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“It is especially important that
the priest understand the theological motivation
of the Church’s law on celibacy.
Inasmuch as it is a law, it expresses the Church’s will,
even before the will of the subject expressed by his readiness.
But the will of the Church finds its ultimate motivation
in the link between celibacy and sacred ordination,
which configures the priest to Jesus Christ
the Head and Spouse of the Church.
The Church, as the spouse of Jesus Christ,
wishes to be loved by the priest
in the total and exclusive manner
in which Jesus Christ her Head and Spouse loved her.
Priestly celibacy, then, is the gift of self
in and with Christ to His Church
and expresses the priest’s service to the Church
in and with the Lord.“For an adequate priestly spiritual life,
Holy Father John Paul II, Apostolic exhortation Pastores dabo vobis, #29 [link]
celibacy ought not to be considered and lived
as an isolated or purely negative element,
but as one aspect of the positive, specific
and characteristic approach to being a priest.”
