A Celibate Clergy

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 12, 23 March 1905, Page 1

A Celibate Clergy

In antiquity (according to Max O'Rell) most men of genius were bachelors— Homer, Plato, Virgil, Hotrace, Hannibal, Alexander the Oreat, and hea\en knows how many more. ' Many gieat men,' says the French humorist, ( ha\e avoiden matrimony. On the other hand, butchers, bakers, and grocers nave at all times been married.' He might ha\e added the Reformed clergy to his list. Matrimony is, in fact, the com mo 1 lot, and few of them escape it. And jet Lorn di>eis points of the Reformed compass there come at \anous times demands for a celibate clergy Ileie, for instance, is one of the reforms urged by Di . Needlwm Cust in his ' Missionaiy Methods ' .— 1 Let no male missionary marry till he has had te n years' ser\ice in the field. Encourage Biotherho o ds and Sisterhoods, as a matter of administrate coiuenience and economy.' Pa-1 Blouet, no doubt, sr-o^e the language of hyperbole when he said that it requires an ounce of courage to get married and a ton of it to remain mariied. A short time ago complaint was made in a northern Synod in New Zealand that so many of the cleigy persisted in displaying that particular form of heroism. The 4 Outlook ' (Dun Odin) has the following editorial pronouncement in its Methodist department in refeience to the recant Conference in Wellington :— 4 Tne present Conference has afforded quite a variety of gymnastic exercises— that is, of a mental character. The question was, What circuits are due to provide for married prdaehers What a pity all preachers are nod celibates ' Weie that so, then there should be an end of all difficulty s<o far as stationing is concerned. At anyrate that seems to be the opinion of not a few men and circuits.' From America there comes a still more emphatic cry for a celibate Protestant clergy. It is voiced editorially by the ' Living Churcn,' a Protestant Episcopalian organ :— ' Disguise the fact as we may, the conditions which confront us at the present time can only be successfully faced by men who are willing to enter the ministry with a -view toward probably remaining celibate for life. The th)ousand-dollar-and-a-house benefices are all filled, and the rush of applicants for any vacancy causes shame to one whose ideals for the priesthood are high. . The men required to-day for the priesthood of

the American Church (Protestant Episcopalian) are those who co\et the sipecial blessing of our Lord : " Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My name's sake shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." ' Sometimes, no doubt, such appeals for a celibate clergy are based on nothing higher than considerations of parochial finajnoe. But many of our separated brethren are, no doubt, from time to time stumbling across the seventh chapter of St. Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians and reading aright the lessons that lie s 0 plain upon its suifa.ee. All tlrs is an e\il augury for the filthy tongues of the unclean frauds and impostors who, under the title of ' ex-priests ' and ' escaped nuns,' sometimes inflict their malodorous presence upon our shores.