08-12-2026, 06:35 AM
PART SECOND.
XX. Why do not Catholic Priests marry as Protestant Ministers do?
— Once a Protestant minister reproached a young student for his misconduct; to which the latter replied: "Very easy for you to talk so, sir. Luther has declared that it is as impossible to keep from marriage, as to go about without clothes, or live without nourishment; after this, his opinion, you have married. I would marry too, had I the means; but I am only twenty, and the government and the evangelical societies give me nothing, as yet, wherewith to keep house; so, meanwhile, I do the best I can."
It would prove interesting to know what reply was given by a parson married on the Protestant principle, that celibacy is against nature.
A Catholic priest would have replied: "Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ" (1 Cor. xi. 1). Be chaste, as I am, and say not that it is impossible, because, what one can do another also can.
Celibacy enables the priest to devote himself wholly to his ministry. On embracing the ecclesiastical state priests pledge themselves with free will, and, after due probation, to observe perfect continence. Although this obligation is not a divine institution, it is, nevertheless, one of marvellous wisdom. The Church well knew what she was about, when she changed the evangelic and apostolic counsel of celibacy into an absolute command for her priests;* and the devil knows very well what he is about when he protests against this salutary institution.
Were our priests married, do you think they would sacrifice themselves as they do every day? Do you not believe they would hesitate before they entered a place of loathing and contagion, and leave directions concerning their bank accounts with next kin and neighbor? And who are the kin and kith of a married man but his wife and children?
It is out of the question. We can never be reconciled with the idea of a Catholic priest being married. Christian priesthood and the wife's teakettle will never harmonize. The Protestant parsonship, which after all is only a caricature of the priesthood, drags after itself its household like a cumbrous cannon-ball. Nothing more laughable than what a certain pastor, Mr. Bost, tells of himself in his Memoirs.* The history of his apostolic excursions, of his preaching, of his divers vocations, of his change of convictions, is interlarded with ludicrous histories of matrimonial cares, of tin pans, and cooking-stoves. With his wife, eleven children, two servants, one piano, and two canary-birds, the unfortunate apostle parades all around, for fifteen or twenty years, thirteen thousand pounds of evangelic baggage.
How vividly all this represents primitive Christianity, Saint Paul and his staff!
XX. Why do not Catholic Priests marry as Protestant Ministers do?
— Once a Protestant minister reproached a young student for his misconduct; to which the latter replied: "Very easy for you to talk so, sir. Luther has declared that it is as impossible to keep from marriage, as to go about without clothes, or live without nourishment; after this, his opinion, you have married. I would marry too, had I the means; but I am only twenty, and the government and the evangelical societies give me nothing, as yet, wherewith to keep house; so, meanwhile, I do the best I can."
It would prove interesting to know what reply was given by a parson married on the Protestant principle, that celibacy is against nature.
A Catholic priest would have replied: "Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ" (1 Cor. xi. 1). Be chaste, as I am, and say not that it is impossible, because, what one can do another also can.
Celibacy enables the priest to devote himself wholly to his ministry. On embracing the ecclesiastical state priests pledge themselves with free will, and, after due probation, to observe perfect continence. Although this obligation is not a divine institution, it is, nevertheless, one of marvellous wisdom. The Church well knew what she was about, when she changed the evangelic and apostolic counsel of celibacy into an absolute command for her priests;* and the devil knows very well what he is about when he protests against this salutary institution.
Were our priests married, do you think they would sacrifice themselves as they do every day? Do you not believe they would hesitate before they entered a place of loathing and contagion, and leave directions concerning their bank accounts with next kin and neighbor? And who are the kin and kith of a married man but his wife and children?
It is out of the question. We can never be reconciled with the idea of a Catholic priest being married. Christian priesthood and the wife's teakettle will never harmonize. The Protestant parsonship, which after all is only a caricature of the priesthood, drags after itself its household like a cumbrous cannon-ball. Nothing more laughable than what a certain pastor, Mr. Bost, tells of himself in his Memoirs.* The history of his apostolic excursions, of his preaching, of his divers vocations, of his change of convictions, is interlarded with ludicrous histories of matrimonial cares, of tin pans, and cooking-stoves. With his wife, eleven children, two servants, one piano, and two canary-birds, the unfortunate apostle parades all around, for fifteen or twenty years, thirteen thousand pounds of evangelic baggage.
How vividly all this represents primitive Christianity, Saint Paul and his staff!
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre