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Clerical marriage is the practice, followed in most Protestant churches, of allowing clergy to marry and have a family.

This is in opposition to the discipline of clerical celibacy currently followed in the Roman Catholic Church, where priests are not allowed to marry, on the principle that this leaves them free to devote their lives fully to the service of the Church and God. However, from time to time married priests have been allowed to transfer from other denominations into the Roman Catholic Church – for example, a number of priests left the Church of England after it admitted women to the priesthood, and were granted entry to the Roman Catholic priesthood.

The tradition of clerical celibacy did not exist in the earliest church, and was not fully enforced even in the Middle Ages. The practice of clerical marriage was reinitiated in Wittenberg in 1521, inspired by the writings of Martin Luther. Luther himself, even though he was a monk, married Katharina von Bora, a nun, in 1525.

The Eastern churches never developed a tradition of enforced clerical celibacy, and parish priests are usually married, although marriage must have occurred before ordination as a deacon (the preliminary step before full priesthood), when the future priest is still laity. However, by tradition bishops are appointed from the clergy who have chosen to remain celibate, usually by taking monastic oaths, or from widowed clergy. Both these traditions are also followed by Eastern Catholic Churches which acknowledge allegiance to the Pope.

Certain groups (notably some of the Brethren fellowships) actually require a prospective pastor to be married before he can be ordained, based on the view (drawn from 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1) that a man must demonstrate the ability to run a household before he can be entrusted with the church. Even in these strictest of groups, a widower may still serve.

In many Protestant circles, there is no requirement that a pastor be married (never married persons are eligible to apply for openings; a divorced person would most likely not be hired in fundamentalist and several evangelical groups). However, in practice churches tend to hire married persons, so as to have the pastor's marriage serve as a "model" for a functioning Christian marriage.

• Recent videotaped interview with Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo (high-speed connection required) October 2006.
• Recent online interview with Archbishop George Stallings, Jr., former Roman Catholic Priest, about "Married Priests Now!" movement.
• Recent online interview with Catholic Priest Father Alan Phillip about the need to revoke mandatory celibacy.

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