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Celibacy Is Very Sensitive Issue Nowadays Because Lots of Priests Decide To

Celibacy is a commitment made by Catholic priests to not marry, in order to dedicate themselves fully to serving God and the Church. While celibacy has been a tradition in the Western Church, Eastern rites allow married men to become priests. In both traditions, priests do not marry after ordination. Theologically, celibacy allows priests to model Christ more closely in their devotion and service. Canonically, priests in religious orders take vows of celibacy, while diocesan priests make a promise, and Church law invalidates any marriage by an ordained person.

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17 views

Celibacy Is Very Sensitive Issue Nowadays Because Lots of Priests Decide To

Celibacy is a commitment made by Catholic priests to not marry, in order to dedicate themselves fully to serving God and the Church. While celibacy has been a tradition in the Western Church, Eastern rites allow married men to become priests. In both traditions, priests do not marry after ordination. Theologically, celibacy allows priests to model Christ more closely in their devotion and service. Canonically, priests in religious orders take vows of celibacy, while diocesan priests make a promise, and Church law invalidates any marriage by an ordained person.

Uploaded by

Portia Ignacio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Celibacy is very sensitive issue nowadays because lots of priests decide to

get married. Celibacy is considered an important part of the priesthood as a


sign of commitment to God and service. It is often misunderstood and it is
the commitment not to marry. Priest as Christ figures when priest offer a
mass he is representing Christ. Spiritual fatherhood through celibacy
priests give themselves over wholly to the service God and his church just
as a father is uniquely to his children so also the priest should be dedicated
to his parishioner. Like in the church, the priest should follow the rules of
the church while us, we should also follow the laws given by our leaders.

Celibacy is the renunciation of marriage implicitly or explicitly made, for the


more perfect observance of chastity, by all those who receive
the Sacrament of Orders in any of the higher grades. The character of
this renunciation, as we shall see, is differently understood in
the Eastern and in the Western Church. Speaking, for the moment, only
of Western Christendom, the candidates for orders are solemnly warned by
the bishop at the beginning of the ceremony regarding the gravity of
the obligation which they are incurring. Celibacy is a freely chosen
dynamic state, usually vowed, that involves an honest and sustained
attempt to live without direct sexual gratification in order to serve others
productively for a spiritual motive

In the Eastern rites of the Church it is common for married men to be


ordained to the priesthood. Further, in the Latin rite there are a few married
men, converted ministers from other faiths, who are ordained to the
Catholic priesthood. This, however, is not common. Finally, in neither the
Latin rite nor the Eastern rites do priests (or deacons) marry after they have
been ordained, except in extraordinary circumstances.

The reasons Latin rite priests can’t marry is both theological and canonical.

It is Theologically, it may be pointed out that priests serve in the place of


Christ and therefore, their ministry specially configures them to Christ. By
remaining celibate and devoting themselves to the service of the Church,
priests more closely model, configure themselves to, and consecrate
themselves to Christ.
It is Canonically, because First, priests who belong to religious orders
take vows of celibacy. Second, while diocesan priests do not take vows,
they do make a promise of celibacy.

Third, the Church has established impediments that block the validity of
marriages attempted by those who have been ordained. Canon 1087
states: "Persons who are in holy orders invalidly attempt marriage."

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