Why Don't Catholic Priests Get Married? (Special Podcast Highlight)
The Patrick Madrid Show
Relevant Radio
4.8 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2023
⏱️ 8 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
Why don't Catholic priests get married, and is it true that a married man could be ordained a priest? Could the Catholic Church's rule of priestly celibacy ever be changed?
Patrick clarifies that priestly celibacy is a discipline, not a doctrine, which means it is a custom that could potentially change in the future. He explains that in other rites of the Catholic Church, such as the Eastern Rites, married priests are permitted.
To understand the basis for priestly celibacy, Patrick refers to Jesus' teachings in Matthew chapter 19. Jesus discusses marriage and consecrated celibacy, stating that not all individuals are called to celibacy but only those to whom it is given. Jesus presents celibacy as a higher calling for those who are willing to make themselves "eunuchs" for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
Patrick emphasizes that the discipline of celibacy in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church developed over time to align the priesthood with the example of Jesus, who was celibate and universally available to all. He also mentions that St. Paul encouraged singleness for the purpose of dedicating oneself wholeheartedly to the kingdom.
Finally, he recommends a resource called "Celibacy and the Priesthood," which is an audio conversation he had with a married Catholic priest, discussing the topic in more depth.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Let's go to Mary now in Texas. |
| 0:02.9 | I have people asking me all the time, why can't your priest marry? |
| 0:07.5 | You know, in other religions, the pastors, they're all married, all that. |
| 0:11.0 | I think I know why, but I have a hard time explaining this to people. |
| 0:15.1 | Yeah, the first thing to know is that the discipline of celibacy in the Latin right of the Catholic Church is not a doctrine. |
| 0:25.8 | It's not where the church says the teaching is that priests can't get married. |
| 0:29.7 | Rather, the custom is that priests can't get married. |
| 0:34.7 | Now, that's the first thing to remember. |
| 0:36.9 | This is a custom, a discipline, |
| 0:39.3 | therefore, unlike a doctrine that can't be changed, this could, in theory, be changed. It could |
| 0:45.4 | happen that a pope could say, we are now going to permit married men to become priests in the Latin |
| 0:53.1 | right. There are other rights of the Catholic Church |
| 0:55.8 | in which this is common. So the Eastern Rights of the Catholic Church, especially in other countries, |
| 1:01.5 | you will find married Catholic priests. In the Eastern Orthodox churches, this is also the case. |
| 1:08.0 | You'll find married Orthodox priests. So knowing that it's a custom and a |
| 1:12.6 | discipline and that it could change is a way to approach the topic so that you don't think that |
| 1:18.2 | this is something that could never change. Now the next thing to know is that Jesus did give a |
| 1:25.5 | teaching on the issue of consecrated celibacy, which you can read in Matthew |
| 1:30.5 | chapter 19. So you want to begin reading in verse one to get the context. So he's being asked about |
| 1:36.2 | divorce. And as he describes marriage, he says, have you not read that he who made them from the |
| 1:42.6 | beginning made the male and female |
| 1:44.2 | and said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, |
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