The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

"456 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.Although celibacy is not expressly enforced byour Saviour, it is, however, commended so stronglyby Himself and His Apostles, both by word andexample, that the Church felt it to be her duty toenforce it as a law.The discipline of the Church has been exertedfrom the beginning, in prohibiting Priests to marryaftertheir ordination. St. Jerome observes thatbishops, priests,and deacons are chosen from virgins or widowers, or at least, they remain perpetually chaste after being elevated to the priesthood/ lAnd to Jovinian, he writes: "Youcertainly admitthat he cannot remain a bishop who begets childrenin the Episcopacy ; for, if convicted, he will not beesteemed as a husband, but condemned as anterer."adul2And again he says: "What will thechurches of the East, of Egypt, and of the Apostolic See do, which adopt their clergy from amongvirgins, or if they have wives, they cease to live asmarried men." 8St. Epiphauius declares that "he who leads amarried life is not admitted by the Church to theor sub-deacon."*order of deacon, priest, bishop,In the primitive days of the Church, owing to thescarcity of vocations among the unmarried, marriedmen were admitted to sacred orders, but they wereenjoined,as we learn from various canons, to liveseparatedfrom their wives after their ordination.MEp. ad Pammach. *Adv. Jovin., lib. L*Adv. Vigilantium. * Hseres. 59, c. 4.