Tag Archives: Chastity

Debates, Faith

The Following of the Eternal Son of God requires Virginity, Chastity and Celibacy

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by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

This week in the Octave of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is a very apt time to remind ourselves of the great truth that eternal salvation in Christ requires that we be conformed to the Most Holy Trinity, because salvation consists first of all not in the concession of some created gift, but in the gift God gives of Himself to those who love Him.

And to receive this gift, it is necessary for all, not only to believe in Christ fully and with perseverance, detracting nothing from His Teaching, but the following of Jesus Christ, Our Savior, Who is the Way for all who wish to be saved to arrive at that Salvation.

For this reason, I wish to address a growing controversy in the Church, that of priestly celibacy, which touches upon the wider question of the role of virginity, chastity and celibacy in the Church.

For the most part, these debates and discussions revolve around the wrong center of focus: historical practices or pragmatic considerations: when such an such a practice began or began to be widespread, or the utility of having clergy and religious free from the duties of married life.

The true center of focus, however, is Jesus Christ. Because it is because all discipleship in Christ requires that the Christian follow Christ, all discipleship in Christ requires that we personally accept the renunciations He made for our salvation, in some proportion or degree of suitability to our state in life.

Thus, a priest is essentially and vocationally bound to imitate the Lord Jesus in His abstention from marriage: a thing Jesus  Christ did, not just as man, to be of service or to show us the way of mortification, nor even to teach us chastity in the ministry, or to give an example of self control, but for an even higher and eternal reason.

Because, the Eternal Son becomes a priest from the moment of His incarnation, wherein He is invested with the humanity which He will break in the Expiatory Sacrifice of the Cross, when His Body and Soul will be separated in death. Thus, for such an August Sacrifice, it was a necessity of religion that He offer the most pure flesh and blood and soul to God His Father.

Likewise, women religious are called to a life of virginity, because by the absolute removal of all occasions of impurity, they might illumine the world with the purity of Christ Jesus, who did not even dare let His eyes wander about among the crowds of faithful who followed Him.

This too is the reason why male religious are called to a life of chastity, so that their dedication to the following of Christ as the Servant of God be found also in their flesh by a perpetual purity of life which touches upon mind and body.

And all these forms of purity are also apt in their proper times and places even for the laity, who have not the vocation to be virgins, religious or clergy: because in this way every Christian at some point in his or her life, gives living example of their discipleship to Christ.

And all these practices aim for something eternal, both as regards likeness and reward, which is the most important truth we should keep in mind.

Because in the Eternal Trinity, God the Father alone generates. The Son does not generate. Therefore, the Eternal Son is the archetype of all purity, chastity, celibacy and virginity. He joins Himself to no One in an act of generation or procreation.

The work of generation of Christians too is likened to the Most Holy Trinity, because just as it pertains to the Holy Ghost to inspire men to faith and salvation, all those who are involved in the work of converting and saving souls, directly or indirectly, should avail themselves of the assistance of the Holy Spirit, not the works of the flesh.

For this reason, virginity, chastity and celibacy are essential to the Catholic Faith, the true Faith without which no one can be saved; and we should all strive not only to inculcate the appreciation of these holy works as the most authentic exterior work which testifies to Faith, Hope and Charity, but to live them in our lives, as appropriate to the times and places and states of life of our lives.

For by doing so, we by living like the Eternal Son, merit in the most worthy way to share in His Eternal Inheritance, which belongs to Him, as a Son faithful to His Eternal Father and entirely satisfied in worshiping and contemplating that Paternal Magnificence.

And this explains why the Saints affirm that God promises the certitude of Eternal Salvation only to virgins, the chaste, and the faithfully celibate.

Editorials

Celibacy is essential to the Priesthood of the New Covenant

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by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

There has been, since the time of Vatican II, a lot of spilt ink on the possibility of opening the priesthood to married men, or even of allowing the ordained to marry. And in this regard there have been some notable defenses of the immemorial practice of celibacy in the Roman Rite for its priests.

It is not my point to review them or enter into the debate, but only to make some observations which are as necessary to be made as they are often forgotten, and this especially now when Bergoglio is about to attempt to destroy the celibate priesthood forever.

The first is that celibacy is not merely a question of discipline. This is one of the fundamental errors of the entire debate and often made on both sides.

As a Franciscan, whose spirituality directs us to contemplate the Lord Jesus and imitate Him up close, I have always found it rather incomprehensible that anyone can frame the discussion of celibacy as one of discipline.

  • Our Lord was perfectly chaste and never married. This is the soteriological fact that should be in the forefront of our minds at all times, when we think about this argument.
  • A priest by his ordination receives a sacramental character which conforms him to Jesus Christ, the High Priest.

It follows, then, that there is a fittingness (convenientia, in Latin) between chastity and the priesthood. And this fittingness is inherent in the essence of the priesthood.* For as Saint Paul says, priests are ordained to be Ambassadors of God and Dispensers of the Mysteries of God.  Being an ambassador means that one exists to represent God and His will. Being a Dispenser, means that one is responsible not only for what is given out but the cleanliness of how it is given out.

Second, since the Mysteries of God, the Sacraments, are all Holy, it follows that the man who Dispenses them should be all holy. “Holy” in Scripture means set apart, dedicated.

For those who understand the spiritual life, then, it is quickly recognized that the one vice which distracts from being holy, from the Holy and from the will of God and a unique dedication to That alone, is the vice of impurity. Which certainly can be fostered outside of marriage, but which is rather impossible to extract oneself from in marriage, where, thankfully, it does not produce mortal sin necessarily if kept within bounds of nature and the Sacrament, though it nevertheless is just as distracting.

So for a priest to have his mind on God at all times, it is essential that he be chaste, and thus, the discipline of celibacy is an essential requirement to fulfill that duty.

This does not mean that the clergy of the Byzantine Rites, who are married men and then ordained priests, are any less priests, but it is much more difficult for them. Which may be why God gave them such an inspiring Liturgy which is so powerful to attract the attention of the mind to heavenly things.

In the West, however, our Liturgies were always more simple. But the discipline of celibacy was more common and became obligatory, after the Church saw how awful was the consequence of omitting the practice.

A truly celibate priest, therefore, is truly chaste. There is no possibility that one who identifies as a sodomite or who consents to impure pleasure of any kind, is a holy priest, or can be a holy priest. It is an ontological impossibility in the order of things supernatural.

Defend and support chaste priests and defended always the practice of celibacy. These are from God and we cannot value them too little.

Third and finally, what the Church needs is not the end of celibacy but the spread of celibacy. I mean to say, the Church needs to revive the minor orders and invite men to accept them in a celibate life. By extending the concept of the clergy back to its traditional sources of porters, exorcists, lectors, acolytes, subdeacons, deacons, priests and bishops, the Church will evangelize the world more effectively by promoting the notion that with God’s grace and love of Christ, celibacy is a powerful witness to the supernatural and frees a man to work in Christ’s vineyard like no other discipline can do for him.

CREDITS: The Featured Image is Adriaen Ysenbrandt’s, The Mass of St. Gregory the Great, which depicts a miracle during the Mass said by the Saintly Pope. The image is in the public domain in the USA according to Wikipedia. The actually painting is now in the Getty Museum, which is worth visiting to see this Masterpiece alone!

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* For those students of scholastic philosophy and theology, I use here the term essential in its proper sense (essentiale as meaning essentiae), but in the title I used it in the referential sense (essentiale as meaning ad essentiam). The former is what belongs to the essence of the thing, the latter is what regards the essence of the thing, such as being helpful or fitting or defensive.

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