Opinion: Cardinal O'Brien, Chaste Celibacy, Chaste Marriage and Clerical Service

By Deacon Keith Fournier
2/25/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Clerical celibacy chosen for the Kingdom of Heaven and suited to the priesthood is to be greatly esteemed everywhere

Cardinal Keith O'Brien was not the right man to raise the issues which a full, historic and proper discussion of the mandatory nature of this ancient and revered discipline of mandatory clerical celibacy for priests deserves.Given the challenges Christ's Church faces, and the necessary purification which she is undergoing, I doubt the question the question of mandatory celibacy in the Latin or Western Catholic Church is high on the agenda.

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EDINBURH, Scotland (Catholic Online) - Pope Benedict XVI's resignation of his office and the call for a papal conclave where his successor will be elected have brought a myriad of press reports, opinion pieces and editorials concerning the Catholic Church. Among the media's preoccupations is an old one, clerical celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church.

The most recent venture into that matter involved an interview by the BBC with Cardinal Keith O'Brien. I originally used that article to weigh in on the issue it raised, whether the Latin or Western Catholic Church practice regarding mandatory celbiacy among the men it calls to the order of priest might ever be relaxed to allow both celibate and married candidates in the discernment process.

Sadly, within a day, allegations regarding Cardinal O'Briens allegedly immoral behavior some thirty years ago emerged. I do not know the Cardinal. So, as I do with all thosewho are in ordered service to the Lord and His Catholic Church, especially Bishops, I presumed the best about him.

Further, given his recent strong defense of marriage as between only one man and one woman, I wondered whether he was being singled out by some who seek to remake the Church into their own image. There is no doubt that there are those - both within the contemporary culture and within the Catholic Church - who seek to argue that homosexual practice be given a moral and legal equivalence with true marriage and the family and society founded upon it.

Next, an announcement was made that the Cardinal denied the allegations and had sought legal counsel. My hopes continued. Finally, came the news on Monday February 25, 2013 that the Cardinal had sumitted his resignation. The timing was certainly of interest. My prayers are with him, with those making the allegations, and with the Church, and perhaps civil tribunal, which must judge them. These are trying times.

The Cardinal indicated he submitted his resignation in accordance with the requirements of his office on his 75th birthday, February 18, 2013 and that it was only accepted by the Holy Father on Monday Feb. 25, 2013. Of course, the details surrounding these allegations and this entire incident cast a cloud on his comments to the BBC. This turn of events, along with what I presumed was his inarticulate expression of his position, also renders him a less than helpful proponent of the issue.

However, I believe that the issue still merits discussion. The ancient practice of choosing celibate or married men for priestly ordination is still the norm in the Eastern Catholic Churches (Byzantine). The decision for marriage or consecrated celibacy is made prior to the first clerical ordination to the diaconate. Both married and celibate men can then be considered for ordination to the priesthood from the ranks of deacons. Bishops are always celibate and monastic. Even in the instances of married men ordained, as deacons or priests, those ordained clerics pledge not to remarry should their spouse die.

Rather than rely on one of the many secondary scholarly sources which surround the discussion of this matter - both for an against - I undergird my claim with a reference to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It should settle the truth of the observation for most, except perhaps a few traditionalist brethren who simply do not like the practice and may still be suspect of the Catechism. These paragraphs are taken from the treatment of Holy orders in Article Six of the Official Catechism of the Catholic Church. I commend this entire section to all who want to understand the issues surrounding the gift of ordained service to the whole Church.

The Catechism text contains important footnotes to sources of authority, drawn from the Scriptures and the Sacred tradition, which are well worth studying. Remember, if you want to know what the Catholic Church REALLY teaches, go first to the Scriptures and to the Catechism. In an age which reflects a decreasing respect for the Church, this task is essential! In addition, even in the ranks of those who are faithful Catholics, opinions can often be confused with official teachings of the Church.Here are the words of the Catechism:

"Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination." The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ's return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible. ...

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1 - 4 of 4 Comments

rosanne santos
2 months ago
Are sacraments by married priests valid?
• Sacraments by married priests are valid because “Sacred ordination never becomes invalid” (Canon 290).
• "Sacraments conferred by married priests are valid including Baptism and consecrating the Eucharist at Mass" ~ Father John J. Strynkowski, Executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
• The minister able to confect the sacrament of Eucharist in the person of Christ is a validly ordained priest alone” (Canon 900). “Every priest and a priest alone validly administers anointing of the sick” (Canon 1003).

Are sacraments by married priests legal?

• “There is a canonical basis for permitting the ministry of priests who have been laicized or suspended due to attempted marriage… The faithful have a right to request sacraments from suspended priests for any just cause, but the impetus must come from the faithful and not from the suspended priest” (Haselberger, J. 2004, thesis in Catholic canon law, p 115 & 98).

• “Prohibition [against married priests] is suspended whenever it is necessary to care for the faithful in danger of death. If [juridical censure- a very rare procedure] has not been declared, the prohibition is also suspended whenever a member of the faithful requests a sacrament; a person is permitted to request this for any just cause” (Canon 1335).

• “If a priest who has no authorization to assist at marriages is available, he should be asked to participate in the extraordinary form celebration when it can be prudently judged an authorized witness will be unavailable for a month” (Canon 1116). Weddings by certified married priests are legally recognized by states but not always by institutional church.

• “In a case of necessity, any person with the right intention confers baptism licitly” (Canon 861).

• “Even though a priest lacks the faculty to hear confessions, he absolves validly and licitly any penitents whatsoever in danger of death from any censures and sins, even if an approved priest is present” (Canon 976).

• “The salvation of souls must always be the supreme law in the church” (Canon 1752).
abey
2 months ago
If the history of fallen churches like the Anglican, its episcopals & others are looked into, it is plainly clear that the ordination of Women & Gay agendas(rebellion against the scriptures) are interconnected & the day the Catholic Church become complacent to this grave Error, is the day the Church can said to be fallen, fallen into the error of Modernism like the others, to which its enemies work to (for everything of the devil is in deceit), like in the case against Cardinal Brian through the BBC, & it would be most ignorant to think not that behind are the heads of Freemasonry, its royals & its offshoots, the Arc enemy of not just the Catholic Church but that of Christianity, if the Marian apparition in the warnings to the Church about freemasonry & its initiations(to a false mary spiritually going by the name of a great mother godess) is any indication, to which it seems some compromising critical members of the Church have fallen/deceived into.
Augustine, Obl.S.B.
2 months ago
A good article, Deacon, with some interesting questions to consider. However, I think you left out a question that also needs to be considered: should the Church continue to close and merge parishes due to a lack of priests, while denying discernment of priestly vocations to married men who have been Catholic all their lives, while allowing converts who are married the rite of ordination? Think of how the shortage of priests would be affected if even half of the permanent deacons in the country were allowed ordination to the priesthood.
michael
2 months ago
Deacon Keith...one of the great results of Pope Paul VI's reign was his insistence that the issue of priestly celibacy be looked at very carefully. This brought about the publications of a number of historical books by the likes of Cardinal Stickler and various other authors of note. The findings in connection with the research asked for by Paul VI have clearly demonstrated that priestly celibacy and clerical celibacy for bishops and deacons as well, is of apostolic origins. In short, then, there is NOT an "unbroken" tradition of married clergy in the Catholic eastern rites and "Orthodox" groups. They broke tradition. I would ask you to investigate the Council of Trullo in the 8th century in order to see the rupture and discontinuity in regards to priestly celibacy. Until Trullo, clerical celibacy was imposed as it was of apostolic origins. If one were married, he had to leave his wife, who in turn would be provided for by the Church. In fact, there are many ancient documents where the wife signed away her marital rites in order to give her husband to the Church.

Bishops and priests are not bachelors, but rather married man, i.e., married to the Bride of Christ the Church. Those who are married clergy and continue to live and have relations with a natural wife are tolerated as it has become "legitimate" or legal to use the words of the New Catechism. Legitimate, Deacon Keith, but not the ideal nor desirable. In a real way, there is bigamy going on here with married clergy. One man with two wives, and the Wife that is the Church is always preferred to the natural wife. The biggest supports of priestly celibacy are always wives of married clergy who often do not get the attention they need.

Finally, as AB. Fulton Sheen often said, whenever there was to be a Theophany or a God-appearance, Jewish men were told to be chaste with their wives. A CAtholic priest has a daily Theophany at the altar in the presence of the Word made Flesh.

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