39 Popes Were Married!

My name is Father John Shuster.

I am a married Roman Catholic priest. Please call me "John".

I want to tell you about a crisis in our Roman Catholic church. There is an alarming shortage of celibate priests.¹ The shortage is so acute that many parishes are being forced to close.² At the same time, there are over twenty thousand married priests here in the United States. To put that in better perspective, one out of every three priests has married. That’s a large number of priests available to staff parishes - over four hundred priests, on average, per state. Married priests are still priests, but we are no longer clerics.

Let’s examine the difference between a priest and a cleric. A priest is engaged in a vocation of service, a spiritual calling from God. A cleric occupies an organizational position in the institutional church.

When a priest marries, he is dismissed from the clerical state. But he retains the fullness of the priesthood. He should be referred to as an "ex-cleric." Many mistakenly use the term "ex-priest". He is ordained to be a priest, not a cleric. Ordination is permanent. This fact is validated by church law, Canon 290.

Twenty-one church laws entitle Catholics to utilize married priests. In marriage, by virtue of Canon 290, our education, our ordination and 12 centuries of Roman Catholic tradition, priests retain the role of administering to people as Jesus did.

We married priests have NOT abandoned our faith. We continue to help Catholics in need and look forward to our full reinstatement when the man-made law of celibacy is rescinded.

At the threshold of the millennium, thirty percent of all priests are now married. It is felt that God is calling us back to our original Roman Catholic tradition. And, since society has finally recognized their equality, it is time the church granted women equality for pastoral service. In fact, many married priests and their wives minister as a couple.

Married Priests in the Early Church

History fully supports a married priesthood. For the first 1200 years of the Church’s existence, priests, bishops and 39 popes were married.³ Celibacy existed in the first century among hermits and monks, but it was considered an optional, alternative lifestyle. Medieval politics brought about the discipline of mandatory celibacy for priests.

Let’s remember the words of Jesus: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." St. Peter, the pope who was closest to Jesus, was married. There are three references in the Gospel about St. Peter’s wife, his mother-in-law and his family. Based on Jewish law and custom, we can safely assume that all of the Apostles, except for young John, were married with families.⁴

Married priests and their spouses were the first pastors, the first bishops, the first missionaries. They carried the message of Jesus across cultures and protected it through many hardships. They guided the fragile young Church through its early growth and helped it survive numerous persecutions.

Pope John Paul II recognized this in 1993 when he said publicly that celibacy is not essential to the priesthood.⁵This pronouncement offers great promise toward resolving the problem of the shortage of celibate priests.

The early Church was a network of small family-based communities throughout the Mediterranean region. Life was marked by a sense of joyful expectation. Jesus said that he would return and the first Christians believed that it would be soon. Led by married priests, they met at each other’s homes to celebrate the Mass. Strangers were invited to share the bread and wine. No one was excluded from receiving Communion. The strangers soon became friends, joined the young Church, and brought others to hear the good news of Jesus.

Sacred Scripture documents that priests and bishops of the early Church were married. In the New Testament, in his first letter to Timothy, chapter 3, verses 1 through 7, St. Paul discusses the qualities necessary for a bishop. He describes a "kind and peaceable" father, a man with a family. As part of his description, St. Paul even asks the question, "...how can any man who does not understand how to manage his own family have responsibility for the church of God?" St. Paul established many small communities and left them in the hands of married priests and bishops.

Church leadership was based in service and was accountable to the people. Each member of the church had a voice in the community. As we read in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15, verse 22, group decisions were made in agreement with the whole assembly. The early Church is portrayed as democratic, where leadership listened to the community and responded to its needs.(Please go to http://www.rentapriest.com for part 2)