I've been discussing wanting to write this blog for a while so here goes.
First, in the Latin Rite, which is the Catholic Church you see most in America, priests are generally unmarried and celibate. This is by a matter of Church rule dating back to somewhere around 300 AD.
Before we go on, here is a little history from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
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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. ... 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. He tells them:
You ought anxiously to consider again and again what sort of a burden this is which you are taking upon you of your own accord. Up to this you are free. You may still, if you choose, turn to the aims and desires of the world. But if you receive this order (of the subdiaconate) it will no longer be lawful to turn back from your purpose. You will be required to continue in the service of God, and with His assistance to observe chastity and to be bound for ever in the ministrations of the Altar, to serve who is to reign.
By stepping forward despite this warning, when invited to do so, and by co-operating in the rest of the ordination service, the candidate is understood to bind himself equivalently by a vow of chastity.
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Many opponents of priestly celibacy attack this issue from different angles, and they don't all add up but I will address three given I've only got 31 minutes left on lunch.
1. Priestly Celibacy is anti-Bible
This comes of course from Evangelicals and other Christian groups. They argue that all are required to "Be Fruitful and multiply (Gen.)" and say that each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband" (1 Cor. 7:2).
These biblical statements are of course true, but they are not all inclusive.
Corinthians also reads "1 Corinthians 7: 31 And they that use this world, as if they used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away. 32 But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife, is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. 33 But he that is with a wife, is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided."
Futhermore,
"To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion" (7:8-9)."
And,
"Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom it is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of God. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it" (Matt. 19:11–12).
It is important to note that none of these passages, nor any in scripture, forbid marriage to anyone, but there are many that seem to indicate an unmarried state as preferable to those in direct service to the faithful and to the Lord.
2. Priestly celibacy creates, or attracts perverts and pedophiles.
First, the eruption of the recent scandal (going back 10 years or so) includes cases going back about 40-50 years up to the present. While it is possible that abuse was going on on a massive scale indefinitely and it was 100 percent covered up, I find that unlikely. More likely is that something went wrong in the seminaries, in the admissions process etc. that allowed some sick folks to get through the discernment process. Keep in mind though, for 1,700 years or so it seemed to be working.
I want to expand on this answer a little more and I'd like to get to argument No. 3 but we're out of time for lunch.
Try back tonight, if I have time at home I'll finish this post.
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