The issue of “married priests” comes to the fore
regularly in the media and is often mixed in with topics that have no
bearing on this, such as the ordination of women priests. The subject comes up in light of some petition presented by a group of priests or when some important prelate slightly softens their position in an interview.
The latest such case was when the newly appointed Vatican Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin - who still has a few days to go before he gives up his role as Apostolic Nuncio to Venezuela – answered a question put to him by El Universal newspaper by stating: priestly celibacy “is not part of Church dogma and the issue is open to discussion because it is an ecclesiastical tradition” but “one cannot simply say that it belongs to the past.”
“These issues do not define faith and are open to discussion, reflection and examination. Modifications can be made, but these must always favour unity and God’s will… God speaks to us in many different ways. We need to pay attention to this voice which points us towards causes and solutions, for example the clergy shortage.
These kinds of criteria (God’s will, the history of the Church) as well as the idea of adapting the Church’s positions to modern times need to be taken into consideration when taking decisions.”
The new Secretary of State’s statements echo what was decided at the Third Lateran Council of 1179. Fr. Filippo Di Giacomo recalls that during this Council which took place eight hundred years ago, the Church established that ecclesiastical celibacy is not by nature divine but canonical. It is a tradition of the Latin Church and as such is modifiable.
“In sum, the Third Lateran Council left the so-called “apostolic discipline”, decreed by the first seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Church, in tact. These ecumenical councils are the only ones recognised by both the Catholic and the Orthodox Church. This “apostolic discipline” states that the presbyteral ordination of married men is allowed (if they are celibate at the moment of their priestly ordination.
Even Orthodox priests can no longer marry after they are ordained, not even if they become widowed) but that only celibate men can be ordained priests in the Latin Church.
Here it is worth pointing out that Eastern Churches – meaning the Orthodox Churches and those in communion with Rome – have never considered the question of allowing priests to marry either. They have only ever discussed the possibility of admitting already married men to the priesthood (but never to the episcopacy), hindering men who have already been ordained from marrying.
There are married priests in the Catholic Church. The Eastern Catholic Churches have some married priests among their clergy. When John Paul II visited Kiev in 2001 for example, he was greeted in front of a parish by an Eastern Rite Catholic priest who was accompanied by his wife and children.
The picture’s different in the Latin Church. Until 2009 there had been some exceptional cases in which married Anglican priests or bishops asking to enter into communion with Rome were re-ordained priests according to the Catholic Rite. But recent Popes and the Synods have always stressed celibacy for the Latin clergy.
It may not be dogma but it is a principle and there are deep reasons for it. These reasons are not only of a practical and administrative nature. This is why the Church has always discarded the idea of solving the problem of the clergy shortage by allowing the ordination of viri probati, that is, married men of proven faith who are qualified to administer the sacraments in clergyless communities.
In his discussion with Rabbi Abraham Skorka in the book “On Heaven and Earth”, the then cardinal Bergoglio said this is a subject which is debated in Western Catholicism upon the request of certain organisations.
Some pragmatists say we are losing Manpower. Bergoglio said that if Western Catholicism decided to reconsider the celibacy question, it would – in his opinion – be for cultural reasons (as in the Eastern Churches), it would not be a universal option.
“For the moment, I am in favour of maintaining celibacy, with all its pros and cons, because we have ten centuries of good experiences rather than failures. What happens is that the scandals have an immediate impact. Tradition has weight and validity. Catholic ministers chose celibacy little by little.
Up until 1100, some chose it and some did not. After, the East followed the tradition of non-celibacy as personal choice, while the West went the opposite way. It is a matter of discipline, not of faith. It can change. Personally, it never crossed my mind to marry,” Bergoglio says in the book.
In November 2009, Benedict XVI opened a new window of possibility, although it was limited to Anglican communities which had decided to enter into communion with the Catholic Church. He did so without changing the traditional position expressed by his predecessors and the Synods of Bishops. Ratzinger established the Anglo-Catholic Ordinariates with the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.
In paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Constitution, after a bit which emphasises the celibacy rule for the future, Ratzinger wrote that the Ordinary “may also petition the Roman Pontiff … for the admission of married men to the order of presbyter on a case by case basis, according to objective criteria approved by the Holy See.”
The complementary norms attached to the Apostolic Constitution and prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with the Pope’s approval, reiterate that “in consideration of Anglican ecclesial tradition and practice, the Ordinary may present to the Holy Father a request for the admission of married men to the presbyterate in the Ordinariate, after a process of discernment based on objective criteria and the needs of the Ordinariate.”
This clearly leaves open the possibility for the admission of married men in the future too.
This exception is made in light of the needs of the Anglo-Catholic Ordinariate.
Ratzinger’s Anglicanorum Coetibus was the first and most authoritative opening to the possibility of admitting married men in a Latin Church Rite, put down in writing in an Apostolic Constitution.
This was the first official document of its kind prepared for a Latin community, since the days of the Council of Trent. And there was something else that was new about it.
The personal Anglo-Catholic ordinaries the document mentions can be married priests and are equated to bishops (in reality they are not but they can use bishops’ insignia).
As such they are full members of their respective Episcopal Conferences.