This establishes the fact that sexuality within the bounds of marriage does not defile anyone, man or woman, priests or layperson, and would not bring any black spot between a priests and his God in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. But, this same sexuality becomes a condemnable act outside the circle of marriage, even when a celibate priest is involved. This, by implication, shows that it is not the married priests who have sexual intercourse with their wives that are unclean before God, but those who hold onto celibacy, and still mess-up with women of easy Virtue.

            In conclusion, let it be noted that the effort here is to draw the attention of the Church to one aspect of her problems without a let down on any denomination mentioned in the work, since the writer also acknowledges the fact that it is not only the celibate priests who are guilty of sexual immorality, though statistics shows they are ranked topmost in the depravity. Therefore, in the spirit of being our brothers keeper, the writer wishes to urge the papacy and other stakeholders of the affected denomination to exegetically look inward with a view to correcting the anomaly of the compulsory clerical celibacy and adopt the biblical principle of one priest, one wife, (1Timothy 3:2). This is one of the ways to reduce the embarrassment of sexual immorality that is presently ravaging the Catholic priesthood. THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW!

               

                                   

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