Married Clergy

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I am hearing more and more about married clergy. What is the churches official position and how many active and officially recognized priests are married.

Thank You,

-- Alfredo Blanco (alfredo.blanco@verizon.net), August 13, 2003

Answers

The Catholic Church (which includes 7 major rites, one of which is the Latin) has married clergy. However, there is a difference: a married man may become ordained, but a single, celibate male who has been ordained can not marry.

If the married clergyman's wife dies, he may not marry again. The same goes for a permanent deacon.

This has been the case since at least the 300's, when local councils (for example, Elmira) taught that celibacy was already a long- standing doctrine, but that some married men could be ordained...following one original practice.

It has never been a matter of dogma or doctrine, but of discipline.

There are certainly many good reasons for celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, and these reasons at most times and places trump the reasons for a married clergy...all of which explains why married clergymen have never been more than a minority.

It helps if you don't focus on the sex and instead focus on the mystery of a vocation - a truly divine call to a man to be generous in the service of his brethren... this is a special call that most Catholic men DON'T RECEIVE. It's not, and never has been considered to be a "career choice" taken for no particular reason.

-- Joe (joestong@yahoo.com), August 13, 2003.


Just one minor correction. There are 22 "rites", more properly "Churches sui iuris" in the Catholic Church. The Roman Church is one of the 22.

-- Fr. Mike Skrocki, JCL (abounamike@aol.com), August 13, 2003.

Yes - with the understanding that all Catholic rites, not just the "Roman" Rite, are in submission to the authority of the Bishop of Rome. No church which renounces the authority of the Vicar of Christ can rightfully be called Catholic.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), August 13, 2003.

Well of course. Each of the 21 other Churches is in union with the Bishop of Rome.

-- Fr. Mike Skrocki, JCL (abounamike@aol.com), August 13, 2003.

The Vatican, since the latest Council -- probably in response to pleas from the Eastern Catholic bishops -- has made it clear that Catholics need to use the words "rite" and "church" with much greater precision than in the past.

Those Eastern bodies that are in full communion with the pope should NOT be called "rites" (e.g., Chaldean Rite, Melkite Rite, etc.) Rather, they should be called "Churches," while the word "rites" should be used only to refer to the unique sacramental celebrations of each of the Churches.

This just makes sense and can help everyone to understand the structure of the Catholic Church better. However, we will surely continue to hear the word "rite" misused, because few Catholics have been made aware of this fairly recent correction to terminology.

Other imprecisions of language sometimes encountered are "Roman Catholic Church" and "Roman Church."

The correct term for what most (though not all) people mean by "Roman Catholic Church" is "Catholic Church."

The correct term for what most (though not all) people mean by "Roman Church" is "Latin Church" -- as in Canon 1 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law: "The canons of this Code concern only the Latin Church." More than 95% of the people in the Catholic Church are within the Latin Church. It will be beautiful when that percentage shrinks greatly, through the reunification of the schismatic Eastern (Orthodox) churches with the Catholic Church.

A.

-- Art (ars@gratia.artis), August 14, 2003.



Just to make myself clear, I am not against married clergy and am aware of the reasons why celibacy is the preferred state. I had only become recently aware of the existence of married clergy and wanted to know if this was genuine.

That being said, wouldn't anything (short of victimizing anyone) that brings more people to a life of charity be a good thing?

-Sort of a Catholic Al

-- Alfredo Blanco (alfredo.blanco@verizon.net), August 14, 2003.


That being said, wouldn't anything (short of victimizing anyone) that brings more people to a life of charity be a good thing?

i, for one, would not feel comfortable disclosing information in the confessional to a man who was in a close personal relationship with a female. no offense to ladies, but it gets to easy to divulge secrets and let them fall to gossip.

-- paul (dontsendmemail@notanaddress.com), August 14, 2003.


Dear paul,

I don't think that is a valid argument. There are many professionals - counselors, therapists, physicians, lawyers, judges, bankers, etc. - who have access to private information about others. Professional confidentiality is required in all such cases. The same is true for the many priests who are married. Not to mention deacons.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), August 15, 2003.


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