By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
As the Amazon Synod draws nearer, set to take place in Rome this month, the headlines reveal a dueling of perspectives surrounding the role of celibacy in the ministry of the priesthood. The synod has before it a proposal to ordain “proven men,” to include those married, to relieve the shortage of priests.
Some doomsayers are predicting that an optional celibacy in the West might portend celibacy’s eventual demise. No less a personage than Raymond Cardinal Burke numbers among them.
A statement, in anticipation of the Amazon Synod and restating basic teachings and disciplines, and signed by five bishops including Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Cardinal Burke, urges against the optional celibacy for priests.
“The law by which priests are bound to observe perfect continence in celibacy stems from the example of Jesus Christ and belongs to immemorial and apostolic tradition according to the constant witness of the Fathers of the Church and of the Roman Pontiffs. For this reason, this law should not be abolished in the Roman Church through the innovation of an optional priestly celibacy, either at the regional or the universal level.
“The perennial valid witness of the Church states that the law of priestly continence ‘does not command new precepts; these precepts should be observed, because they have been neglected on the part of some through ignorance and sloth. These precepts, nevertheless, go back to the apostles and were established by the Fathers, as it is written, “Stand firm, then, brothers and keep the traditions that we taught you, whether by word of mouth or by letter” (2 Thess. 2:15). There are in fact many who, ignoring the statutes of our forefathers, have violated the chastity of the Church by their presumption and have followed the will of the people, not fearing the judgment of God’ (Pope Siricius, Decretal Cum in unum in the year 386).”
Joshua Whitfield, a married Catholic priest writing in 2017 in The Dallas Morning News, set the stage well for the current discussion of the charism of celibacy for priests.
“Now the discipline of celibacy, as a Christian practice, is an ancient tradition. Its origins belong to the very mists of early Christianity: to the deserts of Egyptian monasticism, the wilds of ancient Christian Syria and to Luke’s Gospel. For priests, celibacy has been the universal legal norm in the Catholic West since the twelfth century and the de facto norm long before that. St. Ambrose in the fourth century, for example, wrote about married priests, saying they were to be found only in ‘backwoods’ churches, certainly not in the churches of Rome or Milan.”
Fr. Whitfield — a member of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for former Anglicans — says priests shouldn’t be married:
“Now you might be surprised to know most married Catholic priests are staunch advocates of clerical celibacy. I, for one, don’t think the Church should change its discipline here. In fact, I think it would be a very bad idea.”
He explains why:
“Laity who have no real idea of what priesthood entails and even some priests who have no real idea of what married family life entails both assume normalizing married priesthood would bring about a new, better age for the Catholic Church.
“But it’s an assumption with little supporting evidence. One need only look to the clergy shortage in many Protestant churches to see that opening up clerical ranks doesn’t necessarily bring about spiritual renaissance or growth at all, the opposite being just as likely.
“But more importantly, calls to change the discipline of celibacy are usually either ignorant or forgetful of what the church calls the ‘spiritual fruit’ of celibacy, something largely incomprehensible in this libertine age, but which is nonetheless still true and essential to the work of the church. Now being married certainly helps my priesthood, the insights and sympathies gained as both husband and father are sometimes genuine advantages. But that doesn’t call into question the good of clerical celibacy or what my celibate colleagues bring to their ministry. And in any case, it’s holiness that matters most, not marriage or celibacy.”
If the synod approves married priesthood while saying it’s regional, that proposal will await the Pope’s approval. It is likely that as soon as that’s done, the German bishops will seize the occasion to petition the Pope for permission to do the same in Germany and it could spread from there throughout European countries and to the Catholic world at large.
The post-Vatican II age is rife with examples of special permissions that started as regional experiments and became the norm, such as Communion in the hand.
For the U.S. bishops it will take longer to consider this innovation because of the financial and other considerations that make it a more complicated picture in our country.
But the fact remains that the synod is not intending to eliminate celibacy per se as some prelates and commentators are claiming. People think that by allowing a married priesthood you’re eliminating celibacy.
Before eliminating celibacy, they would first have to command every celibate priest get married. That is not going to happen and charismatic freedom remains in the Church for anyone: to be celibate you don’t have to be a priest.
We are called to joy, such as is made tangible by observing a mother surrounded by her children. The celibate priest, through the freedom conferred by that charism, is more radically open to the fatherhood he figures forth in Christ at one with the Heavenly Father.
God’s solicitude for all His children is made concrete in the ministry of the priest whose celibacy means he is married to the Church. All of the baptized are his spiritual progeny for the sake of their highest need, salvation.
Whatever is determined by the Amazonian Synod will not influence this charism, in the sense that young men will still come forward to embrace celibacy as a sign of the kingdom in connection with priestly ministry.
We need priests who embrace their vocation as “persona Christi.” Young men truly called to priesthood can see for themselves and imitate this radical love of the Lord, open to serve all through Christ-like celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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