Seminary measures aimed at protecting celibacy

By Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo

The recent Vatican document regarding non-admission of homosexuals into the seminary was not, contrary to popular opinion, an attack on them but rather a step toward protecting the sanctity of the priests through their celibacy.

Certainly, celibacy was not an explicit obligation that Jesus imposed on his apostles - the priests of the New Covenant. Apparently, many of them were married: “Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him.” (Mt. 8:14-15).

Later on, however, Jesus admonished: “Anyone who prefers mother or father to me is not worthy of me” (Mt. 10:37), and it was a tradition of early Christianity that the apostles left their families to follow Him.

When Jesus rebuffed divorce even in cases of adultery, saying “Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning,” he wanted to exalt purity of heart, adding: “If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5:28).

The disciples were amazed and, jokingly, quipped: “If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.” But Jesus replied: “It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted.” He further explained with mordant and cryptic words: “There are eunuchs born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs made so by men, and there are eunuchs who made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can” (Mt. 19:7-12).

With these words Christ invited to perpetual continence those who would consecrate themselves entirely to the kingdom of God, giving to His future Church an indication of His preference to have priests totally dedicated to Him. In time, celibacy came to be imposed on priests who are the followers of Jesus par excellence.

St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, speaks very clearly on this matter: “About remaining celibate, I have no direction from the Lord but I give my own opinion as one who, by the Lord’s mercy, has stayed faithful. Well then, I believe that in these present times of stress this is right: that it is good for a man to stay as he is. If you are tied to a wife, do not look for freedom; if you are free of a wife, then do not look for one. But if you marry, it is not sin, and it is not for a young girl to get married. They will have their troubles, though, in married life and I would like to spare that.”

St. Paul encouraged believers to be celibate, saying: “I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided.” (1 Cor. 7:34).

The idea of practising perpetual continence and the invitation of Jesus to follow Him exclusively was embedded in the mind of the primitive Church, giving rise to the monastic orders, especially with St. Benedict and his myriad of monasteries worldwide. The same for priests who consecrate themselves to ministry and celebrate what the primitive Christians called the Opus Dei, meaning “the work of God.”

The first known law about clerical celibacy appears to have been at the Council of Elvira, Spain, in 300 AD. In 1139, the Second Lateran Council declared the marriages of those in Holy Orders to be invalid. Finally, it was definitively imposed by the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and incorporated in the Canon Law of 1917: “Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, and are therefore bound to celibacy (Canon 132 of the old Code and Canon 277 of the new one).

The Code explains: “Celibacy is a special gift of God by which sacred ministers can more easily remain close to Christ with an undivided heart, and can dedicate themselves more freely to the service of God and their neighbor.”

More recently, Pope Paul VI reiterated the Church’s teaching in his 1967 encyclical, enforced most dramatically by John Paul II when, faced with a shortage of priests, the secular world and even some Catholic intellectuals wanted that celibacy for priests be optional, and that woman be considered for ordination.

Pope John Paul II was firm in his convictions, never wanting to diminish the fulcrum of the celibate priesthood in the Latin Rite. Regarding women’s ordination, he earnestly declared that in his own conscience, he had not the power to contradict the old tradition of the Church and open the door to women to be ordained — not because they are less worthy, or less holy than men, but because this was how tradition has interpreted this centennial custom.

While the Vatican continues to study the tendencies of the modern way of living, it must reject what goes against divine and natural law: the Culture of Death, embracing abortion, assisted suicide, and the destruction of life, the culture of sex, the promotion of promiscuity, and adultery, and most recently the “gay culture,” that is the championing of “same-sex marriage.”