A Married Priest Looks at Celibacy

Any of you who know Rev. Ray Ryland know that this Catholic convert from Anglicanism is a rare gem of a priest. I have heard him preach and, on one occasion, lecture. He has a gift for cutting through tangled webs of convoluted arguments and getting to the bottom of issues. Here, in "The Gift: A Married Priest Looks at Celibacy" Crisis (October 2006), he offers an example of his lucid brevity. Let me offer you just the opening paragraphs to get you started:

“You're a married priest? I didn't know we had married priests. I think the Church should let all her priests marry.”

Words like these have greeted me frequently since my ordination to the priesthood in 1983, with dispensation from the rule of celibacy. I always assure those who favor optional celibacy that both my wife and I strongly support the Church's discipline of priestly celibacy. While I'm deeply grateful that the Church has made an exception for certain former Protestant clergy like me, the exception is clearly a compromise. The priesthood and marriage are both full-time vocations. The fact is, no one can do complete justice to both simultaneously.

The objection usually persists. “But surely a married man is better qualified to teach people about marriage than is a celibate priest.” Again, I disagree (politely, of course). The purpose of marriage preparation is not to teach couples what the priest has experienced. Catholic couples need and have the right to be instructed in the Church's revealed truth about the meaning of human sexuality and holy matrimony. If both a married and a celibate priest are reasonably mature, and if each teaches in harmony with the Church, the married priest has no essential advantage over the celibate priest in giving marriage instruction.

Then comes the final argument. “Yes, that may be, but if priests could marry, it would solve our priest shortage.” I reply that this is an assumption with no evidence to support it. If the rule of celibacy is keeping men out of the priesthood, how do we account for the dioceses in this country that have an abundance of priests? As Pope Paul VI said 40 years ago, the decline in priestly vocations is due to lack of faith on the part of our people. The dissent that has been rampant in recent decades has created widespread confusion about the Church's teaching, especially with regard to the priesthood.

An Ancient Discipline

Unquestionably, sentiment in favor of optional celibacy for priests is growing, even among faithful Catholics. But there are two fundamental errors underlying this opinion, one historical, the other theological.

First, the historical error ...

Ryland's article is footnoted with references to a number of works, including his own "A Brief History of Clerical Celibacy," in Priestly Celibacy: Its Scriptural, Historical, Spiritual, and Psychological Roots, ed. Peter Stravinskas (Mt. Pocono: Newman House Press, 2001); Norman P. Tanner, S. J., ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, Vol. 1 (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1990); Christian Cochini, S.J., Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990); Roman Cholij, "Celibacy, Married Clergy, and the Oriental Code," Eastern Churches Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Autumn, 1996); Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, "The Theological Locus of Ecclesiasl Movements," Communio (Fall 1998); and Roman Cholij, Clerical Celibacy in East and West (Herefordshire: Fowler Wright Books, 1988). All great sources.

In my opinion, Ryland's article is the clearest and well-argued concise apologia for the Roman Catholic rationale for clerical celibacy avaiable in English. Of course, I haven't read everything. See what you think.