Posts Tagged ‘married priests’

The Catholic Church needs married priests now

Thursday, February 29th, 2024
married priests

Without the Eucharist, it seems obvious: There is no Catholic Church. It feeds us as a community of believers and transforms us into the body of Christ active in the world today. But according to Catholic theology, we cannot have the Eucharist without priests. Sadly, in many parts of the world there is a Eucharistic Read more

Married priests not a priority for Synod

Thursday, September 7th, 2023

According to the media, the most important issues facing the Synod on Synodality are the possibility of married priests, women deacons and the blessing of gay couples. The first session of the synod will take place in Rome this October, with a second session in October 2024. I personally hope the synod deals with these Read more

Married priests, women priests and laity send Terry and me to Hell

Monday, May 22nd, 2023
married priests

This is not an easy article to write, but it has been with me for a long time. It comes to the surface when I’m told that priests feel threatened by the ordination of women. Of course, they feel threatened. Would a starving man feel threatened working with a chef? I believe that the option Read more

5,000 Italian ex-priests mobilise in favour of optional celibacy

Monday, March 27th, 2023
why priestly celibacy

A group of some 5,000 Italian ex-priests who’ve gone on to become married is mobilising in advance of October’s first Synod of Bishops on Synodality to advocate for making celibacy optional in the Catholic Church. The group notes that calls to rethink the celibacy requirement have circulated in various Catholic arenas of late, from the Read more

Pope Francis: Priestly celibacy only a discipline, could be reviewed

Monday, March 13th, 2023

Pope Francis discussed the possibility of revising the Western discipline of priestly celibacy in a wide-ranging interview for his 10th anniversary as pope last week. Francis spoke with Argentine journalist Daniel Hadad. “There is no contradiction for a priest to marry. “Celibacy in the Western Church is a temporary prescription: I do not know if Read more

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 problem with ordaining Viri Probati, ‘men of proven virtue’

Thursday, May 28th, 2020
shaping the assembly

It seems that every few months we begin talking again about the chronic shortage of presbyters in the many parts of the Catholic world today. Then someone suggests the ordination of suitable married men, Viri Probati. But after some discussion, a solidly based argument (not based on dubious notions of ritual purity) is presented: how Read more

It is time to ask, formally, for married priests and woman deacons

Monday, February 24th, 2020
married priests

Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation is only the beginning of the story. As church conservatives and progressives take to the internet and supposed neutral writers enter their own spins, everyone is forgetting about the forest and the trees. It is about the Amazon Basin, not about married priests or women deacons. Except it is. There Read more

Spearheading transition to a gender appropriate Catholic Church

Thursday, February 20th, 2020

Though 500 years have passed since the Protestant Reformation began in the eastern German town of Wittenberg, traditional and conservative Catholics find themselves eyeing the German church with concern once again. The country’s Catholic bishops recently launched a two-year summit aimed at “newly assessing” long-held Catholic beliefs on sexuality, love and priestly life, including how Read more

Pope Francis, neither yes nor not to married priests

Monday, February 17th, 2020
Climate change

It was disappointing but not a surprise that Pope Francis decided not to respond to the Amazon synod’s recommendation that the Catholic Church ordain mature, married men to make up for the huge shortage of priests in the Amazon region. Francis did not say yes to married priests, but neither did he really say no. Read more