Angelo Roncalli and Priestly Celibacy

Angelo Roncalli and Priestly Celibacy | Fr. Brian Van Hove, S.J. | Ignatius Insight

(Note: The following was originally posted on Ignatius Insight in June 2008.)

Since his death on June 3, 1963, many biographies and studies of Pope John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli) have appeared. In the month of his death was the article of Roger Aubert, "Jean XXIII: Un 'pape de transition' qui marquera dans l'histoire". The same year, and revised in 1981, is Leone Algisi's John the Twenty-Third / Giovanni XXIII. In 1965 there appeared that of Edward Elton Young Hales, Pope John and His Revolution. In 1973 Pope John XXIII by Paul Johnson, and in 1979 Bernard R. Bonnot's Pope John XXIII: An Astute, Pastoral Leader.

We are told the writer who had access to the greatest quantity of primary, original sources is Peter Hebblethwaite. In 1984 the British edition of his John XXIII: Pope of the Council appeared, and in 1985 the American version was published as Pope John XXIII: Shepherd of the Modern World. [1] The Hebblethwaite contribution is considered the "definitive" biography. It was reprinted in 1994. In 2000 and 2005 it was reprinted in a revised and abridged edition by Margaret Hebblethwaite, Peter Hebblethwaite's wife whom he married after leaving the priesthood and the Society of Jesus.

Yet Hebblethwaite never refers to the only source we have on Angelo Roncalli and the question of priestly celibacy. This is curious because the topic has recurred as a burning one during the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, at the time of the French Revolution, and during the Restoration period of the nineteenth century, especially in the German universities. After the collapse of the Austrian Empire it was addressed specifically by the famous consistorial allocution of Pope Benedict XV on December 16, 1920, when Benedict said priestly celibacy was "irrevocable". A formal schism in Bohemia ensued. [2]

In the period of the Second Vatican Council this was even more exacerbated with reports of neo-concubinage being practiced in parts of Western Europe, South America, Africa, and the Philippines. Some bishops at the Council wanted the question re-examined. The rationale for abolishing it is not new, either, because as early as the time immediately following the French Revolution the "shortage of priests" has been traditionally adduced as sufficient in itself to merit a change in what is looked upon as mere discipline.

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