Catholic Scandals: A Crisis for Celibacy?

Touchstone Magazine ^ | March/April, 2002 | Leon J. Podles, Ph. D.

[neocon]

I haven't read his book, but centuries?

I haven't read the book, either, but I seem to recall a review of it published the New Oxford Review. If memory serves, and it may not, the book's thesis is that the effeminization of the Church is traceble to an exaggerated emphasis on Her role as the Bride of Christ, especially as it appears in certain writings of St. Bernard of Clairveaux. That would justify the "centuries" comment. But I'm skeptical that this notion is actually supportable, for St. Bernard, the great advocate of Cistercian ascetical practice and spirituality who favored the Crusades, can hardly be fairly characterized as "soft".

[Askel5]

You just know that these scandalous priests could not have been faithful in saying their Office, for example. It is impossible to maintain an active prayer life and indulge in such heinous sins at the same time.

Being in love does monopolize a person.

Got a package from South Bend today. Started E. Michael Jones's "Libido Domini ... Sexual Liberation and Political Control" at the bus stop after Mass. Intense.

But Mr. B needs a walk. More later.

[Romulus]

The only point missing that I can think of the eschatological witness of celibacy,

I've been turning this over in my head for some time now. There's no marriage in heaven, while priesthood is forever. Why?

Perhaps the purely temporal nature of marriage is a theological clue. I don't have an answer just yet, but I wonder if it has something to do with the husband-headed family as micro-ekklesia.

What the Church needs most of all just now is mystics.

[neocon]

As you know, I'm quite keen on Jones, but the book you mention is news to me. It sounds like a natural development of the themes from Degenerate Moderns, Dionysus Rising, and Living Machines. I'll have to pick it up.

I still haven't been able to shake this nasty cold, and I have a lot of cantoring/choir duties in the next few days. After that I've got to do my taxes. So I probably won't have time to look at FR until Monday. Also, I won't be able to get back to work on the Quantum Measurement section of my paper for at least a week. Feel free to put up the stuff I've got so far, and I'll fill in the missing sections as soon as I can. I can do a conversion to HTML for you if it would help.

I'm also looking forward to seeing patent's presentation on the topic of this thread.

My best to Mr. B!

[neocon]

What the Church needs most of all just now is mystics.

Or at least metaphysicians!

I think you are onto something interesting with your micro-ecclesia idea. The psalm verse "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" figures in the rite of ordination, as do St. Paul's reflections on Christ prefigured by Melchizedek.

But what I had in mind when I mentioned eschatological witness of celibacy is that, as some of the Fathers put it, the Resurrection ushered in the End Times, that we are now living in the Eighth "Day" of Creation. (Authentic dipensationalism.) Celibacy says to the world that temporal and material concerns, such as those associated with raising a family, are of secondary importance to the spiritual event which is on the horizon.

That is, we are not to live just for ourselves, nor concern ourselves inordinately with what the world considers valuable, but we are to live in the communion of saints, which is not sundered even by death. Our life here on earth is to be lived in anticipation of our life to come. So, the celibate anticipates with his or her very life the heavenly kingdom in which there will no marrying or giving in marriage.

[tiki]

Until tonight our priest had never mentioned the scandal from the pulpit. Tonight the Mass intention was for all priests, living and dead and at the end of Mass he read a letter from the bishop about the scandal. The letter said that we had strict policy concerning sexual abuse and that in this diocese that no priest had ever been prosecuted nor have they ever made a settlement. The rest of the letter was about the faith and it was very unplifting.

I just hope and pray that good will come of this evil and that Catholics, at least will remember that there are a whole lot more faithful and faith-filled priests serving the Church than there are bad ones. We need to always remember to pray for them.

[Romulus]

I've just made a brief tour through the doctrinal index of my copy of Jurgens's The Faith of the Early Fathers.

Tertullian asserts that second marriages should be eschewed by the laity because they're forbidden to the priesthood. Furthermore, he asserts that of the Apostles, only Peter was married.

Eusebius preserves a fragment of a letter by Polycrates to Pope Victor (c. 190) in which the author asserts that Philip had three daughters, who remained virgins.

The Council of Elvira, ca. 300 (canon 33) states bluntly that married clergy "are to restrain themselves completely and are to keep away from their wives and are not to beget children."

The council of Arles, ca. 314 (canon 1) states that the presbyter that marries is to be "removed from the ranks."

Basil (letter to Amphilochius) bluntly refers to the marital relations of "clerical persons" as fornications, asserting that "their union must certainly be broken."

Epiphanius of Salamis (ca. 374) states that the ecclesistical canons unambiguously prohibit the ordination of men not continent from their wives.

Jerome (letter to Pammachius, 392) states that "persons chosen to be bishops, presbyters, or deacons are either virgins or widowers; or certainly, having once received the priesthood, they remain forever chaste."

Leo I (letter to Rusticus, ca. 458) states as an accepted fact that married laymen or lectors might marry and be subsequently ordained or consecrated as bishop, but "what before was lawful ceased to be such. In order, therefore, that their marriages may become spiritual rather than carnal, it behooves them not to dismiss their wives, but to 'have them as if they had them not'; and this way, while they retain the affection of their wives, their marital relations will cease."

Finally Gregory I writes to Peter, a subdeacon in Sicily: "Three years ago the subdeacons of all the churches in Sicily, in accordance with the custom of the Roman Church, were forbidden all conjugal intercourse with their wives. But it appears to me hard and improper that one who has not been accustomed to such continency, and has not previously promised chastity, should be compelled to separate himself from his wife, and thereby (which God forbid) fall into what is worse. Hence it seems good to me that from the present day all bishops should be told not to presume to make any one a subdeacon who does not promise to live chastely; that so what was not of set purpose desired in the past may not be forcibly required, but that cautious provision may be made for the future. But those who since the prohibition of three years ago have lived continently with their wives are to be praised and rewarded, and exhorted to continue in their good way. But, as for those who since the prohibition have been unwilling to abstain from intercourse with their wives, we desire them not to be advanced to a sacred order; since no one ought to approach the ministry of the altar but one who has been of approved chastity before undertaking the ministry."

[Romulus]

we are now living in the Eighth "Day"

You probably know this is the reason that free-standing baptistries in the first millennium were typically octagonal in design.

[neocon]

That's very likely, especially as Baptism is a symbolic drowning - a death to the life of world - followed by a rising to new life in Christ.

As I understand it, certain churches (Romanesque?) built to house important relics were also commonly octagonal in design.

The chapel at Mt. Savior Monastery in Elmira, NY is designed as cruciform (equal-arm) with an octagonal transept, deliberately, to bring to mind the Eighth "Day".

Finally, of course, the concept demonstrates that the early Church did not subscribe to a literal interpretation of Genesis, but that's a topic for another day.

[neocon]

Meant to add after the first sentence of #49: "Thus Baptism is seen as a transition from the Seventh to the Eighth 'Day'". Got to get some sleep....

[Jeff Chandler]

This article touches upon an issue to which I have given quite a bit of thought. It involves the difference between men and woman, and the way they deal with discipline. In general, woman are warm, compassionate, and nurturing. Men are strong and protective. That is why it is so important that a child have both a mommy and a daddy-to strike that balance. A large part of the American bishops, and many of the clergy have gone the way of the liberal clergy of other denominations. They are ultra-compassionate. They are extremely caring. They are nurturing and therapeutic. In other words, they are WOMANLY. I don't mean they are effeminate-that is a whole 'nother story. I mean that when they view a homicidal killer on death row, they feel compassion, like a mother would. When confronted with the evil of communism, they urged unilateral disarmament, like a teenage girl would. When saddled with the responsibility of determining the fate of a predatory homosexual exploiter priest, their hearts tell them to give the poor unfortunate another chance, where a male sensibility would demand the axe.

Mothers are incredible, indispensible creatures. They don't make good Catholic bishops.

[Romulus]

As I understand it, certain churches (Romanesque?) built to house important relics were also commonly octagonal in design.

Martyria were frequently of centralised design, and vice versa. Though this may have had something to do with a cultural memory of circular pagan tumuli, the centralised design also lent itself to theological interpretation, as you've already indicated.

[Romulus]

I think we can agree that the bishops need to take discipline more seriously. But as for your comments about mercy and compassion as being peculiarly feminine, I can't agree. The entire point of Christianity is that man is redeemed through unmerited grace. Paul makes quite clear that with the coming of the Kingdom, man's relationship to the Law is utterly changed. In the Kingdom, sin is wrong not because by the transgression of a moral code we can somehow offend the honor of God; it's wrong because by sinning we alienate ourselves from God and ultimately from life, in an act of existential suicide. This is not to dismiss the manly virtue of self-discipline; it's simply to remind you that self-discipline is only a means to an end, not the end itself.

As for unilateral disarmament, you're just mistaken. The Church works for authentic peace, but has never been pacifist. She has always recognised the right to self-defense, as a natural corollary of both the prohibition against killing and the duty in charity to protect the defenseless. The Church does prohibit indiscriminate killing, and for this reason she considers weapons of mass destruction to be illicit, as it's impossible to confine their use to lawful military targets.

[saradippity]

I am sick and tired of people pronouncing authoritatively "Peter had a wife". It is particularly offensive from the lips of people who consider themselves to be strict scripturalists and Christians of integrity.The most that anyone could say if they were honest is that "Peter was married before he was chosen by Jesua to be an apostle.No one can be sure that she did not die before he was selected.We do know his mother-in-law was still alive because Jesus healed her".

Joathome,if you were interpreting scripture yourself,then I am sorry for you because you interjected your wishful thinking into your interpretationn and present as truth. It is not.If you learned it in your Bible class from the leader or a fellow student you must go back and correct them. Or,if it was preached from the pulpit then you are listening to "false teachers" and you better get out of that place before you become tainted.

[Jeff Chandler]

Of course mercy and compassion are not exclusively feminine traits. It's the emphasis on those qualities at the expense of the fatherly traits of protectiveness and "tough" love that I observe. The results are self-eveident.

[Jeff Chandler]

The Church works for authentic peace, but has never been pacifist

I am refering to the AMERICAN Catholic bishops and their apparent moral relativistic approach to the cold war. I was in total agreement with them, but, unfortunately, we were proved wrong.

[Jeff Chandler]

But as for your comments about mercy and compassion as being peculiarly feminine, I can't agree. The entire point of Christianity is that man is redeemed through unmerited grace. Paul makes quite clear that with the coming of the Kingdom, man's relationship to the Law is utterly changed. In the Kingdom, sin is wrong not because by the transgression of a moral code we can somehow offend the honor of God; it's wrong because by sinning we alienate ourselves from God and ultimately from life, in an act of existential suicide. This is not to dismiss the manly virtue of self-discipline; it's simply to remind you that self-discipline is only a means to an end, not the end itself.

Giving second chances to buggerers of little boys profanes the concepts of mercy and compassion.

[DaveTesla]

What does this have to do with the protestant's??
The protestants can run their church the way they see fit.
This is a Dogma of the Catholic Church.
The issue here is the infiltration of the Church by homoseluals and pagens.

[Tuor]

Furthermore, he asserts that of the Apostles, only Peter was married.

Peter was married. End of story, as far as I'm concerned.

Also, I don't recall Jesus telling anyone they couldn't marry, but perhaps I just missed it.

As for having a 'divided heart' due to being in love with a woman: for most people, the breathless, single-minded state called 'being in love' doesn't last very long before being replaced by a deeper, quieter sort of love (or so I've heard). Secondly, perhaps, just perhaps, loving someone deeply helps you learn to love *other* things more easily; that's what I believe, anyway.

Tuor

[cornelis]

Touchstone, btw, bills itself as a journal of "Mere Christianity", so its outlook is largely Protestant

But this is not the case. If anything, there's the orthodox. Editors Kushiner and Reardon are at All Saints Antiochian Orthodox in Chicago.