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Is it time to ordain married men to the Catholic priesthood?
Vivificat! - A Catholic Blog of Commentary and Opinion ^ | 7 April 2005 | Teófilo

Posted on 04/07/2005 5:00:46 AM PDT by Teófilo

This Observant Catholic says: maybe

Much of the support to the idea of married Catholic priests comes from liberal reformers, who often couch it in their language, that is to say, in concepts foreign to Catholic theology, and also link it to another issue, "women's ordination" so-called. Put the two ideas into the same sentence and you see how both ideas sound so repulsive to Observant Catholics' ears.

Pope John Paul II as a young priest-who says that celibate priests can't related to the rest of us?This doesn't need to be this way. They idea of ordaining married men to the priesthood can be defended on orthodox, conservative, and traditional grounds. My thesis is that a married priesthood would not be a doctrinal innovation, but simply the restoration of a discipline that was normative for the first 1,000 years of history in the Western, Latin Church—although we need to acknowledge that the discipline of priestly celibacy became ascendant in the 5th century, from the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great, who brought a monastic outlook to the papacy of his time, onwards. Five centuries later, another saintly Pope named Gregory (pp.VII), promulgated that celibacy was to be the mandatory disciplinary norm for all the priests of the Latin Church.

Before we attempt an analysis of the arguments set in favor of a married clergy, we need to set forth the following two principles:

The Holy Spirit guides Salvation History. He's also the soul of the Church, the life-giving, animating principle of the Body of Christ. Nothing happens in the history of the Church without a purpose, nor outside of God's will. If the Spirit guided the Western Church to establish a discipline of celibacy for all priestly tiers in the Western Church, and that discipline has lasted 1,400 years, well, we should hold to that fact as the point of departure for any conversation on this issue, and assign it all the weight it rightly deserves.

The second principle flows from what we mean when we say "ordaining married men to the Catholic priesthood." It means just that. The priesthood under this discipline will continue to be restricted to men,in conformity with 2,000 years of Catholic Tradition and, most recently, the binding authoritative teaching of Pope John Paul the Great, given in his 1994 Apostolic Letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis:

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.

It also means ordaining married men; it doesn't mean that already ordained men would be allowed to marry and still permitted to minister. Already ordained priests seeking marriage would still have to be dispensed from their vows and laicized.

Many of the so-called reformers would find such strictures intolerable, for they do not fit with the pastoral model they have in mind for the Church and that's the Protestant Parsonage. Most observant Catholics opposed to the idea of ordaining married men to the priesthood also believe that this is the only model available to follow and therefore, they reject it—and rightly so. I also reject the Protestant Parsonage as a model for the Catholic one, and I say that with all due respect to all those successful Protestant ministerial couples out there who have made it work, often under dire circumstances in the mission field or while undergoing persecution for the cause of Christ.

I set aside the Protestant model because is not Catholic and I'm only willing to admit Catholic solutions to Catholic problems—in this case, the scarcity of priests in developed countries for which ordaining worthy married men is but one solution. As a Catholic theologian, I must look to the fullness of revelation as handed down solely to the Catholic Church since her beginning, for trustworthy guidance on this very important issue.

Catholic Tradition has preserved such a model of married priests and families, and it is the one we can observe today in the Eastern Churches, both the ones in communion with Rome and the ones that are not. They offer us a perfect model that is both historical, practical, steeped in Holy Tradition and therefore, thoroughly Catholic. The Eastern model is the one the Western Church should adopt if and when the Magisterium decides to restore the discipline of a married clergy to the Latin Church.

I have observed first hand that a married priest can minister to his flock and remain completely open to its needs, in all the demands that the Lord imposes upon him, be it the needs of the flock or the needs of its own family; I have seen holiness and wholesomeness flowing in these priestly families and it is inspiring to behold.

Now, do these couples "have it easy"? Most certainly not. These couples live under a social microscope and the need to send boundaries between service and love to others and service and love to their family lay unimaginable pressures on these servants of God. The fact that they achieve it and persevere every day, as well as their persistence in liturgical and private prayer, fasting, and mortification, demonstrates beyond all doubt God's blessings upon these unions. That this occurs within a traditional Catholic context is encouraging. The fact that in these marriages man, in his fullness—male and female—becomes a partner with Christ in the redemption of the world should not scandalize anyone among the Catholic faithful, but rather inspire them to pursue their salvation with due diligence.

Ordaining married men is not a messianic panacea that will heal all the ills of the Church in developed countries, for the vocation deficit ailing the Church today has but little to do with the life of chosen celibacy the priesthood now demands, and everything to do with the kind of culture we live in. Permanent Deacons—the ranks of men from which the first batch of married priests is likely to come—should feel any pressure to abandon their initial vocation; being a Permanent Deacon is a perfectly fine vocation and blessed by the Lord.

Enthusiasts of ordaining married men to the priesthood should stand under the cold shower of reality and the reality we live here in the United States is that our materialistic culture is not conducive to Catholic religious vocations of any kind, whether married or celibate. I'm not too optimistic that hordes of married men will rush to become priests if the discipline of married priesthood is ever restored in the Western Church.

If a married priesthood following the Eastern Christian model is to be restored in the Latin Church, pastors (i.e. bishops) should exercise extreme caution as to whom they choose for this restored ministry. For we will no longer be talking about one vocation, but two, the husband's and the wife's and maybe even the children's. I humbly suggest the following guidelines to its restoration and for the testing of the worthiest candidates:

Then, there's the matter of need. Is the need to ordain married men real? It is true that ordaining men will provide limited relief to the wide and variegated spiritual needs of the Catholic faithful, and the problem of vocations lies in the modern materialist culture. Yet, the need for priests is now critical throughout the developed world and we can't wait to fix the problem with the culture. Ordaining worthy married men might one way to go. In fact, they may be a catalyst for even more vocations, both to the married and celibate priesthood.

Is now the time to admit married men into the priesthood? This is a matter of spiritual discernment, of being alert to the promptings of the Spirit and judging that whatever is enacted is the will of the Spirit. That's not my role. My role is to point out a need and a possible solution in accordance to the Deposit of Revelation—Scripture and Tradition.

In the 500 years between Pope St. Gregory I and St. Gregory VII, the Magisterium decided that a celibate priesthood better served the Church; Pope John Paul the Great judged that it wasn't time yet to restore the ancient discipline of the Church. The next Holy Father may decide that it is time to restore the ancient discipline, or he may not, and that's fine too. We should all be happy and at peace and always remember that our agenda, our schedule, is not the Spirit's. The Catholic Church will go where the Spirit blows, when the Spirit blows, and at no other time and often, in spite of ourselves.

- Read "Can a priest be a husband?" from Time Magazine

- Read Split in push for married priests, from Australia's Fairfax Digital

- Read What's the deal about legally married priests? at EWTN.

The following links are from the Married Priest Website. Vivificat! doesn't necessarily support everything they say, and may in fact oppose some of the things they say. In other words, this is not a blanket endorsement of that site's content. I link to it because they have the documents I want my readers to study. Caveat emptor.

- Read the Document Outlining the Pastoral Provision issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on July 22, 1980 Prot. N. 66/77

- Read the English Catholic Bishops' Statutes for the Admission of Married Former Anglican Clergymen into the Catholic Church

- Read the Provisions of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches Related to Married Clergy from the Code of Canon Law for Oriental Churches.


TOPICS: Catholic; Ministry/Outreach; Orthodox Christian; Religion & Culture; Theology
KEYWORDS: celibacy; marriage; priesthood
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To: Tantumergo

But I think it has been perverted and many in the Church view sex, and by extension women, as something evil.

The historical context could go either with celibacy or with married clergy. Has tradition created the celibate priesthood and therefore the sacrifice you describe?


121 posted on 04/07/2005 8:12:14 PM PDT by pa mom
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To: Rytwyng

You mean in the context of Protestantism.


122 posted on 04/07/2005 8:43:28 PM PDT by GerardPH
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To: pa mom

"Has tradition created the celibate priesthood and therefore the sacrifice you describe?"

If by tradition you mean Jesus Christ encouraging it, St. Paul encouraging it, numerous Saints and Popes over the centuries encouraging or mandating it, the Holy Spirit guiding the Church into accepting and revering it, then YES!.

We have married clergy in that we deacons in the West and the clergy of the Eastern Churches may be married and then ordained. However, the truly celibate priesthood of the Latin Church is a great gift from God which the rest of us should promote and honour.


123 posted on 04/08/2005 4:49:45 AM PDT by Tantumergo
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To: Vicomte13

"Is it time?

No, it isn't."

And I will happily give thanks and pay heed to the Magisterium of the Church if they continue upholding the current discipline of the Latin Rite, since discernment belongs to the Magisterium.

In Christ,
-Theo


124 posted on 04/08/2005 5:36:36 AM PDT by Teófilo (Visit Vivificat! - http://www.vivificat.org)
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To: Salvation
Okay, so the subject has been beaten to death in FREP. Your point being... In Christ, -Theo
125 posted on 04/08/2005 5:40:45 AM PDT by Teófilo (Visit Vivificat! - http://www.vivificat.org)
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To: GerardPH
You mean in the context of Protestantism.

I used to be Catholic; then I read the Bible.

126 posted on 04/08/2005 8:07:42 AM PDT by Rytwyng (we're here, we're Huguenots, get used to us...)
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To: Little Ray
The late Bishop Fulton Sheen once observed that, if the Roman Catholic Church were actually what its enemies claim, Fulton Sheen would have left the Church. Happily, the critics were wrong. Celibacy was imposed in the Roman Rite by Pope Gregory VII. The purpose had to do with the wealthy hiring the children of priests in order that the wealthy might control the substance of sermons.

We can well do without married priests.

We can certainly do without laywomen or laymen running parishes.

I can definitely think of some deacons that I would not ever want to be running parishes.

We'll get by because we will be importing actually Catholic Third World priests as necessary until the very promising seminarians of today are ready to lead the AmChurch back to Catholicism. Catholicism and materialism are separate categories. Doctrine and discipline are what count in Catholicism.

127 posted on 04/08/2005 8:39:38 AM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: cyborg

Repeat as often as possible. Superb post! Thanks. God bless you and yours.


128 posted on 04/08/2005 8:43:56 AM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: Rytwyng
I used to be Catholic; then I read the Bible.

You mean you were baptized a Catholic and never really learned what Catholicism was. Then somebody with an anti-Catholic agenda decided to pick you off by appealling to your misconceptions and providing erroneous arguments about the Bible.

It's a shame. You were a misinformed Catholic and now you are a misinformed "bible only christian". You have yet to actually meet Christ.

129 posted on 04/08/2005 9:48:20 AM PDT by GerardPH
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To: GerardPH
Then somebody with an anti-Catholic agenda decided to pick you off by appealling to your misconceptions and providing erroneous arguments about the Bible.

The whole reason for the existence of Protestantism is the printing press. People compared the Scripture with the dogma, observed numerous irreconncilable contradictions, and the rest, regrettably, is history.

Go read it for yourself. Then we'll talk.

130 posted on 04/08/2005 10:05:18 AM PDT by Rytwyng (we're here, we're Huguenots, get used to us...)
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To: BlackElk
...we will be importing actually Catholic Third World priests as necessary until the very promising seminarians of today are ready to lead the AmChurch back to Catholicism

Now this much, I agree with. If you can purge the sodomites and replace them with third-world priests, more power to you. The Anglican situation is very instructive here; the sodomites are solely a Western phenomenon (ugh!).

131 posted on 04/08/2005 10:07:16 AM PDT by Rytwyng (we're here, we're Huguenots, get used to us...)
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To: Rytwyng

All you are describing is the propaganda that Luther spewed. He was an idiot heretic himself. The Bible belongs to the Catholic Church. What do you think Guttenberg's first printed book was?

You simply don't have a clue.

Learn some truth about Catholicism.


132 posted on 04/08/2005 10:20:58 AM PDT by GerardPH
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To: Teófilo
A priest must be devoted to the Church, and to his flock in his parish. A married priest would be forced to divide his time between God, his parish, and the demands of a family. This speaks nothing to the idea of a divorced priest, as abhorrent as that would be. With the demands of modern life upon a family, I expect there would be many divorced priests. The Church would be poorer for it.

The argument about married priests leading to inheritance of property problems was actually a false one. The Church property belongs to the Church. The problem was the concept of inheriting the office and titles of the father (offices and titles were very big deals back then, less so now). So it was determined that priests should be required to practice celibacy. It was not a novel concept, but one dating back to Biblical times. It has worked well, until recently, when the decay of society seeped in.

The next Pope will have to reinforce the bulwarks against the decay, and turn back what has seeped in (especially in the American Church). It is a tall order.
133 posted on 04/08/2005 10:28:22 AM PDT by ex 98C MI Dude (Our legal system is in a PVS. Time to remove it from the public feeding trough.)
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To: ex 98C MI Dude

Look, I am not an activitist for this thing, in the sense that I'm not going to defy whatever is the next decision of the Magisterium on the subject by acting like a liberal brat. Whatever the Magisterium finds, is fine with me.

My job-my unrequired, unrequested, unappointed, and maybe ultimately unnecessary job-is to point out possibilities that the Magisterium has legitimately open before it, and ordaining worthy married priests for the Latin Rite is one of them. Let us have this in mind and do not forget it:

- Married priests have been part of the Church for 2,000 years, 1,000 in the Latin Church, and up to this day in the Eastern Church, both those in union with Rome and those in schism.

- Married priests in the Eastern Rite set an example; to deny it is to deny that the Sacraments have any efficacy on them, particularly the graces of ordination and of frequent communion, not to speak of other works of mercy and asceticism.

- Married priests work today in the Latin Rite, following the 1980 permissions granted by the Holy See to returning Anglicans, and later extended to returning Lutherans, Methodists, and even Pentecostalists. They are here with us, *now*, with the permission of the Holy See. What do you suggest the Bishops do with them, should they be "canned out of here?"

- Ordaining married priests will not diminish the value of celibate chastity, in fact, it may exalt it further. Members of regular orders will still be required to remain celibate.

- The risk of a "divorced priest" and the subsequent scandal is a real one; so is the scandal of Catholics lacking priests. I find it illogical to say that "we cannot due something because if we do, we can create another problem." That's called "blowback" and that's a risk that we take in every endeavor in life.

The next Pope will do what the Spirit leads him to do on this and all other issues. I am at peace with whatever he decides to do.

In Christ,
Theo


134 posted on 04/08/2005 12:34:40 PM PDT by Teófilo (Visit Vivificat! - http://www.vivificat.org)
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