National Catholic Register Interviews Rev. Gary B. Selin (’89) on Priestly Celibacy

“In the late 1970s, the Vatican hired a company to clean the Sistine Chapel,” begins Rev. Gary B. Selin (’89), offering an analogy to help explain a subject about which he has become a widely recognized expert — the Church’s teaching on priestly celibacy.

“Centuries of candle soot had darkened [the chapel’s] many beautiful images, rendering them dark,” he continues. “Some art historians theorized that Michelangelo held a dark, foreboding view of the creation, and thus he projected his angst onto the frescoes. But once the chapel was cleaned, people were amazed by its bright, vivid colors. Michelangelo was giving us a brilliant and bright view of the Catholic faith.”

So it is with celibacy, says Fr. Selin in a newly published interview with the National Catholic Register. “In the same way, many people maintain a dark view of priestly celibacy, seeing it as a yoke and burden that oppresses priests. But this viewpoint is due to the darkness of ignorance about the theological reasons for celibacy. If we allow our minds to be cleansed by the rich teaching of the Church, we will see that celibacy is bright, beautiful and Christ-like.”

An assistant professor and the formation director at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Fr. Selin is the author of Priestly Celibacy: Theological Foundations, which proposes a systematic theology of priestly celibacy, ordered around the Eucharist. The inspiration for the book was a talk he heard, as a seminarian, by Francis Cardinal Stafford, Major Penitentiary Emeritus of the Apostolic Penitentiary (and the College’s 2003 Commencement Speaker). That talk led Fr. Selin to choose priestly celibacy as the subject for his doctoral dissertation, which later became Priestly Celibacy: Theological Foundations (with a foreword by none other than Cardinal Stafford).

“Through my research into the biblical, patristic and magisterial sources, I discovered that the principle reason for celibacy is that it perfects the configuration of the priest with Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church,” Fr. Selin tells the Register.  “Consequently, the priest is more freely able to give himself to the Church. It enables him to be a father with undivided love, as well as shepherd, servant and bridegroom toward the Church.”

A celibate priest, he observes, “is a signpost, reminding us that this life is not the only one we have. We are created to be with the Triune God forever in heaven, where we will be like God, for we shall see Him as He is.”