Biblical proof for clerical celibacy?

by Michael Shackleton · May 17, 2010

My daughter, influenced by a non-Catholic friend, assures me that there is no evidence in the Bible to support the Catholic Church’s requirement that priests must be celibate in order to serve the faithful effectively. What support does the Church call upon to defend this idea of an unmarried priesthood?

Many reasons for and against a celibate priesthood have been bandied about over the years. These days, people inside and outside the Church find it difficult to accept, especially when Protestant ministers, their wives and children are an integral part of their local congregations. Moreover, although many lived as chaste Christians, historically the practice took many years to be fixed as the norm for priests.

Western Catholicism sees the issue as one that concerns Christ’s own words: There are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can (Mt 19:12). The Church has understood in faith that Christ was referring to those who devote themselves entirely to serving the kingdom, even living in a state of constant continence in order to do so.

Christ also declared: At the resurrection men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven (Mt 22:30). This suggests that, in giving up everything for the sake of the kingdom, unmarried persons already are a sign in their mortal life of what we shall all be in our immortal life in heaven. It would be helpful to read all of 1 Corinthians 7, to understand how St Paul, who was unmarried, could write: I should like everyone to be like me, but everybody has his own particular gifts from God.

These gifts are the gifts of the Spirit, and the gift of celibacy is one that the Church has taken with particular seriousness. In attempting to discern which men may possess the gift of celibacy, the Church in the past may have given too much attention to the canonical law that makes the priesthood conditional on living an unmarried life, at the expense of coaching candidates in an intensive and motivated living out of celibacy as a positive sign of things to come.

Fortunately, training for the priesthood in recent times entails a thorough testing of the candidates maturity.They are guided to appreciate the gift of continence as something to be embraced for the good of the Church, but also with the support of those they will serve.