www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Canon law hypothetical

A married Orthodox deacon or priest wants to become an Eastern Catholic, but his wants to remain Orthodox; how would Rome handle this?

Actually not quite hypothetical, because I know of one case where this has happened. The man is now apparently an EC priest, and as far as is known, his wife remains Orthodox.

I would have thought that given that CCEO as far as I know implies that clergy wives should be Catholic, this would be a problem.

Thoughts?

I doubt Roman church authorities would coerce the wife to become a Catholic and abandon Orthodoxy - at least not nowadays...such coercion would be a grossly immoral violation of her conscience.

I think the clergyman in question needs to have his wife's permission to take the step you mention.

There is no such requirement in Canon Law. Ultimately it is up to the bishop and I doubt any Eastern Catholic bishop would have a problem with it.

I know of a case where an Orthodox priest became a priest in the Roman Catholic Church and his wife remained Orthodox. This does not seem to be an issue for the Romans.

Fr. David