MARRIED CATHOLIC PRIESTS? I AM ONE

[Heddi]

http://www.newsweek.com/pope-francis-married-catholic-priests-571764

Pope Francis—ever fond of stirring the pot—has made headlines again recently with a remark during an interview with a German paper suggesting a new openness to married priests.

Married priests in the Catholic Church? It’s not really new. I am one. As a former Anglican minister, I have been ordained as a Catholic priest under a special measure called the Pastoral Provision even though I have a wife and four children.

...The reason I was permitted to be ordained is that celibacy for priests is a discipline of the church, not a doctrine. That is why exceptions can be made and the rule could be changed.
...
Not necessarily. Having married priests would certainly help the vocations crisis, and married men might relate better to married people. However, believing that married priests are the answer assumes that they are mature, happily married men. With a bit of reflection anyone can see that marriage in and of itself does not automatically make a man mature, self-giving and happy.

In my experience of married clergy in both the Evangelical Churches and the Anglican Church, marriage is not the magic bullet for the lack of vocations. Having married clergy will not necessarily solve the vocations crisis, nor will it necessarily improve the priestly ministry, and it certainly won’t be the solution to the priestly sex abuse problem.

Some celibate priests may have personal problems, but why do we imagine that married men are problem free?
...
There are other practical problems. Catholics say they want married clergy, but do they want to pay for them? Priests live on a pittance. As a married man with a family I get by because I earn an extra income through my writing and speaking. In addition to this, my wife runs her own business

...
There are problems with celibacy for priests, but there will be problems with married priests. Problems, like the poor, we will have with us always, but with good humor, hard work and generosity people of faith have overcome greater problems than these.

The Reverend Dwight Longenecker is the pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Visit his blog, browse his books and be in touch at DwightLongenecker.com.

[trotsky]

1. "Problems, like the poor, we will have with us always"

I really hate that common Christian saying. No, poverty is NOT a guarantee. We should, and CAN, eliminate it. That saying suggests a sort of fatalism, that poor people should just accept their lot. Bullshit.

[gopiscrap]

2. Great article

I grew up Roman Catholic until I was orphaned and became the foster child of a Lutheran Minister. I was lucky in the fact that his was a loving and happy marriage. I felt from what I observed of my Roman Catholic pastor (I was in the rectory almost daily because I started working for the church at an early age) that the Lutheran minister was happier and also more effective in his pastoral and relational ministry.
While I agree that marriage is not a cure all for the lack of priestly vocation, I feel it would help quite a bit.