Posted on 11/04/2004 4:20:15 PM PST by Destro
Last Updated: Thursday, 4 November, 2004, 14:12 GMT
Church to help Greek priests wed
The Greek Orthodox Church has begun a campaign to help young men who want to become priests find a spouse willing to accept their austere lifestyle. Modern Greek women are said to be increasingly unready to marry men whose vocation calls for long beards and black robes to be worn at all times.
The Church says it wants to prepare women for marrying into the priesthood.
Greek Orthodox clergy are allowed to be married, as long as the wedding takes place before they are ordained.
Because of this rule, they are not allowed to remarry if the first match ends in divorce.
A meeting of Church leaders this week pledged to establish a committee that would look into "pastoral methods to obtain and prepare priests' wives", French news agency AFP reports.
The scheme may consider educating women about marriage to a priest so as to reduce the risk of later misunderstandings.
A Greek Orthodox clergyman, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC News website he was confident the 2,000-year old Church would overcome its latest difficulty.
Makes no sense. Either it is allowed in the whole Church or it is not.
Ooohh, I thought they meant, like, marry each other.
Wrong Church, my bad.
So9
The Catholic church is desparate for clergy. In my town, an Episcopal priest, married with children, converted to Catholicism and is a fully ordained priest.
I suggested to a friend, who is also an Episopal priest, that she ought to see if they would accept her, and really throw the rules for a loop. She declined.
again it makes little sense. Why can't good Latin Rite Catholics marry before ordination but married Episcopal clergy can be accepted?
Do you know if this rule is post Vatican II?
No, I don't.
I know it's incoherent. However, the Vatican has specialized in being obscure for 1,500 years, so there's no reason to expect change now.
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