Dear Friend in Christ,
The Orthodox tradition is that married clergy serve the parishes. In Russia before the Revolution, one couldn't even get ordained as a non-monastic priest unless one was married!
Not too long ago, our local Greek Orthodox priest suffered the death of his presbytera in a car accident.
He then decided to follow tradition, even though I am told he did not have to strictly, and left the parish to be tonsured a monk.
There is also a tradition of having "parish monks" with priests who take monastic vows following the death of their spouse.
But Ukrainian Catholic parishes have celibate clergy, even though most are married.
Celibate clergy want to become bishops. But Rome usually chooses our bishops from among the ranks of the monastic clergy.
So the "good news" is that Rome follows the Eastern Tradition with respect to monastic clergy becoming bishops.
The "bad news" is that most of these are Basilians and Redemptorists
.
Alex
