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t. e. Clerical celibacy is the discipline within the Catholic Church by which only unmarried men are ordained to the episcopate, to the priesthood in the Latin Church (one of the 24 rites of the catholic church with some particular exception and in some autonomous particular Churches), and similarly to the diaconate.
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. [117] This law of clerical celibacy does not apply to Eastern Catholics. Until recently, the Eastern Catholic bishops of North ...
The Catholic Church has different rules for the priesthood in the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches than those in the Latin Church. The chief difference is that most of the Eastern Catholic Churches ordain married men, whereas the Latin Church, with very few exceptions, enforces mandatory clerical celibacy. This issue has caused tension among ...
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 ...
Marriage in the Catholic Church, also known as holy matrimony, is the "covenant by which a man and woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring", and which "has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized". [1]
Roman Catholic tradition for the last 1,000 years, though not before, [27] dictates that only unmarried men can be ordained into the Catholic priesthood, a practice known as clerical celibacy. In modern parlance, celibacy has come to be associated with the very specific practice of abstaining from sexuality.
Religious life is a distinct vocation in itself, and women live in consecrated life as a nun or religious sister, and throughout the history of the Church it has not been uncommon for an abbess to head a dual monastery, i.e., a community of men and women. Women today exercise many roles in the Church.
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]