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Op-ed: "Is the Married Permanent Diaconate a Trojan Horse to attack the sacred priesthood?" The Pan-Amazonian synod has realised the fears of certain Fathers of the Second Vatican Council that the creation of the married permanent diaconate would undermine and eventually abolish the sacred Tradition of priestly celibacy in the Latin Church. The Final Document of the Amazonian synod proposes that permanent deacons are ordained priests: “…we propose to establish criteria and dispositions on the part of the competent authority, in the framework of Lumen Gentium 26, to ordain as priests men who are apt for it and who...

VATICAN – The Catholic Church must discover new ways to provide the Eucharist and pastoral support to the people of the Amazon, especially indigenous people threatened by forced displacement and exploitation, a new document said. The Vatican released the preparatory document for the special Synod of Bishops on the Amazon June 8. The synod gathering in October 2019 will reflect on the theme "Amazonia: New paths for the church and for an integral ecology."The connection between care for the environment and the pastoral care of the people who live in the region is highlighted throughout the document, because, it said, "protecting...

Pope Francis has requested that Roman Catholic priests be given the right to get married. The request applies to priests in Brazil, and is on the agenda for an upcoming synod (church council) in the Amazon region. The controversial move would address the critical shortage of men joining the priesthood

In the accounts of a German theologian and a Brazilian bishop, Francis's plan to allow local exceptions to the norm of clerical celibacy. Beginning with the Amazon by Sandro Magister ROME, January 12, 2016 - An exchange of letters, a conversation, and an innovation already become law confirm the intentions of Pope Francis to extend the presence of married clergy in the Catholic Church, as already anticipated in this article from www.chiesa: > The Next Synod Is Already in the Works. On Married Priests (9.12.2015)

From USA TODAY (and note the quote from FOB Deacon Bill Ditewig!): In a move that could open the doors for more wedded priests in some Catholic churches across the USA, a married Maronite deacon will be ordained Thursday as a priest in St. Louis.Deacon Wissam Akiki, who serves St. Raymond’s Maronite Cathedral, will be the first married Maronite Catholic in the United States to become a priest, said Bishop Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, which has its headquarters in Missouri.In the Middle East, it is normal (for a priest) to...

Last week, the newly appointed Vatican Secretary of State made news when, in answer to a question about the Church's ancient practice of priestly (and episcopal) celibacy, acknowledged that this was not a dogma, and it was certainly possible to discuss a change in this discipline. The news media predictably made much of this; and for a lot of folks, this seemed to be something new. Well...it's not. I think, if you were to do an Internet search, you'd find that similar comments have been made by someone "high up" in the Church during the reign of the last three...

One of the hardest things Ed Donaghy has ever done was leave his ministry as a Catholic priest. For months, he agonized over his conflicting desires to have a family and serve as a priest in the Sacramento Diocese. In the end, Donaghy felt he had no choice. The priest, who served in Woodland, told his bishop he had to leave. That was four decades ago. "It would have been wonderful to be married and be a priest," said Donaghy, 73, now retired as an insurance agent. "I loved the work and would have continued." Donaghy is one of more...

p>For the first time in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s history, a married Roman Catholic priest with children will be serving the faithful in southeastern Wisconsin. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan asked his priests and deacons this week which of them would be willing to accept the man - a former Lutheran minister - as an associate pastor at their parish. The priest and his wife, who have juvenile and adult sons, are moving from the Diocese of Venice, Fla. She has accepted a job here. Although no married priest has served here, about 100 married priests have been ordained in the...

The Case for choices within the Roman Catholic Church is a very important not only for the Church Hierarchy but for all catholic people active or lapsed. Fact we have amalgamations and or closing down of churches in Europe and America on a grand scale exception is Poland who have seen a growth both to the Roman Catholic Church and the National Catholic church which Rome does recognise as valid. Anglican Clergy can do a quick conversion course and receive Catholic Orders along with his wife and kids. However if Fr o flattery dares to have an affair out he...

LEE COUNTY: A church youth leader accused of repeated sexual assaults on two teenage boys now has a $300,000 bond after his first court appearance. The judge ordered a mental health evaluation and ordered him not to have contact with minors if he bonds out of jail. NBC2 spoke to a woman who knows Elantonio "T.O." Gomez and the boys. It's a story one woman says will haunt her for a long time - a story she says leaves her so heart-broken, she only agreed to talk if she could remain anonymous. She fears if her name or face were...

An excommunicated Roman Catholic archbishop continued to defy the Vatican when he installed two married priests as bishops on Sunday. In front of a sea of reporters and photographers and several dozen congregants, Raymond A. Grosswirth of Rochester, N.Y., and Dominic Riccio, of the Newark Archdiocese, were installed by Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo at the Trinity Reformed Church. The ceremony concluded a two-day convention of Milingo's advocacy group, Married Priests Now! In a visible break from tradition, the wives of both men helped their husbands on with their vestments before each man was anointed. Milingo, 76, installed four married men...

A Roman Catholic Archbishop from Zambia with a colorful history of rousing the Vatican and ties to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, will once again annoy his bosses this Sunday when he ordains three married men as priests at a church in West New York.   Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo returned to the United States this July to kick-start his movement, known as Married Priests Now. This weekend he will host a conference at a Sheraton hotel in Parsippany, convening as many as 600 married priests from around the world. On Sunday, Milingo will perform the ordinations at Trinity Reformed Church in...

Four years after organizing amid a tempest of sexual abuse scandals, the Catholic reform group Voice of the Faithful is still going strong. Its newly elected president, Mary Pat Fox, said Monday that VOTF will continue to make clerical and lay responsibility the cornerstone of its work within the Catholic Church. Her comments came at a meeting of Winchester Voice of the Faithful, one of VOTF’s most active chapters, which meets weekly at St. Eulalia’s Church in Winchester. VOTF formed during the nadir of the sexual abuse scandals of 2002, with the intention of dealing head-on with the corruption that...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - A former Episcopalian priest who converted to Catholicism became the first married cleric ordained in the Diocese of San Bernardino under an unusual provision. As his wife and two children looked on at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral, Gregory Elder was ordained into the Roman Catholic clergy Friday through a rarely invoked exemption to Canon Law called the Pastoral Provision. "I'm humbled, it's an honor, and only God could have made this happen," Elder told The Associated Press. "I didn't leave the Episcopal Church because I was mad at them. I wanted to join...

Married Men and the Priesthood: A Response to George Sim Johnston Introduction During the early part of October, 2005, Catholic Bishops from around the world gathered in a synod. Among many topics discussed was the perceived "shortage" of priests. As a very minor mention during a discussion concerning the shortage of priests, the idea of reopening the order of priests to the candidacy of mature and proven married men (viri probati) men was tangentially mentioned. It was done so briefly and only within that specific context of the discussion concerning a declining number of priests in some parts of the...

Each month, when I face an auditorium full of engaged couples preparing for a Catholic marriage, there is a Q-and-A session. It is the interesting, unrehearsed part of the evening. The couples write their queries on a piece of paper, and the anonymity guarantees at least a few hardball questions about the Church and its practices. “What about Galileo?” is among my favorites, along with inquisitive notes about Torquemada. But the majority of these “zingers” turn out to be protests about the Church’s rule of clerical celibacy. “You’ve told us how wonderful marriage is, that it’s a great good for...

Church silent on bishop’s marriage comments By Caroline O’Doherty and Michael BrennanTHE Catholic Church was staying silent last night on comments from one of its bishops that priests should be allowed to marry. Bishop of Killaloe Willie Walsh voiced his opinion which is in direct conflict with the Vatican in a newspaper interview in which he said celibacy was meaningless if it had a negative impact on priests and the church they served. "I have known some very fine priests who have left the priesthood because they found the challenge of celibacy not life-giving for them. Men like that are...

An important Vatican body has appointed Newark Archbishop John J. Myers to oversee the process by which dozens of married Episcopal priests in the United States have become ordained in the Roman Catholic Church. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith named Myers the "ecclesiastical delegate" to work with American bishops who have Anglican priests in their dioceses who want to become Catholic clergy, the Newark archdiocese announced yesterday. Myers, the archbishop of Newark since 2001, said he expects to work two or three days a month at the job and has opened an office for it at the...

One is a psychotherapist. Another is a retired travel agent. A third sells medical equipment. But Sean Patrick O'Reilly, Ralph Bastian and John Shuster share an additional identity: Each is an ordained Catholic priest. Each has left the Roman Catholic Church as an organization, but still -- without official church approval -- maintains a type of ministry. "I checked out of the institution. I left the system. But I never left the church," says Shuster, 54, who lives in Port Orchard, Wash. To him, the "church" is the faithful, not the authority in Rome.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A synod of Roman Catholic bishops on Saturday clearly reaffirmed priestly celibacy and ruled out allowing clergy to marry as a solution to the crisis of vocations facing the Church worldwide.The working sessions of the three-week synod, the first of Pope Benedict's papacy, closed with 50 propositions and a message to the world from the more than 250 bishops.Overall, the synod's decisions have dashed the hopes of some liberal Catholics for movement on issues such as married priests, celibacy and the divorced faithful.The message acknowledged that "the life of our Church is also marked by shadows...