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To: boatbums
I can see how that question would arise, boatbums.

The Western (Latin) Church does have married men in Holy Orders, i.e. deacons, and that is a truly new thing since the Council 50 years ago. In the USA we now have more married deacons (15,000) than we have priesta in religious orders (14,000 Franciscan, Jesuits, etc.)

It is possible and -- I say this guardedly --- "imaginable" that the Church would OK married deacons to become priests.

But it doesn't seem likely.

It is likewise possible and imaginable that the Church would OK more Western (Latin) Catholics to switch over and become Byzantine Catholics --- our Byzantine Catholic Churches do ordain married men. Pope Francis himself had the role in Buenos Aires of being the official hierarch for both the Byzantines and the Latins.

I've known of that to happen just once: a married Latin-rite man who got ordained as a Byzantine-rite priest. But that's exceedingly rare.

That's as much as I can say!

33 posted on 08/04/2013 4:41:34 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Point of clarification, I hope.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
Thank you for your respectful answer - something several FRoman Catholics here are severely lacking.

Thank you, also, for confirming that married priests are the exception and not the rule for the Latin rite. Do you personally see a cross benefit that, in allowing married clergy, the Catholic Church could be more selective in whom they ordain into the priesthood and could afford to weed out the homosexually inclined applicants because of that? I know that there is an acknowledged dearth of men applying for the priesthood and that this scarcity may explain why many men, that would have been weeded out in the past, were permitted to continue to ordination in spite of suspected homosexual leanings. I just think that the Catholic Church could afford to be more choosy if married men were welcomed into the priesthood. But, that's just my opinion, FWIW.

36 posted on 08/04/2013 1:15:43 PM PDT by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.)
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