§ II. On Celibacy

1083. • All Clerics receiving Sacred Orders contract ipso facto the obligation of celibacy. This is clear from various Decrees of Canon Law; but especially from c. 1. D. 28, where St. Gregory thus prescribed: "Let Bishops presume to make no one subdeacon, unless he has promised that he will live chastely, because no one ought to approach the ministry of the Altar unless his chastity has been proved before the ministry has been received." - Likewise from the Council of Trent,³ where it has thus been defined: "If anyone has said that clerics constituted in Sacred Orders, or Regulars solemnly professed to chastity, can contract marriage, and that the contract is valid, notwithstanding ecclesiastical law or vow, let him be anathema."

1084. Questions. - Query 1° Whether the obligation of celibacy is of divine law?

Resp. Negatively with the common opinion against some; but it is from mere ecclesiastical institution: namely from the force of the precept of the Church, or also from the vow annexed to Sacred Orders. The reason is that celibacy was introduced only from the precept of the Church or of the Apostles. Moreover this is clear from the Council of Trent related above, where it is said: "Notwithstanding ecclesiastical law." Therefore, etc. - Thus commonly Theologians.¹ Therefore the Church can dispense from that obligation. But she never dispenses with those constituted in Sacred Orders, so that they can be bound by the bond of matrimony, except by that law, that they be altogether kept from clerical offices. Thus Pius VII convalidated the sacrilegious marriages of some priests who during the time of the "Gallican" disturbance entered nuptials.

1085. • Query 2° Whether the obligation of celibacy proceeds immediately from a precept of the Church, or mediately, namely from the vow which is emitted in the ordination itself?

Resp. Each opinion according to St. Alphonsus is probable; but the more common and more probable is that which says that this obligation arises from a vow. It is proved, 1° from c. 6. Tit. III. L. III. Decr., where it is said: "Therefore we attending to the fact that the Oriental Church has not admitted the vow of continence," etc. Therefore in the Western Church it is admitted. Moreover this is clear from c. unico. T. XV. L. III in 6°, and from C. Inter praeteritos, § 41, Benedict XIV, Dec. 3, 1749, where this is expressly said. 2° from the fact that if the obligation were from the law of the Church alone, the Pope could absolve all clerics from it: which would be against the common opinion.²

1086. • Query 3° Whether the obligation of celibacy is universal in the Church?

Resp. Some exception is given from the tolerance of the Church among the Orientals. For in the Oriental Church priests indeed can never enter marriage after priestly ordination, or even after diaconate; but married men before diaconate can be advanced to further Orders, and nevertheless converse with their wives. Bishops are excepted, who all must constantly preserve perfect chastity. But among the Greeks subdiaconate is not numbered among Sacred Orders. Hence for clerics not married, in the ordination of Diaconate the precept of chastity is imposed, and today, in a certain Province of the Greek rite, even in the ordination of Subdiaconate, as is clear from the Instruction of the S. C. de P. F.³

1087. • Query 4° Whether he would be held to chastity who expressly did not wish to vow chastity?

Resp. This one would nevertheless be held to chastity, if not from vow, since no one can be bound by a vow unwillingly, yet certainly from the precept of the Church, which from the motive of Religion would bind him to chastity, the vow failing. - Thus commonly with St. Alphonsus.¹ Others wish that he is held to emitting a vow of chastity; and no one will deny that the Church can oblige him to this.

Note. By what pact chastity must be observed by a priest, the Plenary Council of Baltimore II teaches, a. 164-168.