Married and Ordained. The Minor Leagues of the Catholic Clergy
At a recent Wednesday general audience, Benedict XVI once again invited priests to "rediscover in its beauty and power the free choice of celibacy for the kingdom of heaven.
"He did so in commenting on Psalm 119, where it says: "My portion is the Lord." A citation that had already been the hinge of the first and most extensive exposition of the reasons for clerical celibacy made by Joseph Ratzinger after his election as pope, in his address to the Roman curia on Devember 22, 2006:
Benedict XVI, in fact, attributes a radically theological and theocentric foundation to the "celibacy that applies to the bishops of the whole Church, Eastern and Western, and, according to a tradition that dates back to close to the time of the apostles, to priests in general in the Latin Church."
There are, however, some who see an unresolved contradiction in this last description of the state of affairs.
It is true, in fact, that the bishops of both the Latin and Eastern rites, both Catholic and Orthodox, are all celibate, without exception, and the overwhelming majority of priests of the Latin rite are also celibate.
Sandro Magister
