Posts Tagged ‘Celibacy’

Celibacy rule deprives Church of excellent priests says French bishop

Monday, September 19th, 2022
celibacy

The current synod, whose title may seem abstruse — a “Synod on Synodality” —, is perhaps best expressed by the three words that follow its title: “Communion, Participation and Mission”. I want to emphasize the call to mission. This is indeed what the Lord asks for in the final lines of the Gospels, including that Read more

The Church needs priests, but for what?

Thursday, July 7th, 2022
Church needs priests

We’ve just turned the page on the month of June, traditionally in some parts of the world, the time for priestly ordinations in many parts of the Catholic world. According to figures from the national bishops’ conference, the Church in France was ordained 122 new priests this summer – 77 diocesan and 45 from religious Read more

Why priestly celibacy?

Thursday, March 3rd, 2022
why priestly celibacy

The next assembly of the Synod of Bishops must take up the issue of mandatory priestly celibacy. Now is the time. Following the death of a good man, Bishop Edward Daly — who went to the Lord on August 8, 2016 –, there was an appreciation of his life published on the website of the Read more

Meet a married priest, Fr Josh Whitfield

Thursday, February 20th, 2020
fr josh whitfield married priest

My wife and I, we have four children, all younger than 7. Ours is not a quiet house. A house of screaming and a house of endless snot, it’s also a house of love, grown and multiplied every few years. In a house of little sleep, my hobby these days is simply to sit down; Read more

Bishop ‘breaks ranks’ over celibacy at Synod

Thursday, October 17th, 2019

Celibacy is not an obstacle to increasing priestly vocations. According to Bishop Wellington de Queiroz Vieira of Cristalandia and a member of the current Amazon synod the real issue is a lack of holiness. de Queiroz says combating priest shortages in the Amazon region by ordaining mature married men does not address a greater problem. Read more

Cardinal says married priests possible later this year

Monday, June 10th, 2019
post-christian

Married priests could be a possibility if prelates ask Pope Francis to allow it, German Cardinal Walter Kasper says. Kasper, who is considered one of Francis’s close theological advisers, says such a change could be made during this year’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon set for this October, if the prelates were to ask Read more

Priestly celibacy today

Thursday, May 23rd, 2019
celibacy

Celibacy in the priesthood is once again up for discussion. The diminished number of candidates for ordination and the abuse crisis have prodded the discussion, which seems mainly focused on the elimination of celibacy as a mandatory discipline for priests in the Western church. But a more foundational concern, in my estimation, needs our reflection Read more

Church volunteers strike over male-only priests, celibacy, sex

Monday, May 13th, 2019

Church volunteers who are members of the German Catholic women’s movement Maria 2.0 have launched a week-long strike. They are holding rites without priests outside churches and suspending voluntary church work and ministries in 50 parishes in protest over the male-only priesthood, celibacy and the church’s slow response to sex scandals. Masses and committees will Read more

Sexual immaturity, poor formation behind abuse crisis

Thursday, April 4th, 2019

Sexual immaturity and poor formation are to blame for the sex abuse crisis the Church is facing, says a Canadian nun with a doctorate in clinical sexology. The crisis does not mean “the end of faith” but rather “the end of a lack of formation and the end of deviance,” and a call to return Read more

Church embarks on binding synodal process

Monday, March 18th, 2019

Cardinal Reinhard Marx says the Catholic Church in Germany is embarking on a “binding synodal process” to tackle three key issues that arose from the clerical abuse crisis. These include priestly celibacy, the Church’s teaching on sexual morality and a reduction of clerical power. Marx, who is the president of the German bishops’ conference, says Read more