04-28-2026, 01:44 PM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
FIFTEENTH OBJECTION. PRIESTS OUGHT TO MARRY. CELIBACY IS CONTRARY TO NATURE.
Answer. Not contrary to nature, but above nature; which is quite different.
Therefore, the chastity of the priest is not natural, but supernatural; it comes from the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the sacrament of holy orders, gives to His ministers a divine character and a supernatural virtue which raises them above other men. God is single and alone; so should His priests be.
"The Great Spirit has no wife," said an Indian chief to an American captain, who proposed to send some Protestant missionaries among them; "His priests should be like Him; since yours are married, we will have nothing to say to them. They resemble ourselves, and would be of no use to us."
Jesus Christ, God made man, preserved perfect continence. His envoy should follow the same path. The disciple is perfect when he resembles his Master.
It is chastity which surrounds the Priest with his divine halo. It is that which invests him with such a moral power, that he has the right of attacking the vices of his brethren, of counselling not only good, but perfection; of consoling penitents, of penetrating secrets so hidden, that the daughter dares not tell them to her mother, the wife to her husband, the brother to his brother.
Marry the Priest; the wonder-worker vanishes, the man alone remains!
The apologists for the marriage of Priests know this well. They desire only one thing: to humanise the Priest, that is to say, to unpriest him.
They see that these men, so uncompromising toward what is wrong, would become the most accommodating in the world, if one could only give them wives and children. Occupied with their own concerns, they would not have much time to occupy themselves with the things which concern God, or attend to the state of their parishioners' consciences.
And, then, heavenly things would be treated of quite freely in the family. To obtain the good will of the parish-priest, his lady would be flattered, one would sigh at the feet of the eldest daughter of his reverence, and admire before their papa the talent, the good looks of the whole saintly progeny, even though they were more stupid than blocks and uglier than scarecrows. The husband-papa-confessor would not hold out against that, and would grant everything that was asked of him.
Woe to the Priest, and woe to us, if a woman — a wife — touch, in this manner, the spring of his power! For, forthwith, "a virtue is gone out of him;" the vivifying virtue which resuscitates souls; the powerful virtue which sustains and encourages them in the ways of God; above all, the virtue of virtues in the priest, that which makes him the arbiter between the heart of God and the heart of man, the virtue of charity!
Yes; charity — that apostolic charity which embraces all men alike, poor and rich, bad and good, strangers and neighbors — it is Virginity which kindles it and keeps it alive.
Continence must first have consecrated without reserve to the service of God that sacerdotal body which charity daily immolates for the relief and salvation of its neighbor.
He may be humane, he may be compassionate, but never will he be a martyr whose heart is occupied with the love of a woman.
He may be touched by the sorrows of widows and orphans, but never will he devote himself to them, who feels that he owes his first affections and his first savings to the support, the education and the future of his own children.
The morsel of bread which he would, perhaps, take from his own mouth to sustain the starving creature at his door, he would not like to snatch from the hands of his son.
The life which, in times of public disease and contagion, he would sacrifice to the salvation of his fellow-men, he owes and will preserve for his family. What are the most generous of resolutions before the tears of a beloved wife and the caresses of a child?
Marriage is the solemn murder of the Priest. If we desire that our Priests should help us to salvation, let us leave them alone with Jesus Christ. Besides, are they so desirous of marrying? Not the least in the world, I assure you.
Since when have people been obliged to marry against their wills?
FIFTEENTH OBJECTION. PRIESTS OUGHT TO MARRY. CELIBACY IS CONTRARY TO NATURE.
Answer. Not contrary to nature, but above nature; which is quite different.
Therefore, the chastity of the priest is not natural, but supernatural; it comes from the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the sacrament of holy orders, gives to His ministers a divine character and a supernatural virtue which raises them above other men. God is single and alone; so should His priests be.
"The Great Spirit has no wife," said an Indian chief to an American captain, who proposed to send some Protestant missionaries among them; "His priests should be like Him; since yours are married, we will have nothing to say to them. They resemble ourselves, and would be of no use to us."
Jesus Christ, God made man, preserved perfect continence. His envoy should follow the same path. The disciple is perfect when he resembles his Master.
It is chastity which surrounds the Priest with his divine halo. It is that which invests him with such a moral power, that he has the right of attacking the vices of his brethren, of counselling not only good, but perfection; of consoling penitents, of penetrating secrets so hidden, that the daughter dares not tell them to her mother, the wife to her husband, the brother to his brother.
Marry the Priest; the wonder-worker vanishes, the man alone remains!
The apologists for the marriage of Priests know this well. They desire only one thing: to humanise the Priest, that is to say, to unpriest him.
They see that these men, so uncompromising toward what is wrong, would become the most accommodating in the world, if one could only give them wives and children. Occupied with their own concerns, they would not have much time to occupy themselves with the things which concern God, or attend to the state of their parishioners' consciences.
And, then, heavenly things would be treated of quite freely in the family. To obtain the good will of the parish-priest, his lady would be flattered, one would sigh at the feet of the eldest daughter of his reverence, and admire before their papa the talent, the good looks of the whole saintly progeny, even though they were more stupid than blocks and uglier than scarecrows. The husband-papa-confessor would not hold out against that, and would grant everything that was asked of him.
Woe to the Priest, and woe to us, if a woman — a wife — touch, in this manner, the spring of his power! For, forthwith, "a virtue is gone out of him;" the vivifying virtue which resuscitates souls; the powerful virtue which sustains and encourages them in the ways of God; above all, the virtue of virtues in the priest, that which makes him the arbiter between the heart of God and the heart of man, the virtue of charity!
Yes; charity — that apostolic charity which embraces all men alike, poor and rich, bad and good, strangers and neighbors — it is Virginity which kindles it and keeps it alive.
Continence must first have consecrated without reserve to the service of God that sacerdotal body which charity daily immolates for the relief and salvation of its neighbor.
He may be humane, he may be compassionate, but never will he be a martyr whose heart is occupied with the love of a woman.
He may be touched by the sorrows of widows and orphans, but never will he devote himself to them, who feels that he owes his first affections and his first savings to the support, the education and the future of his own children.
The morsel of bread which he would, perhaps, take from his own mouth to sustain the starving creature at his door, he would not like to snatch from the hands of his son.
The life which, in times of public disease and contagion, he would sacrifice to the salvation of his fellow-men, he owes and will preserve for his family. What are the most generous of resolutions before the tears of a beloved wife and the caresses of a child?
Marriage is the solemn murder of the Priest. If we desire that our Priests should help us to salvation, let us leave them alone with Jesus Christ. Besides, are they so desirous of marrying? Not the least in the world, I assure you.
Since when have people been obliged to marry against their wills?
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre