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	Celibacy Wasn't Always Catholic Doctrine By James D. Davis South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 10, 2009 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/sfl-religion-fv-cutie-celibacysbmay10,0,7152997.story For the Rev. Alberto Cutié, it's not just about whether to socialize with a woman. For him — and for all other Roman Catholic priests — celibacy is about centuries of history, tradition, doctrine and what people expect of a man who wears the collar. The Roman Catholic Church, alone among major Christian groups, requires its clergy to remain celibate — to devote themselves wholly to church work. Even though the rule has been imposed only for half the church's history, and hasn't always been uniformly observed. Cutié, a popular Latino broadcaster, lost his Miami Beach parish and his post at Pax Communications in Miami this week after a magazine published what it said were photos of the priest with a woman on a beach. Both he and Archbishop John Favalora of Miami issued public apologies, but stopped short of discussing the photos. The most Favalora said was that the priest was expected to keep his promise of celibacy. The reasons for celibacy are clear enough, at least to strong traditionalists like the Rev. Joseph Fessio, a theologian at Ave Maria University in southwest Florida. "When a priest breaks the bread of Communion, he represents Christ, not himself," Fessio says. "And the church is the bride of Christ. If [the priest] divides his love between the church and the home, it's a contradiction." Jesus, who never married, did praise people "who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom," although he made it optional: "He who is able to accept it, let him accept it." And some did accept: Hermits in the late third century withdrew into the desert, living totally for prayer. In 385, Bishop Siricius of Rome insisted on celibacy — even arguing that married clergy refrain from sexual relations. "In the first several centuries, the requirement was not that they be unmarried, but that they refrain from sexual activity," says J. Patout Burns, a church historian at Vanderbilt University. "It wasn't so much a matter of morality as a bodily purity in serving the sacrament." Clergy followed two tracks in the Middle Ages. Celibate monks like St. Benedict built monasteries, with monks serving villages as pastors. But other priests were not only taking wives, but bequeathing the priesthood to their sons — as well as the income from the land that supported each parish. Pope Gregory VII, himself a Benedictine monk, banned marriage in the 11th century, but it took another century for the practice to spread churchwide. However, celibacy did withstand the Reformation: Although Protestant leaders like Martin Luther took wives, the 16th century Catholic Council of Trent upheld the value of celibacy for the service of the gospel. Even today, though, the church accepts married priests in special cases. One is when other priests, like Episcopalians, have become Catholic. The other is the Eastern Rite Catholic churches — Melkite, Maronite and others — which allow married men to become priests. "Married priests have the same responsibilities as other priests," says Mary Carter Waren, associate professor of religious studies at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens. "And I don't think we see them as divided." Still, no one expects celibacy to become optional under current church leadership. Or the expectations of many Catholics in the pews. "There is still a notion that the Catholic clergy bring a sexual purity," says Burns, the Vanderbilt historian. "You ask something similar of beauty queens, on whether they're virgins. There's the feeling that the really holy people are sexually pure." James D. Davis can be reached at jdavis@Sun-Sentinel.com or 954-356-4730.
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