I attended the 2013 Shoreleave Convention last weekend. I take three days vacation each year and do something absolutely frivolous, but cool.
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Priestly Celibacy – Will Any Answer Satisfy Critics Today?
Posted on August 8, 2013 by Father Joe
Some reasons for priestly celibacy do not impress people today. For instance, the argument that it focuses personal energy or that it optimizes the available manpower might not convince one as a typical “ends justifies the means” argument. The institution is requiring a great deal of the individual: the perpetual abnegation of a major natural right. Many men find a sense of fulfillment, purpose and self- development in marriage and family. All this is denied the celibate priest. Certain Catholics, themselves, bewail the loss from the gene pool of those Catholic men who are the most fervent and intellectual in their grasp of faith. They contend that we short-change the men and the Church. The next generation would probably supply the Church men and women with similar gifts and a ready willingness to serve others. Instead, they argue, we leave these men personally stunted, alone and barren. He will have no helpmate to share his life. There will be no children to give him joy. It is a pretty dark picture. What they do not see is that celibacy makes possible another whole level of fulfillment and spiritual fruitfulness. The future of the Church does not depend upon his priestly loins, but rather upon the spiritual fruits of his priestly proclamation and his exercise of the sacraments. The priest delivers himself entirely into the hands of God, the divine supernatural agency. It is God who will make the sacrifices of a priest worthwhile and efficacious. The celibate priest gains more than he loses, even if the world cannot see the spiritual value.
The celibacy of the priest, although an accidental by comparison to the male humanity of the priest, is another marker that connects the ordained minister to Christ. Christ is the pure and unblemished Lamb that is sacrificed on our behalf. The ordained priest participates in the one high priesthood of Christ. He acts “in the person of Christ” the head of the Church. He is a living and breathing “icon” for the Lord. While marriage is it’s own expression of Christ and his covenant with his bride in a particular or individual fashion; the priest is most uniquely groom in a universal or corporate way while celebrating at the marriage banquet altar of the Mass. He signifies Christ the groom to his bride, the Church. His celibacy speaks loudly that he belongs to no one woman, no single cell in the body of Christ; rather, he is in spousal relationship to the Church as a whole. It is a spiritual marriage and yet, also very real. Christ gives himself to us as priest and victim, as spiritual food and as oblation. The priest sacrifices his individual life so that the body might know the forgiveness of sins. He is servant or slave. His obedience, celibacy and poverty joins him to Christ as the victim who dies to self so that others might live. Celibacy insures that the priesthood will never be just a job with regular work hours. The priest surrenders a basic human right that most men take for granted. He does so, not to suffer needlessly, but so that others might benefit from the ministry of Christ that is perpetuated through him. This ministerial identification is a great mystery. All of us were made in the image of God and are called by grace to share in his likeness. But the ordained priest has been set apart. He is just a man and yet he is not an ordinary man. An indelible character marks his soul. While marriage is “until death do we part,” the priest will still be a priest in heaven, and God forbid, if he should damn himself and suffer as a Judas, in the lowest circle of hell. He has been given special graces for holiness; however, the maxim remains true, the more that one has been given, the more one will be held accountable. That is why some of the saints feared that it was easier for a priest to suffer perdition; unlike other souls, he could neither claim ignorance of the truth nor distance from the saving sacraments. Celibacy is a safeguard to help the priest in maintaining perspective about how important and unique his vocation actually is. He says at the altar that “this is my body…this is the chalice of my blood.” Similarly, at confession, he extends his right hand and says within the absolution prayer, “I absolve you….” Both at the altar and in the confessional, the priest speaks in the first person. Here is the great mystery. Never had God in the history of the world given such power and authority to men as he gave to priests. God is called down from heaven and sins are forgiven. The priest is still a man and a sinner but he is also so much more. Celibacy speaks to this element of “more.” Because of this man we hear Christ speaking. Because of this priest, Christ is present both in his person and in his saving activity. Celibacy prizes in a unique way who the priest is and who he becomes for the community of faith. He belongs to the Church and no other woman shares his bed. He is consumed for the love of his bride and on fire for the salvation of souls.
Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality | 3 Comments »
Priestly Celibacy – Integration & Compulsory
Posted on August 7, 2013 by Father Joe
There are authorities who would not attack virginity and celibacy directly but focus on issues like proper psycho-sexual integration and the fact that the Church makes the discipline compulsory. This group would assert that many men are deformed in personality and not formed in any way that benefits either them or the faith community. They suggest that some, if not all clergy, are reluctant celibates who suffer a misaligned interior life where debase desires and filthy images are hidden. Frustration and anger resorts in all sorts of compulsive behaviors like excessive eating, drinking, smoking, etc. These critics suggest that mandatory celibacy might fuel a need for control and a lust for power. The Eastern rites are not exempt from their critique since only celibates among priests are permitted to become bishops. The man who is ambitious for such advancement, they argue, trades a wife and family for a higher prelate’s juridical authority. Gays repress and attack their own under the auspices of faith orthodoxy to demonstrate their dominion, even if it disconnects them from the sympathies of their own sexual identity. Women’s ordination is rejected, according to this scenario, not for historical, biblical or doctrinal reasons; but because women can have no role of intimate partnership with them, either in the family home or in the church sanctuary. Okay, I do not much buy this perspective; however, we need to be aware that this is how some think about the celibate priest and the structures that maintain the status-quo.
The revisionists who oppose mandatory celibacy would say that no institution, not even the Church, can demand such a renunciation when many men are twisted and personally corrupted by it. They would admit that there are successful celibates, but only a few. My answer is that the Church is perfectly within her rights and that celibacy is far more often a positive force in the lives of priests than something negative. There is the presumption that many men who discern a calling to the priesthood might not have the accompanying gift of celibacy. My rebuttal is that our Lord works intimately with his Church. If a man is truly called to the priesthood, God will make possible through grace the accompanying celibate life. Everyone truly called, without exception, receives this gift. A lot depends upon how we respond and integrate this gift into discipleship and ministry. At least this is my view.
Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin | 2 Comments »
Priestly Celibacy – Purity is No Perversion
Posted on August 6, 2013 by Father Joe
Kids can be vulgar in their attitudes toward virginity. But adults and professionals can also be condescending regarding this great sacrificial gift of self. I mention it for several reasons. First, it is a personal witness that I later incorporated into my promise of celibacy made to the Archbishop. Second, while the critique becomes more sophisticated, there remains a prejudice or bigotry against the virgin as if he or she has forfeited a certain essential human experience. Employing the modern and heavily manipulated science of psychology, that will insist that there can be no satisfied maturity without experience of the full gamut of corporeal achievements and sensations. In opposition, I vigorously object to the idea that unless a man or woman has sexual intercourse, he or she is not a full adult or that development becomes precarious. It is precisely this devaluing of virginity that undermines consecrated celibacy in the popular mind. Especially with the acceptance of older candidates, it is probable that many of them have had various romantic relationships and sexual encounters. Sex outside of marriage is neither neutral nor spiritually advantageous. It is a sin and a serious one at that. Of course, the Church is all about forgiveness. Such a man might receive absolution, and once reforming his life, find acceptance as a candidate for holy orders. He will have particular struggles, notably with habit (vice) and with memory. Many men caught up in fornication are later haunted by the bodies and faces of their liaisons…something that plagues their thoughts in marriage and pursues, even tormenting, them into the priesthood. Many psychologists are quiet about this and instead attack the virgin who comes to priestly celibacy. They argue that he is prone to all sorts of neuroses and likely suffers from a distorted or even a mutilated personality. Instead of appreciating virginity as a gift given to God and assumed into priestly celibacy; they categorize it as a perversion. I find this all very dubious and outright dishonest, especially for those mental experts who are Christian. Given that the American Psychiatric Association no longer considers homosexuality as mental illness, these clinicians would judge homosexual acts as preferable to perpetual virginity. Such a claim undermines the professionalism and objective value of the psychological profession. When bishops use psychologists to evaluate candidates; they should first interview the researchers so that they can root out those who are not sympathetic toward celibacy or who do not have the mind of the Church.
Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Homosexuality, Marriage, Modesty, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Priestly Celibacy – Mortal Sin Prerequisite for Ordination?
Posted on August 5, 2013 by Father Joe
Priests are not all the same. While there are constants in religious formation and later in ministry; there are incidents that set us apart and which remain in memory. I was a first-year philosophy student, away from home for the first time. I was surprise by the range of ages and various life-experiences of men around me. There were good days and bad days. Maybe it was my anxious nature, but I especially recall the matters which upset me. An upper classmate wanted the staff to send me home. I shared with him a confidence and he used it against me. It was my presumption that all of us were chaste and pure. He could not believe it and made a scene. He verbally assaulted me for all to hear, “You’re a virgin! If I had my way no one would be allowed into the seminary unless he had first [expletive deleted] a few girls! What do you know about real life?” This guy was getting ready for theology. How dare he argue that mortal sin is a prerequisite for priesthood! I had thought this prejudice was something I had left behind me in a public high school. If a boy was a “virgin” then he was judged as abnormal or accused of being “queer.” [Forgive the slur, it is a label that should not be used against any human being.] There were opportunities for moral trespass but I refused to take them. There were plenty of pretty female teens around my age. One flaunted the fact that she would make a man out of me and that she was “hot” for me. I was normal, I kept telling myself. Part of me wanted what many regarded as an act of becoming, but it was wrong. As far back as I can remember I had a strong moral sense. Lust was a poor substitute for love. I told one girl to have some respect for herself. She was more than a piece of meat. One girl got mad at what she interpreted as my rejection and threw herself at another boy. She would have an abortion before leaving high school. Another girl regularly confided in me. Her boyfriend abused her. She said I was the only boy with whom she could talk; the others she could not trust. She was happy to have a friend, not just another boy trying to land her in bed. Don’t get me wrong, I had the same feelings and drives of the other boys. But when it came to the girls, I refused to be mastered by my passion. I felt protective of the girls. Many of them were smart and attractive. Their dignity was important to me. I was pained by the prospect of leading any of them into sin or hurting them. My father’s values were my values and he was a strict Catholic. I wanted to be a vehicle for forgiveness and healing, not for sin and pain. My peers and I were young with little education and no money. Acting out sexually was foolish. I can still hear my father’s voice. “Sex outside of marriage is wrong. Marriage is for life! Marriage or priesthood, that’s your choice. Better to die than to ever betray your Catholic religion.” Already I had a sense of a calling, not just to priesthood but more primarily to live out my baptism as a Christian gentleman.
Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Modesty, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin | 3 Comments »
Priestly Celibacy – The Church’s Man
Posted on August 4, 2013 by Father Joe
I watched a television program several years go where a reporter interviewed a sampling of priests who left ministry for marriage. They were aging men and one in particular told a very touching story about how he came face to face with his need for a wife and family when he was baptizing the first child of his brother. He said that he knew then what he wanted. Nevertheless, he admitted that if the Church asked him to return to ministry tomorrow (as married man), he would leave his lucrative business in an instant. He still felt that he was called to the priesthood. Indeed, he rightly said, he would always be a priest. However, the images that followed stripped away the sympathy I felt for him. He was involved with other ousted married priests in conducting religious services and Mass, even though they had been stripped of faculties to do so. As is so often the case with such priests, his problem was not merely a failure to keep his promise of celibacy, but also of ecclesial obedience. If the Church authorities should deem fit to grant the priesthood to married men, then that is the Church’s business, no matter whether I like it or not. However, a man who marries without laicization and dispensation from celibacy, not only incurs censure but involves the person he is said to love in mortal sin. Yes, it is mortal because the priest knows better. If such a man tries to continue in ministry, then he draws still more people away from the true Church into his circle of rebellion. Personal weakness I can understand. But harming the souls of others is a gross betrayal of Christ. He places himself into the role of Judas, not for a sack of coins but for the temptation clothed in a skirt and stockings.
Our understanding of celibacy, as I have already mentioned, cannot be disconnected from our understanding of marriage. As topics they can be distinguished but they can only really be defined accurately in relationship to each other. It is in light of these two mysteries that we can branch out in our critique of open-ended single life and the moral ills of fornication, cohabitation, homosexual acts, polygamy and pornographic voyeurism. Of course, some might misjudge celibacy because they wrongly define marriage. This not only applies in reverse but can tamper with how we see the other areas of human sexual experience. The degradation of celibacy may expand the understanding of marriage as merely an opportunity for contractual sexual pleasure. But marriage is not licensed prostitution. Such a view would collapse moral judgment against moral ills outside of marriage. Divinizing celibacy too highly might impair marriage by reducing it to merely a necessary evil for the sake of propagation of the species. This mentality might properly exclude the listed moral evils but at the terrible price of defaming a sacrament of the Church. Although in the past marriage was defined primarily in reference to the need for human generation; Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body would seek to bring this into balance with the fidelity of the spouses. This is fine and good, but it has had necessary ramifications with our appreciation of celibacy. As marriage is made more appealing and even spiritualized as a means to holiness; we need to show the overriding value and benefit of celibacy. If we fail to make the case, then young men are going to view it simply in terms of an imposed hardship they must suffer to save souls and to forgive sins. This value must both be defined and made relevant in the daily life of the celibate priest; otherwise, he will become increasingly angry and resentful against the very institution he represents. The priest is the Church’s man. If he turns against the Church or gives in to cynicism, then this negativity will spread to the pews and damage efforts at evangelization.
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Priestly Celibacy – The Return to Innocence
Posted on August 3, 2013 by Father Joe
St. Paul gave practical advice about human nature when he warned that it was better to marry than to burn; in turn some have viewed his words as an assault against marriage. Given the analogy of marriage as a reflection of Christ’s relationship to the Church, this is ridiculous. Marriage is a sacrament by which Christ grants grace. It is holy. The Manichee taint hates matter and despises marriage because it binds men and women in the flesh and creates still more corporeal beings. Christian celibacy cannot rightly raise up itself as an institution on the bones of marriage. If marriage falls, so does celibacy. Evidence of this fact is apparent in modern society. People are largely sexually active, but increasingly without benefit of marriage; simultaneously, celibacy is ridiculed and vocations to the priesthood cannot keep up with the need for shepherds. Christian marriage and the family constitute the cradle and birthplace to celibate vocations. This is one of God’s sweet absurdities or ironies. Our Lord delights in contradictions and makes them signposts to his kingdom: we must die to live, we must surrender to find treasure, we must forgive those who hurt us, we must love our enemies who hate us, and we must first have married vocations before we can have celibate priests. Social theorists might speak of marriage as a human construct imposed to protect civilization from the brute animal that would pillage, rape and murder. It restrains man’s lust and inhibits him from taking the wife or daughter of his neighbor. It gives man a structure of support and also ties him down with responsibility within an intimate communion of interdependence. The Christian would argue that marriage is a natural bond of divine institution. It is marriage and not the lascivious beast that defines him. Men and women are made for each other but not in a way analogous to the apes or animals. Husbands and wives find something of God’s watchful gaze in each other’s eyes. They discover a facet of divine love in their intimate embrace and know they are not alone. They participate in the Almighty’s awesome power in the creation of new human life. The promotion of celibacy and the quality of it as a sacrifice is necessarily enhanced when marriage is enthroned upon it’s rightly high throne.
The Church and society have long been at loggerheads about marriage and virginity. A female who embraced virginity and spiritual marriage with Christ was praised in pious circles. However, an unmarried woman might ordinarily be derided as a spinster and pitied by married women. A handsome man who became a priest is sometimes lamented by women as “what a waste!” A single man might still be regarded as a catch but a confirmed bachelor is viewed with suspicion. Is he gay? Is he eccentric and too much to handle? Maintaining a healthy tension has often proven difficult or impossible.
Our traditional regard for sexual innocence readily touches something spiritual, but what? It may be our Lord’s admonition that we must become like innocent little children. It may also reflect a dim memory of our own childhood and the innocence we once knew prior to the full emergence of reason, on one hand, and the breakthrough of puberty, on the other. We had yet to be possessed by the movement of passion, trusted our parents with a faith that was only second to God and saw the world with both wonder and a sense of simplicity. Religious virginity and vowed celibacy hint to what we shall become in the kingdom by opening windows to our first days in this world where we knew the trust and unblemished saintliness of children. At the moment of our baptism, we became perfect saints. We desperately want to return to that innocence and holiness.
Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality, Sin | 2 Comments »
Priestly Celibacy – Dueling with Dualism
Posted on August 2, 2013 by Father Joe
It is popularly argued that priestly misbehavior is due to the “infliction” of celibacy upon candidates for the priesthood. However, it is beyond ridiculous to assert that trying to avoid sex immediately leads to pedophilia or lesser forms of misconduct. The radical proponents for married priests, nevertheless, contend that unless the priest has a release for sexual desire, he will eventually explode with an act of transgression. They insist that the priest will fall because he was bound to fall. This is like saying that a man restricted to one wife is bound to fail. Adultery is not the end result of a promise of fidelity to one wife in marriage. Priestly misconduct is not the end result of a promise of celibacy in priesthood.
Catholics are not puritans and yet an outside observer might think that we were somewhat schizophrenic. They would be mistaken, but only because of a failure to define terms and make distinctions. For instance, it is a basic premise that God is good and his creation is good. While we struggle with fallen nature, we affirm the handiwork of God. The natural order, the complementarity of the male/female bodies and marriage are all important parts to the divine design. Attraction and human sexuality are good and also authored by God. Nevertheless, we have sometimes spoken about the flesh and sexual attraction as if they were bad things. We would not want to impugn the work of God in nature. Certain clarifications are kept in mind. First, depending upon one’s state of life, one may not be entitled to the goods that others enjoy. Human sexual congress is beautiful, but outside of marriage or twisted to conform to a disorientation, and we have an evil or sin. Second, because of original sin, our level of control is seriously compromised. Our passions and appetites may threaten to overwhelm us. This struggle was taken much more seriously in the past. Stories of the saints purposely facing the numbing cold while exposed or St. Francis throwing his body into the briars to mortify the flesh strike us as extreme or mad. While in practice it may seem that we embrace a type of Manichean dualism or Jansenist self-deprecation, in theory or principle, the Church remains orthodox. We know full well that men and women are not angels, no matter how much believers aspire to the spiritual or supernatural over the natural. Third, priests are prophetic signs in their very persons of Christ’s kingdom. There is a messiness to human experience. Our mortality is always pressing upon us. Physical strength and beauty leaves us in awe but is fleeting. We deeply desire to put on perfection and immutability. Everything changes and everyone dies. Even God became a man and suffered the Cross. The incarnation divinizes human flesh by grace and by eternal participation with the Logos or Word. We desire a share in his victory and immortality. The dead will rise. We will be restored body and soul. But like the angels, there will neither be marriage nor the giving in marriage. There will be no more need for propagation. There will be no more need for sacraments. We will see and know God and the source of life and love directly. Priests witness as prophets to this great eschatological hope.
Serious critics of compulsory celibacy, not the average Joe on the street or the tabloid sensationalists, contend that it signifies a dangerous and even pagan dualism. They clamor that it represents placing greater weight upon the soul than upon the body. Worse yet, they point out what seems to be the victory of heresy where the spiritual is praised and sought out while the material or the body is condemned and fled. They would argue that the religious celibate might be running away from his own humanity. I cannot speak for all priests. It may be possible that there are some men who see themselves and the world in these terms. Hopefully formation programs would identify such men with these sorts of inclinations.
A man should not become a priest because he hates or looks down upon women.
A man should not become a priest because he is fearful of females and afraid of intimacy.
A man should not become a priest because it is easier to opt out of a sexual or romantic life.
A man should not become a priest because he has been hurt and does not want to hurt anymore.
A man should not become a priest because he wants to be a robot or alien outsider among men.
A man should not become a priest because he is gay and wants to hide his orientation and/or lifestyle.
A man should not become a priest because it is easier to be a boy than a man.
Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Morality, Priests, Religion, Sacraments, Sexuality | 1 Comment »
Priestly Celibacy – A Wasted or Fulfilled Life?
Posted on August 1, 2013 by Father Joe
I have heard the challenge to celibacy that it is not natural. This is, of course, quite absurd. Like marriage, it is perfectly within the range of properly oriented human conduct; although, it represents (in perpetuity) a road less traveled. What is sometimes at force in such charges is not any appreciation for natural law, because these same accusers might lobby on behalf of homosexuality, but rather a form of atheism. We all know that even self-acclaimed believers sometimes live as if there is no God. While they might temporarily support the “new celibacy” that abstains from sex and relationships for the sake of upward mobility and a business career; they resoundingly object to “Christian celibacy” that sets aside earthly pleasure and companionship for spiritual treasure and intimacy with God. We hear this mentality in slogans like, “Go for the gusto!” and “You only live once, so make the most of it!” Especially when a priest fails to keep up with his prayer life, he becomes subject to this attack. “Where is God? Does it matter that I have given up the chance to have a wife and children? Have I wasted my life?”
When I first started my seminary studies, it was with the Franciscan TORs. We lived at the seminary and commuted down the hill to their adjacent college, now Saint Francis University in Loretto, PA. The young brothers had an interesting sense of humor and a few sang a made-up song on the bus one day that both shocked and amused me. We were all philosophy students and I guess the upper classmen were studying atheism. I still remember the refrain of their ditty, “Sorry, there is no God, you left your girlfriend for nothing.” If non-believers were right, the song brought home the absurdity of what we were about…forsaking a wife and family, all so that we might spread the cult of an imaginary deity. Of course, I am personally convinced that the atheists are in the wrong and for this there will be eternal consequences.
Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Apologetics, Catholic, Celibacy, Discipleship, Marriage, Priests, Religion, Sexuality | 6 Comments »
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