The Catholic Church in general and her faithful in particular have lately been subjected to a sustained campaign of ridicule and opprobrium over the matter of certain priests who have renounced their celibacy vows and purported to continue discharging their ecclesiastical ministry in the name of the Church despite having been excommunicated. As one among the millions of Catholics in Kenya who have experienced the embarrassment posed by the behaviour of such priests, I feel compelled to contribute to the celibacy debate by giving a few factual, doctrinal and legal perspectives to the matter, in the hope that Catholics, wherever they are, may no longer suffer the indignity of being viewed as followers of shepherds who no longer believe in the faith that the ordinary Catholic believes in.
What is celibacy? According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, celibacy is the practice of perfect continence by priests and bishops meant to foster single-minded devotion to God and service in the ministry of Christ, according to the longstanding discipline of the Latin Church. In essence, celibacy forbids marriage by priests and bishops and normally excludes married men from ordination.
Though some may argue that the law of celibacy is a "late-comer and imposed by the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church on her priests and bishops," modern scholars trace the beginnings of this tradition to the apostolic Church itself.
The Council of Carthage (390 A.D.), for instance, said: "It was fitting that those who were at the service of the divine sacraments be perfectly continent (continent-esesse in omnibus), so that what the Apostles taught and antiquity itself maintained, we too may observe."
The Church saw this especially as an imitation of the celibate Christ who remained unmarried for the "sake of the kingdom".
Though it is true that Jesus called people like Peter from married life to be part of the Twelve, tradition confirms that he did not live that form of life later.
According to tradition Apostle John was an unmarried man. Saint Paul, presented celibacy and virginity as the way "to please God" without divided interests (cf. 1 Cor. 7:32-33): In other words, a "way of love" which certainly presupposes a special vocation; in this sense it is a charism and in itself excellent for both Christians and priests. So much so that from the fourth century bishops were chosen only from the unmarried clergy.
Noting the immense benefit of this life-style for the Church, and following the example of Christ and many of his disciples later, in 1139, at the Second Lateran Council, Pope Gregory VII rightly promulgated celibacy, making it a mandatory requirement for priesthood within the Catholic Church.
It is not strictly correct to say that Roman-rite priests are "not allowed" to marry, if this is seen as some form of external prohibition. Rather, the Roman tradition sees the gift and charism of celibacy as accompanying the call to the priesthood, though it realizes it is not an intrinsic necessity for a valid ordination.
There is no obligation on anyone to become a priest. Indeed, under Canon Law, no one, even after successfully completing all the required studies and formation, is entitled to demand to be made a priest. It is a calling from God through his Church, normally communicated to the candidate by his bishop.
However, once one has chosen to become a priest of the Catholic Church, he has to abide by the laws, rules and regulations of the Church, as indeed is the case with any other society, club or organization. No one is ordained a priest by ambush. On average, it takes anywhere between 10 and 15 years to qualify for ordination during which period the candidate is prepared academically, theologically, psychologically, spiritually and in all other relevant dimensions for the obligations of priesthood including the observance of celibacy.
No priest can, in good conscience, claim that at the time of his ordination he did not know that celibacy was a key requirement in the life that he was freely embracing.
The discipline of celibacy among priests is one of the most visible and distinctive features of the Latin rite of the Catholic tradition. Anyone who chooses to become a priest of the Church accepts that discipline and when he fails to observe it and is excommunicated, he can no longer continue claiming to be discharging the sacred duties of the Catholic Church which he has disobeyed.
The Church's attraction to celibacy is founded on fairly obvious principles. First, a priest is a model of Christ on earth and acts in "persona Christi", that is in the person of Christ. Thus a true and holy priest would seek to imitate Christ in every way, including Christ's personality and way of life.
He sees Christ as a convincing witness of celibacy in that, contrary to the popular and dominant culture of his time, Christ chose to remain celibate. It is worth noting that even the Orthodox Church and a few of the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church which allow their priests to be married (as long as they were married before their ordination) do not allow their bishops to marry.
Secondly, faithfulness to celibacy demonstrates the total and exclusive dedication of the priest to Christ's service in the Church. He is "married" to the Church as it were. The priest mystically weds the Church and loves the Church with an exclusive love which cannot be shared with anyone else.
While a good husband's first duty is to his wife, a priest's first duty and concrete dedication is to his flock. These roles, being similar both in priority and intensity, are likely to conflict if combined in one person. Indeed, the two words "ordination" and "consecration" effectively mean the same thing, that is, being set apart to dedicate one's life to the sacred ministry.
Fourth, like Christ who intercedes for mankind in the presence of God day and night, celibacy enables the priest to wholly and solely focus his attention on matters of God without any earthly distractions which might compete with God for attention.
Fifth, celibacy is a voluntary sacrifice made by a priest to God. By dying to himself and giving up legitimate love of family for the sake of Christ, the priest gives to God what is probably the most precious gift any man is endowed with. The history of sacrifice in every culture and religion confirms that one offers to God the best of what he owns.
Lastly, celibacy provides the priest with greater freedom and flexibility to attend to his pastoral duties without the cares of family life. That is why the missionaries were able to leave the comfort of their homes and families in Europe and settle for life in the mosquito-infested mission lands of Africa spreading the Gospel of their Master.
In short priestly celibacy can best be understood as a logical consequence of accepting Christ's invitation to share his mission of saving souls through the priesthood. It is a response of total love to the invitation of him who gave all for us and has loved us even more than we can love ourselves.
Since all Roman-rite Catholic priests and bishops must take the vow of celibacy, getting married without official dispensation constitutes a conscious renunciation of the sacred vow. There is no culture or religion in the world which embraces the flagrant breaking of vows. The renunciation of any vow, whether sacred or not, inexorably invites penal consequences.
However, in her love and recognition of the frailties of human nature, the Church does, in appropriate circumstances and subject to compliance with the laid down procedures, give dispensation to those priests who for any reason prove incapable of keeping the vows. As much as the Church cannot force one to become a priest, it similarly cannot force one to remain a serving priest.
Is it right then, for a fallen priest who has left the Roman Catholic Church to continue celebrating the sacred mysteries like Mass and the sacraments? This is one of the greatest paradoxes of the Catholic Church. Once one is ordained as a priest, he is a priest for ever "according to the order of Melchizedek" and the indelible mark which he receives upon ordination cannot be erased. However, the fact of excommunication renders the celebration of Mass and the sacraments by such priests illicit.
In the history of the Catholic Church there are many cases of priests and bishops who defected from the mainstream Church, gave up the life of celibacy and founded their own Christian communities. Many of the protestant communities fall into this category. This brings us closer home.
Excommunicated Archbishop Milingo is set to arrive in the country any time soon to ordain married priests and consecrate dissident bishops. While the ordinations may be valid, the priests and bishops so ordained and consecrated cannot legitimately claim to be ministers of the Catholic Church.
As happened after 1537 AD when the breakaway leaders like Martin Luther and Calvin formed the protestant communities, the Milingos, Shiundus and Kasomos of this world should be honest and brave enough to admit and declare their separation from the Roman Catholic Church.
They should market themselves as a splinter group from the Catholic Church and as history confirms, they will be in very good company.
Many Christian churches splintered from the Catholic Church and there is therefore nothing new in what they are doing.
As already noted, every organisation is governed by its own rules and the Catholic Church is no different. The laws governing the Church are codified in the Code of Canon Law and every Catholic faithful, priest, bishop, cardinal is bound by these laws.
The Canon Law is quite clear that any member of the Catholic Church who severes links with the Pope commits the offence of schism.
Schism is defined under Canon 751 as "the withdrawal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him".
The penalty for the offence of schism is spelt out in Canon 1364 which provides that "any person who commits the offence of schism incurs a latae sententiae excommunication" i.e. automatic excommunication.
Excommunication imposes immediate disability on the offender as far as being a Roman Catholic is concerned. From the moment of excommunication one is not, and cannot legitimately and in good conscience receive the sacraments or perform the sacred mysteries of the Roman Catholic Church.
It would therefore be misleading for any excommunicated priest or bishop to purport to be celebrating Roman-rite Catholic Masses or dispensing Catholic sacraments in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
Accordingly, all those priests and bishops who have fallen by the way side due to the frailties of the flesh should honourably admit that they have failed to keep the vows which they voluntarily swore to keep and have, as a consequence, abandoned their priestly vocation.
If they have formed their own "churches", they should be truthful to their followers and advise them that the congregations they are presiding over are not and should not be viewed as part of the Catholic Church.
The Christians who attend such services should know that they are not attending Catholic Masses or receiving sacraments of the Catholic Church.
As for the Catholic faithful who are getting excited and confused in equal measure by the confessions of priests who have lived a lie for twenty or more years, they ought to note a very simple truth: the only true Catholic Church is the one whose head on earth is the Bishop of Rome.
Anybody, whether priest, bishop, archbishop or cardinal who bears no allegiance to the Roman Pontiff is not, and cannot legitimately claim to be a minister of the Catholic Church.
Therefore, no Catholic faithful is allowed to receive sacraments from the churches led by the dissident married priests.
Based on personal knowledge, there are many priests who, thanks to the Spirit of God, are convinced of the value of this precious gift of celibacy which they received to minister to the people of God.
They live their vocation with conviction and joy and should be encouraged to continue doing so. We meet them everywhere in our Catholic communities.
Their celibate life is their single most precious gift which they have given to God and the day it loses value, the church will have lost a great treasure.
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