Celibacy

Celibacy, the state of being unmarried, with abstinence from sexual activity. Considered a form of asceticism, it has been practiced in many religious traditions: in ancient Judaism, by the Essenes; and in Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism, by the members of monastic groups.

In Christianity, celibacy has been practiced by monks and nuns in both the Western and Eastern churches. In the Eastern church, parish clergy are permitted to marry before ordination, but bishops are selected from among the unmarried clergy. In the Roman Catholic church, celibacy is required of all clergy in the Latin Rite. The church holds that this practice is sanctioned, although not required, by the New Testament, basing this claim upon what it avers to have been the constant tradition of the church and upon several biblical texts (notably, 1 Corinthians 7:6-7, 25; Matthew 19:12). The principles upon which the law of celibacy is founded are (1) that the clergy may serve God with more freedom and with an undivided heart; and (2) that, being called to serve Jesus Christ, they may embrace the holier life of self-restraint. This statement does not imply, it is said, that matrimony is not a holy state, but simply that celibacy is a state of greater perfection.

Having no doctrinal bearing in the Roman Catholic church, celibacy is regarded as a purely disciplinary law. A dispensation from the obligation of celibacy has occasionally been granted to ecclesiastics under exceptional circumstances, for instance, to provide an heir for a noble family in danger of extinction.

The celibacy of the clergy was rejected by the Protestant reformers, Martin Luther setting the example to his followers by marrying a former nun. Both the marriage of ministers and the abolition of monastic vows became common features of those bodies that withdrew their allegiance from the Roman Catholic church. According to the articles of religion of the Church of England, “bishops, priests, and deacons are not commanded by God's law, either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage; therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness.”

The history of priestly celibacy has been a stormy one since it became law for the clergy of the Latin Rite in the 6th century. Although Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical of June 24, 1967, reaffirmed the traditional position, the requirement of priestly celibacy remains a much-disputed ecclesiastical question.