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Written by Philip Ezenwatu
SHOULD PRIEST MARRY "NO"
Introduction:
An unmarried man is concerned about the Lords affairs how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world – how he can please his wife thus, his interests in focused interest hardly handled things aright, what then do you think will become of a man with divided interest?
Not being married frees a priest to be able to work wholeheartedly and single-mindedly in the service of God’s people.
You imagine that a priest’s time would be practically drawn away either from his wife and children or from the people of his Parish. Celibacy on the other hand allows a Priest to concentrate on the needs of the people to whom he’s called to minister. Remember one cannot successfully serve two masters at a time.
In as much as this issue has raised a lot of controversies, debates and arguments. I formally believed that a priest can do his work better as an unmarried man than getting married. Read to see what buttressed my view;
PRIEST AS CHRIST’S REPRESENTATIVE ON EARTH.
A Priest is to be Christ’s earthly representative, thus is expected to live as Christ did. This cannot be achieved with a wife in how Christ was a dual personality. He was fully God and fully human. Being fully human would have made him a great candidate for marriage. He surely knew how to love, being to the same time fully God means he’s love. So there has to be a bigger and better reason why Jesus did not get married. It’s not because he did not experience love. Remember He is Love. So he married all of us to fulfill the promise of salvation that his father made to all of us through the sacred covenant that he repeated to his key people through the ages. However, the reason why catholic Priests do not marry transcends their aspiration to be like Jesus. They do not get married to a single woman because they are called to concentrate themselves to God’s mission to all of us just as Jesus did. They are therefore married to the church and need not another marriage.
THE FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES OF INVOLVING MARRIAGE IN PRIESTHOOD
Most Roman Catholic Priests, especially diocesan ones receive a substantial portion of their pay in the form of in-kind contributions; this would be difficult to maintain if a Priest took on a wife and children, and their pay would have to be increased as well. Many churches are having enough financial problems right now without looking marriage in Priesthood to it.
The church cannot afford to face the distraction of fighting for the salvation of such as well as fighting on how to source fund to raise the family of a Priest in the parish. A Priest should therefore live above this canal attachment and help the church focused its Pastoral and Ministerial Duties to the Greater Glory of God.
MANY ARE CALLED BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN
So, many people are of the view that the population of Priest will increase exponentially if they are allowed to marry. Of course counting on the biblical paraphrase that the “Harvest is rich but the Labourers are few” it seems seriously that the available Priest are too small to handle the pastoral duties. The above assertion has no statistical backup and is irrelevant. A Priest is bound to sacrifice himself through three vows in which celibacy is one of them. In scarifying himself he has denounced all worldly possessions and attachment for his good and the good of the church. No one expect everybody to be priest hence those who can live up to the three vows are opportune if they are called. For many are called but few are chosen.
IN CONCLUSION
Priests do not denigrate marriage, neither in their minds nor in their actions. Priests are convinced that marriage is a holy union with all the benefits that you can enumerate. Priests also know that the life of a celibate is full of none that comes from the support of fellow Priest, kind hearted parishioners and friends. These form the core and the periphery of the support system of love for the priests.
The Priest knows that his place is to be a living sacrifice of Jesus. The Priest knows also that he is the suffering lamb brought to the altar of sacrifice for the salvation of the flock. Priesthood being a self decision that goes in parripassion with calling offers one the opportunity to review the Priestly life and the three Sacred Vows before opting to join or to go for something else. So a priest should carefully chose between living a married life to a woman and living a Priestly life which means married to the church. But he should not choose the two at the same time, since he cannot serve two “Masters” at once. And I believed if he has the two “Masters” he will opt to serve his wife that is physical first before considering God. Therefore Priest should only marry the church.
