Married Men as Priests - a "Liberal" Theological Issue?

http://hilariuspictaviensis.blogspot.com/2008/06/contra-dicta.html

I posted this this morning (it has not as of yet been approved...I wonder if it will be posted at all!). I thought that I would post it and invite comments.

My concern over the years as an Eastern Catholic has been how often heterodox, generally left-leaning activist Catholics attempt to argue for married priests as if it were a "golden chain" associated with the ordination of women, a cure for the pedophilia/pedastry issue, the restoration of men who have left their ministry for marriage, and generally dissident views on the papacy. Many "conservative" tradition minded Catholics accept at face value such an association, and I have seen and read them argue such a position. The fact remains that a married priesthood in the East is a venerable tradition that does not and should not be associated with such things.

One Byzantine's Response to the Response:

First of all let me say express my "kudos" to Father David in addressing these issues and offering such a well argued - yet very respectful - response to the very convoluted petition made by a number of priests recently requesting, among other sundry things, the abolition of celibacy. Father David's brilliant and faithful treatment of questions 4-8 were especially insightful, and as I have mentioned here before, I am indignant when various Catholic dissenters lump married men in the priesthood (a venerable practice, in both the East and in a limited way the West) with women priests, the issues of pedophilia and pedastry, the restoration of men to the priesthood who have abandoned their vocation to enter the married state, the general question of the pastoral and magisterial authority of the Pope and Bishops, etc etc..

Secondly, I thought that I would offer one man's response to a few of the items as a faithful Eastern Christian and married clergyman (deacon) in full communion with the Holy See.

Fr. David's #1:
Affirm my wholehearted support for the ancient practice of celibacy for the presbyterate in the life of the Church.

My Byzantine Response:
I wholeheartedly concur with this and support the ancient practice of celibacy for presbyters so long as one understands that celibacy was not universally mandated throughout the first 1000 years of Church history and that varying degrees of voluntary continence were practiced by both clergy and laity in regards to the reception of the Sacred Mysteries. The ancient practice certainly did dictate that no new marriage could be blessed after receiving orders and that any man in orders whose wife died would be required to live as a member of the celibate clergy. (Again, the requirement extended to all bishops, priests and deacons.)

To affirm an ancient and venerable practice is also a very praiseworthy thing, so long as one acknowledges that there are many ancient and venerable practices which we do not currently practice - nor should we endeavor to revive. The Church's living magisterium is a sure guide to the proper interpretation and application of traditional practices. And recent teachings of the magisterium on this topic, both conciliar and papal, have affirmed the permanent value of the Western disciplines pertaining to priestly celibacy while at the same time affirming the Eastern practice and disciplines of a married priesthood as praiseworthy and venerable.

Bravo to Father David, though, for debunking the whole canard about any connection between the vocation to celibacy and pedophilia, pedastry, or any other form of sexual deviancy. The purpose of married love is certainly not to provide an avenue for channelling any dysfunctional or aberrant sexual desires. And many deviants are married men.

What is more, one of the great unspoken issues associated with married clergy (even in Orthodoxy) is that of the question/scandal of divorce among the clergy. Certainly one helpful preventative measure for that is to refrain from ordaining married men to the presbyterate who have been married for less than 15 years. (5-10 years for diaconate) The notion of laying hands on a young, newly married 20-something who will then serve as an "elder" in the community while at the same time experiencing all of the joys, challenges and vicissitudes of married life in the fish bowl of parish life is just absurd and dangerous. Yet this is what both the Orthodox and the Anglicans (and some Eastern Catholics) do. A better approach would be to restore the proper place of minor orders to Church life, so that if a married man desires to serve the Church in an official capacity and possibly enter the path to diaconate and priesthood, he can do so in various stages of increasing responsibility.

Fr. David's #2:
Affirm my wholehearted support for the maintenance of clerical celibacy as a necessary sign to the world of the priority of the Kingdom of God and the call of Jesus, of love for Him and for His Church over other earthly ties.

My Byzantine Response:
Celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom IS a necessary sign of the Church's eschatological vocation. Any Christian, Eastern or Western, who would question the value of such a call has to answer to Jesus Christ and St. Paul.

Generally in the East the celibate call finds its highest expression in the "angelic life" of monasticism. It is usually from this pool of "earthly angels" and "heavenly men" that our hierachs are drawn. (Would that they - and we -always lived up to such ideals in every respect!)

I take issue with Fr. David's assertion here, however: "The Tradition of the Church has always been that once ordained a man was no longer free to be married." It would be more accurate to say that the a man was no longer free to "marry". Since the Tradition of the Church also affirms the indissolubility of the covenant of marriage, any married man who is ordained does not find his sacramental vocation to marriage rescinded, although a couple can voluntarily choose not express their married love in a sexual way after the husband's ordination.

Father David's #3:
Affirm my support for celibacy not just as a discipline but as a practice grounded in the example of the Lord Himself, as a way of life that expresses the heart of the priesthood as a complete self-giving for the Church, as Christ gave Himself totally for His one bride - and so affirm that there are good doctrinal and theological reasons for this practice.

My Byzantine Response:
Again, I do not take issue in any way with any assertion that the celibate state is better suited in some respects for the demands that come with the exercise of the priestly vocation. That said, marriage (and sexual union) is also an eschatological sign of Christ's love for His Bride and the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. A married man who is a deacon or priest has the challenge of balancing the need/desire to please and provide for his wife and family, as well as serving his congregation. (I know this as a married deacon with three children serving with a priest who has five children.) Relinquishing the opportunity to marry for the sake of the kingdom is an heroic ideal that must always be upheld and affirmed. However, and this has been affirmed by the Magisterium, there is no intrinsic theological connection between the presbyterate and the call to celibacy. Were such an intrinsic theological connection to exist, both the Pastoral Provision and the magisterially affirmed Eastern disciplines would and should be regarded as aberrations and distortions, disfigurements of Holy Tradition. (One could even view a married diaconate in the same light.) Of course, that is not at all how they are viewed, but rather quite the opposite. I think one must be careful not to assert more than what the Church in fact asserts in these matters, however praiseworthy the ideal and the desire to uphold it.

Regarding the so-called "two-tiered" system of priesthood in the East, there is no question that the East (Orthodox and Catholic) affirms the apostolic teaching of the fullness of Holy Orders residing in the episcopate and that candidates for bishop are drawn solely from those priests who are monastics or celibates. Celibacy for the sake of the kingdom is the apostolic ideal. No question about it.

But at the risk of putting too fine a point on this, "So what?" Celibacy is the ideal for any baptized Christian, as asserted by St. Paul himself! And in the Eastern Church there is no sense of any "two tiered" system. Celibates are not somehow viewed as "superior" because they could one day be bishops, and the marrieds are not seen as some sort of tolerated underclass who could never attain to the fullness of Holy Orders. (Poor them!) Apart from the fact that anyone who would desire the role of bishop should probably be sent off for psychological evaluations, the apostolic structure of orders is that of an inverted pyramid. The one who leads is the one who serves, with the Pope as the Servant of the Servants of God. Everyone understands that the call to episcopal ministry is a call to a more radical form of apostleship that requires a man to be free from the obligations of the married state.

One further point: the Latin Church has a horde of married deacons - men in apostolic succession as affirmed by the magisterium of the Church - who live fully and worthily as married men. They are husbands, fathers, grandfathers, etc etc. Are they somehow less "apostolic" because they are not required to observe celibacy? Let us not forget that the bishop of a diocese/eparchy is the true pastor of every parish. His deacons and presbyters are like the "two hands" of the Bishop who must serve the Church together, each exercising his own unique expression of the Bishop's apostolic fatherhood. There is nothing out of order in the notion of two married men in apostolic succession, one a priest and the other a deacon, serving a celibate bishop as his delegates.

As to the question of periodic continence before receiving the Eucharist, as I mentioned earlier, such things were also practiced by the laity according to the "ancient discipline". Are we to seek to revive such things as well? Again, I would rather let the Church's magisterium be my guide in these matters.

All in all, I think Fr. David does a very praiseworthy job of affirming many of the ideals of the Church and apostolic life, as well as the Church's authentic doctrinal teachings. I tip my kalymmavchion to him and offer my humble diaconal prayers for him and his priesthood in Christ - God grant him many years!

In ICXC,

Fr. Deacon Daniel