"The priests who vow celibacy are witnesses of the invisible, sentinels of hope"

Jean de Saint-Chéron is an essayist and has published

Les bons Christians

Christianity is a crazy story. What do you want. It is the religion of all excess. We have known that from the start. “

”, as Saint Paul said (1 Cor 1,23). Celibacy “for the Kingdom”, according to the consecrated formula, that is to say for the love of God and of men, whether it concerns religious, consecrated laity or even priests, manifests a little of this madness. “

,” adds Paul, “

"(1 Cor 1,24). For Christians, the "foolishness" of Christianity is a picture of the wisdom of God. However, it is always the latter that clashes with our very down to earth common sense, when we try to understand religion.

Regarding the celibacy of priests in the Latin Catholic Church - where only celibate men are ordained priests, while in the East, including in the Catholic Church, it is possible to ordain married men - the debate is not new, of course. In the fourth century, Saint John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, recalled during debates on priestly mores: “

. However, we know very well that it is more complicated than that. But why then does the Church persist in taking her priests from among celibates whomshe calls to keep this state?

That we establish a link between the discipline of celibacy and priests who leave with a parishioner or, more tragically, who lead a double life in the shadows, so be it.

But with pedocriminality! ... Such a suspicion of causality is based moreover on a strange conception of man's natural inclinations.

Jean de Saint-Chéron

In 1967, at a time when sexual continence was not really in tune with the times, Pope Paul VI split an encyclical soberly entitled

He presented in detail the threefold significance of priestly celibacy: correspondence to the celibate Christ; radical gift of oneself to the people of God; testimony of eternal life. Far from any angelism, the text was not only well embodied - and did not elude the ordeal of celibacy, even chosen freely and out of love, in the life of a man - but upheld the great objections of the world and of "pragmatism". The letter opened with a presentation of these objections (historical complexity of the question of celibacy; shortage of priests; "violence against nature"; risk of infidelity to celibacy and therefore defrocking, etc.). This list remains very current in 2021, and critics of priestly celibacy lacking ideas would be well advised togo there to draw new arguments for their dinners in town.

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Before attempting to shed light, by a very fragmentary reminder of what Christianity really is, the meaning of priestly celibacy, there is a contemporary objection that we hear, that we read, and that spawns today a path in the meanders of certain visibly very enlightened consciences: there would be a causality between priestly celibacy and the abominable crimes revealed by the Sauvé report. It is extremely painful for me to have to recall here that the vast majority of pedophile crimes are committed by men who have not vowed celibacy, and who already have one, one, or more sexual partners. belonging to the category of consenting adults. It is painful to recall it, but surely someone needs to take care of it. Thata link is established between the discipline of celibacy and priests who leave with a parishioner or, more tragically, who lead a double life in the shadows, that is to say. But with pedocriminality! ... Such a suspicion of causality is based moreover on a strange conception of man's natural inclinations. And it would be a very poor vision of marriage to see it as a remedy for the worst sexual turpitudes.

After mentioning this absurdity, it should be remembered that the meaning of celibacy can in no way be limited to an ecclesiastical discipline, as an "obligatory burden" imposed on all those who wish to become priests. On the contrary, it should be understood that the Latin Catholic Church only calls its priests among those who choose to be celibate. And if you are a Roman Catholic of the Latin Rite, not feeling "called" to celibacy is an excellent indication that you are simply not called to be a priest. (Another folly that only faith can recognize as wisdom).

The celibacy of priests is incomprehensible, of course!

But Christ himself proclaims about those who renounce marriage "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" that only "he who can understand it" can understand.

Jean de Saint-Chéron

Once we have said that, let us not avoid the question of the struggle that remains to be lived for those who are called to celibacy. It is not a question of pretending to be innocent, disembodied or naive, as if nothing had happened. But to recognize the ordeal in order to discover its deep meaning, the greatness, the mysterious joy of a given and prophetic life, according to the testimony of so many priests to beautiful and fruitful lives, today and throughout the years. story. This joy escapes anyone who refuses to hear that in Christianity "

" (1 Cor 1,25). But let us at least understand that the "madness of God" is always ordered to love, and no Christian radicalism can lead to violent fanaticism - which is rather the mark ofan absence of god.

Father Albert Chapelle, a great Jesuit theologian, wrote in 1977 in

that “

However, only the mystery of the Gospel, as well as the mystery of a specific vocation, can bring into the understanding of an act as high as that of voluntary renunciation of man's natural vocation (marriage), which is a good and archi-good thing. Let us rule out immediately that in Christian spirituality marriage would not be seen as a radical choice, a gift of one's life out of love. The celibacy of priests is incomprehensible, of course! But Christ himself proclaims about those who renounce marriage

that only

Now those who at the same time

can understand

and are called to embrace this life form only a tiny part of the population (otherwise the birth rate would take a hit).

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What can we lay people, believers or not, understand? Certain priests themselves confess that they did not understand until very late the meaning of celibacy to which they had felt called years earlier, undoubtedly discerning the greatness of radical love, without fully grasping it. Such is the case of Mgr Gobilliard, auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Lyon, who evokes the “cross” of celibacy and the “suffering” of renouncing being a father according to the flesh, while expressing the very high joy of this sacrifice:

, he writes.

I think I understood the celibacy of priests!

Well explain it to me because I did not understand everything!

When you are there, I rest in your heart! […] There is no one in your heart that you should love more than me when you are next to me. Your heart is free to be for me all alone, and that is what rests me. […] If you were married, then I would know that there is someone in your heart more important than me and that would be normal. Same if you had kids. […]

”. It was by discovering that he had chosen to be a poor among the poor that the one who was then a mature priest understood the meaning of what he had been experiencing for fifteen years.

Priests who vow celibacy are witnesses of the invisible, like sentinels of hope.

They testify that, in the words of Teresa of Avila, God alone is sufficient to fill human life.

They tell us that we are made to give ourselves completely and to live forever.

Jean de Saint-Chéron

The supernatural question, when it comes to Christianity, cannot be avoided. That's always what you have to come back to. Because nothing is more concrete than the celibacy of a priest, nor more mysterious. It is a physical, visible, difficult reality, the meaning of which repeated by Pope Paul VI more than fifty years ago reveals the high dignity of man, capable of loving beyond his strength, and so of talk about the invisible. If the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God, Christianity has the audacity to teach that it is because the wisdom of the world does not look far enough. "

" (Mt 16,23), Christ said to Peter, frightened at the idea of ​​the cross.

Consecrated celibacy does not demean either the dignity of the sexual act or the splendor of marriage. He says in a more supernatural way, in an incomprehensible way perhaps to our too anxious minds to no longer enjoy, that love is a total gift of oneself, and that Christians are already living another life, eternally joyful. . Priests who vow celibacy are witnesses of the invisible, like sentinels of hope. They testify that, in the words of Teresa of Avila, God alone is sufficient to fill human life. They tell us that we are made to give ourselves completely and to live forever.

Faced with such a high meaning, we can better perceive the wound caused to the whole Church by infidelity to this celibacy.

We also perceive how much - beyond all the fallacious arguments modeled on the spirit of the world - the Catholic Church of the Latin rite would lose of its prophetism, even misunderstood or misunderstood, by returning to this discipline which does not want it to be. ordains priests as celibates.

We will never be able to understand Christianity and its bewildering madness if we stop considering that a Christian is someone who truly believes in the resurrection of Christ, in his flesh.

And who says that life is eternal.