Posted on 02/10/2006 3:55:07 PM PST by LouAvul
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 the church of history. I love my Episcopal friends."
Since 1983, about 80 former Episcopal priests in the United States have been ordained as Catholic priests through the provision, said the Rev. William Stetson, director of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C.
About 43,400 Catholic priests reside in the United States, according to the center.
"The provision is very unusual, because priests are asked to be celibate, are asked not the marry. This is definitely the exception to the rule, because with the Pastoral Provision, you get to stay married," said the Rev. Paul Granillo, spokesman for the San Bernardino diocese.
Approved by the late Pope John Paul II, the provision requires eligible Episcopalian candidates to convert to Catholicism and find a bishop to sponsor them.
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
What happens when "an irresistible force meets an immovable object" or is this an oxymoron?
They are flexible unless you are a married man who wants to become a priest. Or a single priest who wants to marry.
Then there is no flexibility.
With such hypocracy , is it any wonder that the Catholic Church is losing membership?
The Church should at least get its story straight!
You've confirmed yet again that you are a buffoon.
You seem to have left Hosea for some reason why is that?
WOW! 25,000 left the ministry....primarily to get married. I realize that it is difficult, if not impossible to ascertain how many were dissuaded....but I bet that statistic would prompt another, "WOW".
I can only imagine the anguish those men went through as they wrestled with the decision to leave the priesthood.
I've seen a number of posts that say a mans attentions shouldn't be divided between his flock and his family. That strikes me as pure nonsense. Granted, married priests would sometimes have to make difficult choices....as all married, parents must.....but I really don't understand why a priest must single-mindedly focus on his flock. My husband travels, a lot, and is often gone for a week or more at a time. How would a Priests duties differ? I manage. Priests wives would manage too.
Seems to me that the objections to allowing Priests to marry are not grounded in reality. Some of the Biblical passages also seem to support the idea that Priests were allowed to marry prior to the inquisition.
It appears that the church as a whole would be better served by making celebacy optional...giving priests the choice. As an aside, it has always been difficult for me to fathom how a Priest can counsel a married couple that is having difficulty, if he hasn't walked the same or similar path.
Kiss my lapsed Catholic Nalgas, pendejo!
Have you thought about him receiving an extra unction(of insight)!
Does that make sense, or can it be learned in priest's school?
Just out of curiousity, would this be the voice of European Catholics where the churches are closing like crazy due to low attendance?
And you neglected to include Revelations, why is that?
"The Catholic argument is that a single man will devote all his energy to his congregation, while a married man would end up short-changing his congregation because he must also devote time and energy to his wife and children."
That's one argument amongst many. And not one of the more persuasive ones in my view.
A more persuasive point to me is that the implicit assumption of so many of the arguments against a celibate Priesthood is that if a celibate Priesthod is allowed, well then gosh golly we would have a bumper crop of new vocations! Yet little evidence has been presented to date that would show that celibacy has much of an impact on vocations. Vocations in the Protestant churches are suffering right now as well; you can't blame celibacy in that case.
FWIW, I don't agree with a celibate Priesthood....for the eastern Catholic churches that already have a long tradition of married priests. As for the western Catholic church (Roman Catholic) changing it's traditions, well that's an internal matter for the western church to look at and decide. Judging from the recent synod, I'd have to say that the answer is a pretty clear NO.
"How can that be squared with letting an exception to the rule here? It really makes no sense."
I think we'd first have to be clear about what we're talking about when we're discussing "the Catholic church." The universal Catholic church is actually comprised of 23 distinct churches. The western (Roman Catholic) church, which is just one of the 23, does not generally allow for married Priests. However, historically speaking, there have been exceptions to that general rule. The eastern Catholic churches (the other 22 churches) have by and large allowed married Priests, but not married Bishops. But there are exceptions to that general rule as well, mostly in Canada and the U.S. where married eastern Catholic Priests are about as common as hen's teeth.
As for allowing the exceptions in this case for Episcopalian priests, I personally agree with it. Remember that these are priests already who have left their previous church, converted, and humbly asked to become as Catholic Priests. So are they supposed to give up their families as well?
There is such a thing as being so rigid in observing a rule that it becomes an injustice in itself.
Man, you are twisted.
This is my life and I like it but I get the complete lay-guy package so it has its consolations. He is no longer a layman.
Are you not Roman Catholic? My guess is either you are not a Roman Catholic or you are a neo-Catholic who thinks everybody is a priest and nobody is a priest.
I am confused by your assessment that I'm twisted because I think celibacy is a great gift for priests. Pope John Paul II has spoken eloquently about this.
"Good for you. It may be a blessing in disguise that laymen are assuming more responsibility in the Church. Priests will focus on the sacramental ministry, and lay people will do everything else."
I think you're making an assumption that if celibacy were to disappear tomorrow that this would cure the problems, such as they are, in attracting priestly vocations.
If so, I don't agree with that assumption. I don't think it's quite that simple, and I also don't think that parishes and diocese have to choose between a lay dominated ministry and having celibate Priests.
Why do people keep bringing in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Coptic Churches, etc. This is just a red herring, and meant to confuse the issue.
The Roman Catholic Church is the dominant Church in America and South America, so let's not bring irrelevent information about other Churches.
I am critical of the Roman Catholic Church's policy, if that clears matters up.
Please no more references to the Coptic and minor churches.
I can't begin to delineate the major contributions that a Pastor's wife makes to the congregation.
Almost always, they are among the most active members of the church. To say (as the Roman Catholic Church does) that they are primarilly distraction to the Pastor's duties is insulting and demeaning.
Agreed. I suggest also that wives contribute to their corporate husbands success as well....by keeping him in clean clothes, good food, acting as hostess, etc. The contribution of the wife is ignored in many circles.
The notion that a family and a wife would be a distraction to a Priest paints a really unflattering picture.
I can get clean clothes at a laundromat. I can get good food at a fine restaurant.
But the emotional support and active participation of an involved wife is what is truly important. :>)
Use that line during your particular judgment, goober.
First off, you are not a Catholic. Why do you perceive of priestly celibacy as a "problem"? There are many reasons, both practical and theological, why the Church insists on clerical celibacy. It is a wise practice that was gradually codified in light of centuries of accumulated knowledge and experience. Early on, it became obvious to many bishops that a married priesthood doesn’t work and that the Church needs men who are willing to embrace a higher spiritual state. Starting with the Spanish Council of Elvira in 305, regional churches began to ask of the clergy what many priests had already spontaneously chosen. The early Church Fathers—Tertullian, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, and Hilary—wrote in favor of clerical celibacy, and at the end of the Dark Ages, great reforming popes like Leo IX and Gregory VII insisted that henceforth the priesthood would be celibate. This decision greatly strengthened the Church and still does so today.
There is no clear verse in the Bible that requires it.
Admittedly, there’s no hint in the New Testament of celibacy being mandatory either among the apostles or those they ordained. But we have ample warrant in the words of Christ and the writings of Paul that celibacy is a higher calling than marriage. Christ Himself was celibate, and the Incarnation took place, so to speak, in the context of Mary and Joseph’s abstention from sexual relations. Pope Benedict XVI has written eloquently about how Mary’s virginity is really a condition of spiritual fruitfulness. At one point, the disciples ask Christ if it is “expedient not to marry?” He replies that “not all can accept this teaching; but those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born so...and there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let him accept it who can” (Mt 19:10-12).
As Christopher West points out, Christ’s use of the word “eunuch” must have profoundly shocked his Jewish listeners. Under the Old Covenant, priests were enjoined to marry and have children who would become priests. Childlessness was seen as a curse, and the idea of a descendant of Abraham opting to be a “eunuch” was unthinkable. But the celibate lives of Mary and Joseph, who brought the Old Covenant to perfection, speak of a new dimension of self-giving. West writes that their celibacy, in effect, brings about “the most fruitful union in the cosmos—the union of the human and divine natures in the person of Christ. All those who live an authentic celibate vocation participate in some way in this new super-abounding spiritual fruitfulness.”
There has always been a deep human intuition that celibacy brings great spiritual gifts, a heightened sensitivity to divine things. Even under the Old Covenant, a married priest had to observe continence while he served in the Temple—in other words, when he was acting as priest. Moses asked that the Jews abstain from conjugal sex while he ascended Mount Sinai, and the prophet Jeremiah was forbidden by God to take a wife in order that he might fulfill his ministry. And although the apostles and their successors had freedom of choice in this matter—at least until the fourth century—a large number of the clergy during this period did choose celibacy. There is a tradition that after their calling by Christ, those apostles who were married lived as though they were not. St. Jerome speaks of a general custom in the late fourth century when he declares that clerics, “even though they may have wives, cease to be husbands.” This is not so exotic as it sounds; in the 20th century the great French theologian Jacques Maritain and his wife Raissa, a Jewish convert, had a marriage blanc for the sake of their spiritual apostleship.
The case at hand is, why does the catholic church allow the very thing it forbids.
Again, let me point out that married men are accepted into the priesthood in the Eastern Catholic Churches, though even many of them choose priestly celibacy.
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