It is fascinating to recall the history of how priestly celibacy became mandatory in the Catholic Church, despite the prejudice of the Roman empire against celibacy and the punishment and extra taxes imposed on those who remained celibate!

The Trullan Synod (692 AD), of most high significance in the Eastern Church, imposed celibacy on all her bishops. For other clerics, however, the Synod permitted marriage before ordination and the use of marriage rights afterward.

No further legislation on celibacy and clerical marriage was issued by churches of Oriental Rite throughout its history. If, in the Byzantine and Russian churches, bishops were not married, the principal reason was because they usually were monks, and monks, entering their religious profession, pronounced the three habitual vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity. If an unmarried priest was elected bishop, immediately he was obliged to take vows similar to those of a monk before his ordination.

The Coptic Church allowed its priests to marry, but praised those who preferred to remain celibate. Ethiopian and Chaldean priests were permitted to marry even after ordination. Some Eastern Catholic churches were influenced by the Latin law of celibacy. Priests of the Syro-Malabar Church must remain unmarried; the same was true for the Ethiopian Catholic Church. Melkite, Maronite, and Armenian priests may marry before ordination.

All this is abundant evidence that clerical celibacy is a positive, temporary decision imposed by the Latin Catholic Church. To keep this legislation firm, very severe punishments and sanctions are enforced on transgressors, as we will see.

Celibacy became a canonical obligation for the clergy in the West by way of the combined efforts of the Popes and both regional and ecumenical councils. The very first written decree we know is the following: "We decree that all bishops, priests, deacons, and all clerics engaged in the ministry are forbidden entirely to live with their wives and to beget children: whoever shall do so will be deposed from the clerical dignity" (Collection of Councils, Decree of Elvira, n. 33).

Today this separation of priests from their wives, and especially for these innocent ladies, would be unacceptable under the Human Rights Act, but it could only be understood taking into consideration the paradoxical teaching of Christ: "Whoever loves, father, mother, son, or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matt. 10,37).

Conversely, it was a mutual decision of both of them either to remain together as wife and husband, or freely and willingly to follow Christ by serving Him in chastity.

Nevertheless, Saint Leo I, Pope from 440 to 461, permitted clerics to live with their wives, provided both kept mutual celibacy. Later, such cohabitation appeared to be overly difficult and suspicious.

There was also a provision for the status of clerical wives, who were called presbyterissae (priestesses). They received a special blessing; special duties in the ministerial administration were entrusted to them. They wore a distinctive garb and were not permitted to remarry even after the death of their husbands.

If such women were widowed, the bishop was obliged to provide another household for them. Our modern mentality would accuse the Church of cruelty, whereas, in truth, the Church was concerned with the status of clerical wives, knowing that to remove them from their households presented a very painful dilemma.

While holding sacerdotal celibacy in such high regard, nevertheless, the Church did not wish to minimize the sanctity of marriage. Its proposal was to make a clear distinction between the two vocations; marriage and priesthood have distinct obligations. "The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force."

This legislation was enforced by the Spanish Pope Damasus I, who argued, "How can a cleric advise perfect continence to widows and virgins if he does not observe chastity?" He continued, saying, "Pagan and Jewish were aware of the necessity of refraining from sexual relations."

Unfortunately, the period which followed the decline of the Holy Roman Empire was a time of crisis for priestly celibacy. The barbaric invasions, the destruction of monasteries, and the progressive secularization of religious practice led to the demoralization of the clergy, who began indulging in concubinage and simony.

Disorder existed not only in practice but also in the field of doctrine. Against these conditions, many Popes in the 11th century proceeded to vigorously remove priests from the ministry, especially Pope Gregory VII, Pope from 1073 to 1085, who reformed the moral behaviour of the clergy and struggled against clerical marriage.

During the Second Lateran Council, in 1139, it was eventually decreed that priestly ordination was a diriment impediment to marriage. Even Luther, in his first years as an Augustinian monk, declared: "Celibacy was something remarkable in the eyes of the world, a thing that makes a man angelic." At the time of his break with the Church (1517), he did not promote sacerdotal marriage and refused to encourage it.

Eventually, by the end of 1522, Luther condemned celibacy in his book on Monks' Vows (De Votis Monasticis), and was married in June 1523, to the scandal of many of his friends and the applause of many married priests of his day. Calvin was maybe less radical than Luther, admitting that marriage was the general rule, and celibacy an acceptable means of serving God.

By Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo
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Msgr. Lopez-Gallo's columns are available in two volumes for $20 each from St. Andrew's Church Supply, 275 E. 8 Ave., Vancouver, V5T 1R9, or toll-free at 1-800-663-7161. Proceeds will go to Hogar de Nazareth Orphanage in Mexico, which he sponsors.