Priests and Marriage

Although priests do not marry once ordained into the priesthood, the Eastern rites of the Church do have instances where married men are ordained to the priesthood. But, the Latin rite has very few married men. In both of these rites, it is very rare for a priest to marry after ordination into the priesthood. There are legitimate reasons that are theological and canonical to why a priest in the Latin rite cannot marry.

Priests are thought to serve in the place of Jesus Christ and are shaped to be more like Jesus through their ministry. Because priests remain celibate, they devote themselves to the service of the Church and more precisely model and consecrate themselves to Jesus. Like Christ, although Jesus was married to the Church in the mystical sense, they are not married. Jesus says that none of us are going to be married in Heaven. So, through their celibacy, priests live a life that is closer to all of our final state in the Kingdom of God. Also, priests is more attentive to serving God when they are not married or in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. These are theological reason to the question of why priests cannot get married.

Now, like I mentioned before, there are also canonical reasons that explain why a priest cannot marry. Priests that belong to religious orders take vows of celibacy. But, diocesan priests make a promise of celibacy although they do not necessarily take vows. Also, the Church blocks the validity of marriages attempted by those who have been ordained through the establishment of restrictions. In Canon 1087, it says that "Persons who are in holy orders invalidly attempt marriage." The only way for a priest to ever get married validly is if he receives a dispensation from the Holy See. Nothing else that he tries to do can get him a valid marriage, including the commitment of
apostasy.