www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Why Not Married Priests? The Case for Clerical Celibacy

Alex,

Sorry to hear about your high school dance fiasco, but I'm quite sure many of us have gone though the same thing, and we weren't even contemplating priesthood...

The question regarding the care of the priest's family makes it evident that the priest needs to have enough life insurance in place. Of course this means the priest needs the "living wage" about which the bishops are wont to remind governments and businesses. The question of the parish residence can be remedied by providing the priest with a housing allowance instead of a residence.

So the question is actually,"are we a people who are willing to be good stewards and tithe a percentage of our income, or do we just give God and his Church the left overs?"

Dear Fr. Deacon John,

I'm truly sorry to hear about those who went through the same thing I did, and weren't even contemplating the priesthood! To this day, I wonder what would have happened if the principal had announced I wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer!

Your second points are extremely well taken. Our parishes up here all have rectories (one Basilian parish I know rents the rectory out as the priest prefers to stay with his monastic brethren). But I see your point and it is well taken.

As for the "left overs," you are right.

When it comes to supporting our priests the "pillars of our national Church and society," our people are more talk than action.

Unfortunately, the attitudes in this regard among the older set are derived also from the "Old Country" experience where the priests were generally better off than most of the populace . . .

Many of our people also don't like the tradition of kissing a priest's hand as they tend to interpret that as a kind of "servile put-down" from those days as well.

In addition, we have a parish or two up here that seem to throw money at ongoing building projects, with little accountability.

People tend to be suspicious of these and other issues in this regard, which will go unmentioned, since they tend to think their money is being ill-spent by the powers that be.

Some of them also think that married priests and their families can survive on stipends they receive from Divine Liturgies and panakhydas . . .

And there are others who simply won't give to the Church unless it is for some sort of external thing on which their names can be placed.

One of our parishes has all its icons identified as to who funded it by their personal names.

In any event, I raise this matter for those who might think that married priests are a solution to all the ills of a celibate priesthood.

They are not, of course.

And if I were to consider priestly ordination today, I would definitely go for the celibate option (if I weren't already married . . .) given what I've seen regarding married priests in my eparchy to date.

Married priests are a true blessing. But I wouldn't wish their way of life (that I've seen) on my worst enemy.

Alex

From what I hear there are those who come to the priesthood as a "second career" and can afford to pay for seminary, housing, car, food, etc... That's not to say that it's the norm, but it could be a way that God prepares his new priest and supports him until he is ready for the new tasks and repsonsibility. I think we should remember that it is God who calls the priest, not the man, not the eparchy or diocese, not the vocation director...

Dear Dr Eric,

Yes, as we say, "man shoots from the bow, but God carries the arrows . . ."

However, a "vocation" must be discerned and church rules, life contexts et alia impact it to be sure.

One of our bishops once complained that married priests find it difficult to move from one parish to another because of their families.

One married priest was asked to go to a town far from here but asked the bishop not to send him since his children were in school etc.

To this the bishop replied, "Then you shouldn't have gotten married!"

The fact is that there are celibate clergy here who have been in their well-off urban parishes since before Richard Nixon was U.S. president.

In addition, celibate priests were brought into the West to avoid a "caste" system from developing among married clergy, correct?

So how is it that we have two bishops here who are uncle and nephew?

Anyway, I can sense Fr. Deacon John curling his lip upward in a gentle snarl . . . I'll see you later!



Alex

I understand the concerns of married clergy as well as the issues surrounding the wives. Yet, I think these are surmountable.

The well-educated Syriac/Indian Orthodox clergy teach at various colleges, the vocation oriented work as hospital chaplains, in the US the Military Archdiocese accepts non-commissioned clergy - and they are in dire need. (Heck, I know one Syriac Orthodox clergyman who works full time as a lab technician in a hospital). I don't think there is any shortage in extra-eparchial "jobs."

As for the presbytera (we call her "kochamma" - "little mother"), if she is well-educated she could also teach; the wife of one reformed orthodox clergyman I know is a doctor; another a pharmacist. The women of my age are not the same as the 'old country'. They have both opportunity and careers, I don't think they will have the same problems - if they are willing to accept such a blessed vocation.

Dear Michael,

Your Church is blessed indeed!

Alex

Without a snarl on my lips (perhaps, though, a chuckle)...

I cannot comment on the difficulty of moving married priests within an eparchy... though I trust the bishop does request priests to move for the good of the Church. But to put your comments into their proper perspective, you should have said, "since before Pierre Trudeau was Canadian Prime Minister." After all, you are refering to priests of your Canadian eparchy.

As far as nepotism is concerned, its success is hit and miss... but it is found in all types of organizations.

I wish I could say the same - I was referring to the Syriac/Indian Orthodox, the Syro-Malankara Catholic are still steeped in Latinisation.

I love the Catholic Church but married priest ARE the Eastern tradition, if there are issues to be overcome that is the Latin Rites fault. I think that in the US we are just to conditioned to seeing celebate Priests.

My personal favorite �why celibate priests are better� proof I saw online. It was claimed there are more Latin Catholics in the world because without being encumbered by families, Latin priests were free to move about and evangelize in greater numbers.

I can�t claim not to be partisan though. Having been in parishes with both kinds of priests, I much prefer to have a priest that is married.

Andrew

Dear Andrew,

As we know, there are more Latin Catholics in the world because of more successful colonial imposition of Catholicism, among other reasons.

But this has left situations where countries have a Catholic culture, where most have a baptismal certificate etc.

Whether real evangelization has occurred is not so readily evident.

Alex

Alex:

Can you give us an example of the result of "real evangelization" and which Church has it?

Amado

Dear Amado,

Not all of the RC Church was imposed that way, of course! (Sheesh, but you're sensitive . . .).

In Alaska, for example, St Herman and the other Orthodox missionaries tended to link religion with the local culture and this brought about much missionary fruit - i.e. St Peter the Aleut who refused to be rebaptized etc.

The same is true of the missionaries in Siberia. Orthodoxy tended (although not always) to "sink in slowly" among the peoples it worked amongst - even the Assyrians entered the Orthodox Church, keeping their liturgical traditions, but confessing the Orthodox Catholic faith.

During times of persecution as well, the Orthodox (and EC) Churches became so closely intertwined with the life of the people and their national culture so as to be virtually indistinguishable, one from the other - the same is true re: Oriental Orthodox and the Assyrians.

And the same is true among Latin Catholic countries as well - Pope John Paul the Great was who he was as a result of the Polish Catholic historical context in which he was spiritually formed.

But Latin America and perhaps other places where the Spanish colonial power exerted its influence en masse over the people is surely not a model of evangelization nor did the promotion of a Catholic culture there and elsewhere stand as a model of evangelization.

Latin American theologians have commented more extensively on this matter, including your "political theologians" such as Gustavo Gutierrez and Juan Luis Segundo.

Alex

As a Syro-Malabar Catholic, I agree whole-heartedly with my Syro-Malankara brother. And we Syro-Malabars are much more latinised than the Syro-Malankara Catholics. Pray for all of us latinised Churches, that we may restore all of those traditions that we ought to hold!

Peace,
Alex NvV

Dear Alex, I hope all is well.

Maybe I should change "why won't the bishops ask for what is rightfully theirs?" to "why won't our bishops give us what is rightfully ours?"