Clerical celibacy is the practice in which clergy and monastics, male or female, refrain from marriage and from all sexual relationships and activities. In Eastern Orthodoxy, bishops and monastics are celibate. However, candidates for the priesthood are allowed to marry if they do so before ordination. A married priesthood is technically allowed in the Eastern Rite Catholic churches. However, in some jurisdictions, Latin Rite Catholic bishops have not recognized married Uniate priests as being valid, which has been a contributing factor to several Eastern Rite groups' return to Orthodoxy.