However, for its clergy this state of being unmarried is considered to be a consequence of the obligation to be completely and perpetually continent: Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and therefore are bound to celibacy which is a special gift of God by which sacred ministers can adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart and are able to dedicate themselves more freely to the service of God and humanity.Permanent deacons, namely those deacons who are not intended to become priests, are, in general, exempted from this rule.
In the East as in the West a man who has already received the sacrament of Holy Orders can no longer marry.On the granting of permission, by exception, for the priestly ordination of married men in the Latin Church, see Rules, below.
The Code of Canon Law prescribes: Clerics are to behave with due prudence towards persons whose company can endanger their obligation to observe continence or give rise to scandal among the faithful.
[10] According to Jason Berry of The New York Times, "The requirement of celibacy is not dogma; it is an ecclesiastical law that was adopted in the Middle Ages because Rome was worried that clerics' children would inherit church property and create dynasties.
Paul, says Laurent Cleenewerck, a priest of the Orthodox Church in America and professor of theology at Euclid University, clearly favored celibacy, which he understood as "a gift".
[28][29] [self-published source] Cleenewerck supports this statement by quoting 1 Corinthians 7:5–8:[30] Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.In the same chapter Paul, who wrote that a pastor is to be "the husband of one wife",[31] forbids abstinence of marital relations except "for a set time"[32] and states that celibacy is a gift.
[citation needed] On the other hand, George T. Dennis SJ of Catholic University of America says: "There is simply no clear evidence of a general tradition or practice, much less of an obligation, of priestly celibacy-continence before the beginning of the fourth century.
"[40] Peter Fink SJ agrees, saying that underlying premises used in the book, Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy, "would not stand up so comfortably to historical scrutiny".
[43] Catholic author Greg Dues states that: Early heretics, such as Manichaeans and Montanists, added a negative influence by proclaiming that sexual expression – including that of the laity – was impure.
[45] In his De praescriptione contra haereticos, Tertullian mentioned continence as one of the customs in Mithraism that he claimed were imitated from Christianity, but does not associate it specifically with the clergy.
It pleases us 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.
"[58] The Directa Decretal of Pope Siricius (385) states: "We have indeed discovered that many priests and deacons of Christ brought children into the world, either through union with their wives or through shameful intercourse.
Such was the advice of Paphnutius, although he was himself unmarried, and in accordance with it, the Synod concurred in his counsel, enacted no law about it, but left the matter to the decision of individual judgment, and not to compulsion.
[62]The Council of Nicaea, AD 325, decides in Canon 3: The great Synod has stringently forbidden any bishop, presbyter, deacon, or any one of the clergy whatever, to have a subintroducta dwelling with him, except only a mother, or sister, or aunt, or such persons only as are beyond all suspicion.
[66] A leading participant in the Council, Eusebius of Caesarea, wrote: "It is fitting that those in the priesthood and occupied in the service of God, should abstain after ordination from the intercourse of marriage.
She does accept the abstinent husband of one wife, or the widower, as a deacon, presbyter, bishop and subdeacon, [but no other married men], particularly where the canons of the church are strictly observed.
[68]Similar evidence of the existence in the 4th-century East, as in the West, of a rule or at least an ideal of clerical continence for bishops that was considered to be canonical is found in Epiphanius's Panarion, 48, 9 and Expositio Fidei, 21.
Emperor Justinian I (died 565) ordered that "sacred canons permit neither the pious presbyter, nor the devoted deacons or subdeacons to contract marriage after their ordination".
Nor shall it be demanded of him at the time of his ordination that he promise to abstain from lawful intercourse with his wife: lest we should affect injuriously marriage constituted by God and blessed by his presence.
This tendency was taken up by the 11th-century Gregorian Reform, which aimed at eliminating what it called "Nicolaitism",[87] that is clerical marriage, which in spite of being theoretically excluded was in fact practised,[88] and concubinage.
Canon 3 makes reference to a rule made at the First Council of Nicaea (see above), which is understood as not forbidding a cleric to live in the same house with a wife whom he married before being ordained.
Canon 7: Following in the footsteps of our predecessors, the Roman pontiffs Gregory VII, Urban, and Paschal, we command that no one attend the masses of those who are known to have wives or concubines.
But that the law of continence and purity, so pleasing to God, may become more general among persons constituted in sacred orders, we decree that bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, canons regular, monks, and professed clerics (conversi) who, transgressing the holy precept, have dared to contract marriage, shall be separated.
And later legislation, found especially in the Quinque Compilationes Antiquae and the Decretals of Gregory IX, continued to deal with questions concerning married men who were ordained legally.
Accordingly, the assumption that a wife might not want to give up her marital rights may have been one of the factors contributing to the eventual universal practice in the Latin Church of ordaining only unmarried men.
[93] While the 11th-century Gregorian Reform's campaign against clerical marriage and concubinage met strong opposition,[94] by the time of the Second Council of the Lateran it had won widespread support from lay and ecclesiastical leaders.
Also of importance are the teachings of Paul that chastity is the superior state of life, and his desire expressed in 1 Corinthians 7:7–8, "I would that all men were even as myself [celibate]—but every one has his proper gift from God; one after this manner, and another after that.
Until recently, the Eastern Catholic bishops of North America would generally ordain only unmarried men, for fear that married priests would create scandal.
Pope Francis, however, has called for consideration of the question of electing so-called viri probati for the ordination to the priesthood, particularly in areas like Amazonia where there is an acute shortage of priests.