MARONITE CATHOLICS

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St. Maron

Can Catholic Priests Marry?

I am not aware of priests being allowed to marry who belong to the Catholic church under the Pope.  I know of one married priest, however, he was married and a deacon of the church before becoming a priest.  This would go along with my current understanding of what is allowed.  Posted are some answers I found on another website.  This includes very interesting information on the marital status of the apostles.

First, let me clear up one misconception: people who belong to Eastern Rite Catholic Churches are members of the Roman Catholic Church, just not members of its Latin Rite (as you and I are) and are subject to the full, ordinary, supreme power of the Pope just as you and I are.

Second, you are right to say that a "priest cannot marry," here you have hit the nail on the head. At the time of ordination to the diaconate, those who are not already married take a promise of celibacy, stating that they will not seek marriage. One who attempts to marry after that promise, does so invalidly and suffers a penalty.

The Law, however, does not say that married men cannot be priests. True, since the sub-apostolic period the trend had been toward admitting only unmarried men to priesthood, largely because the pledge of perpetual continence (promising never to engage in sexual relations with one's spouse), the concern for concubinage, and more closely following the example of Jesus Christ, as well as his own teaching on celibacy. This decision became the final disciplinary law of the Church during the Pontificate of Pope Gregory VII and stated clearly that sacred orders is an impediment (an obstacle) to marriage and that the Church's practice is to choose priests only from among the single who would undertake celibacy. However, the current Code of Canon Law states: "Only a baptized man can validly receive sacred ordination" - note, not "a baptized unmarried man."

This opens the way for the possibility of married men being ordained to the priesthood in the West just as they are in the East. While the Church has made clear that men baptized at infancy and raised within the Roman Catholic Church must be unmarried and promise to receive priesthood, she has begun to allow some married Protestant ministers who are coming into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church to be ordained, under certain circumstances. However, if the wife of such a person were to die, he could not marry another. This is especially the case with Episcopalians, Cardinal Law begin the Vatican appointed prelate in the United States who assists in processing such special requests.

First, a married clergy does exist and has existed throughout time. All the apostles, save John the Evangelist, were married. In the Eastern Churches, both those in union with Rome and the Orthodox Churches not in union with Rome, there are still married priests. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes their orders as absolutely valid. And in the Western Church, we do ordain married men to the diaconate and receive into priesthood married former Protestant ministers who wish to be received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church (though this last is extremely rare). So a married clergy does in fact exist.

It has been the constant teaching of the Church, both Catholic and Orthodox, that sacred orders are an impediment to marriage, but that marriage is not an impediment to sacred orders. In other words, if you are ordained, you cannot marry. But if you are already married, you can be ordained. This is why permanent deacons can be married before their ordination as deacons, but, if their wife should die, they cannot marry again.

All of this is based on the practice of the apostles. Eleven were married before the Last Supper, John alone was single. John did not marry after, practicing celibacy - the higher law to which Jesus called those who could accept it (Mt 19,12). When the spouses of the Apostle died, the Apostles did not remarry.

However, there was another Apostolic practice which the Western/Roman Church insisted upon from the very beginning. That is: absolute continence. In other words, the Apostles were married but from the time that they began to follow Christ, they never engaged in sexual intercourse with their wives again and, in most cases lived separate from them from the day that Christ called them on ward, though they provided for them. Remember that according to ancient custom, Peter’s daughter Petronilla died with him during the persecutions in Rome. The earliest local (the third and fourth centuries) Synods and council of the Church insisted upon this absolute continence and the West continued to do so consistently into the second millennium. The East, at a council not recognized by the West, repealed the law of continence.

Gradually, beginning in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Church began to seen that continence place a terrible burden on couples and proved a rather great temptation. Therefore, out of concerns for the rights of women and the care of souls against temptation, the celibacy of clergy - that is, being unmarried - became the preference. By the dawn of the second millennium, most local synods had already required that candidates for priesthood be drawn exclusively from unmarried men. Therefore, when Pope Gregory VII extended this requirement to the universal Church, he was merely responding to the trend among local Churches and acting out of a desire for the care of souls. Thus, the discipline of clerical celibacy has been the law of the Church for a millennium. Sacred Orders as an impediment to marriage has been the law of the Church from the time of the Apostles.

Regarding the second part of your question, the Church does not make doctrine and discipline decisions based on utilitarian grounds. Moreover, I think the Catholic Church can draw a very clear lesson from our separated brothers in the East and the West. The Eastern Churches permit and, in some senses encourage, a married clergy. Their vocation numbers are down much further than ours. All other Christian Churches ordain married men (almost to the exclusion of single men) and many ordain women. However, especially among the so-called mainline Churches, their numbers are down as much if not more than ours. The answer to the Vocations crisis is not to change our teaching, our requirements, or our Catholic identity. The answer lies in being faithful to our teaching and tradition, being joyful about our Catholic identity, praying for more vocations, and actively calling young men to priesthood and encouraging them to consider a vocation.

Answers provided by:

Very Rev. Kevin Michael Quirk, JCD Judicial Vicar

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