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Just a few simple questions:

Are married men allowed to be ordained as priests in Byzantine Rite jurisdictions, or are they to be celibate? Does rules differ old world vs new world.

Do the Eastern Catholic jurisdictions allow divorce under specific circumstances like the Orthodox or must they follow the annullment path?

Thanks and God bless,
Bill

Christ is Risen!
As I understand it, married men may become prieste in the Byzantine Rite, but not in the United States. This is unfortunate. I am Roman Catholic, and I believe that the Byzantine Rite should be allowed to have its own laws. If anyone can clarify this, I am willing to stand corrected.
God bless,
jwash

Bill,

I had the EXACT same questions recently, and went to the EWTN website for their "ask the expert" forum. Yes, a divorced Byzantine must follow the annulment path just like any Roman.

Regarding marriage, JWash is right, although there apparently is a rather commonly used "puddle-hopping route," wherein seminarians take a series of trips, get ordained overseas, and eventually wind up back here with a church, plus wife and kids!

Just some historical background...

I remember reading (was it in Atwatter's book) that when the Bulgarian Catholic Church was first formed it had a canonical procedure for divorce. I don't know if any of the other Eastern Catholic Churches "grandfathered" that in initially or not. All of them now (and have for a long time I presume) follow the annulment route.

There have been some hints that there might some change with regards to the ordination of married men in this country for the Eastern Catholic Churches. 3 or so years ago Bishop John (Melkite) ordained a married man to the priesthood which caused a minor sensation in the Catholic press. As far as I know there are no married men in the Melkite seminary or any other plans to ordain married men. So, this appears to be a one-time thing.

The deacon in an Ukrainian Catholic parish south of here went to Ukraine a few months ago and is now ordained. He will be returning in a few months and will serve as a priest. I know of another candidate for seminary who is married and anticipates going to Ukraine to be ordained.

Dave Ignatius DTBrown@aol.com

On marriage, remember that the distict English terms "divorce" and "annullment" does not occur in all languages. I suspect the Orthodox and Catholic practices have a close philosophical basis even if different terms are used in contemporary English (they were at one time used interchangably).

In my Orthodox catechism class, divorce is allowed under circumstances where it is clear that the Holy Spirit is no longer functioning in the marriage because one or more of the participants have rejected it within the marriage due to human weakness and sin, etc.. I believe that annullment says that the Holy Spirit was never acting in the marriage due to some defect.

In fact the application is probably the same, but the theories appear different.

Bill --

No disagreement, but the theories are not far apart and some Catholic moral theologans have advanced Orthodox expressions of the reasonings for annullment. The base theological issue for both Catholics and the Orthodox is to insist that our understanding of divorce must not be that God failed. I.e. that the Holy Spirit was in the marraige and of His own will left.

Married Clergy:

This issue is an extremely divisive one. A married priesthood has always been the custom of the Byzantine Church. (Monastics, of course, were celibate). The prohibitions started only in the New World and only because certain Roman Catholics were ignorant of our customs and saw them as scandalous and sinful. It was because of this rejection of our authentic discipline that RC Bishop Ireland rejected Fr. Alexis Toth (now St. Alexis) and the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church (now the Orthodox Church in America) was born. In retrospect, the OCA should also have canonized Archbishop John Ireland.

The recent Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches makes quite clear that we Byzantines in America have the right to ordain married men. But Rome has so far refused to allow us to do what she has mandated we should do! Last summer the Vatican put the new Particular Law for Byzantine-Ruthenian Church (which should have taken effect last fall) on indefinite hold. My understanding that is that it will take effect this fall but the more Eastern portions of it (like married clergy) are on hold while the Western leaning stuff (like Eucharistic Ministers in imitation of the Latins) is approved. Since the text it has not been made public for review and laity input no one will know exactly what's in it until it is promulgated. I suspect that nothing will change until we Byzantines stop asking permission from Rome to be Byzantine. At some point all the Byzantine bishops in North America will unite and resolve this issue. We shouldn't have to ask permission to follow what is and has always been authentically Catholic.


Marriage and Divorce:

Generally, Byzantines in the New World approach annulments in the same or a similar manner to the West. I've seen some indication of turning towards a more Eastern discipline but at current we are still following the Roman Catholic discipline. Divorce and remarriage (as pointed out by Bill Mo) is not currently an option. The previous marriage must be annulled. As a side note, we Byzantines have a second marriage ceremony (without crowns) that has fallen into disuse.

A note to Swanflite: The "Ask the Expert" priests and theologians at the EWTN website are very knowledgeable about all things Roman Catholic. But they do not speak for the Byzantine Catholic Church. They answer a fair number of questions about Eastern Christians (Catholic and Orthodox) and their answers tend to be off the mark. They clearly consider Latin theology and discipline as superior to Byzantine and tend to consider us as "Roman Catholics with a funny Mass". In fairness, we can't expect non-Byzantines to accurately respect our understanding of Holy Tradition (including our doctrine, theology and disciplines).