Thanks my friends for the helpful responses. I am going to ask my spiritual father about this.

Joe

This looks like a good document:

http://www.holy-trinity.org/morality/synod-marriage.html

This document is OCA and is rather interesting.

The OCA uses permission to remarry. It contains the following text:
2. The permission to remarry according to the "Order of Second Marriage" may eventually be granted divorced persons.

When persons who have obtained a civil divorce seek clarification of their status in the Church, the priest must write a report of the entire matter to the local diocesan bishop. He must state clearly his analysis of the situation and make concrete suggestions for action by the bishop. In his analysis he must consider not only the formal status, but also the total spiritual condition of the persons involved. The final hierarchical decision, which may accept, reject, or modify the local pastor’s suggestions, will also give the reasons behind the decision. A period of penance may be imposed on one or both partners of a marriage that has ended in divorce.

If this reflects the actual procedure, the decision is entirely in the bishop's hands and seems to be based on the recommendation of the couple's pastor. There does not seem to be an actual hearing as is the case in the Greek jurisdiction.

Dear Joe,I can't speak for your jurisdiction,but I can't see how anything you may have done before being either Catholic or Orthodox could affect your future ordination.What counts is that you are the"husband of one wife" since joining the church,and,God willing" will remain so.

Thanks Fr. Al. As it happens, I met an Orthodox priest today (he was our convocation speaker) and we chatted about various things. He indicated to me what you have told me is correct, that things that happened 20 years ago, long before a person joined either the Catholic or Orthodox Church will not be held against the person.

Joe

My experience in this matter is different. I'm an Orthodox Priest (OCA) and I know many men who were told that a previous marriage is an impediment, whether or not it was in the Church.

Just my experience. I'm happily the husband of one wife!

Dear Fr. Is this your own bishop's policy or an OCA policy in general? I ask this because I know an OCA subdeacon who was a cradle Orthodox and ordained subdeacon after his SECOND marriage.This was confirmed by the man fomer pastor who said that the bishop in question said that the subdeacon could never advance higher.I'll not go into my personnal opinion on the matter nor whether or not Orthodoxy considers Latin or Byzantine mysteries as valid,but what about the convert is baptised into the church?I realise that an Orthodox who is twice married should not be advanced to ANY rank.I realise also that there is room for abuse,i.e.,a Greek Old Calender priestmonk left his monastery and later married and was re-ordained in the Greek Archdiocese;certainly the Sacrements are not something one should play around with,but I'm speaking in general terms with the understanding that Baptism washes away all sins.

It is not a question of sin. Assuming that both marriages were proper, neither is or was sinful in itself. It is simply a matter of the requirements which apply to a candidate for Holy Orders.

There was for quite some time an Orthodox subdeacon on the Forum. He mentioned once that he remained a subdeacon because he had a poor voice and would not have been able to serve as priest or deacon properly. No one would suggest that a man with a poor voice who converted to Orthodoxy would suddenly be able to sing like Caruso!

Fr. Serge

Gee, Father, up until this post, I had always assumed that had I found Eastern Catholicism twenty or thirty years earlier, I would have been a priest.

I have an uncommonly strong and powerful voice, and need no microphone in an auditorium. But I apparently can't carry a tune, and couldn't really tell the difference in tones when they changed for the RDL . . .

hawk, now past practical age for the seminary anyway

The Latin Code of Canon law used to prohibit the ordination of a man who couldn't sing.

Dear Friends,

The issue of singing is an important one. Some have said that if Moses had heard me singing, there would have been another commandment . . .

During a face-to-face meeting with a Cantorka from this Forum, I learned that I had a good voice, but needed voice training.

Perhaps if my parents had sent me for voice training lessons (rather than that silly piano), I could have truly become a Metropolitan, as my dad had dreamed about . . .

It is a relatively simple thing to train one's voice to be at the service of the Church and there shouldn't be one person who feels a vocation to be excluded because of this issue.

Alex

May the Lord forgive me, but our bishops have demonstrated in times past that candidates for the presbyterate who are (ahem) "differently abled" in their musical abilities may still, provided other criteria are met, be ordained.

In my case, I would surely be meant for the classroom, rather than the parish.

At my reunion last year, I discovered that there are only four Jesuits now teaching at my high school, all part time It probably isn't much better at my college.

The impact that clergy, nuns, and brothers have just by being in the classroom is often overlooked