The belief that religious figures should be celibate [not to marry; not to have sexual relations] began long before the birth of Christianity. Ancient Druid priests were thought to have been celibate and Aztec temple priests were expected to remain sexually abstinent. Other pre-Christian sects mandated that the people chosen for their sacrificial offerings must be pure, meaning that they had never engaged in sex.
Jesus lived a chaste life and never married and at one point in the Bible is referred to as a eunuch (Matthew 19:12). Many of his disciples were also chaste and celibate. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, recommends celibacy for women:”To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.” (1 Cor. 7:8-9) But the early Christian church had no hard and fast rule against clergy marrying and having children. Peter, a Galilee fisherman, whom the Catholic Church considers the first Pope, was married. Some Popes were the sons of Popes.
The first written mandate requiring priests to be chaste came in AD 304 [nearly 3 centuries after Jesus died].
The Church was a thousand years old before it definitively took a stand in favor of celibacy in the twelfth century at the Second Lateran Council held in 1139, when a rule was approved forbidding priests to marry. In 1563, the Council of Trent reaffirmed the tradition of celibacy.
That’s some of the history. Roman Catholic priests still don’t marry because there’s still a lot of priestly work, the work Jesus called priests to do in His name. Celibacy is considered an important part of the priesthood, a sign of a priest’s commitment to God and service. Today, though, there are some exceptions to the rule of unmarried clergy. Anglican ministers who were already married when they joined the Catholic Church are allowed to remain married if they choose to join the priesthood.
The Catholic Church distinguishes between dogma and regulations. The male-only priesthood is Catholic dogma, irreversible by papal decree. The ban on marriage is considered a regulation. That means the pope could change it overnight if he wished.
