Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Catholic Church considers the law of clerical celibacy to be not a doctrine, but a discipline. Exceptions are sometimes made, especially in the case of married male Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant clergy who convert to the Catholic Church, [10] and the discipline could, in theory, be changed for all ordinations to the priesthood.
The tradition of clerical continence developed into a practice of clerical celibacy (ordaining only unmarried men) from the 11th century onward among Latin Church Catholics and became a formal part of canon law in 1917. [108] This law of clerical celibacy does not apply to Eastern Catholics. Until recently, the Eastern Catholic bishops of North ...
The canon law of the Catholic Church holds that the priesthood is a sacred and perpetual vocational state, not just a profession (which is a reason for, and symbolized by, the state of celibacy). There are programs of formation and studies which aim to enable the future priest to effectively serve his ministry.
A Catholic cleric may voluntarily request to be removed from the clerical state for a grave, personal reason. [7] Voluntary requests were, as of the 1990s, believed to be by far the most common means of this loss, and most common within this category was the intention to marry, as most Latin Church clergy must as a rule be celibate . [ 7 ]
Since then, at least 20 states have started using church-released lists of priests and employees who faced credible allegations to screen applicants or check for current state teaching, foster ...
Sacerdotalis caelibatus (Latin for "Of priestly celibacy") is an encyclical written by Pope Paul VI. Acknowledging the traditions given by the Holy Spirit to the Church in the East and acknowledging some few pastoral exceptions in the West, the encyclical explains and defends the Catholic Church's tradition of clerical celibacy in the West. The ...
Celibacy was "held in high esteem" from the Church's beginnings. It is considered a kind of spiritual marriage with Christ, a concept further popularized by the early Christian theologian Origen. Clerical celibacy began to be demanded in the 4th century, including papal decretals beginning with Pope Siricius. [97]
The Latin Catholic Church as a rule requires clerical celibacy for the priesthood since the Gregorian Reform in the late 11th century under the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux, but Eastern Catholic Churches do not require clerical celibacy for the priesthood and the Latin Catholic Church occasionally relaxes the discipline in special cases ...