Posted on 09/13/2019 6:19:45 PM PDT by marshmallow
ROME - Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, has urged those considering allowing priests in the Latin rite to marry in order to help solve a crippling shortage, to proceed with caution, saying marriage has not curbed shortages in his own rite.
With five blooming seminaries in Ukraine alone, “thanks be to God we do not lack vocations,” Shevchuk said, but noted that despite the fact that priests in his church - the largest of the 23 sui iuris eastern churches in full communion with Rome - have the ability to marry, the high numbers don’t appear for Greek Catholics in other countries.
“The same church with the same way of living the priestly vocation in other countries around the world does not enjoy this quantity of vocations,” he said, noting that numbers in the United States and Canada, among others, are few.
“So, the familial state does not favor the increase in vocations to the priesthood. This is our experience,” he said.
Speaking to journalists Sept. 11, Shevchuk responded to a question on the married priesthood in light of the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, which will reflect on whether to allow the ordination of older married men to help curb a priest shortage in the region.
Insisting that the call to the priesthood comes from God alone, Shevchuk said it is “a vocation which can neither be increased nor decreased based on the state in which this vocation is lived,” including whether the priest is married or celibate.
Priesthood, he said, is “a way of offering one’s life for the good of the Church.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cruxnow.com ...
Married priests do not become homos. They produce first class Christian children
I don’t doubt there are more than a few Catholic men who feel the call to the priesthood, but also would like to have a family. Seems a bit schizophrenic that it’s acceptable for priests in some types of Catholicism, but not in others. I mean, it’s either wrong, or it’s not.
I prefer sex myself.
He’s Rite, you know.
So they'll accept once married men with massive restrictions...Apparently the homos don't want to give up too much power...
This is a confusingly written article. The bishop says that his own country, where priests can marry, has flourishing seminaries and many priests. So it’s hard to understand how this is an argument that allowing priests to marry won’t increase the ranks of priests.
“This is a confusingly written article. The bishop says that his own country, where priests can marry, has flourishing seminaries and many priests. So it’s hard to understand how this is an argument that allowing priests to marry won’t increase the ranks of priests.”
He was not talking about his own country, where evidently the vocation of Priest is flourishing. According to the article the Archbishop was talking about “other countries” like the USA and Canada.
According to the article the Archbishop was talking about “other countries” like the USA and Canada.
It’s still not a persuasive argument. His church represents and serves a small alien ethnic group in USA and Canada, so it’s no surprise they’re not getting many vocations.
However, where the Church is culturally at home, in Ukraine, it’s thriving with vocations — and allows married priests. Logic says that the only sensible comparison would be with the regular Roman Catholic church here — see how it would do by allowing married priests. The precedent from the Ukraine suggests that it could help a lot.
Good to hear this from an REAL expert witness.
The married men that have become Catholic priests, like from the Anglicans, value the discipline of celibacy and want it to continue. The liberal Catholics are the ones that invariably don’t think it is valuable and want it to end. Try finding one lib that supports ‘gay marriage’ and female clergy but who also thinks the Catholic discipline of celibacy is valuable and should continue.
Freegards
One of the Eastern/Greek Catholic Rites.
Not. I've known a few preacher's kids. Most of them were first-class monsters.
Because in similar Eastern rites in other countries which also allow married priests do NOT have increased vocations. Therefore, it can't be marriage that is resulting in increased vocations.
“Because in similar Eastern rites in other countries which also allow married priests do NOT have increased vocations. ”
The only countries mentioned are US and Canada, where the Ukrainian rite is tiny and in fact unknown to most people, including most Catholics; few ever encounter it. So that’s hardly a test of whether allowing married priests can draw more vocations. The experience in Ukraine itself is a much better test for how a large church (such as Catholicism in US) could benefit from allowing married priests
“Mhe married men that have become Catholic priests, like from the Anglicans, value the discipline of celibacy and want it to continue”
But obviously they don’t favor it as the sole option - since they have become priests under a different arrangement. Otherwise they would give up their own priesthood
I haven’t heard of any advocates for married priests calling for ending the option of a discipline of celibacy, just for allowing another option
With gay marriage being legal across the world, gay marriage means gay married priests.
Used to be on line with married priests but no more. The Roman Catholic Church is in big Doo Doo.
We don't know what "countries" he is referring to, only that other eastern rite groups who allow married priests don't show higher vocations.
For some years my parents attended a Ukrainian Catholic church (although neither had any Ukrainian ancestry). The priest was a very good man and was celibate. (He has been dead for many years now.) The liturgy was in Ukrainian but there were missalettes with the Ukrainian text printed in the Latin alphabet (along with an English translation)—many of the people who attended regularly were not Ukrainian.
many of the people who attended regularly were not Ukrainian.
Interesting, but you can’t deny that this is a rite that is unfamiliar to most American Catholics, in the sense that they’ve never attended, never plan to attend, and have no cultural affinity with it.
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