Why Can’t Catholic Priests Get Married?

Every once in a while, someone asks me, “Father, why can’t Catholic priests get married?” The answer may surprise you: the Catholic Church does have married priests. In fact, in various Eastern Catholic Churches married men are allowed to be ordained to the priesthood. There are even situations in the Latin Church where men who are married receive ordination to the priesthood. What we experience in the United States, though, is what has been the tradition in the Latin Church for many centuries: a call to celibacy for her priests.

This celibacy is a discipline of the Church. It is not mandated by what priesthood itself demands. Priests in the Eastern Catholic Churches have had a different experience for centuries. Married men can receive ordination as priests, though bishops are chosen from among celibate men. And, as in the Latin Church, once a man is ordained a priest, he does not marry. These different traditions remind us that marriage and priesthood are not incompatible.

Which brings us back to the original question. Why does the Latin Church value priestly celibacy? Jesus Christ tells us when he speaks of those who have given up marriage “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:12). Saint Paul echoes this when he explains how the unmarried man can give himself more completely “to the things of the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:32). Celibacy gives priests a particular freedom to give themselves to Christ and to the people he has called them to serve.

Surely there is a practical benefit to this. Consider the vocation of marriage and family life. Now add to that the responsibility of leading and caring for a parish of approximately 300 to 400. Practical? Yes. But that’s not the deepest reason why priests remain celibate. A priest does not avoid marriage because he is too busy. He embraces celibacy as a way of offering his life to Christ and his Church.

Marriage is also a gift from God. In marriage a husband and wife help each other to live out that gift and to grow in holiness. Priestly celibacy does not lessen the sacrament of marriage. Instead, celibacy points forward to what awaits every Christian at the end of our journey here on earth. Our heavenly Father wants to give us complete communion with him. By God’s grace, the celibate priest tries to make something of that future Kingdom visible in this world. Celibacy, welcomed with joy, “proclaims the Reign of God.”

Please pray for your priests. Pray that we might live out this gift with fidelity and joy, with hearts given to Christ and to his people. And pray that whether God calls each of us to marriage, priesthood, religious life, or some other way of living out our discipleship, we may all give ourselves completely to him.

Catechism Connection: Matthew 19:12; 1 Corinthians 7:32–35; CCC 1579–1580.

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