Sanctus, your thoughts?
First off, know that there are married men in the priesthood. They usually serve in Rites which traditionally, under special circumstances, allow married men into the priesthood.
The Bible states that ‘Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh’ (Gen. 2, 24)."
Celibacy is not a Dogma of Faith but a disciplinary law designed to increase the dignity of the Priesthood. Contrary to popular mythology, celibacy has not always been the rule for priests of the Catholic Church. It was only introduced as a mandatory rule in the Western Church during the eleventh century, while in the East married men have always been allowed to become priests. However, once ordained, an Eastern Rite priest cannot marry, and only celibate monks can be chosen as bishops.
The Divine Master, Himself a Virgin born of a Virgin, spoke of virginity as follows: "Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can" (St. Matt. 19, 11-12).
Our Lord clearly praises celibacy when undertaken for his service and glory. The injunction to "be fruitful and multiply" in Genesis 1, 28 is only a general counsel for the human race, it is not meant to be obligatory for each individual. Otherwise, Christ would have been counselling and allowing people to live in a state of sin, including St. John the Baptist and all the Apostles except St. Peter.
The teaching of the Apostle of the Gentiles, St. Paul, is naturally the same as Our Lord’s. He, like Christ, led a life of celibacy and recommended it to others:"To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am. But if they are not practicing self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion...Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord...Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you marry, you do not sin, and if a virgin marries, she does not sin" (1 Cor. 7, 8-9; 25; 27-28).
Furthermore, he expressly states that celibacy is a higher state than the state of marriage: "So that he who marries his betrothed does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better" (v. 38).
In the face of the words and examples of Christ and St. Paul how can anyone say that the virginal life is not an excellent one and therefore deny souls the opportunity of following more closely the footsteps of their Master?
St. Paul also gives a practical reason why the Priesthood of Christ should practice celibacy: "The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided" (vv 32-34).
The Catholic Church realizes that better work is done for God’s people by a celibate rather than married Clergy.
"But still, is not Celibacy against nature?"
With God all things are possible. Celibacy is not impossible because it is the grace of God, not purely human effort, that keeps a celibate person pure.
"But did not St. Paul say that ‘forbidding marriage’ was one of the ‘teachings of demons’ (1 Tim. 4, 1-3) and that a Bishop should be ‘married only once’ (1 Tim. 3, 2)?"
St. Paul did make such statements, but in the first case he was condemning Gnostic heretics who believed marriage to be evil in itself (while the Catholic Church has always regarded it as a sacrament of Christ); in the second case, St. Paul meant that if a Bishop marries it must be only once, not that he must marry for he himself - as mentioned earlier - never married.
