THE past week or two have witnessed the dramatic revival of a long-standing religious debate, occasioned by the home-coming of excommunicated Catholic Archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo and his wife Maria Sung.Milingo has persisted in conducting religious services in the Catholic tradition, insisting he is still, and shall die Catholic, despite his dismissal and expulsion by the Holy See (Vatican).
He has also made a number of utterances denigrating the local Catholic establishment, on issues ranging from its alleged prevention of the Catholic faithful from welcoming him, to the decision by the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) to boycott the on-going National Constitutional Conference (NCC). The net effect of all this has been to rekindle the old debate on whether priests should be allowed to marry or not.
Priestly celibacy (abstention from matrimony and sexual relations) is a long standing Catholic tradition which has historically ignited fierce controversy both within the church's own ranks and outside. Perhaps it would be edifying to examine the nature of celibacy, its historical evolution and biblical underpinnings, as well as the place of the Milingo saga in the whole scheme of things.
The nature of celibacy
The definition of celibacy, as rendered by the statutes of the Catholic Church (Canon Law), proceeds thus: "Celibacy is the canonical state of abstinence from marriage, freely undertaken for the purpose of dedicating one's life totally to God's service in the clerical state."
Canon Law therefore expressly affirms the freedom of the individual in choosing the celibate life, which would imply that no person is ever bound in chains and forced to become a celibate priest. The statutes emphasize that every candidate comes of his own volition, and is then carefully scrutinized and assessed over a very long period spanning seven years and beyond. During this period, the prospective priest is required to constantly reaffirm his commitment to the celibate life, and numerous exit mechanisms exist for those who discover along the way that this is not their vocation.
The decision to quit the priesthood training, or indeed even the ordained priesthood itself, is not a sign of sinfulness, as Apostle Paul affirms: "Now, to the unmarried and to widows, I say: It is a good thing for them to remain as they are, as I do (not marrying), but if they cannot exercise self control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to be on fire." (1 Cor: 7).
Church law recognises this scriptural edict by providing that: "The obligation of celibacy is validly assumed only if the cleric knowingly and freely receives the sacred orders and accepts the challenge of celibate chastity without the constraint of grave fear. If he were ordained to sacred orders invalidly because of the compulsion of force or extreme fear that precluded his consent, he would not be bound to celibacy."
Historical evolution of celibacy
The New Catholic Encyclopedia tells us that compulsory sacerdotal (priestly) celibacy has not always been a feature of the Catholic Church, although early church writings ascribed to authorities like Jerome and Eusebius provide evidence of its existence as an individually chosen vocation among some leaders of the early church, including early apostles such as Paul. There are even a few amusing instances of overzealous commitment to celibacy, as in the case of Origen Adamantius (circa 184-253 AD), a prominent theologian in the early Greek Church, who castrated himself in order to ensure he remained celibate!
Celibacy evolved more universally as an obligatory feature of the holy orders around the fourth century, with the earliest recorded edict being ascribed to the Council of Elvira, which took place circa 306 AD in Spain. The Council decreed thus: "We decree that all bishops, priests, and deacons, and all clerics engaged in the ministry are forbidden entirely to live with their wives and to beget children. Whoever does so will be deposed from the clerical dignity."
The Council of Carthage (419 AD) explicitly included sub deacons, while other Councils went further to impose a vow of chastity in the ceremony of sacred ordination, in order to effectuate the observance of celibacy. But these early statutes were not universal and only applied to specific jurisdictions. They also were not assertive enough to nullify the marriages of major clerics who defied these prohibitions.
It was the Second Lateran Council (1139 AD) which appears to have enacted the first written law making the holy orders (priesthood, nun-hood and brotherhood) a diriment impediment to marriage. In lay terms, this meant once you became ordained to the holy orders, you were by church edict excluded from contracting marriage. This legislation was endorsed by the Council of Trent (1563 AD), which issued a dogmatic decree against Martin Luther and the Reformers, who had opted for a married clergy.
However, these authoritative decrees and edicts never completely staunched the debate on whether celibacy is desirable or even attainable among the clergy. As early as the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD), an attempt by Ossius, Bishop of Cordoba, to have a decree passed that would require compulsory clerical celibacy was hotly opposed by the Egyptian Bishop Paphnutius, himself unmarried, who maintained that celibacy should be a matter of vocation and personal choice, and the Council fell to his side.
In the early years of the church, the general rule was that marriage could precede but not follow ordination to the holy orders. Thus, married men who, under special conditions and considerations, chose to embrace the holy orders were admitted by special discretionary dispensation, but ordained celibate priests who sought marriage were barred.
In contemporary times, the Holy See has been called upon to evoke this discretionary power (officially designated as a suspension of the diriment impediment to marriage) in the matter of married priests from other congregations such as the Anglican, who have converted back to the Catholic Church, notably under the reigns of Popes Pius XII, John XXII and Paul VI.
This discretionary admittance of married priests into the Catholic Church has been exercised by the Holy See under certain unique circumstances in the church's history, as a special indulgence responding to ecclesiastical upheavals of a general nature. Examples include the schism which divided the church during the reformation, and the events following the French revolution. But there is no record of this dispensation being exercised to satisfy the private needs of individual priests or bishops.
While some celibate priests have used this discretionary authority of the Holy See as an argument for a universal dispensation to marry, the Church's unyielding position appears to be anchored in Apostle Paul's counsel to the Corinthians, wherein he enjoins married individuals not to divorce, and unmarried individuals to maintain their celibacy: "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek separation. Are you free from a wife? Then do not look for a wife" (1 Cor 7:27). Paul nevertheless recognizes that it is not sinful for one to renounce his celibate status, although he does point out that individuals who do this "will experience affliction in their earthly lives, and I would like to spare you this" (Verse 28).
By and large, the Holy See's historical propensity to a celibate priesthood has been propelled by an inherent fear of the laicization of the church, i.e. the infiltration and possible defilement of the church's holy principles, symbols and properties through unmitigated exposure to secular customs and influences. At various points in history, the clergy have become entrapped in wanton debauchery and sexual indiscretion, including the taking of multiple wives and concubines, which has not only demoralized the lay faithful but endangered the church's sanctity. Reacting to one such episode, Pope Nicholas II (1059 AD) deprived married priests of the right to perform liturgical acts of worship. The Pope went further and encouraged the laity to boycott mass conducted by married priests, and most laity, who felt deeply scandalized by the clerical immorality, acquiesced.
Gregory VII, writing to Bishop Otto of Constance, said: "Those who are guilty of the crime of fornication are forbidden to celebrate mass or serve at the alter For if they will not correct their lives out of love for God and the dignity of their office, they must be brought to their senses by the world's contempt and the reproach of their people." Gregory, by his zeal, has been credited as having restored sacerdotal celibacy in those disturbed times.
Biblical referents of celibacy
Celibacy in the Catholic Church did not occur instantaneously, but rather gained hold gradually over the centuries, since the early days of the disciples, and later the pioneering apostles such as Paul. Apostle Paul, who went on to become the most prolific of all biblical writers, was also the most instructive New Testament counselor on the issue of marriage and celibacy. Unmarried himself, he nevertheless upheld the value and sanctity of marriage in all his writings, although his celibate status undoubtedly helped make him the most effective evangelist in Church history.
Paul recognised the valuable aspects of celibacy in the effective evangelisation of Christ's message when he wrote to the Corinthians, referring to celibacy as a divine 'gift': "Indeed I wish everyone to be as I am (unmarried). But each has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another." (1 Cor 7:7).
Abstention from sexual liaison, as way of maintaining some kind of religious purity, or claiming a form of intimacy with the divine, is a very old human tradition which cuts across most religions. In the Judaist tradition of the Old Testament, sexual acts, even when not sinful, were considered defiling. Take for instance the instruction at Leviticus 15:18: "If a man lies carnally with a woman, they shall both bath in water and be (considered) unclean until evening." Additionally, virginity in the bride was the object of high praise; a belief which was so strong that if a bride was found not to be a virgin at the time of marriage, the law decreed that she be taken to the entrance of her father's house and stoned to death!
But the virtue of virginity was not considered permanent in the Old Testament Tradition, and every person was expected to marry at one time or other and bear children. Indeed, failure to bear children was considered a mark of disgrace. When Rachael, Jacob's wife and daughter of Laban, having been barren for many years, finally conceived through God's grace, she exclaimed: "God has removed my disgrace!" (Gen 30:23).
In the New Testament, however, the value of virginity and celibacy take on new significance as a means of worshipping God. To begin with, Christ himself was born through a virgin conception (he could not be defiled by conception through human sexual liaison). While on earth, the Messiah proceeded to execute his mission as a celibate person (again, he could not compromise his divine nature by sexual liaison). Even the person chosen by God to proclaim the imminent arrival of the Messiah, John the Baptist, abandoned family and friends and retreated alone into the wilderness.
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