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A number ofCatholic priests have served in public office.[1] TheCatholic Church discourages and restricts this practice.
Roman Catholiccanon law discourages and restricts members of the clergy from holding secular civil or political office.Canon 285 of the1983Code of Canon Law, which governs theLatin Church, states that priests "are to avoid those things which, although not unbecoming, are nevertheless foreign to the clerical state" and prohibits clergy from assuming "public offices which entail a participation in the exercise of civil power."[2][3] The same canon makes an exception for priests who have the permission of their bishop.[2][3]
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The constitutions ofBolivia,Costa Rica,El Salvador,Honduras,Nicaragua, andVenezuela prohibit members of the clergy from serving as president.[4] TheConstitution ofParaguay prohibits clergy of any religion from becoming candidates forpresident,vice president,senator,deputy, ordepartmental governor.[5] TheConstitution ofMyanmar prohibits "members of religious orders" from serving as president or as members of thePyithu Hluttaw, the lower house ofparliament.[4][6]Article 130 of the Constitution ofMexico prohibits clergy from holding any public office, among other restrictions.[4][7]
TheBishop of Urgell is a rulingco-prince ofAndorra; the bishop'sex officio role as a monarch has existedsince 1278. The bishop additionally sends apersonal representative to rule as aviceroy in their stead.
Ignaz Seipel, a priest, theologian and academic, served as theForeign Minister of Austria from 1926 to 1929 and in 1930, and served asChancellor of Austria from 1922 to 1924 and 1926 to 1929.
Theodor Innitzer, who would become acardinal andArchbishop of Vienna, served as the Austrian Minister of Social Affairs from 1929 to 1930.
Three Catholic priests have been elected to theHouse of Commons of Canada.
Andrew Hogan was the first Catholic priest to serve as a Canadian Member of Parliament. First elected to represent the electoral district ofCape Breton—East Richmond,Nova Scotia, in the1974 federal election, he was re-elected in1979 but defeated in1980. Hogan was a member of theNew Democratic Party.
Robert Ogle was elected to the House of Commons in 1979 in the electoral district ofSaskatoon East,Saskatchewan. Ogle was re-elected in 1980. He chose not to seek re-election in1984 as a result of the new ban by theHoly See on clergy in public office. Like Hogan, Ogle was a member of the New Democratic Party.
Raymond Gravel was elected in a2006 by-election in the electoral district ofRepentigny,Quebec. He had received a dispensation from his diocesan bishop to enter politics. Gravel did not seek re-election in the2008 federal election after Holy See authorities ordered him to choose between politics and the priesthood following controversy over his opposition to anti-abortion Bill C-484 and his support for theOrder of Canada nomination of abortion rights activistHenry Morgentaler. Although he chose to leave politics, Gravel maintained that he remained, in accordance with Catholic doctrine, opposed to abortion.[8] Gravel was a member of the nationalistBloc Québécois.
Daniel Herman is alaicized Roman Catholic priest who wasMinister of Culture, representing the Christian Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU-ČSL).
Fernando Arturo de Meriño, a priest who would later become anarchbishop, served asPresident of the Dominican Republic from 1880 to 1882.
Barthélemy Boganda, a priest fromUbangi-Shari (today theCentral African Republic), was elected to theFrench National Assembly in 1946, serving until 1958. He left the priesthood in 1950 and married, and from 1958 to 1959 served as the firstPrime Minister of the Central African Republic.
Beda Weber was a GermanBenedictine priest who served as a member of theFrankfurt Parliament in 1849.
Ludwig Kaas was a priest of theWeimar Republic. In 1919 he was elected to theWeimar National Assembly and in 1920 was elected to theReichstag, where he served until 1933.
For a brief period in 2011 during theLibyan Civil War, the Nicaraguan priestMiguel d'Escoto Brockmann served as the Libyan ambassador to theUnited Nations.
In the 1970s and 80s, thePresident of Nicaragua,Daniel Ortega, appointed three priests to his cabinet:Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann asMinister of Foreign Affairs,Fernando Cardenal as Minister of Education, and his brother,Ernesto Cardenal, as Minister of Culture.
In 2023 Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, a Nigerian Catholic cleric and politician was elected to serve as a Nigerian governor in the state of Benue in 29 May 2023.
In 2005,Fernando Lugo, theBishop of San Pedro, requested laicization to run for office but it was denied. In 2008, he was electedPresident of Paraguay, in spite of Article 235 of theConstitution prohibiting any minister of any religion from serving as president. After his election he was laicized. In 2012, he wasimpeached for unrelated reasons.
Hugo Kołłątaj was a Polish noble and Catholic priest who in 1786 received the office of theReferendary ofLithuania. He co-authored theConstitution of May 3, 1791 and held a variety of posts before falling out of political favor in 1802 as a result of his radical views.
Stanisław Staszic was a philosopher and political activist who served in the government ofCongress Poland.
Andrej Hlinka served in the Parliament of Czechoslovakia from 1920 to 1938 and was leader of theSlovak People's Party from 1913 until his death.
From 1939 to 1945, the priestJozef Tiso was President of theFirst Slovak Republic, asatellite state ofNazi Germany. FollowingWorld War II, he was convicted and hanged for treason that subsumed also war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Augustine Geve was a Catholic priest who served as a member of theNational Parliament from 2001 to 2002 and was Minister of Youth, Women and Sports from 2001 to 2002. He was assassinated on 20 August 2002.
David Cairns, a laicised Catholic priest, was elected to theHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom between 2001 and 2011, following theHouse of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Act 2001 which removed the ban on clergymen being elected as an MP.[9] FormerArchbishops of WestminsterBasil Hume andCormac Murphy-O'Connor were individually offeredlife peerages and a seat in theHouse of Lords but both declined the offer.[10][11]
Possibly the earliest known instance of a Catholic priest serving in public office in the United States wasGabriel Richard. Born in France, he founded theUniversity of Michigan and served as adelegate fromMichigan Territory from 1823 to 1825.
Two priests,Robert Drinan andRobert John Cornell, have served in theUnited States Congress. In 1980, whenPope John Paul II decreed that priests not serve in elected office,[12]Representative Drinan withdrew from his re-election campaign, and Cornell withdrew from his bid to re-gain the seat he had lost in the1978 Congressional election. In 1983, the prohibition on serving in governmental office was codified as section 3 of canon 285 of the1983 Code of Canon Law.
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This list includes priests who held public office, the country in which they held office, and the office(s) they held.
*laicized before taking office
