When it comes to apologetics, the topic of priestly celibacy seems to be among the most widely misunderstood practices of the Church. The following exchanges are based on actual questions I have received (slightly paraphrased):

1.) Everyone is unique. Everyone has unique desires.

Indeed. That’s why St. Paul says that men should “lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him” (1 Cor 7:17, RSV). Latin rite Catholicism chooses its priests from the group of men who are called by God to celibacy (1 Cor 7:32-35). Paul describes marriage as doing “well” (7:38) and celibacy as “better” (7:38). Latin rite Catholicism prefers the Pauline “better” state for its priests.

Moreover, the celibacy requirement is applied only to a very tiny number of all humanity (and of all Catholics) who wish to become priests in the Latin rite: those who are already called to celibacy and the priesthood by God.

2.) It is said that St. Peter had a wife.

Yes he did. And it’s written that St. Paul and Jesus didn’t.

3.) I feel that celibacy is unnatural.

For you and I it is, but not for all men, as Jesus said (Matthew 19:10-12). Those who say this err in extrapolating merely their own opinion and feelings to the entire human race. Not everyone has to (or wants to) be like you. Let priests follow their calling from God.

4.) A priest can’t be married because he is unable to attend to his flock?

It’s not an absolute; it’s simply a matter of practicality and wisdom. Priests should have no divided interest, as Paul notes (1 Cor 7:28, 32-35).

5.) How is it explained when the Church sometimes accepts married clergy as converts?

By the saying, “there’s always an exception to the rule.”

6.) If a young priest meets a beautiful woman at a church function and falls madly in love, how does he proceed?

He gets away from her and prays for strength to resist temptations that might lead to what is contrary to morality and his vows.

7.) Psychologically, it may be damaging for him to remain celibate.

In extreme cases, he can be released from his priestly duties and “laicized.” One doesn’t construct rules and policies (or decide against them) based on hard cases or extreme cases. We don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.

8.) If there are married priests in Eastern Catholicism, then the Western assertion that celibacy is better for priests is so much “sound and fury signifying nothing.” The Eastern Church would in that case be a scandal to the rest of the Church, by failing to follow the biblical and Pauline ideal.

This doesn’t follow at all. Priestly celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma, and can change, and did change in the Latin rite. It simply didn’t change in Eastern Catholicism. Western Catholicism believes, following Paul, that sacrificial renunciation of sex and marriage is a heroic sanctity (in our priests).

Eastern Catholicism has simply chosen not to make that a requirement for her priests (just as the West used to not do so). It believes, also following Paul (1 Tim 3:2) that priests can be married, like bishops (in Paul’s time) could be. That’s not a “scandal” or inconsistency at all. It’s simply a disciplinary choice that is different from Latin Catholicism. But even in the East, celibacy of bishops is required, so the same principle as the West is acknowledged, but in a more limited way.

People so often think in rigid either/or categories. “If marriage is good, then celibacy must be bad” or “if celibacy is the ideal, then marriage must be bad, and sex wicked and evil.” None of that is the scriptural or Catholic view. Again, Paul describes marriage and singleness as “well” and “better”: not “bad” and “good” or vice versa.

The Catholic Church is big enough to have disciplinary and liturgical diversity without having to play the game of assuming that one way must be superior to the other. East and West prefer different liturgies; likewise, they apply different disciplines regarding priestly requirements.



Dave Armstrong has been a published Catholic apologist since 1993. Dave has written or edited 48 books on apologetics, including several bestsellers. If you’d like to help keep his influential teaching apostolate going as a much-needed monthly supporter, write to Dave at [email protected].