You know, I learned that a long time ago, Catholic Priests used to be allowed to marry, but because they didn’t really have any of their own possessions or property, priests were cared and provided for by the Church. If they did get married, the wife also was cared for. And in a religion that sees birth control as blasphemy, that means that the kids would also be cared and provided for. And when you have a lot of priests, all getting married and having lots of kids, that gets expensive. So now priests have to be celibate.
Not all catholic priests have to be celibate! Eastern rite Catholics (around 1 percent of Catholics) are able to marry and have kids! Also, there’s something called the personal ordinate, where former Anglican priests can be ordained as catholic priests and Anglican parishes/congregations can be joined to the Catholic Church while retaining uniquely Anglican cultural and liturgical elements, and if the priest is already married they can still be ordained, even though they’re ostensibly within the western rite (the one where priests can’t marry), but AFAIK if they’re unmarried when they make the switch they cannot then get married.
Orthodox priests can also marry (but only before becoming priests. If unmarried when ordained, unmarried you must remain*), and are considered to be in full communion with the Catholics, and while I’ve never looked into it, I’m sure there’s something similar to the personal ordinate for them as well.
*I like this system better than western rite. Priests can marry but once they’re in that position of power over people they can’t. Because in theory at least, it’d be easy for an unmarried priest to take advantage of a parishioners they were sexually interested in, because there is such an inbalance of power between the two, like teacher/student but cranked up to 11. I personally like the Episcopal model
I didn’t either until recently. I knew that historically it hadn’t always been the case, and that it was a quirk of the Catholics, not something based in the early church, but until I found the Episcopal church and started learning more about liturgical Christianity, I had no idea.
You know, I learned that a long time ago, Catholic Priests used to be allowed to marry, but because they didn’t really have any of their own possessions or property, priests were cared and provided for by the Church. If they did get married, the wife also was cared for. And in a religion that sees birth control as blasphemy, that means that the kids would also be cared and provided for. And when you have a lot of priests, all getting married and having lots of kids, that gets expensive. So now priests have to be celibate.
Not all catholic priests have to be celibate! Eastern rite Catholics (around 1 percent of Catholics) are able to marry and have kids! Also, there’s something called the personal ordinate, where former Anglican priests can be ordained as catholic priests and Anglican parishes/congregations can be joined to the Catholic Church while retaining uniquely Anglican cultural and liturgical elements, and if the priest is already married they can still be ordained, even though they’re ostensibly within the western rite (the one where priests can’t marry), but AFAIK if they’re unmarried when they make the switch they cannot then get married.
Orthodox priests can also marry (but only before becoming priests. If unmarried when ordained, unmarried you must remain*), and are considered to be in full communion with the Catholics, and while I’ve never looked into it, I’m sure there’s something similar to the personal ordinate for them as well.
*I like this system better than western rite. Priests can marry but once they’re in that position of power over people they can’t. Because in theory at least, it’d be easy for an unmarried priest to take advantage of a parishioners they were sexually interested in, because there is such an inbalance of power between the two, like teacher/student but cranked up to 11. I personally like the Episcopal model
Interesting, I grew up Catholic and never knew there were exceptions.
I didn’t either until recently. I knew that historically it hadn’t always been the case, and that it was a quirk of the Catholics, not something based in the early church, but until I found the Episcopal church and started learning more about liturgical Christianity, I had no idea.
It was also a very convenient way to prevent the nobility from establishing a church dynasty.
Also a convenient place to dump non-inheriting sons.