Why can't Catholic priests marry?

Answer 1

A priest can be married. That is another teaching that Catholics teach that isn't a Biblical truth.

1 Timothy 4:1-5 "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer."

AnswerNowhere in scripture does it say that those in the service of the Lord cannot get married. What it does say is that if you are about the Lords business and you are married, then think of yourselves as not being married. Do not worry about what your wifes are doing, but set about the task of doing the Lords work without any distractions. AnswerMatt.6 [24] No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Luke.16 [13] No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon AnswerThe disciple cannot be greater than the Master. (Matt 10: 24-25)

The disciple must give up attachment to home, family, goods (Luke 14:26-33)

When the disciple has learned, the disciple will be like Christ (Luke 6:40)

The vows of marriage mean abandoning the single life, all other devotions and devoting oneself to spouse and family. Similarly, the vows of the Catholic clergy require abandoning all other devotions and committing singular devotion to Christ, God his Father and the ministry. The Catholic ethic for its clergy is that the Church is their bride. Christ knew the weakness of man in that he knew his disciples could not successfully devote their lives to him and at the same to their wives and families. In Mark's gospel, Jesus proclaimed a renewal of moral values based upon a simple invitation: "Follow me." ... and this invitation was also: "Learn and become like me". He bade them to leave their wives and families in order to follow Him. Christ never married because he was committed to his ministry and singularly devoted to his Master, God his Father. In asking his disciples to follow Him, he expected the same of them. It is for this reason that Catholic priests do not marry, the intent being to emulate Christ and Christ's life.

AnswerThe Roman Catholic Church created a doctrine to gain wealth (Land) by appointing a Lord (land owner) as a Cardinal (advisor).

If a landowner gave up his property to the church of Rome, he along with all of his sons will be appointed as Cardinals, yet the Lord's sons cannot marry otherwise, the property and all of the belongings will go to the wive's and son's and not designated to the church.

This is why the priest cannot marry. All that the priest has, belongs to the church.

AnswerThe Roman Catholic Church created this doctrine to gain wealth. If a priest can't marry then he can't have a legitimate heir and thus everything the priest has reverts back to the church upon his death. It's as simple as greed.

Answer 2

Catholic priests can and do marry - this answer is fixated on the practice of the Latin Church (IE the Church in the West). The practice of having a celibate clergy is largely practical here, because dealing with Church property is very complex when a family is involved.

However in the Eastern Churches (all of whom are in communion with the Bishops of the Latin Church and the Pope, some of whom look and smell like the Orthodox) such as the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic and the Ruthenian Churches, the practice is a married clergy.

These are both valid ways of doing things (or at least, the Pope and the Bishops of the Latin Church think so) - there are indeed theological reasons for celibacy, which all the Catholic churches agree is a beautiful gift from God. However, a celibate clergy is a matter of discipline - not doctrine. Which means it could be changed at any moment. Is it likely to? No. But it is very easy to get bogged down in the practice of the Latin church and assume that it is the teaching of the whole Church. The principle is unity, not uniformity.

I have studied many history books on the subject and have found that actually the reason Roman Catholic Priests are not allowed to marry is he result of two things:

STUPIDITY: The leaders of the early Church believed that having sex with a woman dirtied a man because of the woman's menses. Therefore he was not worthy to consecrate the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.

GREED: The early European laws gave the right of inheritance to the wife and if the priest was unmarried then the Church inherited the deceased Clergyman's wealth.

Answer 3

The belief in the Catholic Church is that a priest should be devoted only to the work of God, and if a priest was allowed to have a family he would be distracted from this.

"11Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage[c]because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."

There are clergymen in the Church that are married though. They are called permanent deacons, deacons who can't remarry (Ex: If their wives dies before them and tells them not to marry). They are ordained men who has the roles of regular deacons but cannot become priests.

Roman Catholic AnswerPriests are "alter Christus", they are another Christ, they are Christ's feet, hands, ears, mouth, etc. in the world. They are trying to conform themselves to Christ, who was not married but, was "married" to the Church - His spouse. They, too, are married to the Church. In some eastern rites, and some other rites married men are ordained, but they still take a vow of celibacy which means if their wife dies, they can not marry again. Bishops are always chosen from among the single clergy in these rites.

Answer 4

Catholic priests do not marry because only single men are ordinarily chosen to be ordained '''and all men who are ordained take a lifelong vow of celibacy of their own free will''' in order to more perfectly conform themselves to Jesus for whom they become an "alter Christus" (another Christ). This is the discipline of the Latin Church, has been for at least 17 centuries, and is not going to be changed. Ministers, who are already married, who convert to the Catholic Church and are accepted for ministry as priests, and married men who are ordained to the permanent deaconate also take this vow which means that if their wife dies, they will never marry again.

from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, English translation 1994'''1579''' All the ordained ministers of the Latin Church, with the exception of permanent deacons, are normally chosen from among men of faith who live a celibate life and who intend to remain celibate "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 19:12) Called to consecrate themselves with undivided heart to the Lord and to "the affairs of the Lord," (1 Cor 7:32) they give themselves entirely to God and to men. Celibacy is a sign of this new life to the service of which the Church's minister is consecrated; accepted with a joyous heart celibacy radiantly proclaims the Reign of God. (Cf. Presbyterorum ordinis 16)

|} from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

Celibacy of the Clergy. In the Western church marriage is prohibited to all clergy of the rank of subdeacon and upwards (deacon since Vatican Council II). This is a matter of discipline which rests on a positive enactment of ecclesiastical law, which is never dispensed, except in the case of a subdeacon or deacon who relinquishes his orders; all who are ordained subdeacon by that very fact take a solemn vow of perfect chastity. It is grounded in the doctrine of the superior excellence of virginity and has been reinforced by the spiritual and temporal experience of many centuries: by it the clergy are left free for the things of God (cf., 1 Cor. Vii, 32-3), and on countless occasions have been enabled to carry on under circumstances wherein wife and children would have made it impossible. At the beginning of the 4th century the Spanish Synod of Elvira ordered married clergy to live in continence, and this discipline spread throughout the Latin church: by the first Council of the Lateran (1123) marriage of the higher clergy was declared not only unlawful but invalid...

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from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980Ecclesiastical celibacy was a logical development of Christ's teaching about continence (Matthew 19:10-12). The first beginnings of religious life were seen in the self-imposed practice of celibacy among men and women who wished to devote themselves to a lifetime following Christ in the practice of the evangelical counsels. Celibacy was one of the features of the earliest hermits and a requirement of the first monastic foundations under St. Pachomius ©. 290-346). Over the centuries religious celibacy has been the subject of the Church's frequent legislation. The Second Vatican Council named chastity first among the evangelical counsels to be practiced by religious and said that "it is a special symbol of heavenly benefits, and for religious it is a most effective means of dedicating themselves wholeheartedly to he divine service and the works of the apostolate" (Decree on the Up-to-date Renewal of Religious Life, 12). (Etym. Latin caelibatus, single life, celibacy.)

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Answer 5

Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy, refraining from marriage and from any sexual behaviors whatsoever.

The earliest Catholic clerics were often married, but the concept of celibacy began to be established in the 4th Century. The reason for it is that the priests are devoting themselves to God and their works in the family of Man, not to their own nuclear families. In this regard, they are seen as following the example of Christ in undivided dedication to God.

Episcopal priests are not required to be celibate. Recurring movements among theologians have often suggested a change to the Catholic discipline.

Interestingly, it is only the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in which priests may not marry. It is strictly a discipline and could be changed by Rome. There are other Rites within the Catholic Church and in communion with Rome, notably the Byzantine Rite and a few others, where priests can and do marry.

Answer 6

Because they devote their lives to the service of God instead of serving themselves.

Answer 7

All priests, in any Rite of the Catholic Church must make a vow of celibacy in order to conform themselves more perfectly to the great High Priest, Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ.