Why catholic believe celibacy of the clergy?

Answer 1

1079 AD under Pope Gregory VII.

by reading page 41 in the book in beginning of the second chapter it says "The precept that men of God should sleep alon, established by the lateran councils of 1123 and 1139..." so that should be an accurate answer.

Answer 2

Priests take a vow of celibacy because they give their total time and effort to God. They do not have anything that distracts them from their duties as priests. A lay Catholic remains celibate until marriage. Intercourse is reserved for a Godly union of two people.

Answer 3

Celibacy did not become an official requirement until the 12th century. Many of the early popes were married and some of their sons even became popes. The original purpose of the vow of celibacy for the priesthood was to ensure that property remained with the Church and was not inherited by a priest's children.

Today the Church claims that the main reason for celibacy is to allow a priest to devote more effort to pastoral duties, and to show commitment to heavenly rather than earthly matters.

AnswerThe spirit of celibacy has always been of the Church, though the law, as with all things human, became necessary at a low point in Its history. The original purpose of celibacy was an understanding, now much lost in modern times, that things "sanctified" or dedicated to God were "set aside" for God alone, for His service, to do His work. The Jews understood this well; during their time in service of the temple Levites left their families and were continent. The early Christian clergy understood this concept and were enthusiastic in supporting if not actually living it. Why, however, it needed to become law needs a bit of history.

Celibacy among clergy has been advocated by the Church since Its inception, the example having been set by its founder, Jesus Christ (Matthew 19:12) and reinforced by the writings of St. Paul, himself a celibate (1 Corinthians 7:7-8) who held chastity up as a higher calling, something clerics should consider (1 Corinthians 7:7-8 and 32-35). The ancient martyrologies were always exacting on proclaiming a martyr as a virgin if such was the case, as chastity was in high regard not just among women, but men as well according to their state in life. Of the only ten popes who were married, all were widowers or became continent by the occasion of their papacy, a fact often omitted. Many accounts tell of married couples agreeing to part when a man entered orders and Tertullian lauds the number of clergy who have embraced continence (TERTULLIAN, De exhortationecastitatis, cap. xiii). Origen even saw it so established as to conveniently contrast the natural children of Old Testament wedded Levites with the spiritual offspring of the priests of the New Law. Eusebius, Cyril (of Jerusalem) and Jerome all add to this tradition and by 386 AD, pope Siricius published an edict that no deacon or priest was to have conjugal relations. In the East, where the custom was not so strict due to local practice, concessions were made. Even so, Epiphanius in the fourth century already advances that anyone in major orders must remain continent, though he acknowledges that this does not apply in all localities. By the fourth century celibacy was all but mandatory, with married clergy accepted only if they had contracted marriage before receiving orders or if an ordained member pleaded that celibacy proved beyond his strength. By the 692 AD, the Council of Trullo imposed celibacy upon eastern bishops, making it a matter of precept though priests and deacons were still dispensed according to the older custom. The advent of the Middle Ages brought forth the feudal system and feudal lords who were particular about their territory and who considered episcopal sees as part and parcel theirs to award. Hereditary lineage became the vital link to power and land and thus wealth and stablility. Since land was hereditary some bishops were not above seeding children in an effort to retain lands once granted. The result was a general decay in morality and observance of the laws of celibacy among clergy. It can be made understandable, as land meant wealth, and without land, the clergy would be reduced to poverty, as did happen to many who resisted. This degeneration became even worse with the introduction of benefices, or basically kick-backs bishops could receive from parishes that were nominally under their patronage. To get a kick back required a loyal cleric on the opposite end, and what better loyalty could be arranged than one's own kin? So bishops were so emboldened, and indeed became so powerful and wealthy, they openly lived with their wife and children or concubines. A reform movement to stem the corruption and disciplinary abuse was put into effect under the auspices of the popes of the time. Since they could not keep the bishops from flagrant indiscretions they made laws against their kin, including that of nepotism (favoring of heirs and relatives) and decreeing that a bastard child could not approach for sacred orders. So severe did these measures become that the offspring and concubines of a priest or bishop were disenfranchised of any hereditary dues, relegated to the lower class, and forfeited to the local lord as servants. The enforcement of these laws would effectively destroy benefices, at least through hereditary means. Offending priests and bishops had their faculties suspended, though not invalidated, and were publicly shunned. Finally, the First Lateran Council was assembled and in 1123 AD the Church decreed that any marriage incurred by a cleric of a subdeacon or higher was ipso facto (by the fact itself/automatically) invalid. This was the first disciplinary decree issued by an universal ecumenical Church council and thus celibacy became enacted upon all clergy thenceforth, superceding local custom, regional canons and any loopholes. With the law reinforced, the spirit of celibacy resurfaced. In modern times again the spirit, to leave all and serve only God, is being forgotten and the law is being questioned due to, as before, strong secular trends and the modern emphasis on sexual expression.

Answer 4

Answer # 1

You in England cannot understand how completely engrained it is into our people that a priest is a man whosacrifices himself for the sake of his parishioners. He has no children of his own, in order that all the children in the parish may be his children. His people know that his small wants are supplied, and that he can devote all his time and thought to them. They know that it is quite otherwise with the married pastors of the Protestants. The pastor's income may be enough for himself, but it is not enough for his wife and children also. In order to maintain them he must take other work, literary or scholastic, only a portion of his time can be given to his people; and they know that when the interests of his family and those of his flock collide, hisfamily must come first and his flock second. In short, he has a profession or trade, a Gewerbe, rather than a vocation; he has to earn a livelihood. In almost all Catholic congregations, a priest who married would be ruined; all his influence would be gone. The people are not at all ready for so fundamental a change, and the circumstances of the clergy do not admit of it. It is a fatal resolution. (A. Plummer in "The Expositor", December, 1890, p. 470.)

See the related link Catholic Encyclopedia: Celibacy of the Clergy below for the context of this quote.

I have bolded the important points as to why they are celibate.

Answer # 2

In addition to the practical reasons mentioned above, the Catechism indicates that priests also remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. (CCC 1579, 1580)

For an in depth understanding of priestly celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, John Paul II treats the topic in his book Theology of the Body under the following 14 headings:

Virginity for the Sake of the Kingdom

• Virginity or Celibacy for the Sake of the Kingdom
• The Vocation to Continence in This Earthly Life
• Continence for the Sake of the Kingdom - and Its Spiritual Fulfillment
• The Effective and Priveleged Way of Continence
• The "Superiority" of Continence Does Not Devalue Marriage
• Marriage and Continence Complement Each Other
• The Value of Continence is Found in Love
• Celibacy Is a Particular Response to the Love of the Divine Spouse
• Celibacy for the Kindgom Affirms Marriage
• Voluntary Continence Derives from a Counsel, Not from a Command
• "The Unmarried Person is Anxious to Please the Lord"
• Everyone Has His Own Gift from God, Suited to His Vocation
• Man's Eternal Destiny - The Kingdom of God, Not the World
• The Mystery of the Body's Redemption

Celibacy, or virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven finds its origins in the gospel of Matthew when Christ says

Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so, some because they were made so by others; some because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it. (Matthew 19:12 NAB)

When giving advice to married couples in Corinth, St. Paul also indicates his personal preference for celibacy when he writes Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am... 1 Cor 7:7 NAB. He later sheds some light on some of the reasons why he prefers celibacy for himself and others in serving the Lord:

I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided...I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction. (1 Corinthians 7:32-33, 35 NAB)

It is worth noting that even among Eastern Catholics (e.g. Byzantine, Melkite, etc.) where priests may marry, celibacy is also held in high esteem precisely because of the counsels of Christ and St. Paul above, and many have freely chosen celibacy for the kingdom of heaven. (cf. CCC 1580)

Also, by responding to their vocation from God to celibacy, priests participate in a foretaste of the joy of resurrection in which we neither marry nor or given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven. (Matthew 22:30 NAB; cf. Mk 12:18-25, Lk 20:27-36) Their lives of celibacy thus become a reminder of Christ's pledge of resurrection for all those who place their faith in Him; i.e.

When the call to continence for the kingdom of heaven finds an echo in the human soul, in the conditions of this temporal life, that is, in the conditions in which persons usually "marry and are given in marriage" (Lk 20:34), it is not difficult to perceive there a particular sensitiveness of the human spirit. Already in the conditions of the present temporal life this seems to anticipate what man will share in, in the future resurrection. (John Paul II, Theology of the Body, p. 262)

REFERENCES

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. The New American Bible, (Iowa Falls: IA, World Bible Publishers Inc. 1991).

John Paul II. Theology of the Body - Human Love in the Divine Plan, (Boston, MA: Pauline Books and Media, 1997.)

Answer 5

At the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.

From the Councils Canons:

The great Synod has stringently forbidden any bishop, presbyter, deacon, or any one of the clergy whatever, to have a subintroducta* dwelling with him, except only a mother, or sister, or aunt, or such persons only as are beyond all suspicion (Canon 3)

* A female

Answer 6

The Catholic church even very early after the resurrection of the Christ, believed that to follow Him was to be a good priest. One of the things that they believed, or at least wanted others to believe, was that Jesus never married, and had no kids, and did not fool around with other women, as demanded by His own words.

Answer 7

In AD 304. Canon 33 of the Council of Elvira stated that all"bishops, presbyters, and deacons and all other clerics" were to"abstain completely from their wives and not to have children."

The practice of priestly celibacy began to spread in the Western Church in the early Middle Ages. In the early 11th century Pope Benedict VIII responded to the decline in priestly morality by issuing a rule prohibiting the children of priests from inheriting property. A few decades later Pope Gregory VII issued a decree against clerical marriages.

The Church was a thousand years old before it definitively took a stand in favor of celibacy in the twelfth century at the Second Lateran Council held in 1139, when a rule was approved forbidding priests to marry. In 1563, the Council of Trent reaffirmed the tradition of celibacy.

Answer 8

Celibacy did not become an official requirement until the 12th century. Many of the early popes were married and some of their sons even became popes. The original purpose of the vow of celibacy for the priesthood was to ensure that property remained with the Church and was not inherited by a priest's children.
Nowadays, the reasons are to allow a priest to concentrate his entire efforts on pastoral duties and to show commitment to God alone.

Answer 9

because the must follow Christ for every thing