www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Vatican stops suspending married men ordained for Eastern churches

Hello, I rarely post anything at this forum (I do like to lurk though) but I am a diocesan newspaper editor and saw this story on the Catholic News Service wire and thought y'all might be interested in it.

Vatican stops suspending married men ordained for Eastern churches

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Despite a rule the Vatican insists is still in force, it has stopped suspending married men ordained to the priesthood for service in the Eastern Catholic churches of North America and Australia.

In fact, the ordinations are occurring regularly, although they are not great in number and they are celebrated quietly.

"Rome will allow the ordinations, but it does not want a bishop to ordain married men, then splash pictures all over the place," said a professor familiar with the ongoing debate.

Father Kenneth Nowakowski, rector of Holy Spirit Seminary in Ottawa and spokesman for the Ukrainian bishops of Canada, said the Ukrainian bishop of Saskatoon "is the only current ordinary who has not ordained a married man to the priesthood" for the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada.

When asked if the married priests had been suspended, as was often done through the 1990s, he replied, "not that I am aware of."

"I do not believe the Vatican has officially communicated to our bishops its approval or disapproval following the ordinations," he said in a May 23 interview.

Msgr. Lucian Lamza, an official in the Congregation for Eastern Churches, said May 22 the Vatican's ban on the ordination of married men for the Eastern churches in the West "remains unchanged."

"Some bishops act as if this norm does not exist," he said, yet "we have no indication the Holy Father is about to change it."

The ordinations "are against the norm," he said. "But, of course, these priests can validly celebrate the liturgy and sacraments," since the ordinations are sacramentally valid.

Msgr. Lamza would not discuss the Vatican's reaction or lack of reaction to the ordinations.

The ban dates back to 1929 when the Vatican, at the request of the Latin-rite bishops of the United States, ruled that married priests could not serve the Eastern-rite churches outside the churches' traditional homelands. The ban was applied to Canada in the 1930s and to Australia in 1949.

But Ukrainian, Ruthenian and Melkite Catholic bishops who support the ordination of married men throughout their communities have said the Second Vatican Council's call to respect the traditions and disciplines of the Eastern churches and similar affirmations in the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches have nullified the ban.

At the very least, they have said, the new code makes the ordination of married men in the West a "disputed question." Under church law, a norm whose validity is a "disputed question" is not binding.

At the end of the academic year, the Ottawa seminary had 13 Ukrainian Catholic seminarians, one of whom is married, Father Nowakowski said. In addition, three married deacons preparing for priestly ordination in Canada are part of the seminary community. They participate in the liturgical life of the seminary along with their wives and children, he said.

An Eastern Catholic bishop who ordained a married man to the priesthood this spring informed his priests and the members of his diocese that, although the ordination originally was questioned by a Vatican official, the official later said the Vatican did not object.

The bishop, contacted by Catholic News Service, said it was important to let his people know the status of the question, but he considered the communication private.

END
05/23/2003 11:26 AM ET
Copyright (c) 2003 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Considering Rome has taken married Episcopalian and Lutheran pastors and ordained them to the priesthood for the Latin church, it all seems rather ridiculous and hypocritical from the Greek Catholic perspective to have any ban or restrictions whatsoever on married clergy being ordained in the diaspora (besides the fact that is our tradition).

Well, Diak....you have a point, you know.

OrthodoxEast

I think Nike has hit the nail on the head: Just Do It!

Also an old Jesuit aphorism: it is better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Christ is Risen!

The Melkite and Ukrainian bishops in the diaspora have done just that. The only comment on Bishop Basil Losten's ordinations two years ago of two married men for the Eparchy of Stamford was congratulations from the local RC bishop to the new priests.

Yes, I think this news report and interview is important. The Vatican is never actually going to order us to accept married men as candidates for the priesthood, but they have certainly issued significant directives which indicate that it is our tradition and right to do so, and they have sent plenty of signals (like this) that it is now time for us to act.

Father, bless!

I agree with you, Father Elias. Nor should they order us to ordain anyone. It is for the Bishop to decide who is an acceptable candidate, married or not. And thank God some of our hierarchs are taking their office as Greek Catholic bishops seriously and taking the initiative in ordaining qualified married men.

Dear Diak,

And not only is it the right thing to do, because it is the Byzantine tradition. Our pastors know the need the faithful have for good priests. Our need is great, for the Mysteries, for preachers and spiritual fathers.

I believe that the Spirit is calling many good men to the priesthood. These well qualified, sincere, and devout men are needed by our Church, and must be encouraged by all of us to offer themselves for studies and ordination. Our Church needs them, as much as needs all of us to support and encourage them.

I thank God for these positive signs from Rome, and they should be encouraging to us all.

Christ has risen!

On the issue of the much awaited restoration of the married priesthood for our churches here in America, I thought I should share something my spiritual father (a monk) has told me. When I brought up the subject, he said that it was no use to have a married priesthood if true Eastern monastic life has not been restored. In the Orthodox Church, the real division is not clerical (layman/priest), but between monk and non-monk. (Though this is not a radical division, but rather one of degree: all are called to live poverty, chastity, and obedience according to the Gospels, but according to their circumstances). Asceticism is for all, monks are only radical ascetics. The hegumen's point is that if we have a married priesthood this does not mean that radical celibacy is not valued, it only means that it is not necessarily lived by priests. What good would it be if we completely restored the married priesthood without a radical monastic vision of those who have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven? All the married priesthood would become would be a pragmatic compromise in that we see having celibate priests as being too difficult so we "lower the bar." This would not be good for either us or the Latin Church.
(I'm not just writing this because I was a former Latin seminarian and an aspiring Eastern monk.)
Indeed He has risen!

Arturo

Dear Arturo,

Christ is Risen!

Well said. I couldn't agree more, and I see the restoration of the married priesthood in the same way. I know that there will be a recovery of the monastic life in the Church at the same time, and I pray for them both.

Let us pray for this restoration, and for the renewal of the monastic vocation among us!

Elias

PRESBYTERORUM ORDINIS
Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests
Second Vatican Council
PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS, POPE PAUL VI ON DECEMBER 7, 1965

PREFACE

<snip>

16. (Celibacy is to be embraced and esteemed as a gift). Perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, commended by Christ the Lord(33) and through the course of time as well as in our own days freely accepted and observed in a praiseworthy manner by many of the faithful, is held by the Church to be of great value in a special manner for the priestly life. It is at the same time a sign and a stimulus for pastoral charity and a special source of spiritual fecundity in the world.(34) Indeed, it is not demanded by the very nature of the priesthood, as is apparent from the practice of the early Church(35) and from the traditions of the Eastern Churches. where, besides those who with all the bishops, by a gift of grace, choose to observe celibacy, there are also married priests of highest merit. This holy synod, while it commends ecclesiastical celibacy, in no way intends to alter that different discipline which legitimately flourishes in the Eastern Churches. It permanently exhorts all those who have received the priesthood and marriage to persevere in their holy vocation so that they may fully and generously continue to expend themselves for the sake of the flock commended to them.(36)

<snip>

Arturo,
Excellent comments!

Michael

Dear Friends,

Well, the real issue here is about RC priests rumbling about why they aren't allowed to be married if Eastern Catholic priests can.

When His Beatitude Lubomyr was here, I understand he was asked by the RC authorities not to say anything about the whole married priest/sex abuse thing . . .

And the only thing he said in that connection was, "We don't have AS MANY cases as the RC Church . . ."

We are getting so many married priests from Ukraine, which is literally "crawling" with them, that we don't know what to do with them.

I know of cases where married priests here are going without parishes . . .

Alex

Please lend a few to the Byzantines Ruthenians of Parma. We could always use a few more well formed and traditional priests!

Christ is Risen! Indeed!!

Michael

Dear Michael,

Just have your bishop contact our Bishop Cornelius and I'm sure things can be arranged.

If you would like some from the Carpathian region, that can be arranged too!

Alex