The Question of Clerical Celibacy

It is the discipline of the Roman Church, and yet I keep running across discussions among people, whom I assume are Roman Catholics, saying that they would not mind having "married priests," because it works so well for the Eastern rites. Perhaps the reason for this ancient discipline is beyond the trite attitude of "Well, I think it is a good idea," that is so prevalent on the Catholic blogosphere. Perhaps there is a very good reason that the popes and bishops of the Western Church long ago decided that celibacy was the best policy for the secular clergy. Until the Pope and bishops change the rule, if they ever do so, practicing Roman Catholics should accept the discipline of their Church with serenity and peace. And I am tired of having the Byzantines and Orthodox lifted up as an example of all that is perfect, when they have had their scandals, too, in spite of having married clergy. According to a beautiful article on the Vatican website, the reason so many of us have a problem with clerical celibacy and think our priests should all be married, is that we have lost a sense of the supernatural. The entire article merits a careful reading. To quote:

So, if we are to understand the problem of the relevance of priestly celibacy, we must study it within its true dimension: that of the supernatural. To say that priestly celibacy per se is not a dogmatic datum must not be taken as meaning that it can be relegated to some ‘cultural context’ or other. For we have to bear in mind that neither the doctrine nor the life of the Church can be reduced to formally revealed truths and everything else be regarded as arbitrary. On the contrary, these things are to be regarded as the fruit of the guidance and assistance of the Holy Spirit, and part of the Church’s two-thousand-year-old tradition.

In the question of celibacy, as in many others concerning the practical life of the Church, we have therefore to avoid minimalism, on the basis of which the only truly legitimate institutions and doctrines would be those of proven apostolic origin or otherwise infallibly defined. Seen aright, it is clear that the Latin discipline of ecclesiastical celibacy is neither arbitrary nor in conflict with the natural right to marriage, even though it cannot be affirmed that it can be deduced from revelation by an irrefutable syllogism. It belongs — indeed, very much so — to the sphere of ‘congruity’, in the sense that the basis for it lies in the very nature of priesthood.

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