Once again we hear from the highest circles of power in the
Church of the possibility of ordaining married men to the priesthood. But this time, what is being talked about is
not men in “special circumstances” but in general. I was able and gratuitously blessed to be
ordained a Catholic priest while married because of a special Pastoral
Provision instituted by Saint John Paul II in 1982 that gave permission for
married Episcopal priests who had left the Episcopal Church because of reasons
of conscience to be considered for the Catholic priesthood. For me these reasons for leaving Anglicanism included
the ordination of women priests and women bishops and the rapidly accelerating
cutting of ties to Christian orthodoxy.
The recent formation of the Anglican Ordinariate is the result of a
similar situation where Anglican priests who want to be in full Communion with
the Catholic Church are given this special privilege and grace.
But what is being contemplated now at the highest levels of
the Church is to allow married priests as a general rule. Those who are pushing this say they are doing
so because of the severe shortage of priests in certain areas of the world,
i.e. those areas associated with the “West”. Of course, they never ask the question of why
there are so few men being called to the priesthood (except those who have a
love of the Tradition). So their solution is to ordain “viri probati”, married
men who are good examples of what it means to be a Catholic man. In this pontificate one must be cautious
about reacting negatively to every trial balloon that rises over Casa Santa
Marta. But this trial balloon if
blossomed into a luxury aircraft would open up the priesthood to a radical
reformulation that would deny the understanding of the priesthood in Catholic
Tradition.
It is certainly true that St Peter was married. The Gospels tell us about the healing of his
mother-in-law. But that certainly is no
basis for an abandonment of the celibate priesthood. We never hear about Peter’s wife or family.
It is not a part of the Gospel message. We do know that Peter abandoned
everything and became a “fisher of men”.
Priestly celibacy is part of the development of the doctrine of the
priesthood, a development that begins as early as the fourth century in the
West. It is also true that priestly
celibacy was not always enforced in the history of the Church, but priests
living with women and fathering children was never understood as the norm or
ideal. Nor did this situation lead to a
rethinking of clerical celibacy. In fact
the great reformers of the Church of every age did all that they could to
enforce clerical celibacy, and they did so because of celibacy’s relationship
to the celibacy of Christ himself, and specifically to Christ as the High
Priest. Although married men are allowed
to be priests in the Eastern Churches, their situation is quite different from
the Catholic priest. And, significantly,
both in the East and West, all bishops, who have the fullness of priesthood, are required to be celibate.
Those who are advocating this change have little experience
in living a typical and normal life as husband and father. They are part of a clerical system that lives
in an unreal world, where celibacy is lived as being “unmarried” and gives one
freedom to do what one wants to do when wants to do it and have too many long
dinners on the Borgo Pio. That behavior
is impossible in a marriage. There is no
doubt that this call for married priests is a result, at least partially, of
the deliberate misunderstanding of what “priest” means. And this misunderstanding is one of the
results of fifty years of the Mass of Paul VI and how it is commonly celebrated
that has made our people forget that the heart of the priesthood is to offer
the Sacrifice of the Mass, that he stands there in persona Christi, in the person of Christ himself, to offer up
the Sacrifice of the Cross that is re-presented at every Mass. It is no accident that the post-Vatican II
terminology for the one who celebrates Mass is not priest but rather “celebrant”
or “officiant” or that awful Orwellian word “presider”. Cardinal Sarah said
recently that he believes that the great majority of priests and bishops have
forgotten or do not know that the Mass is a Sacrifice, in and of itself, and that
the function of the priest, is to offer that Sacrifice. Now this does not mean that a married man
cannot offer the Sacrifice. But what it
does mean is that the Tradition of celibate priests is consonant in the deepest
way with the person of Christ who offered Himself totally and completely on the
Cross.
But what is even more disturbing about this latest trial
balloon, which may morph into a gas filled dirigible( would that it met the
fate of the Hindenberg without loss of life!),
is that it seems that the ‘60s gang who caused so much damage to the
Church in the liturgy and the priesthood are hell bent on becoming like the
main stream Protestant denominations that have abandoned orthodox Christianity
in favor of a “live and let live” attitude covered by a veneer of
religiosity. There is no direct link
between allowing “viri probati” to be ordained priests and allowing women
priests and women bishops and a reversal of Humane
Vitae and a further degradation of the liturgy. But they lie on the same trajectory, and this is what must be cause for great concern for
those who love the Church of Jesus Christ.
The hatred of the Traditional Roman Mass by the current
builders of balloons is completely understandable, quite apart from their
abundant fount of hot air. For it is the
Traditional Mass that embodies the Tradition of the Church and that exposes for
all to see that the emperor has no clothes.
The Church today is living in Alice’s Wonderland where the Queen of
Hearts can order the white roses painted red and declare by fiat that they are red
roses. The current hierarchy are fed on a positivism that has nothing to do
with the freedom bought on the Cross by Jesus Christ and so are powerless to
oppose either the beast that slouches to Bethlehem or Robert Hugh Benson’s
machines of destruction in “Lord of the World” whose goal is to destroy the
Catholic Church.
But don’t get too excited and don’t get worried. Sit back and enjoy the show. For the gates of
hell will not prevail. But what if hell
does not exist, as some princes of the Church say?
Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla
