Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Does The Church Need An Order of Married Catholic Priests? I Think So

I don't write this lightly. I take this subject very seriously as I do my love for the Catholic Church. Warts and all. But in God's holy name how can the Church continue to have as a Church law  mandatory celibacy, for all Roman Catholic priests, with the situation as it is. And everyone knows what I mean by that. And as we know, Church laws can be changed.
I have worked in the Church , I know many holy, married laymen, of outstanding character,  who would make excellent priests. Then there are the deacons in the Church who could enter an Order of Married Priests. As I mentioned in my last blog entry,  I visited a Greek Orthodox Church last week on Long Island with the Rosary Society of my parish and their Divine Liturgy was reverent, beautiful, sacred and holy. All three priests on the altar were married, their wives were present and one of them had an adorable little daughter in the congregation that day.
Celibacy is certainly a call and valuable discipline for some men, called to the priesthood, but not for all.
If the Church doesn't examine this with clear vision and through prayer to the Holy Spirit, and act with common sense, it risks a lot.
I've seen so many changes take place within one generation. It use to take many generations for social changes and traditions to change, but now in the modern world, things are changing rapidly. I fear young people are going to keep leaving the Church, with all the bad publicity involving sexual abuse and large payouts. This is a very different world than the one I grew up in.
What is God's will for the Church in this matter? To me the answer is obvious. What matters is God's word is preached, Eucharist is shared and people are cared for and ministered to. That's more important than anything else.
NJA