Married Catholic Priests?

[K8-EEE]

As an ex-Catholic, I found this so fascinating. I have no idea if his statistics are correct in how many Catholic priests are married and still practicing Catholicism outside of the Church, but it is interesting to learn that 39 Popes were married -- including the first one, St. Peter.

http://johnshuster.com/thirtynine_popes.htm

[Richard Steele]

1. Back in the mid-90s, I dated a Catholic woman whose church had a married priest.

I had never heard of such a thing. I thought she was pulling
my leg, the first time she mentioned it.

Apparently, her church had always been extremely progressive.
She told me that it had had Altar GIRLS for as long as she
could recall, back to the 1970s.
Her opinion was that Rome was using her church as a social laboratory
to try out new things and see how they went over.

Anyway, the story of the married Priest was that he had been an
Episcopalian priest, married with children, who converted to Catholicism
and was granted special dispensation from Rome to be a Catholic Priest
while still maintaining his family life.

[Dorian Gray]

3. Priests can be married in two circumstances:

1) They were an Anglican or Lutheran priest and converted to catholicism.

or

2) Eastern Catholic religions (the Marionite, Assyrian and a few other churches) allow for a married priesthood. But, I believe, they must be married before they enter the priesthood. Once in the priesthood, they are not allowed to be married. (And Eastern Catholics are in communion with the Catholic Church. They are also not to be mistaken with the Eastern Orthodox Churches, but their services are more similar to those than the Roman Rite.)

[Book Lover]

4. I find that so interesting because

usually it is the more conservative Anglican priest who leaves the CofE because of their liberal ways to come to the RCC. Goes to show you just can't generalize.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I know of one in upstate NY

He was originally a Lutheran minister, and then converted and asked to become a priest. He was married, but he and his wife were in their 60s. The Church allowed him to become a priest AND to stay married. He has kids and grandkids. No one in his congregation is bent out of shape over this.

[CatholicEdHead]

5. Around 1100 it was changed due to medieval property rights

And the usual term "tradition" is what keeps it from coming back even though we have legal structures to separate personal from institutional.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. Actually, it pre-dates the Great Schism

In the early church, there was a problem with bishops accumilating vast fortunes from the contributions of the faithful, and turning those fortunes into family property with land, wealth, the diocese and the title of bishop passing from father to eldest son. One of the later Ecumenical Councils stepped in and changed this to say that clergy could not get married once they had taken vows, and that bishops could only be named from clergy that had either never married or whose wives had died.

The general celibacy of the Roman Catholic clergy came latter, I believe as part of the Counter Reformation.

[rug]

7. Need one?

http://www.rentapriest.com