Bishop Nicholas Samra was enthroned as Bishop for Melkite Catholics in the USA in August, 2011
Posted on 11/09/2011 11:02:16 AM PST by NYer
Bishop Nicholas Samra was enthroned as Bishop for Melkite Catholics in the USA in August, 2011
At his recent enthronement as the Melkite Greek Catholic Bishop in the USA, Bishop Nicholas Samra stated that the Melkite Catholic Church (an Eastern Catholic Church in union with the Pope of Rome) will begin ordaining married men to the priesthood in the USA.
Bishop Nicholas Samra, Bishop of the Melkite Eparchy of Newton, Massachusetts made the comment in a dinner speech following his enthronement on August 23, 2011. The Bishop’s speech, newly published in the Melkite journal Sophia, contains the first published public statements by the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of their intention to ordain married men to the priesthood for the American Melkite Church.
Bishop Nicholas, the first American-born Bishop to serve the Melkite Church in the USA, noted that “we are on a shoe-string of clergy to serve our Church as priests.” At present, the American Melkite Eparchy, with 35 parishes and approximately 27,000 members has only “one priest to be ordained next year.” Worldwide, Melkite Catholics number about 1.6 million and are part of the Melkite Partriarchate of Antioch. The Melkite Catholic Church shares similar traditions with the Antiochian Orthodox Church, but entered communion with Rome in 1729.
Encouraging vocations among his American flock is one of Bishop Nicholas’ goals:
We are grateful for our ancestors — priests and laity and bishops who came from the Middle East and brought us to where we are presently. But now we have come of age and we need priests from among our people in this American Melkite Catholic Church.
Bishops at the Enthronement of Melkite Bishop Nicholas Samra in Newton, Massachusetts
Towards the end of his speech, Bishop Nicholas spoke of the need to both study and implement the training of married men to the priesthood in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church so that “hopefully soon we can see the growth of properly formed married clergy”:
God calls men and women to religious vocations. And I believe he also calls married men to the priesthood. We need to study this situation in our country and develop the proper formation for men who are truly deemed worthy of this call. The Deacon Formation Program is a good program; however is not the backdoor to the priesthood. Married men who are called to priesthood need the same formation as those celibates who are called. I have already discussed this issue with those involved in priestly formation and hopefully soon we can see the growth of properly formed married clergy. Of course there are also major financial issues to be looked at and we will embark on this also.
I began my talk with vocations and I end with it also. We need priests for your sanctification and the mysteries of the Church. Seminary formation is a must — please send us vocations. The Church is in our hands, mine and yours. Together we build His Body. [(Sophia, Summer 2011, pp. 8-9; issue released October 2011)]
The Sophia article did not discuss the issue of earlier restrictions on the ordaining of married men to the priesthood in America. Bans on ordaining married men to the priesthood for Eastern Catholic Churches in the USA were imposed by Rome in the last century, but enforcement of the Ban has waned in the past fifteen years causing many Catholics, both Eastern and Latin Rite, to wonder if the Ban should be taken seriously. Earlier, in the 1970s and 1980s, the Melkite Church ordained five married men for service in America as priests but the ordinations were ruled illicit by Rome and their priestly faculties were removed. However, a 1996 ordination of a married Melkite deacon to the priesthood was noted by the press but was considered “hardly a trend” with no recorded public reaction by Rome. At the time, the 1996 ordination was seen by some as “testing the waters,” but there was no push by the previous American Melkite Bishops to encourage married men to enter seminary. Nonetheless, the Melkite Catholic Church has long felt that their right to have a married clergy is an important part of their canonical tradition.
Changes have also slowly begun to appear in other Eastern Catholic Churches in the USA. The Ban is no longer absolute in the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh, though that Eastern Catholic Church has to obtain individual dispensations from Rome for any married men it might ordain. Ordinations of some married men to the priesthood in the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the USA and Canada are also now beginning to occur. The Coptic Catholic Church, with no hierarchy in place in the USA, made a formal request to Rome last year for an end to the Ban so that married Coptic Catholic priests could serve American parishes.
However, the Ban is apparently still viewed by Rome as being in effect. An official of the Eastern Congregation, one of the offices of the papal curia in Rome overseeing the Eastern Catholic Churches, stated in 2003 that the Ban “remains unchanged,” but that it would no longer suspend the priestly faculties of married men ordained by Eastern Catholic Bishops in the USA. America reported:
Msgr. Lucian Lamza, an official in the Vatican’s Congregation for Eastern Churches, said on May 22[, 2003] that the Vatican’s ban on the ordination of married men for the Eastern churches in the West “remains unchanged.” The ordinations “are against the norm,” he said. “But, of course, these priests can validly celebrate the liturgy and sacraments,” since the ordinations are sacramentally valid. He would not discuss the Vatican’s reaction or lack of reaction to the ordinations.
Censures from Rome over this issue have not occurred since 1996, though tensions between celibate Latin Rite priests and married Eastern Catholic priests have erupted; for example, in Italy in 2010.
Bishop Nicholas’ public call for married men to be included in the call for priestly vocations for American Melkite Catholics is a first and is likely to signal greater acceptance of married clergy for Eastern Catholics in the USA. Greater acceptance of married Eastern Catholic clergy by Rome in Western lands may also now be occurring. Will it lead to a full repeal of the Ban on the ordaining of married men in Eastern Catholic Churches outside their traditional territories? Only time will tell.
“But with efforts being made by PBXVI to outreach to the Eastern Orthodox Churches, things couuld ease up.”
I am very skeptical. PBXVI will not be pope forever and there is remarkable inconsistency between popes.
EOs will never accept supremacy and Rome will never settle for primacy. It may not be optimistic, but that’s the way it’s been for nearly 1,000 years.
No it isn't. One is proposing to ordain married men, and the other is also proposing to ordain married men. The only difference is that in one case the men were previously involved in Protestant ministry, and in the other the men were (usually) baptized Catholics as infants.
IMO, the requirement for Eastern Catholics to ordain only celibate men is bogus and wrong. It's a violation of the agreements by which they (re)entered communion with the Holy See, and was done only to placate certain American Latin hierarchs with a habit of sticking their noses in things that were none of their business.
Let the Greeks be Greeks, and the Latins be Latins, and if that means the Greek priest has a wife and 10 kids, good for him and Glory to God.
How are they “taking it to the next step?” You mean doing what Rome said they could do from the beginning? What they’ve been doing for 2,000 years? SHOCK! GASP! Eastern Catholics actually telling Latins they want Rome to live up to their agreements.
It would be helpful if you could cite that agreement.
According to the links provided in the above article, the Vatican position on married Eastern Catholic priests reads:
In practice, this means that according to Eastern Catholic canon law there is no restriction on Eastern Catholic Bishops ordaining married men to the priesthood in their home territories (Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania, the Middle East, etc.), but there are restrictions in place outside of their homelands.
“I am very skeptical. PBXVI will not be pope forever and there is remarkable inconsistency between popes.”
True, but at least he is planting the seeds for the future. Considering the threats that is going on now against Christians in the Middle East, warmer ecumenical relations certainly cannot hurt.
Hence the difference in normalizing priests already married. See the post immediately above this one.
As a “convert” from the Latin rite to the Melkite rite, I ask, “huh?”
Didn’t detect any sign of schism being fundamental to the Melkite church.
9.—That the marriages of priests remain intact, except for bigamists.
That is Article 9 of 33. Many of the articles are merely ignored.
No. Closer to the fact that care for his personal family might compete with care for his flock. I suppose it’s plausible that a given priest might have tried to set up some legal situation where his family might inherit what the church might have, but a church building? Not seeing how he’d’ve been able to have his children inherit a church building anyway. The very practice of holding a mass there would pretty much establish it as belonging to the Church.
Married men will always be eligible for the Melchite priesthood, within the boundaries of the Melchite church. What is happening in America is a special permission has been granted to grant Melkite eparchs authority within the boundaries of another bishop’s diocese. Multiple bishops with jurisdiction over one place, allowing Christians to potentially choose which bishops’ discipline he will accept would be very contrary to the ancient Fathers’ way of doing things.
Instead, for the unusual circumstance of the need to preserve the traditions and cultures of a misplaced people, the Patriarch of Rome has extended an invitation to other Patriarchs to have jurisdiction over their own people, even when those people live outside of their jurisdiction. But, as such, it would be highly inappropriate for those Eastern Patriarchs to undermine the discipline of the Roman Patriarch is his jurisdiction; they serve their at the Roman Patriarch’s invitation, just like the Franciscans serve in Jerusalem at the invitation of the Eastern Patriarch (I think that of Damascus?)
My temptation is to say, “Ooh, cool! I can be a priest!” But as a Latin attending Melkite masses, I do not want to be one of those test cases that pushes the boundaries of the amicable relationship between Melkite and Latin.
Sorry, we cannot accept heresy in the name of false union. Saint Mark of Ephesus, pray for us!
The Melkite eparch has his own jurisdiction that is not inferior to those of the Latin Church.
Peace between the Latins and the Byzantines in union with Rome doesn’t equal us surrendering our rights as good colonials.
There is no such requirement. You're confused.
Yeah, there is such a requirement, although there shouldn't be. Google "Cum Data Fuerit" and "Alexis Toth".
There are overlapping Byzantine and Latin Rite boundaries all over the place in Eastern Europe, and the Byzantines are allowed to ordain married men there, so I don't think overlapping jurisdictions have much to do with it.
The traditions of the Eastern Church should be respected, and a married diocesan priesthood is one of those.
My temptation is to say, “Ooh, cool! I can be a priest!”
To borrow the Lee Corso line: Not so fast, my friend! You would have to do a juridical change of rite, which is actually very difficult and has to be approved by Rome.
Have you ever worked in a parish or has anyone close to you? Glamorous it ain't.
About 20 years ago I had many people "suggesting" that I become a deacon. Mrs. Chandler was a Director of Religious Education and I taught R.E., was a bouncer head usher at a teen mass, and was heavily involved in many, many aspects of parish life. It was not uncommon for us to have Easter breakfast at the rectory. I got a bird's eye view of parish life and it isn't pretty, having to deal with hundreds and hundreds of people, many of them very unpleasant.
I knew that I would never fit in as a deacon because my tolerance for bull was used up. Can you imagine what it is like for a priest?!
BTW, this is not a Catholic-only phenomenon. Ask anyone who has worked at a Christian church or at a synagogue. Then think real hard before you say it would be cool to be a priest.
Now I am an anonymous parishioner and life is much nicer.
>> Peace between the Latins and the Byzantines in union with Rome doesn’t equal us surrendering our rights as good colonials. <<
No, of course not. But you’re in the Latin Patriarchate, not Syria or the Levant. That means some attention must be paid to the discipline of the Latin Patriarch. People switching rites just to avoid one rite’s discipline would be terrible for the Melkites: consider the case of the Polish Old Catholic Church
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