Can Priests Go Hunting? The Council of Trent provides an answer…

It’s hunting season, and with all the clamor about “guns and Christian men” in the previous post about “manly Christmas gifts,” I did a quick search and found an interesting article about “hunting” in the Catholic Encyclopedia over at NewAdvent.org.

There has never been a prohibition against hunting for laymen. However, there is quite a controversial history concerning clerical hunting. The Council of Trent, for example, made the formal distinction between clamorous (clamorosa) hunting and quiet (quieta) hunting. (Session XXIV, 12). “Clamorous hunting” is forbidden to priests. However, “quiet hunting” is allowed.

Clamorous hunting likely refers to the large hunting parties that are sometimes associated with dogs, drinking, and lasciviousness. It is clear that this type of gathering would not be proper for a priest. “Quiet hunting” would be more like laying traps in the woods or going out alone with a deer rifle.

In the “Corpus Juris Canonici” (C. ii, X, De cleric. venat.) we read: “We forbid to all servants of God hunting and expeditions through the woods with hounds; and we also forbid them to keep hawks or falcons.” The Fourth Council of the Lateran, held under Pope Innocent III, decrees (can. xv): “We interdict hunting or hawking to all clerics.” It seems here that there is a worry that hunting and hawking takes too much time for recreation. We imagine modern canons to read “golfing.”

I don’t know where canon law stands today, but I thought you might find the history of the questoin to be rather interesting.

Happy Hunting,

Taylor

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