It seems wise that those dedicated totally to the
spread of the Kingdom of God should
prudently become "eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven."

A married clergy?

by H. Vernon Sattler

n There seems to be a concerted drive for the acceptability of a non-celibate, and therefore (?) married clergy in the Catholic Church. There seem to be several reasons for this media drive.

Is celibacy impossible?

First, there are people who insist that sexual release of whatever kind is normal and necessary for a mature adult, so that abstinence, virginity or celibacy are neither wise nor prudent, even temporarily. Orgasm seems an undifferentiated appetite (Freud called it polymorphously perverse, a meaningless drive toward detumescence) in every human being. Therefore, masturbation, heterosexuality and homosexuality are equally permissible, and the practice of them should be permissible wherever found. No requirement of sexual abstinence should be required. At most, one can demand only reasonably mature adult consent from whatever partner might be involved in the achievement of orgasm. All orgastic living arrangements should be considered no more than arbitrary and optional varied "life-styles." Since they are purely optional, at most "contractual" entrance might be inculcated, which demands only the fidelity of a voidable contract. If they are such, no fault or aberration is involved which should prevent ordination and the function of priesthood.

It might seem that, from the actual incidence of willing orgasm in pubescent and adolescent individuals, and the provision of possibly "safe sex" for them and their partners, pedophilia of either sex, or any other "life-style" (voyeurism, sado-masochism, erotic asphyxiation, etc.) should not be classified as conditions excluding priesthood. Traditionally, a man (male) was excluded by his confessor from acceptance into the priesthood, if he had not conscientiously been free of illicit orgasm for at least six months before the administration of the Sacrament of Orders. He was expected, subjectively, to see such a habit of sin as excluding him from pursuing Orders. One hears that this is no longer being required, or is ignored by some candidates, and not even mentioned to confessors if one anticipated a severe (not acrimonious) judgment. This presumes that celibacy is impossible and the protestation of a celibate life is suspect. It also presumes that the strict living of celibacy leads to sexual obsessive-compulsiveness which tends to eventuate into pedophilia or ephebophilia (libidinous attachment to adolescents), or a socially scandalous infidelity to one's (hypocritical? required?) vows.

Stricter standards

Until recent times, a single sin of orgasm with or without a partner, precluded an already ordained clergyman in the Catholic Church from celebrating Mass, or conferring any of the Sacraments-Penance, Holy Eucharist, Baptism, Last Anointing. Priests often confessed to each other, or attempted an Act of Perfect Contrition with the obligation of getting to confession as soon as possible. Visiting priests were often welcomed into rectories, or religious houses as possibly strange confessors who might be easily approached with the confession of mortal sin. Priests were expected to confess each week as a regular spiritual discipline whether they had anything of moment on their consciences or not. Students and Junior priests living in religious houses were provided strange confessors at least four times a year (at the Ember Season). Every celibate male accepted the struggle for chastity with realism and effective defensive action of frequentation of the Sacraments, prayer, a regular confessor to advise evasive action, mortification and dedication to the Virgin Mary.

Those who have married

Secondly, many celibate priests have left the active priesthood to get married. It is not clear whether they did so for lustful reasons alone, for love and companionship of the correlative sex, or whether they desired children. Or all three? Did they see their desire for marriage as desire for a Sacrament which celebrated the spousal gift of one man to one woman for a lifetime with openness to whatever happens of life-love-giving, and participating in the Bridegroom-Bridal relationship of Jesus with his Mystical (Spousal) Body? Did they wish to enter marriage to bring themselves and their partners as well as their children to heaven? At any rate, they now wish at least an option of regaining faculties for the exercise of Orders. Very often they are urged to this by their "wives" whether they have been dispensed from the law of celibacy and validly married or not. They urge the necessity for this to enable them to supply for the shortage of numbers in the celibate clergy.

Some, I would suggest, desired marriage as a remedium concupiscientiae. Their thought may have been to avoid sexual drive by slaking the thirst with a spouse. But like all passionate appetites, libido is not satisfied by release, but increased by it. No one ever sedates an itch by scratching it repeatedly. People with appetite disorders toward obesity do not solve their problem by satisfying every urge to eat or drink. It is true that marriage has as one goal the remedy for sexual drive, but that remedy is from spousal love for one person, not mutual lust. Spousal love demands the utter consideration of a partner's welfare, and not the satisfaction of one's own need. The chief complaint of wives is often that their husbands do not love them, but IT! John Paul II tells us that Jesus' strictures about looking at a woman with lust is already to have committed adultery in the heart (Matt. 5:32) is also directed against so many "horse and mule" marriages (Job 6:17).

Purported advantages

Thirdly, many people think that a married priesthood would provide parishioners with family models, sympathetic and understanding counseling, experienced marital instruction. This is bolstered by the permission of some convert married ministers from other Christian denominations to be ordained while remaining married to their partners. This is true of Anglican married clergy, who have an almost identical concept of the priesthood with Roman Catholics, and who may or may not have been validly ordained by schismatic but validly ordained bishops.

Fourth, it is presumed that the acceptance of a married priesthood generally would evoke many more vocations to the priesthood, thereby solving the shortage problem. There is no indication that this is true. The priesthood would then become a career, or a profession, and sought largely for its emoluments, or its social prestige, or political impact. We have no studies that this condition has ever stimulated priestly vocations, and I know of no study which would indicate the will or intention of young men to enter the priesthood if married clergy would be either generally accepted or an option.

Celibacy is both possible and of
practical importance

The first answer is that celibacy is an option possible to anyone with free will and dependent upon the grace of God. If this is not true then sexual drive is an addiction to be solved by therapy of one sort or another. It is further appropriate for any one totally devoted to the apostolate and service of the Kingdom of God. Jesus clearly points out that there are eunuchs who make themselves so for the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 19:10-12). This can apply to those who do not marry, or who are in situations where marital life has become perhaps intolerable! This celibate life is exemplified by Jesus, St. John, St. Paul and others in the New Testament. It is also illustrated by the fact that the Apostles do not appear to have been living marital lives after Pentecost. Though marital living is not explicitly incompatible with priesthood, it renders priestly duties very difficult.

One of the problems is logistical and financial. A married man would need much more financial assistance and housing than does a celibate. In a modern large suburban parish, about three or four priests are necessary for even minimal service to a large congregation with average Catholic church attendance, and especially with a nearby hospital, and a Catholic school. One often forgets that many Catholic priests are also subsidized by family inheritance as well as their subsistence salary. One would presume that the married Catholic priest would not be using contraceptives, and would therefore anticipate a larger family of children than contracepting neighbors. What rectory could be built to accommodate three or four couples and their households of three or more children? Or would parishes have to provide separate rectories with consulting rooms for each of their priests? This would demand the provision of salary, housing, automobile at the service of the pastorate, to the tune of at least $35,000 per priest-a middle-income for a family hardly sufficient for a larger than contemporary family size. I wonder how many married non-functional priests are living the chastity of Natural Family Planning? Are struggling to?

A further problem is that a priest is frequently needed, not so much during the day, as in the evening, which demands absence from his role as possible father to children and companion to his wife. Ask any Protestant minister and his wife about the tensions they find in living out family life with the demands of thousands of people! Further, like Caesar's wife, the family members of a clergyman must be without suspicion, and even models of integrity. One does not anticipate fewer problems in a marriage of normally weak human beings among married clergy than among celibates. The scandals of infidelity, separation, divorce, adolescent delinquency and family discontent cannot be easily avoided among fallen human beings, clergy or not. What of possibly divorced and re-married priests? Would they be able to preach Matthew 19? One could hardly expect a lesser incidence of dissolved marriages among married priests than one observes among other Catholics. This is not to excuse the derelictions of celibate clergy, but one would anticipate fewer failures in celibacy, due, if to nothing else, to the lessening of occasions of fall. Truly committed celibates do not generally place themselves in "occasions of sin." Monastery consulting rooms always have uncurtained glass doors!

All in all, it seems wise that those dedicated totally to the spread of the Kingdom of God, and to sell all for the Pearl of Great Price, should prudently become "eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven." n