Celibacy Dates Back to the Apostles


Did Wives Live With Their Ordained Husbands?

Practical arrangements of the household life of the celibate clergy and their wives and families were not uniform. If it seems remarkable to us that the celibate clergy sometimes lived in the same house with wife and children, we should recall that Joseph and Mary were the chaste parents of Jesus, and that they presumably lived together in the same house at Nazareth, keeping perfect chastity. Chastity is a gift of God, lived out in the strength and light of His grace. If the invisible wall of dedication to God in perfect chastity is solid, if the community supports it, if both partners will it, it is possible; at least we must say, that it was possible in the first seven centuries of the Church when this lifestyle was not uncommon.

POPE ST. LEO THE GREAT (440-461), another of the great doctors, wrote to Anastasius of Thesalonika, advising him first of all to test candidates for ordination in regard to the ability and will to practice perfect chastity: "Let no one be deemed apt for the Levitical or priestly dignity or for the supreme dignity of the episcopate if it is found that he has not yet put an end to conjugal pleasure" (PL 54, 672b-673a). He advised, however, that after ordination, wives should rightly continue to live with their clerical husbands, and to assist them, while both observed the life of devoted chastity:

The law of continence is the same for the ministers of the altar, for the bishops and for the priests; when they were [still] lay people or lectors they could freely take a wife and sire children. But once they have reached the ranks mentioned above, what had been permitted is no longer so. This is why, in order for [their] union to change from carnal to spiritual, they must, without sending away their wives, live with them as if they did not have them, so that conjugal love be safeguarded and nuptial activity be ended (quo et salva sit charitas connubiorum, et cesset opera nuptiarum; to Rusticus of Narbonne (458-459); PL 54, 1204; Cochini 262).

The advice given by Pope St. Leo apparently reflected current conditions, and affirmed the model for some time to come. Cochini observes: (From the time of Leo) "continence was less synonymous with separation than with the experience of perfect chastity lived in common by the cleric and his wife. The experience was not lacking in greatness - the daily heroism of those couples and the quiet audacity of the laws are admirable - but the risks were not eliminated. Hence we see a multitude of warnings: let them behave as brother and sister; let them be prudent enough not to share the same room...Little by little, the clerics were advised - even ordered - to separate the homes, and the episcopal residence becomes a monastery of sorts where a numerous clergy takes the place of female domesticity" (p. 425). (We cannot deal adequately with developments in the East in this writing.)

Pope Felix III (483-492) and Pope Anastasius II (496-498), sons of priests who knew clerical family life from the inside, did not change Leo's ruling. Pope Gregory the Great (590-604), the last of the great doctors, likewise approved the custom that clerics continue to live with their wives while observing celibacy; (MGH, Gregorii 1,I, p. 76; Cochini 373).

The prevailing lifestyle of clerics and their wives at this time, when celibate husband and wife shared the same house, shaped the expectation of the Church and people which subtly supported their resolution to observe chastity; which could influence them to observe the indicated patterns of prudence which renders a celibate life possible, livable, and practical as well. The wife, being now a partner to her husband in spiritual resolve, her care and propriety would help to create and maintain from day to day the wall of chastity which neither would violate. For her, success in life and a good reputation in the local community meant living her new vocation fully, as well as carefully. We can be sure that sharp eyes were constantly watching. To be found pregnant would be a disgrace for her in the community; it would also disgrace her husband, and likely deprive them of their position and living. God, ever in charge of the Church, supplied the grace necessary to live in this manner for many of the clergy, and for hundreds of years.

The Work of Pope Saint Siricius (384-399)

A Spanish Bishop Himerius had sent a letter to Pope Damascus in 384 requesting directions on various matters. In the meantime Pope Damascus had died, and Pope Siricius replied on February 10, 385. The passage is found in PL 13, 1138a-39a; also in DS 89; the long passage is well known, and we confine ourselves to the heart of it, using the translation of Deferrari, from DS 89:

Therefore also the Lord Jesus, when He had enlightened us by His coming, testifies in the Gospel, that he came to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it (Mt 5:17). And so He has wished the beauty of the Church, whose spouse He is, to radiate with the splendor of chastity, so that on the day of judgment, when He will have come again, He may be able to find her without spot or wrinkle (Eph 5:27) as He instituted her through His Apostle. All priests and levites are bound by the indissoluble law of these sanctions, so that from the day of our ordination, we give up both our hearts and our bodies to continence and chastity...

But those, who contend with an excuse for the forbidden privilege, so as to assert that this has been granted to them by the Old Law, should know that by the authority of the Apostolic See they have been cast out of every ecclesiastical office, which they have used unworthily, nor can they ever touch the sacred mysteries, of which they themselves had deprived themselves, so long as they give heed to impure desires.

As we see, Pope Siricius does not at all condemn the priests and deacons for having wives. He sees this as an accepted and legitimate practice. But to have children with their wives after ordination, or to have illicit extra-matrimonial sex, that he condemns. He refutes their excuse that Levites of the Old Testament who served at the altar were permitted to beget children. Pope Siricius states that Christ perfected the Old Law with the superior norm of the Gospel: the Old Law had imposed temporary sexual abstinence upon Priests and Levites during their turn of service in the temple; the New Law binds its priests and levites to observe lifelong continence within the Church.

Although Pope Siricius does not mention an apostolic tradition in so many words, his manner of speaking suggests that the norm of clerical celibacy has been in force from the time of the origin of the Church down to his own day. He treats the matter as a tradition received rather than as a norm which he is initiating.

I wish to add that in Japan today the Shinto High Priest, before he offers certain prescribed rituals at the Grand Shrine of Ise, is bound to live separately from his wife for a time; he is obliged to leave his house and live in a sequestered place where it is obvious to all that the ritual of continence is being observed. I learned this first hand when I was touring the great Shinto Shrine at Ise in Japan, with some eminent visitors from the Vatican. The guide explained the duty of the Shinto High Priest to practice temporary continence before great ceremonies. Our guide did this with a show of some pride, knowing that the people with whom he spoke were committed to consecrated celibacy.

The Council of Carthage in 390

Fr. Cochini rightly gives place of honor to the famous declaration made at the Council of Carthage in 390; it is a high profile declaration which made its way into legislative texts of the African Church, into documents of Rome, which is much celebrated in the Byzantine tradition, which the promoters of the Gregorian Reform used more than once as their most solid historical argument (p. 4). The text is lean, sparse of words, authentic to human considerations, austere, totally sincere, and disarmingly humble. Bishop Epigonius proposes the declaration, presiding Bishop Genethlius formulates its wording, all the bishops vote in favor:

Epigonius, Bishop of the Royal Region of Bulla, says: The rule of continence and chastity had been discussed in a previous council. Let it now instruct with more emphasis the three ranks that, by virtue of their consecration, are under the same obligation of chastity, i.e. the bishop, the priest, and the deacon, and let them be taught to keep purity.

Bishop Genethlius says: As was previously said, it is fitting that the holy bishops and priests of God as well as the Levites, i.e. those who are in the service of the divine sacraments, observe perfect continence, so that they may obtain in all simplicity what they are asking from God: what the apostles taught and what antiquity itself observed, let us also keep.

The bishops declared unanimously: It pleases all that bishop, priest, and deacon, guardians of purity, abstain from [conjugal intercourse] with their wives, so that those who serve at the altar may keep a perfect chastity (CC 149, p.13; Cochini p. 5).

Note the following points:

We hear other overtones in this record of the Council of Carthage which met in the year of the Lord 390: namely, that the assembled Bishops have the experience that people come to them with their petitions, and ask that the priests say special prayers for them. The people trust in a special efficacy of the prayer of priests.

Secondly, their decision for celibacy indicates that the assembled bishops believe that clerical chastity is possible for themselves as well as for their fellow-clergy; they speak not from detached theory but from personal experience; they know the struggle perfectly well, and they assume the challenge willingly.

Thirdly, they do not see the obligation of clerical celibacy as an innovation of their century; they see it as a tradition which goes all the way back to the apostles: "What the apostles taught, we will also do." So far the Council of Carthage of 390.

The obligation of celibacy which the Bishops of Carthage, in 390, traced back to the apostles, is likewise the honor and pride of the clergy today. Apropos are the words spoken by the present Holy Father to USA Bishops on 8 June 1993:

This requirement (of celibacy) is not just a passing legal norm or an externally imposed condition for ordination, but a value profoundly linked with the priest's sharing in the Bridegroom's care of his body, the Church (English Oss. Rom. 23 June 1993; Pastores dabo vobis, No. 50).

Indeed, by participating in celibacy with Christ, the priest shares more fully with Him the care for His Bride, the Church. Down through the ages this has been the conviction, the comfort, and the strength of priests who, like the apostles, choose the celibate life in response to the call of Christ.

Shall We Ordain Married Men Today If They Accept Continence?

Fr. Cochini quotes Fr. Alfons Stickler (Cardinal since 1985), who says it would not be impossible to ordain monogamous men today who accept continence; but Fr. Stickler does not think that the Church will move in that direction. History shows, he says, that the Church

tried little by little to decrease this kind of ordination because of its inconvenience. I do not think that one would want to restore a practice that is obsolete now, at least under the present circumstances. But there is nothing to prevent the ordination of older bachelors or widowers or even married men in the case of a couple deciding to opt on both sides for a consecrated life and therefore continence" (Comment on the pope's Letter to the Clergy, April 8, 1979, in Osservatore Della Domenica,n. 115, p.2; Cochini 45).

Is the Cardinal correct in his prognostication that the Church will not return today to the practice of ordaining to the priesthood married men who, with their wives, volunteer and promise to cease from conjugal intercourse after his ordination? The fact that the Church has given up this practice is a sign that there must be strong reasons against it. On the other hand, the fact that the Church harbored this practice and blessed it for seven centuries is a contrary sign in its favor.

What might be considerations favoring a return to the practice today, in case worthy couples come forward to accept celibacy with his ordination? Several reasons come to mind:

Perhaps the deficit of priestly numbers in our times could be replenished by married men who are suitable, and who, with the agreement of their families, opt for the celibate life; whom the Church then calls to the priesthood. The shortage of priests is foreseen to be chronic in countries like Japan, where large families have become the exception, where two or three children are now the rule. Most priests come traditionally from large families, whom Pope Pius XII characterized as "those most blessed by God and specially loved and prized by the Church as its most precious treasures" (The Large Family, 20 January 1958). Will large families make a comeback in Japan and other affluent countries? Will priestly vocations be supplied largely by them again? Or ought the Church adopt once more the practice of ordaining married men, on condition that they adopt the celibate life, in order to meet the shortage of priests? And to give glory to the Lord, to add lustre to the Church, and enrich the lives of worthy families?

Conclusion

The priest is special. He is the mother nurturer of the Church, as Saint Epiphanius wrote; this, because he stands on the firm foundation of virginity-chastity. Down through the centuries the ranks of priests fill the front lines of the Pilgrim Church, moving ever forward as the cutting edge of holiness, opening safe passage for the pilgrims who follow. Priests march always in this exposed front line position, where the most wear and tear in the phalanx of pilgrims is apt to occur. When priests in the front lines are good soldiers, their courage and perseverance augurs well for the rest. When the front line made by the priests falters, their defeat filters back into the entire phalanx. Such is the history of the Church, generation after generation, since apostolic times.

Does the world sink into chaos and barbarity? Look at priests - they are not chaste. Does the world rise to its feet and become orderly and beautiful again? Look at the priests - they are observing their tradition again: they are chaste.

The Byzantine canonist Zonaras opines that the spiritual vitality of priests, or their loss of spirit, has a ripple effect, generating echo ups and downs in the welfare of the human family. Priests, he says

are indeed intercessors between God and men; setting up a link between the divinity and the rest of the faithful, they are asking for salvation and peace on behalf of the whole world. Therefore, if they practice all the virtues and converse in full trust with God, they will obtain right away all that they are asking for. For if these same men deprive themselves, through their own fault, of their freedom of speech, how could they fulfill their role as intercessors for the good of others? (PG 138, 32c; see Cochini p. 7).

A Rabbinical story relates that God hesitated to create the world when He foresaw its massive and obscene rebellion; then His eyes lighted upon Abraham, a rock of fidelity. God therefore decided to create the world despite its evil, and to brace it against the solid rock of Abraham. The story is told by Cardinal Ratzinger:

A Rabbinical text is enlightening in this regard: "Yahweh said, 'How can I create the world, when these godless people will rise up and revolt against me?' But when God saw Abraham who was to come, he said, 'Look, I have found a rock on which I can construct and establish the world.' For this reason he called Abraham a rock, 'Look to the rock from which you were hewn'" (Is 51:1-2). By his faith, Abraham, the father of all believers, is the rock which supports creation, pushing back Chaos, the original flood which imminently threatens to ruin everything. Simon, who was the first to believe in Jesus as the Christ and was the first witness of the resurrection, with the Christological renewal of a faith worthy of Abraham, now becomes the rock which stands against the filthy tide of disbelief and its power to destroy all that is human (Address at the Pontifical Urban University, 18 April 1991, OSS. ROM. Weekly Edition in English 8 July 1991.)

Peter, in solidarity with today's presbyters, is now the rock which pushes back chaos and braces up creation. We know that the Father already fixed the day when "the sun will grow dark, the moon will no longer shine, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses" (Mt 24:29). How long will the Father postpone that "great and terrible day" (Joel 2:31) when creation will fall apart? Does He perhaps look to priests to induce Him to hold the day at bay yet a little longer? To priests whose task it is to hold up the sky, their feet braced on the foundation of chastity; to priests, "who obtain right away what they are asking for;" who offer "petitions, prayers, requests, and thanksgivings for all people, for kings and for all others who are in authority" (1 Tim 2:1); to priests, confessors who drain away the chaos of sin; to priests who raise on high the host and chalice in the person of Christ; who by a smile of praise with joy induce the Father to uphold His beautiful universe for yet one more generation? To priests who say today what the fathers of Carthage said in 390: "What the apostles taught, and what antiquity itself observed, let us also keep."


References and Abbreviations

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