Does Anything Good Come From Celibacy?

Vocation Awareness

          Other Christian denominations can’t understand it, Catholics are often bewildered by it, and yet celibacy remains as the norm for the priesthood and religious life.  In this article I hope to give you some positive benefits to the church for such a practice.      

          First, however, you need to know that celibacy has played a large role in the history of many of the great religions.  For other religions celibacy is most closely connected with asceticism which is a practice of self restraint from worldly desires to live a more peaceful, holy, and simple life.  Although celibacy has never been a norm for our older Jewish brothers, at the time of Christ, the Essene sect was a monastic community of Jewish men that practiced celibacy and ritual baptisms in order to remain in a purified state of holiness with God.  Today, both Jews and Christians alike are blessed with the scribes of Essene community who have left us with the oldest known Hebrew Scripture text as well as other writings such as their prayers, practices, rituals and culture.  Hinduism has always looked favorably upon celibacy because it helps bring a detachment from this world and is considered a means to bliss or enlightenment.  Mahatma Ghandi, who helped lead India to Independence in 1947 after a lifetime of peaceful demonstrations, was a Hindu who accepted the vow of celibacy in 1906 at the age of 37 even though he was married and had children.  Most recently in the headline news has been the scene of thousands of celibate Buddhist monks in Burma who have been leading the protest in the streets for better living conditions and freedoms toward democracy.  So if other cultures and religions can see the good of celibacy then why is our own culture so baffled by it?

          While I think that Americans can see the good of living an ascetic, simple life, the choice of a lifetime vow of celibacy just seems to go too far.  They would be right if there was no meaning to celibacy, but celibacy has been full of meaning throughout the Church’s history.  In speaking in the terms of celibacy Jesus said that some “have renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of God” (Mt 19:12).  St. Paul, in reference to his own celibate state in life writes “Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am” (1 Cor. 7:7) and later he speaks in a rather humorous tone about the those who choose to marry, saying, “If you marry, however, you do not sin…but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life and I would like to spare you that.” (1 Cor. 7:28) Okay married people, admit it, marriage has its moments too!  Jesus chose a celibate life to be able to give himself over completely to the Father as a holy sacrifice and to devote himself completely to the salvation of mankind through his ministry.  So, celibacy, in our Christian tradition, really gains its value in Christ himself.  Meanwhile, many Church opponents want to see celibacy washed away with the next ocean tide.  But they are stuck in the narrow view that celibacy for the priesthood was mandated in the middle ages to protect the Church’s property and heritage, and that celibacy is therefore no longer needed.  This is very misleading because celibacy was embraced by Christ himself and was clearly a part of the Christian leadership since the beginning with leaders like St. Paul (the Council at Carthage in 390, for example, states that continence (no sexual activity) was embraced by the apostles and should therefore be the norm for all church leaders).  Should we not be elated that our Church has decided that its leadership, imitating Christ, must embrace vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience as the normal way to better assure a holy governance?  Many protestant pastors have told me that there is a lot to be valued by the Catholic Church’s position on this matter.

          As a priest I enjoy living in the Church’s requirement of celibacy for the priesthood and religious life.  It was a choice in life that I made.  I felt God calling me to the priesthood and I knew that our Lord always graces us with every blessing that we need in order to accomplish whatever he asks us to do.  The choice of celibacy has brought me great stability, freedom from the destructive forces of a hyper sexed culture, and a happiness of giving myself fully to Christ in service to his people.  People usually don’t know why they are attracted to their local priest, brother or sister, but somehow, by God’s grace, our free choice of celibacy helps us to connect on a deep spiritual life with people in their everyday struggles.  I view the celibate religious life as a great complement to the entire Christian community.  Since our natural state in life as we enter adulthood is the single life, parents should be supportive and even overjoyed when their son or daughter speaks about considering the religious life, remaining as they are, in order to imitate and more visible proclaim the salvation of Christ to the world.