Posted on 10/03/2019 2:00:03 PM PDT by ebb tide
October 2, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis has begun to eliminate restrictions on the activities of men who have been removed from the priestly state and allowed to marry, according to Religion Digital, a Spanish-language leftist news portal sometimes used by members of the Francis regime to announce new initiatives and respond to critics.
Moreover, the Vatican appears to be hinting that such people may be allowed to continue to carry out priestly functions in the future, even if they marry.
A trusted source close to the information has told LifeSite that the Vatican has also facilitated the process of obtaining dispensations for leaving the priesthood, and no longer places waiting periods or minimum ages on priests before they may receive such dispensations.
The same source tells LifeSite that the new rescripts are connected with the Amazon Synod agenda, which includes permitting the ordination of married men as priests.
Religion Digital describes the new approach as an “absolute and radical change in the procedure that priests have to follow when they hang up their garb and ask for a dispensation.”
According to a recent decree or “rescript” issued in Spanish by the Vatican in response to a request by a priest to be returned to the lay state, which was published by Religion Digital and has been translated into English by LifeSite, such priests may now remain in the communities that they served, where they must be “accepted,” even after marrying, and may even marry publicly in that same community.
In previous rescripts, laicized priests were prohibited from distributing Holy Communion or directing pastoral activities. These restrictions are reversed in the current version of the rescript, which instead states that “the dispensed cleric will be able to exercise those ecclesiastical offices that do not require sacred Order, with the permission of the competent Bishop.”
Previous rescripts for laicizing priests stated that they must leave the communities they served and live in a place in which they were not known as having been ordained as a priest, and in addition, any marriage contracted by the laicized priest had to be “carried out with caution and without pomp and outward display.” Such rescripts also required laicized priests to carry out a penance through “some work of devotion or charity,” another requirement that has disappeared from the rescript.
However, the text of the new rescript hints that the prohibition on the priest continuing to function as a priest while married may be lifted in the future, stating that the dispensation “includes, inseparably, the dispensation from celibacy and, at the same time, the loss of the clerical state. These two elements can never be separated, because according to current practice they are part of a single procedure” (boldface added).
Religion Digital openly celebrates what it sees as a move towards a married priesthood, even including a drawing of a priest holding his child with the caption, “A priest with his little child in his arms would be a greater testimony of the love of God than all of the celibates in the world.”
Religion Digital openly celebrated what it sees as a move towards a married priesthood with this cartoon. The caption reads: 'A priest with his little child in his arms would be a greater testimony of the love of God than all of the celibates in the world.' religiondigital.org / screen grab
The new rescript also relaxes prohibitions on laicized priests taking teaching positions. Although it still prohibits them from being involved in the formation of priests, it now allows them to teach theology and even to exercise leadership positions in the teaching of theology at the high school level. They may even teach theology at a Catholic university if permission is given by the Congregation for the Clergy. All such activities were prohibited to laicized priests in the past, mostly without exception.
A translation made in 2006 of the earlier rescript on dispensing a priest can be found here on pages 45-46.
A source with immediate knowledge of the situation tells LifeSite that the restrictions on such dispensations, which placed delays on priests asking to be laicized, have been lifted in recent years. Previously, priests had to be over 40 and had to wait five years from their initial request to receive laicization. Now, it appears, priests can receive such dispensations virtually immediately, and with little to curtail their activities in the Church after they have left the priesthood.
“The prohibition of granting dispensation before the age of 40 or the need for the priest to abandon an irregular cohabitation before being eligible for the granting of a dispensation... all those rules are being turned into dust,” LifeSite’s source stated. Who added that now the priest is “viewed as a functionary,” with “a job one may peacefully abandon at any time.”
In leaving the priesthood, there is “an all around aura of normality,” the source added.
The Catholic Church teaches that priestly ordination places an “indelible mark” of the sacrament of Holy Orders on the recipient, which can never be nullified. When men are removed from the priestly state and allowed to marry, they technically remain priests, but may exercise their priestly faculties only under extraordinary circumstances, normally only to hear confessions of a person in danger of death.
The lifting of restrictions on laicized and married priests would seem to lend weight to concerns that the Amazon Synod, which begins on October 6, will begin to allow the ordination of married men, ostensibly to address the shortage of unmarried men willing to be ordained as priests.
The synod’s working document or “instrumentum laboris” states that “it is requested that, for the most remote areas of the region, the possibility of priestly ordination be studied for older people, preferably indigenous, respected and accepted by their community, even if they have an existing and stable family, in order to ensure availability of the Sacraments that accompany and sustain the Christian life.”
The Spanish original of the recent (July, 2019) rescript from Pope Francis can be found here.
LifeSite’s translation of the rescript can be found here.
Now you GET what I have posted.
So will you drop you incessant posts pushing for married priests in the Latin rite?
You are right to a point because, while celibacy was celebrated, it was not always mandated. Saint Peter, the first pope, was married. In fact Jesus healed his mother in law. (See, Matthew 8:14 and Luke 4:38-40). A mix of people followed the apostles, some were married, some were not. Some were celibate and others not. There was no uniform rule.
Matthew 8:14
King James Bible
And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever.
Luke 4:38-40
And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.
And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them
not since the earliest days.
Pope John XVII was married before his election as Pope (married as a priest) in 1003 AD in the Middle Ages. This means priests were often married durring 1000 years of Church history, like I first posted. That is not late.
Sorry, I can do this all day.
knock yourself out priests were married early and in 1000 so what
You can do it all day and night for all i care.
I am just saying that celibacy does not make you more godly. Celibacy certainly does greatly reduce distractions from the priestly vocation but on the flip side marriage is not a sin and it is not a roadblock to salvation.
Ecclesiastes 4:9: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?"
No.
I'm not the one twisting the Bible. Do you disagree with Timothy about a Bishop being married?
1 Timothy 3 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)1 A faithful saying: if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
2 It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, of good behaviour, chaste, given to hospitality, a teacher,.
3 Not given to wine, no striker, but modest, not quarrelsome, not covetous, but.
4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all chastity..
5 But if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?.
6 Not a neophyte: lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil..
7 Moreover he must have a good testimony of them who are without: lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil..
8 Deacons in like manner chaste, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre:.
9 Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience..
10 And let these also first be proved: and so let them minister, having no crime..
11 The women in like manner chaste, not slanderers, but sober, faithful in all things. .
12 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife: who rule well their children, and their own houses..
13 For they that have ministered well, shall purchase to themselves a good degree, and much confidence in the faith which is in Christ Jesus..
14 These things I write to thee, hoping that I shall come to thee shortly..
15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth..
16 And evidently great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, hath been preached unto the Gentiles, is believed in the world, is taken up in glory..
Nothing preventing the church from having pre-nup agreements.
Your Church may have a husband but it's not Jesus Christ...Jesus does not yet have a bride...He has a fiance'...
It's nice that you found some scripture to read but if you look at a verse or 2 in the near vicinity the reference to a wife is after the earth is completely destroyed...
If you look in chapter 19 you will see that the bride marries the groom (in heaven) while the earth (and its people) is being devastated by the plagues of God...And it hasn't taken place yet...
And you may then notice that after the wedding the heavens are opened and Jesus and his bride, the bible church, head to earth to finish off the enemies of Israel...
Your Church teaches you that it and the rest of the living Catholics will be here on earth prior to and during that 2nd Coming of Jesus with his church... If that is true, your Church can not possibly be the bride of Christ since (1) there is no bride as of yet and (2) the bride is not on the earth and will not be on the earth until Jesus returns, since the church/bride returns with Jesus...
Anyone can know these things, if they will read the bible...
They are apparently forbidden from discussing (or even reading) those scriptures you posted...In fact, they will ignore most all of the scriptures written specifically to the churches, the Pauline epistles...Odd, eh, for a religion that calls itself the one, true church???
How different churches understand scriptures.
True it.
Yes! Our priests are gay and not interested in marriage to a woman!
I'm not surprised the "priests" in your "church" are gay.
I refer to our Latin Rite Catholic Church!
In fact, we not only tolerate gays, we celebrate gay life in Rome, at our Vatican.
Even the press writes nice articles about our joyful pride celebrations at the Vatican.
Vatican police raid drug-fueled gay orgy at top priest's apartment"Vatican police raided a drug-fueled gay sex party at a top priest's apartment near the city, according to an Italian newspaper report.
The apartment's occupant, who was not named by police, serves as a secretary to Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, a personal adviser to Pope Francis.
The apartment belongs to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith — the branch that reviews appeals from clergy found guilty of sexual abuse of minors, according to Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, which first published the explosive report.
Police raided the apartment in June after neighbors complained of unusual behavior among frequent nighttime visitors.
Police arrested the priest and hospitalized him to detox him from the drugs he had ingested, according to the newspaper.
He was taken in for questioning, presumably on drugs charges, as gay sex is legal in Vatican City.
When did you become a Catholic?
As a wee chil', was I baptized and later confirmed.
An' t' be sure, there's those here on FreeRepublic who insist that a soul once Catholic always be Catholic.
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