Q: Were all the apostles single men when they began to follow Jesus? Is there anything in the Bible on this? Is that why the Catholic Church ordains only single men?
A: We know that the apostle Peter had been married, but it is not clear if he was a widower when he began following Jesus. The cure of Peter’s mother-in-law is described in Matthew 8:14-15 (with similar accounts in Mark 1:29-31 and Luke 4:38-39). Some of the other apostles may have been married.
In 1 Corinthians 9:5, St. Paul asks, “Do we not have the right to take along a Christian wife, as do the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Kephas?”
The author of the Letter to Titus says that a presbyter (whom we identify as a priest) should be “married only once, with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious” (1:6b).
The Catholic Church has authorized the ordination of married, former Episcopal priests or Protestant ministers. The Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches will ordain as priests men who have already married, but they do not allow men who were single when they were ordained to marry later.
