Did anyone know...there ARE married Catholic Priests?

[WebmasterAlex]

I was researching this a bit because I found it interesting, apperantly once a priest has taken a vow of celibacy he can never legitimately marry even if he does leave the priesthood. The reason they allow the converted priests is because they have never taken the vow.
Once church in Maine had an interesting situation, their priest left to get married and he was replaced with a married priest!

 

[Kallison]

I've heard of older men who were previously married, became widowed and then decided to become a priest. Maybe they are allowing loopholes because there is such a shortage of priests.

 

[Deb & Bill]

The Director of Religious Education at our church when we arrived in town was a former Lutheran minister. He converted to Catholicism before his wife did. He studied for the priesthood and was recently ordained as a Catholic priest in our Diocese. He is a very nice man, who is still married, has two daughters and some grandchildren as well. He is a pastor at one of the churches in our diocese.

Should his wife die, he would not be allowed to remarry and remain a priest.

Deacons are similar. If they are married when they become deacons, they would not be able to marry if their wife died.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Our church seems to be training ground for new priests in the diocese before they are assigned to other churches. They come and they go, but the pastor and a few are here permanently. I know the pastor teaches at the monestary, and we're the largest parish in the diocese. One priest who came through some time during the past two years was considerably older than all the others. He told us that he had worked for IBM for many years prior to being a priest. Makes you stop and think! Then you wonder...was he ever married? What made him drastically change careers (aside from IBM encouraging employees to leave.)

 

[candykisses]

Yes, I knew.

 

[honeywolf7]

I knew.

 

[PamOKW]

that he had worked for IBM for many years prior to being a priest. Makes you stop and think! Then you wonder...was he ever married? What made him drastically change careers (aside from IBM encouraging employees to leave.)

Hmmm....our deacons all seem to be coming out of IBM as well. Wonder if it's something in the computers?

Priests coming out of the corporate world are not that unusual anymore. I think they probably had the calling in the back of their minds and tried the "real world" first. They can't be divorced and become priests but they can be widowers.

 

[BethR]

Originally posted by PamOKW
I
As mentioned, there are other religions that have priests and these men can be married. This is common in both the Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox religions.

Yes, that is true, but as was mentioned earlier, CATHOLIC priests of the Eastern Churches in Europe ARE permitted to be married. As a matter of fact - Catholic priests of the Eastern Churches in the UNITED STATES WERE permitted to be married up until the 1940's. That is when the people of the Latin Rite (which was predominant in the US) raised a ruckus and appealled to Rome and the Pope stopped allowing any Catholic priest in the US to be married.

My in-laws were married by a married priest in the Byzantine CATHOLIC Church.

{{{The Byzantine Catholic Church - and many of the Eastern Catholic Churches - were at one time involved with those who left the Catholic Church at the time of the Great Schism. About 400 years ago - some of these churches decided to reunite with Rome and so are once again Catholic. The Orthodox refer to us as "Uniates" - to them, a derogatory term towards Eastern Catholics. }}}

Pope John Paul II has encouraged those if the Eastern Churches to basically "go back to their roots" - to rediscover the beautiful Traditions of their Rite. And that includes allowing married priests. Although no one has yet, a married man is once again permitted to be ordained in the Eastern Churches in the US.

That being said, I do not believe that allowing married men to become ordained will solve the priest shortage issue, I do believe that men should be allowed to have both vocations should they choose - that of priest AND husband/father.