Celibacy Debate

The Catholic Church is full of revisionist groups. One of these groups is called “Future Church”. They are apparently lobbying for the right for Priests to marry. I am skeptical. I believe the churches lost their mojo at the hands of the secular humanist statists and socialists waging the war on Christianity over the past 50 years. I also believe that the church has been a political football since 325 AD and church history is messy.  See below:

A Brief History of Celibacy in the Catholic Church, by future church.

First Century - Peter, the first pope, and the apostles that Jesus chose were, for the most part, married men. The New Testament implies that women presided at Eucharistic meals in the early church.

Second and Third Century - Age of Gnosticism: light and spirit are good, darkness and material things are evil. A person cannot be married and be perfect. However, most priests were married.

Fourth Century - 306-Council of Elvira, Spain, decree #43: a priest who sleeps with his wife the night before Mass will lose his job.
325-Council of Nicea: decreed that after ordination a priest could not marry. Proclaimed the Nicene Creed.
352-Council of Laodicea: women are not to be ordained. This suggests that before this time there was ordination of women.
385-Pope Siricius left his wife in order to become pope. Decreed that priests may no longer sleep with their wives.

Fifth Century - 401-St. Augustine wrote, Nothing is so powerful in drawing the spirit of a man downwards as the caresses of a woman.

Sixth Century - 567-2nd Council of Tours: any cleric found in bed with his wife would be excommunicated for a year and reduced to the lay state.
580-Pope Pelagius II: his policy was not to bother married priests as long as they did not hand over church property to wives or children.
590-604-Pope Gregory the Great said that all sexual desire is sinful in itself (meaning that sexual desire is intrinsically evil?).

Seventh Century - France: documents show that the majority of priest were married.

Eighth Century - St. Boniface reported to the pope that in Germany almost no bishop or priest was celibate.

Ninth Century - 836-Council of Aix-la-Chapelle openly admitted that abortions and infanticide took place in convents and monasteries to cover up activities of un-celibate clerics.
St. Ulrich, a holy bishop, argued from scripture and common sense that the only way to purify the church from the worst excesses of celibacy was to permit priests to marry.

Eleventh Century - 1045- Benedict IX dispensed himself from celibacy and resigned in order to marry.
1074-Pope Gregory VII said anyone to be ordained must first pledge celibacy: priests [must] first escape from the clutches of their wives.
1095-Pope Urban II had priests wives sold into slavery, children were abandoned.

Twelfth Century - 1123-Pope Calistus II: First Lateran Council decreed that clerical marriages were invalid.
1139-Pope Innocent II: Second Lateran Council confirmed the previous council’s decree.

Fourteenth Century - Bishop Pelagio complains that women are still ordained and hearing confessions.

Fifteenth Century - Transition; 50% of priests are married and accepted by the people.

Sixteenth Century - 1545-63-Council of Trent states that celibacy and virginity are superior to marriage.
1517-Martin Luther.
1530-Henry VIII.

Seventeenth Century - Inquisition. Galileo. Newton.

Eighteenth Century - 1776-American Declaration of Independence.
1789-French Revolution.

Nineteenth Century - 1804-Napoleon. 1882-Darwin.
1847-Marx, Communist Manifesto. 1858-Freud.
1869-First Vatican Council; infallibility of pope.

Twentieth Century - 1930-Pope Pius XI: sex can be good and holy.
1951-Pope Pius XII: married Lutheran pastor ordained catholic priest in Germany.
1962-Pope John XXIII: Vatican Council II; vernacular; marriage is equal to virginity.
1966-Pope Paul VI: celibacy dispensations.
1970s-Ludmilla Javorova and several other Czech women ordained to serve needs of women imprisoned by Communists.
1978-Pope John Paul II: puts a freeze on dispensations.
1983-New Canon Law.
1980-Married Anglican/Episcopal pastors are ordained as catholic priests in the U.S.; also in Canada and England in 1994.

Popes who were married

St. Peter, Apostle
St. Felix III 483-492 (2 children)
St. Hormidas 514-523 (1 son)
St. Silverus (Antonia) 536-537
Hadrian II 867-872 (1 daughter)
Clement IV 1265-1268 (2 daughters)
Felix V 1439-1449 (1 son)

Popes who were the sons of other popes, other clergy

Name of Pope	Papacy	Son of
St. Damascus I	366-348	St. Lorenzo, priest
St. Innocent I	401-417	Anastasius I
Boniface	418-422	son of a priest
St. Felix	483-492	son of a priest
Anastasius II	496-498	son of a priest
St. Agapitus I	535-536	Gordiaous, priest
St. Silverus	536-537	St. Homidas, pope
Deusdedit	882-884	son of a priest
Boniface VI	896-896	Hadrian, bishop
John XI	931-935	Pope Sergius III
John XV	989-996	Leo, priest

Popes who had illegitimate children after 1139

Innocent VIII	1484-1492	several children
Alexander VI	1492-1503	several children
Julius	1503-1513	3 daughters
Paul III	1534-1549	3 sons, 1 daughter
Pius IV	1559-1565	3 sons
Gregory XIII	1572-1585	1 son

History sources:
Oxford Dictionary of Popes; H.C. Lea History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church 1957; E. Schillebeeckx The Church with a Human Face 1985; J. McSorley Outline History of the Church by Centuries 1957; F.A.Foy (Ed.) 1990 Catholic Almanac 1989; D.L. Carmody The Double Cross - Ordination, Abortion and Catholic Feminism 1986; P.K. Jewtt The Ordination of Women 1980; A.F. Ide God's Girls - Ordination of Women in the Early Christian & Gnostic Churches 1986; E. Schüssler Fiorenza In Memory of Her 1984; P. DeRosa Vicars of Christ 1988.

 
Myths and Facts

Myth: All priests take a vow of celibacy. Fact: Most priests do not take a vow. It is a promise made before the bishop.

Myth: Celibacy is not the reason for the vocation shortage.
Fact: A 1983 survey of Protestant churches shows a surplus of clergy; the Catholic Church alone has a shortage.

Myth: Clerical celibacy has been the norm since the Second Lateran Council in 1139.
Fact: Priests and even popes still continued to marry and have children for several hundred years after that date. In fact, the Eastern Catholic Church still has married priests.

     

In the Latin Church, one may be a married priest if:

one is a Protestant pastor first; or if one is a life-long Catholic but promises never again to have sexual relations with ones wife.

Myth: The vocation shortage is due to materialism and lack of faith.
Fact: Research (1985 Lilly endowment): there is no evidence to support loss of faith for less vocations...youth volunteer and campus ministry is rising.

We believe that priests should be allowed to marry and that
women have an equal right to have their call to ordination
tested along with male candidates.

We believe celibacy is a gift of the Spirit, as is the call to marriage and the single life.

Gifts cannot be mandated, so it is from a deep respect for the gift of celibacy that we request that it be made optional and not forced upon those who do not feel called in this way.

This article was originally developed by Corpus Canada and the revision was jointly sponsored by Call To Action and FutureChurch.

https://www.futurechurch.org/brief-history-of-celibacy-in-catholic-church

Comments

I did not vet the claims in this article, but I am not surprised. The church has been a political football for the “Royals” who routinely assassinated Popes to gain their seats.

The child abuse claims coming in the middle of Pope Francis’ Papacy is probably good timing for this group to lobby for permission for Priests to marry and Deacons to be ordained as Priests. It should require Priests who wish to marry to move out of rectories and to hold regular jobs like the Lay Deacons do and become “part-time” with a limited scope.  Property belongs to each Diocese and Parishes could organize around this change.  Be aware, there are groups of Nuns who want to be Priests and that’s an entirely different debate.

I grew up as a Catholic in the 1950s and I consider the 1950s as to “golden age of Catholicism”. My Catholic education was exceptional and affordable. We were active as leaders in Marriage Encounter and Engaged Encounter in the 1980s and 1990s.

I expect all church attendance to continue to dwindle. We seem to be separated by political ideology. Conservative parishioners do not agree with refugee programs, sanctuary for illegals, welfare for immigrants, pedophiles in the clergy, socialism and many other issues embraced by Liberals. 

The question of homosexuality and pedophilia in the clergy or parish staff is a separate issue. The church should not have tried to handle this themselves, but should have referred complaints to the Police to find evidence that confirms abuse claims.  Like all bureaucracies, the church succumbed to over-sensitivity to scandal resulting in a cover-up that is costing a fortune.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader