Many younger men shared the Pauline preference for both celibacy and the single life. They were distinguished from the married men upon whom special rules were given. One might wonder as well if Paul did not already infer something of his marriage analogy in the life of celibate ministers. Christ was the bridegroom and the Church was his bride. The man ordained to Christ’s priesthood was called to regard the Church as his spouse. He embraced our Lord’s spousal love. He had to be willing as was our Lord to lay down his life for her (see 2 Corinthians 11:2 and Ephesians 5:22-32). Over time, there was a tendency to see a priest’s wife as “the other woman.” While it was not strictly the case, the Western Catholic sentiment came to regard the priest with an earthly wife as living in spiritual adultery. One must be very careful about promoting such views today in that they unfairly malign good married priests in the East and Anglican returnees in the West.
We know that Peter was married and there is ample evidence that episcopoi (bishops), presbyters (priests) and deacons also had families (see Mark 1:29-31; Matthew 1:29-31; Matthew 8:14-15; Luke 4:38-39; 1 Timothy 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6). This pattern extended into the patristic period.
Filed under: Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Priests, Sacraments |
Blogger Priest 
Dear Fr Joe,
Some time ago, here in my small town, we had a Church of England Vicar, married with a family, end up unable to minister to his flock. His wife ran off with another man and his daughter, after raising a large some of money through the church for an overseas trip to help the starving ended up in another town near by, shacked up with a junkie and the money spent…….all very sad and all a very real mess.
With almost 1 in 2 marriages ending in divorce and Catholic Priests possibly being under more pressure from their ‘job’, so that the little woman takes an ever more shrinking smallness within that marriage, the divorce rate and subsequent Canon Law process for annulment (special concession for those with internal links), would undoubtedly rocket for Priests, only to be surpassed by the Bishops.
Regards Paul.
PS Some say that our only woman Pope (Joan the Irritable), was married. If so then she was probably married to a Priest just for good measure.