www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Priestly celibacy

Hello, sorry to rehash an eternal issue in the Church but it is causing me some distress. I have a call to a vocation but I am married. I was told by the Byzantine Church that they can ordain married men but they aren't doing so, only under special circumstances. Why? There is a pool of men that would love to serve the Lord. Peter and 38 other Popes, mind you, were married! Jesus Himself called married men and single alike. The excuse I get is that married men have the responsibility of their own family and cannot fully be there for the Church. What about physicians, they work like 80 hours and are on-call and still have families. Anyway, don't you think that a celibate priest that is always struggling with his own celibacy issues or even his loneliness can better serve his parish? Not all priests of course have these issues but some do, just as some married men could not juggle both parish and family. The legacy of the desert fathers (celibacy) was never mandatory of clergy until the 1100's. If we changed from married clergy to celibate clergy could we not change back? God said that is not good for man to be alone. He did not say that it is good for my representatives to be alone. Even God Himself sets an example, He has a Son! I respect those that take the vow of white martyrdom for the kingdom but how does it mean as much when one is forced to be celibate rather than choose? Not to be a pain, but just think if priests could marry or they adequately ordained married men. The Church would be confronted with an enormous financial problem. They would have to pay priests more, let them own property, give family health benefits and build bigger rectories! Sorry to be so inflamed but I have a call to priesthood and I have been told by my Bishop that he is choosing not to ordain married men. At what point does magisterium overrule Christ's calling? I would die for Christ, but I cannot serve at His alter?

Hello Jim,

Let me start by thanking you for your post and for your will to serve the Lord and His People with the gifts He has bestowed on you.

Now, how exactly are you discerning a possible priestly vocation?

An important element in this discernment is the voice of the Church, because God will call you only through and for the Church.

Do you have a spiritual director walking this path with you?

True, the celebacy issue is a mere disciplinary restriction, but even at that, it is the will of the Sui Iuris Churches that have that discipline, like the Latin Church, and therefore, it needs to be respected even while it is criticized and challenged.

Your source of information is true. Byzantine and other Eastern Catholics (but not all) do have a tradition of ordaining married men to the priesthood. However, this is still scarcely done outside the "traditional canonical territoy" of each of these Churches.

That means if you want to pursue ordination as a married man in one of these Churches, your best shot would be to move to Eastern Europe or the Middle-East. If your vocation is true, though, that should not be a problem.

But even before that, you should go through a canonical process to be enrolled in a Church Sui Iuris which is not the one you were baptized into. This process usually takes a couple of years and starts with you becoming an active member of an Eastern Catholic parish and, once you are familiar enough with Eastern spiritual life, with the support of your pastor, you write letters to your Latin Bishop and to your Eastrn Eparch.

Once both hierarchs give their consent, you can canonically transfer to the Eastern Church and continue your spiritual journey there.

Consent to a canonical transfer like that is usually NOT granted because the petitioner dislikes something about the Latin Church and he or she is simply running away from it.

Consent because a married man is trying to go around the Latin discipline of priestly celebacy is, as far as I understand, even less "popular" among hierarchs.

Therefore, my advice would be, if you want to go "Eastern", find better reasons to do so (and remember, God is your witness).

Now, you can still serve the Lord in the Latin Church and use your particular gifts.

Granted, as a lay man you are not able to annoint the sick, hear confessions or celebrate the Eucharist.

However, on one side, a priest is much more than a sacrament vending machine, on the other side, all baptized, lay and ordained, men and women, share in the Royal Priesthood of Chirst.

That means we are all able and even required to offer spiritual sacrifices (like prayers, works of mercy, ascetic practices, etc.) for the sanctification of the world, the Church and especially those persons Our Lord has put near us, like spouse, children, other relatives, our pastor, our bishop, our friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc.

All baptized share as well in Christ's Prophetic ministry, that is, through our life and even through our words we are called to proclaim the Gospel to all creatures and again, especially those close to us.

I do not know if your children will remember any sermon from Fr. in church, but they will certainly remember how Dad reacted to this situation or the other.

I am not sure if Fr. is able to convince your wife that God loves her, but I know you are.

Do you follow this line of thought?

Finally, all baptized share Christ's Royal authority of service. Are there not more than enough needs around you that you could actually provide for as a lay man? Are there not enough people around you who look up to you looking for a word of consolation or advice? What is preventing you from giving them such a word right now?

And this is only as a lay man, you can also pursue a vocation to the Diaconate. Of course, the vocation to the Diaconate is different and distinct from the vocation to the Priesthood, but the sacrament of Holy Orders does empower the Deacon to better fulfill spiritual and liturgical duties as part of his service to the Church.

I do not know if your diocese is already considering roles such as "Parish Life Director", which is basically a Lay Pastor who will take care of the life of the Parish as the ever fewer priests actually (and sadly) become mobile sacrament vending machines.

Maybe what Our Lord is calling you for is to become a Parish Life Director.

I guess the bottom line is that Our Lord calls you to serve His Church, not to work around her discipline. We can keep praying that our hierarchs will open their eyes to the dire need of the people and to the generous willingness of many married men (and their families, which is something we cannot afford to overlook) to serve as priests.

After a thousand years of not ordinarily doing this, the Church needs time, caution and prudence to start ordaining married men again.

It is happening, though, convert ministers from other denominations are allowed to seek ordination as priests even if they are married.

In some very special cases, Rome has allowed the ordination of married Deacons as priests when there is really no other way to provide for the needs of the people (like the parish in Alaska that said the only other option would be to have the Eucharist FedEx'ed for their weekly Communion Service, the very idea opened the eyes of someone in the Vatican and their bishop was granted permission to ordain their married Deacon as priest and to name him Pastor).

So it is coming, slowly, but surely. Meanwhile, we have a LOT of work to do, so let's get up and keep going.

We will keep you in our prayers, please keep us in yours.

Shalom,
Memo

There are, of course, Eastern Catholic bishops in North America willing to have married candidates for the priesthood - and even to ordain them.

This is not an easy vocation; both the candidate and his wife need much discernment, patience and the ability to face the inevitable strains on the marriage. But it can work. My first suggestion is to visit some married Eastern Catholic priests and see how it works in practice.

Incognitus

But do they have this discipline of their own accord and their own tradition? Or because they are kowtowing to the Roman Rite? I posit that it is most likely a matter of keeping the Roman Rite happy by ignoring their own venerable tradition.


Memo, I don't see anything in his post or his profile that indicates that he is a Catholic of the Latin Rite who is seeking ordination in a Byzantine or Eastern Rite to frustrate or be disobedient to the Latin discipline of celibacy. Do you know something about the poster that is more than he has revealed to us? Or are you just making an assumption?

Again his question was about the Eastern Rites and their venerable tradition of ordaining married men. It disturbs and saddens me that a married Protestant minister who converts to the Roman Catholic Church/Latin Rite can more easily become ordained a priest than a married Eastern Rite Catholic man who desires to be ordainined in a supposedly sui iuris Church that has a tradition of ordination of married men.

Though as I questioned earlier ... Memo's response is based on the assumption that the original poster is a Latin Rite Catholic seeking to change rites in order to be ordained. Unless I have missed something in reading his posts to this point I have not seen any indication that acolytejim has told us one way or the other.

Just some random thoughts.

Carole

Thank you so much for your responses. I am a Byzantine Catholic however and have approached the Arch-Bishop. He politely stated that I would be better off to focus on the Diaconate. I have a graduate degree in Theology and would love to serve as a priest. I do feel extremely downtrodden when I hear about a Lutheran minister that converts to Roman Catholicism and is permitted into the priesthood when they adhere to celibacy accross the board. I am Byzantine Catholic, which is permitted to ordain married men, and I am having a devil of a time trying to convince them that I am just as devoted as a celibate.

[QUOTE]I was told by the Byzantine Church that they can ordain married men but they aren't doing so, only under special circumstances. Why?

In the Pittsburgh Metropolia, it is a question of the Particular Law of that "sui juris" Church (the Church to which I belong).
Back in 1990,Pope John Paul II promulgated the new Code of Canon Law for the Eastern Catholic Churches. All of the particular "sui juris" Eastern Churches were then instructed to update their body of Particular Law so as to conform with the new code. In 1998, Metropolitan Judson received a "recognition" from Rome acknowledging our new Particular Law, and he was just about to promulgate it. It included a statement that marriage was NOT an impediment to presbyteral ordination. Just days before the promulgation, he received a phone call from Rome to put that promulgation on "hold". Rumors abound as to what caused it to be put on "hold". Some of those rumors point to complaints by any one of several Latin Rite hierarchs. One rumor even has an Eastern Catholic hierarch, of another sui juris church, complaining. One opinion I've heard is that the body of the new Particular Law didn't say enough about the intended formation of the married candidates, causing Rome to pull back. The bottom line is that what was finally approved, and promulgated, is that the rule for priests in the Pittsburgh Metropolia is celibacy, but that dispensations can be granted, on a case-by-case basis, by Rome (I believe via the Congregation for Eastern Churches). You need to know that, in February of this year, Bishop John (Kudrick) of Parma did, in fact, ordain a married Deacon to the priesthood. Other Eastern jurisdictions, such as the UGCC, have not yet updated their Particular Law, and many of their Bishops, in the Diaspora, are, in fact, ordaining married priests (this is also true of the Romanian Catholics, and it has been done in the Melkite Church).Thus far, nobody has gotten into "hot water" for doing this. I am hearing that Benedict XVI is much more open to married priesthood in the Catholic East Diaspora than was his predecessor, who was fearful of "upsetting the apple cart" in the Western Church.Hope this clarifies things.

Fr. Deacon Robert

Contact bishop John of Parma.

I think he is your best bet. If you are qualified in every other way. He has already accepted married Europeans, as well as a Ukrainian Catholic. The fact that you do not currently reside in his Eparchy should not be an obstacle as far as I can tell.

Of course, you might have to move to Ohio.

Some people never come back from Ohio...

Best of luck to you, you have my prayers.

Michael

Thank you Jessup. I know it is true that other Eparchies are ordaining I just don't want to leave the Archeparchy, but like Abram, I will go where I am called!

acolytejim,

Thank you for clarifying that for us. I too am saddened to see that Lutheran, Presbyterian and Episcopalian ministers who are married are accepted for priestly formation and ordained in the Latin Rite more frequently than married men who are Eastern Catholic.

It makes precious little sense to me.

I will keep you in my prayers.

Dear Acolyte Jim,

If you are in Western PA you are already soooo close to the real Homeland and the most Holy, Blessed, Golden-domed Parma!

Oυτις ημιν φιλει ου φροντιδα | Nemo Nos Diliget Non Curamus

LOL, it looks like the Holy Spirit is speaking through my brothers and sisters. Thank you.

I have heard that some married candidates for Ordination go abroad where they are ordained in Jerusalem or in another country, where the U.S. Bishops don't have any control. Then these newly ordained priests come back and are usually accepted because of the shortage of priests.

I have considered going abroad but that would be too difficult. It would be better to move somewhere in the U.S. but it might have to be done. I just dislike doing that because then it is like I am trying to go around the authority to get ordained. I don't want to 'force' myself onto the Church as I would not be demonstrating too much humility.

Several priests told me that the candidates were instructed to go abroad by the Bishop. And they weren't gone for long.

I live near Chicago. If I were a Roman Catholic and wanted to consider becoming a diocesan priest in Virginia or Kansas it would be a no brainer, I would simply apply.

There is no reason why you couldn't apply to Parma and see what the Eparch says. You will not have to move until you get an assignment.

Do you live close enough to the seminary that you could commute? You would be very much appreciated in the Holy Golden-domed Parma, I am sure.

+T+
Michael