The Origins of the Celibacy Rules for Catholic Priests

The build-up to the Papal Conclave has been dominated by news stories about Cardinals who are not attending the upcoming election to chose a new Pope because of their alleged involvement in the sex scandals, directly or in the cover-ups, which have rocked the Church in the recent past.

This made me wonder about the origins of the rule that requires Roman Catholic priests to be celibate (i.e. unmarried). Nine years of Catholic education left me ignorant on the subject. A quick Google search turned up a treasure trove of websites which run the gamut from the densely written and detailed article in the Catholic Encyclopedia to advocacy sites advocating for or against a celibate priesthood.

The first revelation is that celibacy was not always the rule or even the norm in the early Church. Most of the Apostles were married, although celibacy apologists point out they left their wives to follow Christ. St. Paul was an early advocate of celibacy who said:

I would that all men were even as myself; but every one hath his proper gift from God .... But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, it is good for them if they so continue, even as I.

Later St. Augustine also advocated virginity for priests and revealed a certain misogyny:

“Nothing is so powerful in drawing the spirit of a man downwards as the caresses of a woman.”

Much of what is known about the celibacy of the priesthood in the early Church is inferred from later rules against past practices. For example, the decrees in favor of celibacy in the fourth century confirm that there were married priests and even women priests at the time.

306-Council of Elvira, Spain, decree #43: a priest who sleeps with his wife the night before Mass will lose his job.
325-Council of Nicea: decreed that after ordination a priest could not marry. Proclaimed the Nicene Creed.
352-Council of Laodicea: women are not to be ordained. This suggests that before this time there was ordination of women.
385-Pope Siricius left his wife in order to become pope. Decreed that priests may no longer sleep with their wives.

The Council of Elvira passed the rule that bishops, priests and deacons could not marry. This began the divergence with the eastern Church where priests could marry, although bishops could not.

The early Irish Church also had more enlightened views about clerical celibacy with priests and nuns able to marry and even mixed monasteries with male and female monks.

Today there are cracks in the celibacy rule as the Roman Catholic Church accepts Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic married clergy and even married Anglican ministers who convert may become Catholic priests. Deacons may marry and perform many latin rites. Roman Catholics may take communion at Anglican and Episcopal churches from married ministers as a rapprochement of the old schism between Rome and Cambridge is nearly accomplished.

Ironically, Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland, shortly before he retired in the face of a sex scandal and withdrew from the Conclave, predicted that someday there will be married priests again.

"We know at the present time in some branches of the church – in some branches of the Catholic church – priests can get married, so that is obviously not of divine origin and it could get discussed again."

The next Pope may well have to confront the clerical celibacy issue and the ordination of women.