Apostolskie korzenie celibatu kapłańskiego

Abstract

A discussion on celibacy, and especially the justification for its existence in Church has constantly been a burning issue inspired by various, frequently diverse, motivations. On the one hand pastoral care about the Church makes some people ask a question whether the demand of celibacy is not too difficult a barrier, often impossible to overcome by candidates for priesthood, especially that celibacy is not essentially connected with the Sacrament of priesthood and the history of the Church knows priests who were married. For others, imbued with modem culture which glorifies carnality of a human being, it is difficult to understand and accept the fact that a voluntary resignation from married life – which for many people constitutes the only space of love between man and woman and a basic form and manifestation of man's social life is possible. Most varied opinions appear in the discussion, from the ones that celibacy comes straight from God's establishment to the ones which perceive it as a disciplinary resolution introduced by an ecclesiastical institution which started no earlier than 4th century, and some claim that only since Lateran Council II, i.e., since 1139. Still others see it as a concession on the part of the Roman Church in favour of gnosticism or manicheism and these movements in Church, which, supporting strict spiritualism, actually depreciated marriage. Finally, there are some, who, trying to reconcile in some way several hundred years of the functioning of the Church with the demands of present times, suggest that celibacy should be treated as a voluntarily accepted charisma, which, however, should not be the subject of ecclestiastical discipline obligatory for all candidates for priesthood. It is characteristic that all these opinions refer to the practice of the early Church, yet interpret the same facts in a different way. The arguments are constructed on the basis of history. A need therefore arises to once again investigate the origins of celibacy. Is its present form in any way connected with the teaching of the Apostles and the practice of the Church of the first centuries, or is it rather an autonomic creation of the late institution?