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On the other hand parish work is tough on families and marriages and we do occasionally have the spectacle of a divorced priest.

Excessively hard, so hard I would think a man could not carry on a Marriage and keep up with workload of the current Priesthood. I can barely keep up with being GK for the Knights, A job, and my Marriage.

A man would have to be married BEFORE ordination, and then the usual rules, as they apply to deacons today, would still apply, i.e. a widowed deacon may not remarry. If the same model is used, only the celibate may be Bishops.

I did note in the article that the statement said, "Priesthood is a gift, celibacy is a gift: they are not the same gift,". That certainly would be the experience of Orthodoxy, but no one should think for a moment that a married priesthood will somehow or other solve the problems the Roman Church faces in this world.

I think it would complicate matters, and I wonder if we need that in the Church. I would rather have fewer celibate priests than a plethora of Married Priests. There is also the issue of supporting a man and his wife and children. The children also have the issue about being the "son of a preacher-man", need I say more?

I think it would complicate matters, and I wonder if we need that in the Church. I would rather have fewer celibate priests than a plethora of Married Priests. There is also the issue of supporting a man and his wife and children.

Matters are "complicated" now. The need in the Church is the Eucharist. Without priests, there is no Eucharist.

It seems that the Vatican would rather compromise the availability of the Eucharist than compromise on the marital status of the minister of the Eucharist.

The "problems" with married priests are all real problems. To me, the issue is, do those outweigh the declining availability of the Eucharist to Latin Rite Catholics?

Let me try to respond to all of your replies at once.

Being a married parish priest is hard on families, no question about it. But so is being a busy doctor, lawyer or business person. Obviously, the larger the parish, the more work it is, but in our very large parishes, there is usually more than one priest. Priest's wives sometimes have a difficult time of it, but unlike in the business world, the dioceses and the Archdiocese have an organization for them which is very active and supportive.

The rules for ordination in the Orthodox Church are the same as you have set them out, Dominick, for all levels. The support issue is, or should be, a non issue. Even in our small parish, we have a compensation package for the priest which runs close to $90,000.00 total. You Romans are "notoriously cheap" when it comes to supporting your parishes.:) Paying a man his "worth" is always worth it. But it does require a level of involvement in parish functions and a commitment to stewardship which is greater than I've seen generally in the local Roman parishes.

One of you asked if we were not also having a shortage of priests. In the GOA we are not at this point in time. There is a wonderful new crop of quite conservative seminarians coming up, many of them young converts with young families. Frankly its very encouraging. On the celibate front, there is a fast growing Orthodox monasticism here in America (in Greece too for that matter), with new monasteries being established here and there across the country. This will be a tremendous blessing for all of us as Orthodox monasticism is where you find the real spiritual "athletes". Just their presence in an area can have a major impact, usually for the better.

As I said before though, a married priesthood will not solve all your problems and will a bring a set of its own. On balance, though, and from where I sit, I think it would be a good move.