QUOTATION: Priestly Celibacy

If you lose sight of the supernatural, you will never understand why there should be a celibate clergy.

--Alice Von Hildebrand

QUOTATION: Virtue in the Priesthood

If any one receive Holy Orders without having led the requisite good life, not only would he himself commit a mortal sin, but also the bishop who confers them upon him without having been morally certain, by sufficient proofs, of the good conduct of the candidate.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Homosexuality and the Priesthood

Homosexuality is incompatible with the priestly vocation. Otherwise, celibacy itself would lose its meaning as a renunciation.

--Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World, 2010

QUOTATION: The Power of the Priesthood

Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them: ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall be loosed.’ Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they can only bind the body. Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens. Did [God] not give them all the powers of heaven?...What greater power is there than this? The Father has given all judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men. They are raised to this dignity as if they were already gathered up to heaven.

--St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Women and the Priesthood

The divine law indeed has excluded women from this ministry, but they endeavour to thrust themselves into it; and since they can effect nothing of themselves, they do all through the agency of others.

–St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Who Should Be a Priest?

When one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also.

–-St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Virginity and the Priesthood

To sow the seeds of perfect purity and to arouse a desire for virginity has always belonged to the function of the priesthood.

--St. Ambrose, De Virginitate 5: 26

QUOTATION: The Priesthood

[The] priesthood is not transmitted by heredity or human descent. It does not emanate from the Christian community. It is not a delegation from the people. Prior to acting as representative of the community before the throne of God the priest is the ambassador of the divine Redeemer.

--Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei