The Catholic Priesthood

Yet another cannibalized post from the email list I'm on - I was asked about priestly celibacy. :-)

Priestly celibacy is one of those things where I don't even try to argue from Scripture :-) Many Catholics will, and our official theology throws in a few Scripture verses to support it, but the honest truth about it is that it's church policy, a rule. If Pope Benedict wanted to (which I highly doubt!) he could send out an encyclical tomorrow that basically said "OK guys - no more celibacy - have fun!"

So let me walk you through a brief history (sorry!) of priestly celibacy.

At first there were no priests the way we understand them now - as far as we can tell we had small communities of believers who met in each others' homes to celebrate an agape meal in addition to their regular Jewish practices.

When the faith spread to non-Jews some elements of Jewish religion were kept, but the centerpiece became the agape meal, celebrated in remembrance (anamnesis) of Jesus.

When Christianity became the official religion of the Empire, house communities became impractical - you couldn't fit 300 people in most homes. :-) So communities started gathering in public places for worship. Once this started to happen, more and more people started having a select few be the ones to lead worship - "professional worship leaders" so to speak.

We still had a leadership structure - a bishop was in charge of large areas of Christians, overseeing them and being the chief teacher for the area. We also had deacons, who were ordered for service in particular areas/ministries (widows, the hungry, etc). But ministers followed the normal course of life - which was to get married.

However, once Christianity became "mainstream" some Christians felt that the faith was "watered down." There were no longer many martyrs, there was no longer very much danger associated with being a follower of the Way. Many people became Christian for purely political or monetary reasons. So some people moved to the solitary desert (emulating one aspect of Jesus' life) and lived a life of prayer, meditation, study, silence, and celibacy (imitating another aspect of Jesus' life).

Many Christians, after hearing of the solitary pursuit of perfection these Desert Fathers and Mothers were practicing, went to them to receive spiritual guidance. They became benchmarks of orthodoxy and arbiters in theological disputes.

Eventually, many of these desert fathers and mothers attracted their own communities; people came to live lives that were simple, prayerful and totally God-focused. From the ranks of these followers we started pulling priests, deacons, and bishops. They brought with them the ideal of a life of service, prayer and study. But they also brought a penchant for celibacy - giving up sexual intercourse and marriage, not because they were evil, but because they were sacrificed for a higher good: total dedication and abandonment to the will of God and the service of His people.

Once we had celibate bishops, then we started to have celibate Popes, and that's when the real trouble started! :-) As early as 400 AD we have bishops recommending that priests and deacons and bishops be celibate. Not a rule, law or commandment, just an observation that without family one can be totally dedicated to the service of the Christian community. It wasn't until around the year 1000 that celibacy became more accepted, and it was shortly afterwards that it became the rule for priests. Even then, it was still ignored by many :-)

During the middle ages it became more of a problem - if priests or bishops were married, when they died the church that they were serving at became the property of their offspring - this caused the loss of much church stuff, as well as much fighting among the less-then-holy offspring of some of the priests and bishops.

In an effort to stop the buying and selling of Church property, the Church got tough in it's enforcement of celibacy. There was a period of time (not a good time) when priests who were still married in defiance of Church law had their families taken from them. (We're not perfect, and this is one of those low points in my church that I wish had never happened). After a while, celibacy became the accepted norm, though I'm sure for a while after there were still priests who had lovers or secret semi-wives - stories of country priests with maids whose children looked remarkably like the priest circulated for years. :-)

Nowadays, most theologically astute Catholics see it for what it is: a discipline imposed on clergy by our Church. Having said that, though, there are some arguments for priestly celibacy:

1) In our day and age it is a radical statement that we are not here solely for sexual pleasure. In America and Europe especially there is a tendency to see sexual intercourse as the be all and end all of life. Priestly (and religious) celibacy argues that while it is a great good, it is not an *ultimate* good.

2) It does let our priests serve 24/7 if needed - without a family to support they can spend more time out and about, which they do. Most priests have three Masses a day to celebrate (early morning, early evening, and then funerals, baptisms, prayer services, masses for special intentions, etc.); sick calls / hospital calls / prayer calls to answer; the parish itself to run; etc. They give so much of their time to the church that very little would be left over for family. [I know that Protestant ministers have much of the same things to do - as a campus minister I find my time crunched as well - however, I do think that many families of ministers suffer in silence - even though a pastor is doing the work of God, if it's at the expense of family time or family neglect, we're missing the point. In my previous position (working under the Bishop doing youth minister) I was working two nights a week and two weekends a month, plus making several extended and shorter trips a year for business - my family time was almost nonexistent! - so I have great respect but also misgivings for those ministers who are married and must live a life of service to their church.]

3) It offers a witness of sacrifice (close to #1 above); that is, it is a living, tangible witness to the sacrifice Jesus made.

4) Many priests do have a calling for a celibate lifestyle.

However, as many Catholics point out, not everyone has that calling (to be celibate). And as a Church we struggle with that. It may be that at some point in the next 2,000 years the rule will change - we are losing priests here in America, but gaining them (I read of a 237% boost in priests coming from Third World nations) in other places - we'll have to wait and see :-)

Blessings & Peace,

Hugo

Confession Part II

More thoughts on the sacrament of reconcilliation (penance/confession), also culled from a post I made to a mailing list I belong to - the questions I'm replying to are in red . . .


1. Can an individual have his sins forgiven without going to a priest?

hmmm . . . easy/tricky question. The Church still affirms that confessing to God is needed and necessary, an integral part of a person's spiritual life. For example, many people devlop the habit of talking to God about the day's events, particularly asking for forgiveness for any transgressions made that day. However, in order for full reconciliation to take place, the Church does teach that sacramental forgiveness, celebrated with a priest, is still fundamentally important. That is the one way that the penitent (sinner) is reconciled with the community (remember the history lesson from my earlier email) and with God. God's forgiveness is a given, though - an attitude that God has towards us. That is why the language of the sacrament talks about "celebrating" - in the sacrament of confession we celebrate the forgiveness that God has already extended to his children. We just believe that an assurance of forgiveness is given with the celebration of the sacrament - it is a sacramental moment, a moment where God's presence is tangible in the celebration of the mystery.

2. Does the priest have the ability from God to grant forgiveness, or what exactly is "absolution"?
Prayer of Absolution
God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son
has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
Through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Absolution is part of the ritual of the sacrament. It is part of the five movements of the sacrament: Confession, Prayer/Scripture/Counseling, Contrition, Absolution, Penance.

1. Confession: The colloquial terms used for the whole sacrament, it forms the first movement of the celebration of the sacrament. (Technically, though, there is a prior movement - examining our conscience - before we go to confession we spend time in prayer, silence, solitude, interior examination - we prepare ourselves to enter into the celebration of the mystery of forgiveness by preparing our mind, heart and soul to confess our sins.) We enter into the confessional and either sit with the priest or site behind a screen and tell the priest our sins, our failings, our faults, etc.

2. Prayer/Scripture/Counseling: After we have talked the priest may share a Scripture reading with us about God's mercy, healing, love and forgiveness. He may pray for us or with us (depending on the relationship between the priest and penitent, this may involve laying on of hands or anointing with oil, or it may be more formal). He may also talk to us about what we have confessed (one of the major boons of going to the same confessor is that a relationship is developed - they are able to make connections between current confessions and prior confessions - they are also able to more fully challenge to grow past bad habits that we have formed). The priest may also ask us questions about our confession, either for clarification or to probe areas where they feel we may not be fully honest.

3. Contrition: The penitent prays a prayer of contrition either spontaneously or through a memorized prayer (there are several versions of this prayer that school children learn). The prayer expresses sorrow for our sins, a firm amendment to avoid the sins we have confessed, a love of God, and a desire to enter heaven.

4. Absolution: The priest prays for the penitent using the prayer you have quoted above. The prayer is a prayer of Christ - the priest is speaking through their sacramental office - the forgiveness offered is offered in and through the church which is offered in and through Christ (remember another earlier post where I talked about the sacramental worldview of the Church - God-->Christ-->Church-->individual members of the body of Christ).

5. Penance: In order to outwardly show the inward conversion of heart, the penitent is given prayers or actions to say/do after the celebration of the sacrament. Most of the time it takes the form of prayers to say, Scripture passages to read, or a meeting with another person who we have offended and not reconciled with yet. Again, the form of the sacrament echoes and mirrors the form of the sacrament as it developed in the early church, with the modification that the priest is now standing in for the community to hear our confessions.

In other words, yes, we Catholics see the absolution given by the priest as being given by God, only transmitted through the office of the priest (not necessarily the priest himself). It is God himself who forgives the sins - however, as we are people of flesh and blood, we believe that sacrament ally (through the people and things of this world) we are offered the forgiveness in a tangible way so that we can appreciate the invisible reality that is happening (the cleansing of our souls, bodies, hearts and minds and their reorientation to God by his mercy and forgiveness).

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Confession & Confession

Confession #1: I haven't posted in a while (but you already knew that!). Had end of the school year stuff to do, plus I'm getting ready to teach some summer courses (to other religion teachers in my area) on morality and scripture, plus I was helping a friend move, plus I have frequent bouts of laziness :-) So I'm scavenging a post I made on a mailing list I belong to in the hopes that it'll help me put my butt in gear and start posting again:

Confession #2: So here's the post on . . . confession! :-)

In the early Church we had two of what Catholics now call sacraments: baptism & Eucharist (the agape meal). During the persecutions in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, we had many Christians who lost their lives because they would not publicly offer sacrifices to pagan gods. We also had many Christians who saved their lives by offering these sacrifices in full, public view - saving their lives but not exactly placing them in good standing with the rest of Christendom who had lost parents, spouses, sibling and children to arrest, torture and death because they wouldn't sacrifice.

When the persecution ended and following Jesus was no longer punishable by arrest, torture and death, there was a clash - Christians who had willingly sacrificed to pagan gods wanted full membership in the church. Those who had lost friends and loved ones to the persecution argued that they should not be a part of the Church - they had worshipped fasle gods.

After some negotiations, a compromise was reached - each person that had worshipped false gods was to stand before the whole community and confess their sin (worshipping a false god). They were then to do one to three years of penance - fasting, studying Scripture, praying, receiving religious instruction, etc. At the end of this time of penance, they were received back as full members of their respective Christian communities.

In time this practice was applied to sins that were public, grave and scandalous. It was still a once-in-a-lifetime practice, though - it you murdered the mayor and were also a deacon of the church, you had one chance for this public repentance and lengthy penance. If you did something really, really bad again, that's it - one strike and you're out - you were no longer a member of your Christian community.

During the 4th and 5th centuries in Ireland, monks began the practice of daily confessing their faults to another monk, usually a superior of their order, but sometimes to a fellow monk. It was part of their spiritual practice, and still not considered a sacrament of the church. The regular way of making a sacramental confession was the public ritual established a few centuries back. However, something had happened in the span of time. Christian communities, from being small and localized (often meeting in people's homes) had grown large - so large that when a person wanted to confess some serious sin it was too much of a challenge to bring the whole community together. The community, therefore, established the rule that instead of confessing to the whole gathered community, the penitent would speak privately to the pastor of the community - the priest. That priest would then do the normal things associated with the ritual - listen to the confession, enroll the person in the list of penitents, and walk with that person from one to three years until they became reconciled with the community.

The practice in Ireland coincided with the rise of personal confession - by the 6th century the Church was naming confession a sacrament, and the practice of individual confession to a priest had replaced the standard form of confession to the community.

In current theological thought, then, celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation (casually referred to by most people as "going to confession") has a long history in Christianity. The first part of this is then that first and foremost reconciliation takes place between the individual penitent (confessor) and the community (the priest being the link between the penitent and the community). The notion that sins are individual actions that don't affect the rest of the community is laid to rest in this theological view - we affirm that our sins - even sins that no one else knows about - have a spiritual dimension that tears down the body of Christ. Like ripples in a pond our individual sins spread out and hurt the people around us - they make it harder for us to live lives that follow Christ, and they also make it harder for others to live out Christ-centered lives. The reality of the "body of Christ" is brought home in this view of sin.

However, since we look to the sacrament of confession as a sacrament (a moment where the grace/presence of God breaks through into our world), we also believe that it is a healing of the ruptured relationship we have with our God - a rupture brought about by sin.

We also, as those first Irish monks did, look on it as part of our spiritual growth - we regularly meet with our priest/confessor to talk about our sins - we start to develop a relationship with our priest - it becomes spiritual direction, where we receive comfort, aid, instruction and prayer on our Christian walk.

As with many things that are good and helpful for us in our Christian journey the Church tends to legislate - we must go to confession at least once a year. But that's because of the intense spiritual fruits that are brought to fruition by this practice. I tell my kids, whenever we talk about confession, that Mother Theresa would spend several hours each Saturday in solitary prayer, away from the eyes of the world and even her own sisters. Part of that prayer time was devoted to the sacrament of reconciliation . . . every single week she found the need to talk about her own spiritual journey with another person. Our previous Pope would confess every week as well. They recognized that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God - the sacrament gives us an avenue through which we can talk about this sinfulness with another person, heal our ruptured relationship with our community, and heal our ruptured relationship with our God.

As a quick aside, I find that confessing my sins to a priest, especially a priest that I know and who knows what I do for a living, is hard . . . very hard. But it's a help to me in my growth *because* it's hard - on a purely psychological level it's a brake for me - it helps me stop and think when I find myself tempted to sin - I know that at some point I'll need to talk about what I've done/not done/thought/said/etc.

If we know something by its fruits, than the spiritual, prayerful practice of reconciliation is a good thing - it brings a person closer to Christ, helps them become more faithful followers of the Word made flesh, and helps each of us build up - not tear down - the body of Christ.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Still still alive :-)

After 5 long weeks my wife is finally better - looks like the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome diagnosis was spot on. We're still gonna do another breathing/lung test, and maybe a CAT Scan/MRI just to be on the safe side, but all of her other tests turned out negative . . . so our doctors say that they're precautionary measures. She finally went back to work Tuesday, which is gonna make out checkbook rejoice @ least a little bit, and she's felling ok after three days of work.

Hadn't realized how much I had been worrying about her - I could literally feel the stress and worry melting off of me yesterday and today.

Thanks again for all the prayers - I'll be back to regular blogging soon! :-)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Still Alive :-)

No posts recently because my wife has been sick (going on 3rd week) with some sort of asthma / allergy / throat infection / throat ulcer / bronchitis / neck & shoulder pain kinda thing. :-(

We're going on three doctor's visits, six medications, another follow up today or tomorrow, and lung & allergy specialists next week.

Please pray / meditate / invoke spirits / send good psychic vibrations / etc. in her direction - I'm really worried.

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo