Was there a time is history when catholic priests were allowed to be married?

I heard this was true prior to the eleventh century. If so, was the practice


approved by the church and what happened to change this practice?Was there a time is history when catholic priests were allowed to be married?
You are correct in 1054 a ruling came down regarding celibacy and marriage ... Making a married man ineligible to become a priest and making a priest ineligible to marry.....





See link for details as there is an East/West issue etc. the website explains.. .. Particularly the sections titles Clerical Celibacy and After the Great Schism





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priesthood_…Was there a time is history when catholic priests were allowed to be married?
Some are married today. If a married Anglican priest converts, he is allowed to be a married priest. There are dozens in the United States.





After proper examination by his Catholic bishop and with the permission of the Holy Father, he would be then ordained first as a Catholic transitional deacon and then as a priest. If the former Episcopalian minister were single at the time of his ordination as a Catholic deacon and then priest, he would indeed take the vow of celibacy. If the married former Episcopalian minister were ordained as a Catholic deacon and then priest, he would be exempt by a special favor from the Holy Father of making the promise of celibacy; however, if he later became a widower, then he would be bound to a celibate lifestyle and could not remarry.
No ever since St. Paul's time he has taught that priests should remain unmarried and that rule was put into effect and has not changed. During the middle ages there was a truly ';dark age'; and some of the priests and Bishops disobeyed their orders like the few recently---and had children out of wedlock and other things they should have been ashamed of. There have been many married Anglican priests that have petitioned for full Communion and have been welcomed into the fold as a priest and they have been given special dispensations and they can remain married and still be a priest.





And yes, the Eastern Rite priests can be married, but not the Roman Rite Catholic priests unless they have a special dispensation as mentioned
From what I've understood it wasn't really allowed, but it went on. The Church did not stop it. It was considered better to be unmarried and celibate, but it wasn't required.





It has always been thought that it was better for a priest to be celibate and unmarried, like Christ. A married priest was expected to abstain from sex on the night before he celebrated the Eucharist.





But it wasn't that the Church used to think it was okay to be married and now they don't, it was always considered better to be unmarried if you were a priest. Now it is a necessary discipline of the priesthood.
Yes. In fact, most of the early popes were married.





As a matter of fact, there are at least a dozen married men serving as Catholics Priests today. They were Methodist Priests who converted to Catholic.





In the Eastern Catholic Church, n the early 20th Century, married men could and did become Priests. In my time as a Catholic, I had the extreme pleasure to know one of the last married men to become a Catholic Priest. His father was also a Priest, and his son was a Priest for a while. His wife was one of the most sainted ladies I ever knew.





The Eastern Orthodox Church still today allows married men to be ordained Priests. Only celibate men can be elevated to Bishops though. In the Russian Church, the title MATUSHKA refers to the wife of a Priest. She plays an important role in the life of Church, and is often just as respected as her husband. The Church I was baptized in was founded by Fr. Peter, and later was under the Pastorship of his Son Fr. Nick until his retirement.





Married Priests are a good thing, and there should be more of it. As it is only a matter of Faith, someday the Pope, or a future Pope may reverse the decision and allow married Priests again.
Contrary to what some of my fellow Catholics have told you, YES Catholic priests at one time were not held to a vow of celibacy.





I can't remember when it began (I believe some time in the 8th or 9th century), but it began for a few reasons, some of which include freeing the priests of family obligation (thus making them better shepherds) as well as fixing the issue of inheritance rights (among any children of priests).





This of course is only a disciplinary issue and so only priests and bishops of the Roman rite are required to follow it.





Recently, some excpetions have been made for former-Protestant priests who convert to Catholicism AFTER marrying. This requires the approval of the Pope himself though.





As others have stated, Eastern rite Catholic churches have no such celibacy requirement.








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ETA: You were correct in the date (roughly). It was around the 11th century that the Catholic Church deemed clerical marriages not only illicit but also INVALID. Prior to this, clerical marriage was also illicit, but at least considered valid.





It seems that Clerical *continence* (not the abstinence of marriage but the abstinence of SEX) was widely practiced in Christendom since the 1st century.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_ce…
Yes.





It took about a thousand years for the Church to become spiritually mature enough to start following the advice and example of Jesus and Paul.





The celibate clergy did not come into full bloom until about 1000 C.E. There were married and celibate priests, bishops, and popes before this time.





Priests, religious brothers and religious sisters (nuns) as part of their vocation choose not to marry following:


+ The practice recommended in the Bible


+ The example of Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, and the Apostle Paul.





+++ Scripture +++





In Matthew 19:12, Jesus says, ';Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.';





In Matthew 19:29, Jesus says, ';And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.';





Matthew 22:30 - Jesus explains, ';At the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven.';





In 1 Corinthians 7:1, Paul writes, ';It is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman.';





Then in 1 Corinthians 7:7, Paul says, ';Indeed, I wish everyone to be as I am.';





In 1 Corinthians 7:27, Paul writes, ';Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife.';





In 1 Corinthians 7:32-33, Paul teaches, ';I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.'; And in verse 38, ';So then, the one who marries his virgin does well; the one who does not marry her will do better.';





Paul recommends celibacy for full time ministers in the Church so that they are able to focus entirely upon God and building up His kingdom. He “who refrains from marriage will do better.”





See also 1 Timothy 5:9-12, 2 Timothy 2:3-4, Revevation 14:4, Isaiah 56:3-7, and Jeremiah 16:1-4.





+++ Scriptural Examples +++





Biblical role models of a celibate clergy came from John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul.





John the Baptist and Jesus are both believed to have been celibate for their entire lives. Some scholars believe that the example of the Essenes influenced either or both Jesus and John the Baptist in their celibacy.





WWJD? What would Jesus do? Jesus did not marry.





The Apostle Paul is explicit about his celibacy (see 1 Cor. 7). There is also evidence in the gospel of Matthew for the practice of celibacy among at least some early Christians, in the famous passage about becoming “eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:12).





The concept took many twists and turns over the years and will probably take a few more before Christ returns in glory.





A priest is ';married'; to the Church. Some people think that a priest who takes his duties seriously cannot take proper care of a wife and family.





With love in Christ.
The Essenes, the Jewish sect that Joseph and Mary belonged to, practiced celibacy. Being uncommon does not mean being unheard of.





Celibacy had always been with the Church, but it was not a requirement. Bishops could only marry once, but be celibate after their wife died. That is what St. Paul meant when he said that bishops should have one wife. Not should have a wife.





Celibacy is not a doctrine. It never was.





It is a disciple, found primarily in the priests of the Latin or Roman Rite. (the largest) There are 23 rites that are in full communion with the Pope and most of them have married priests.





In the case of a married Protestant minister who becomes Catholic, he could become a married priest. There are many former Anglicans who are ordained Catholic priests in the Roman rite and still have their families.





Jesus and Paul RECOMMEND celibacy for full time ministers of the church. They did not command it. There was never a time when the Church did not have celibates.





The belief and practices always preceed later development and definition. Because something is clarified and the understanding is deepened at a later date does not mean it was something that was invented.





When the Son of God came into the world, He surrounded His Incarnation with the aura of chastity. His mother, He made sure, would miraculously conceive Him without carnal intercourse. She would be a virgin before birth, in birth and after birth, as the Church solemnly teaches. Christ was in the words of the liturgy, flos matrius virginis (the flower of a virgin mother). Indeed, He made sure he was brought up in the virginal family of Mary and Joseph. Christ, further, all through His stay on earth, stayed a virgin. He never married.





During His public life, He showed special love for pure souls, such as the two Johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist. Christ could not have spoken more laudably about anyone than He did about John the Baptist, who, Christian revelation in her Tradition tells us, was a virgin. And the Evangelist, as he modestly admits without identifying himself by name, was the one whom Jesus specially loved.





The great apostle St. Paul, faithful interpreter of the New Law and of the mind of Christ, preached the inestimable value of virginity. In view of the more fervent service of God, and gave the reason when he said, “An unmarried man can devote himself to the Lord’s affairs. All he need worry about is pleasing the Lord” (1 Cor 7:32).





All of this clear revelation of the New Testament had almost inevitable consequences. The priests of the New Covenant felt the heavenly affection of this virtue. They sought to be of the number of those to whom in Christ’s prediction, it is given to take this Word (cf. Matt 19:12). They felt if anyone has the grace as Christ said some would have the grace to remain celibate, surely it ought to be the priests. And from the very beginning, the first century, they spontaneously bound themselves to celibate observance.





This, I think, bears more emphasis than we normally give it. There is so much talk these days about imposition, about constraint, about placing heavy, inhuman obligations. The facts of the case are just the opposite. Priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church began as a voluntary, spontaneous desire on the part of the Church’s priests to follow in the footsteps of Christ. So it came about that the practice in the Latin Church. We see the sanction of ecclesiastical law. I repeat, law followed spontaneous choice, not the other way around. There first were celibate priests, and then wisely and understandably, the Church made laws building on what then had already become part of the Church’s Tradition.





Already in 305 A.D. (that’s very early), before the Church’s liberation under Constantine, the Council of Elvira in Spain passed the following decree: “That bishops, priests and deacons, and in general all the clergy, who are specially employed in the service of the altar, abstain from conjugal intercourse. Let those who persist be degraded from the ranks of the clergy” (Can. 33). And by the end of the fourth century, the Second Council of Carthage in Africa declared, “What the apostles taught in the early Church preserved, let us too observe.” Celibacy, I insist, is not a post factum afterthought of the Church. It is an anti factum, reality, practiced by the Church and wanted by those who wanted to be Christ’s priests.





So the tradition went on. And in the Middle Ages, when the Church in Europe was rocked to her foundations over this law of celibacy, one pontiff after another stood his ground until this law was restore to its original integrity. Behind the Church’s legislation is therefore first of all the revealed fact that the Son of God was a virgin. If a priest is another Christ, it is to be like Christ. It is to portray and preach Christ to the people. Is it not proper that, like his Master, he too should not marry? There is no arguing this point
Yes, currently. Eastern Catholic priests are often married and are part of the ';Catholic'; Church. If they change to the Roman rite, they are accepted as married. The same is true for Anglican priests who re-join the Catholic Church.



Yep.





The practice of preventing Priests to marry was entirely about inheritence--a married priest left his worldly goods to his children. An unmarried priest leaves his worldly possessions to the Chruch.





If you were the Church, which would you prefer?
Not Roman Catholic priests. Only Eastern Catholic priests.
I believe this was one of the issues that spurred the Protestant split from the Roman Catholic Church
Yes, they were allowed to marry. And don't you wish they were allowed to now? Imagine all the little boys that might have been spared from some of the predators amongst them...?
Yes, they can still marry in some eastern orthodox rites.
Peter himself was married.





Marriage is ordained of God. It's part of His plan.



True.
No
no
no never. where did you hear that?