Celibacy in Slovak, Bulgarian and Hungarian Churches

[Persis]

Is celibacy mandatory in these Churches? What about the Armenian Catholic Church? (I ask because I know celibacy is mandatory in some Eastern Catholics where the Latin-RIte is the majority, like Poland, so I am curious about these)

Thanks!

 

[dixibehr]

Not in the Byzantine tradition churches.

 

[Hesychios]

Is celibacy mandatory in these Churches? What about the Armenian Catholic Church? (I ask because I know celibacy is mandatory in some Eastern Catholics where the Latin-RIte is the majority, like Poland, so I am curious about these)

Thanks!

I am inclined to agree with dixibehr posting above.

I know that the Latin hierarchy had asked that Rome to order all married Ukrainian Catholic priests out of Poland. Cardinal Sodano (I think it was him) did just that.

However, I was almost positive that Pope John Paul II overruled that order and allowed them to stay. Do you have more information on that situation? Is there an understanding between the UGCC and the Latin church that they would not appoint married priests to Poland? I personally doubt that.

In Slovakia, it is well publicized that there are married priests in the local Byzantine Catholic church. There might be some in Hungary, at least I would assume so.

In Bulgaria, the majority of Catholics are of the Latin rite, I believe.

From what I know, there is no longer any outside restraint on the Byzantine ritual churches to ordaining married men anywhere they have a hierarchy established.

Now from what I understand the non-Byzantine Eastern Catholics in a country like Poland (or Ireland or Spain, for example) are under the local Latin ordinaries, because they are few in number and no hierarchy was established for them. That could mean that candidates for the priesthood from among those groups in such a country might be denied a chance if they have already married, or intend to.

 

[Persis]

In Bulgaria, the majority of Catholics are of the Latin rite, I believe.

there is a Bulgarian Greek-Catholic Exarchate, they are a remnant from when the Bulgarians wanted to be free of Russian and Turkish-Greek domination.

Dose any Eastern Catholic clergy who post here know the answer?

 

[Volodymyr]

BOLGARIAN CATOLICS

Radio Bolgaria says following interview of Catolic Bishop of Greko Catolics:

For those which cannot read Russian. It would appear there are twice as many Latin as Greko Catolics in Bolgaria. Together according to this article, they constitute together only 1% of population of country. There are two eparchies of Latins in Plovdiv and Rusje with 20-25 parishes, and one eparchy for Greko Catolics in Sofia with also 25 parishes.
This is below interview with Khristo Projkov - greko Catolic bisohp of Sofia - called Ekzarch.

Католическая церковь присутствует в Болгарии еще с 1565 года. В 1688 году болгары-католики, под руководством епископа Петыра Парчевича подняли Чипровское восстание, которое стало первым организованным опытом освободиться от османского ига. Католическая церковь в Болгарии имеет два обряда – Латинский (Западный) и Восточный (с 1860 года), которые объединены в Епископскую конференцию. Ее председателем на данный момент является епископ Христо Пройков, Апостолический экзарх. Для Радио Болгария он рассказал следующее:
«Есть сведения с ХVІ века о дубровницких шахтерах в Северной Болгарии, которые прибывали сюда со своими капелланами, устанавливались и работали в этой части страны. В январе сего года было отмечено 400-летие со дня создания первой епархии Католической церкви в Северной Болгарии. Но в целом, она имеет вековое присутствие и в Южной Болгарии, где сосредоточена большая масса так называемых павликанских католиков. Их происхождение смешанно даже с движением богомилов, которые отбывали на Запад, а затем некоторые из них снова возвращались, принимали крещение и устанавливались на болгарских землях. С конца ХІХ века наблюдается присоединение группы болгар, которые сформировали Церковь восточного обряда. В целом, сегодня Католическая Церковь в Болгарии связана с около 1% населения страны. Они распределены в двух епархиях латинского обряда в городах Пловдив и Русе и одной епархии восточного обряда - в Софии, епископ которой имеет титул католического Апостолического Экзарха. Каждая епархия имеет по 20-25 церковных приходов, а в некоторых городах существуют по 2,3, 4 и больше церквей».

Bishop Khristo Projkov (not with beard)

http://catholic-bg.org/images/p6-mons_proikov.jpg

Presumably original question refers to celibacy of priests - a religion of celibate people does not last but 1 generation.

 

[Deacon_Lance]

Only two Eastern Catholic Churches require celibacy as the Latin Church does: the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankar Churches. The Copts, Syriacs, and Ethiopians semi-require celibacy but the patriarch/metropolitan may give a dispensation, which occurs with frequency. The Ruthenian Metropolia in the US also semi-requires celibacy but may ordain married candidates with approval from Rome, which one bishop has started doing.

The ban on married priests in Western Europe, the Americas, and Australia had been widely ignored, at least by the Ukrainians and Melkites, since the 1980s and the ban itself was abrogated with the promulgation of the CCEO in 1990. Married priests can be found in every Greek Catholic jurisdiction in the world, except the Hellenic Greek Catholic Church, it consists of only two parishes and is served by celibate priests but not because of any canon or ban that is simply chance. The Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church may be in the same situation I don’t know.

The Slovak and Hungarian Greek Catholic Churches have always been served by married priests. Even though these are considered Latin Catholic countries they were member nations of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and Greek Catholics had no restrictions in the Empire. The ratio is about 90% married priests to 10% monastic/celibate.

Fr. Deacon Lance

 

[Persis]

thank you Father Deacon!

 

[Sunflower15]

Very informative!

In all of these churches that allow priests to marry,

1. is the priesthood understood as more pastoral than missionary?
   [It must be difficult to be sent to some areas along with a wife/children]
2. are bishops chosen only from celibate priests? Why?
3. does it mean that priests can marry or that married men can be ordained as priests?

Thank you & God Bless!

 

[dixibehr]

Very informative!

In all of these churches that allow priests to marry,

1. is the priesthood understood as more pastoral than missionary?
   [It must be difficult to be sent to some areas along with a wife/children]
2. are bishops chosen only from celibate priests? Why?
3. does it mean that priests can marry or that married men can be ordained as priests?

Thank you & God Bless!

1. Yes. It’s both. Missionary and Pastoral labors are similar, but not identical.

Fr. John Veniaminov was sent with his wife and children by the Russian Church as chaplain to the Russian-American Company in Alaska. He decided to evangelize the natives while he was at it. He was the first European to learn their langauges, reduced it to writing (using the Slavonic, not the modern Russian alphabet), and translated the Gospels and Divine Liturgy into Tlinkit and Aleut.

After his wife died, he was recalled to St. Petersburg, where he was consecrated as Bishop of Kamchatka and the Aleutians, and continued his missionary work. He died as Metropolitan of Moscow, and was canonized by his episcopal name of St. Innocent.

1. Bishops are theoretically chosen from among the monks. The most desirable qualification of a bishop is that he be a man of prayer. (Note the word “theoretically.”)

The pressures of pastoral life on a marriage can be very great. I know several divorced priests.

1. As has been said many times, a married man may be ordained. A priest may not marry, period. This includes a widowed priest; he may not marry after oridination. And yes, there are some sad stories of priestly widowers who decided their children needed a mother more than the Church needed a priest.

OTOH, it’s not uncommon for widowers (priests or not) or widows to enter monasteries after their children are grown. There are many bishops who have their pictures
taken with their grandchildren.

 

[Persis]

1. Yes. It’s both. Missionary and Pastoral labors are similar, but not identical.

Fr. John Veniaminov was sent with his wife and children by the Russian Church as chaplain to the Russian-American Company in Alaska. He decided to evangelize the natives while he was at it. He was the first European to learn their langauges, reduced it to writing (using the Slavonic, not the modern Russian alphabet), and translated the Gospels and Divine Liturgy into Tlinkit and Aleut.

After his wife died, he was recalled to St. Petersburg, where he was consecrated as Bishop of Kamchatka and the Aleutians, and continued his missionary work. He died as Metropolitan of Moscow, and was canonized by his episcopal name of St. Innocent.

1. Bishops are theoretically chosen from among the monks. The most desirable qualification of a bishop is that he be a man of prayer. (Note the word “theoretically.”)

The pressures of pastoral life on a marriage can be very great. I know several divorced priests.

1. As has been said many times, a married man may be ordained. A priest may not marry, period. This includes a widowed priest; he may not marry after oridination. And yes, there are some sad stories of priestly widowers who decided their children needed a mother more than the Church needed a priest.

OTOH, it’s not uncommon for widowers (priests or not) or widows to enter monasteries after their children are grown. There are many bishops who have their pictures
taken with their grandchildren.

Just wanted to add to dixibehr’s good explanation that while it sounds good one has to also understand that financially it is very difficult for married priests in the Western world (i.e. USA) so almost all of the married priests have secular jobs and careers to support their family along with their pastoral duties which can make home life rather stressful at times.

 

[Patchunky]

Very informative!

In all of these churches that allow priests to marry,

NONE of these churches permit priests to marry.

They ordain married men to the Holy Priesthood. There is a differenece.

A man must be married before he is ordained a Deacon if he wishes to be married.

Hope this helps…

so many eggs, so little time…

 

[mardukm]

NONE of these churches permit priests to marry.

They ordain married men to the Holy Priesthood. There is a differenece.

This is an ancient canon of the undivided Church of the first millenium. So the rule is also within the Orthodox Churches (both Oriental and Eastern). Priests who married after ordination could no longer perform their functions or were excommunicated.

Blessings

 

[Diak]

Is celibacy mandatory in these Churches? What about the Armenian Catholic Church? (I ask because I know celibacy is mandatory in some Eastern Catholics where the Latin-RIte is the majority, like Poland, so I am curious about these)
Thanks!

Patriarch Lubomyr and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops have not ceased to ordain married men to serve Poland. The pro-Nuncio in Poland was given a complaint by a certain Polish Archbishop stating he wanted all Ukrainian married priests to leave the country lest they “scandalize the people” back in the 1990s. That was forwarded by the Pro-Nuncio to the Holy Father for his review. The Holy Father instead asked Patriarch Lubomyr to respond himself before the Holy Father weighed in.

Patriarch Lubomyr politely responded that he and his bishops alone had jurisdiction over his own priests. The story goes that the late Holy Father then verbally requested the objections be dropped ASAP during a private audience with the Pro-Nuncio and the Archbishop, and no more has been heard about it since. That was around the time the Holy Father wrote Orientale Lumen.

I would disagree with Fr. Deacon Lance that anything was “ignored” by the Ukrainian and Melkite hierarchs. The provisions of Cum Data Fuerit allowed it to be renewed by the Holy Father for another decade. It was renewed once and was not renewed again when required by Pope Pius XII, who in effect allowed it to expire. Bishop +Basil (Losten), the emeritus Eparch of Stamford, even ordained two married men on separate occasions in Latin churches since they were much larger than the Cathedral with the permission of the Latin hierarch.

No Pope since him has even mentioned that document. That is not to say some Latin hierarchs have expressed dismay about the presence of married Eastern Catholic priests even into the 1990s, but that appears to be a thing of the past. Since the Latins themselves have accepted married former Lutherans and Episcopalians as Latin-rite priests, and ordained them to the priesthood in the process, no ban can realistically be said to exist at all.

 

[ASimpleSinner]

Presumably original question refers to celibacy of priests - a religion of celibate people does not last but 1 generation.

Huh?

Where are you getting the idea that celibacy of priests makes “a religion of celibate people”?

Does your religion of celibate bishops do the same?

 

[Hesychios]

Huh?

Where are you getting the idea that celibacy of priests makes “a religion of celibate people”?

Does your religion of celibate bishops do the same?

He was just being humorous.

 

[Hesychios]

In all of these churches that allow priests to marry…

I suppose the point here, sometimes overlooked, is that priest or deacon candidates are permitted to marry. They need not be married before going to seminary.

That means that seminarians are allowed to date! They can court women with alacrity and not feel that they are somehow betraying a vocation.

And once they have done so, some men still choose the celibate vocation, knowing pretty well what they are giving up. For men who would wish to marry, but have not met Miss Right by the time of graduation, the ordination can be postponed indefinitely.

At least that is how the Orthodox typically handle it. Can we assume the BCC would likewise?

so many eggs, so little time…

 

[Patchunky]

That means that seminarians are allowed to date! They can court women with alacrity and not feel that they are somehow betraying a vocation.

And once they have done so, some men still choose the celibate vocation, knowing pretty well what they are giving up. For men who would wish to marry, but have not met Miss Right by the time of graduation, the ordination can be postponed indefinitely.

At least that is how the Orthodox typically handle it. Can we assume the BCC would likewise?

Prior to the coming of the Communists, the sons of priests married the daughters of priests. They formed their own “social class” so to speak…These daughters knew what was going to be expected of them from following their own mother’s examples…

Hope this helps…

 

[dixibehr]

Prior to the coming of the Communists, the sons of priests married the daughters of priests. They formed their own “social class” so to speak…These daughters knew what was going to be expected of them from following their own mother’s examples…

Hope this helps…

Basically, there was something similar among the Orthodox.

At one time the Russian Mission in the USA ran a finishing school for daughters of priests and deacons who were destined to wed clerical candidates.

 

[ag_vn]

Hesychios:

In Bulgaria, the majority of Catholics are of the Latin rite, I believe.

That’s right. There are about 80 000 Bulgarian Catholics, about 10 000 of them are Eastern rite, the rest are Latins. But I think, the total of the Catholics in Bulgaria is a little bit higher if foreigners, living/working here, are added.
Deacon Lance:

Married priests can be found in every Greek Catholic jurisdiction in the world, except the Hellenic Greek Catholic Church, it consists of only two parishes and is served by celibate priests but not because of any canon or ban that is simply chance. The Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church may be in the same situation I don’t know.

Fr. Deacon Lance

There are no married Bulgarian Catholic priests and I as far as I know they are required to be celibate. This my impression from I’ve heard from some of them. But I have to mention that are only three native Bulgarian Eastern rite Catholic priests. The rest are foreigners from Latin rite orders, some of them serve both Eastern and Latin parishes in Bulgaria. They are Resurrectionists from Poland (3 or 4 priests), Salesians from the Czech Republic (with several priests) and Augustinians of the Assumption, I think from their French Province (with 3 priests - one Croatian, one French and one Italian). There are also Byzantine Carmelite monastery (with friars from Croatia) in Sofia, but they serve in their church only, no parishes.

Although I know what you mean by “Greek Catholic”, I should mention that Bulgarians don’t like to be called like that. Actually, almost everyone, including themselves, calls them Uniates. But “Bulgarian Eastern Catholics” or “Bulgarian Byzantine Catholics” are also fine, if you don’t like Uniate.

For example, recently I had a talk with a Roman Catholic from a town with both Latin and Eastern rite Catholic churches and I asked him about the Eastern rite Catholics there. His answer was something like that, “Eastern rite Catholics? Oh, I see. You mean Uniates. There are Uniates, but most Catholics are full Catholics”.

Bulgarian Eastern Catholics also call themselves Uniates to distinguish themselves from the Latin rite Catholics.

Volodymyr:

BOLGARIAN CATOLICS

Radio Bolgaria says following interview of Catolic Bishop of Greko Catolics:

For those which cannot read Russian. It would appear there are twice as many Latin as Greko Catolics in Bolgaria. Together according to this article, they constitute together only 1% of population of country. There are two eparchies of Latins in Plovdiv and Rusje with 20-25 parishes, and one eparchy for Greko Catolics in Sofia with also 25 parishes.
This is below interview with Khristo Projkov - greko Catolic bisohp of Sofia - called Ekzarch.
.

In the past the Bulgarian Eastern Catholic Church may have had 25 parishes, but at present they are 13 only.

I know Annuario Pontificio lists 21 parishes, but these numbers seem to not have been updated for years. It actually has 13 parishes.

This is the list of the parishes from the official site of the Bulgarian Eastern Catholic Church, officially Catholic Apostolic Exarchate - kae-bg.org/?act=content&rec=23

 

[Alexander_Roman]

I remember when our new Bishop, Kyr Stefan, was consecrated. At the banquet afterwards, one of our priests (who happened to be a celibate but whose brother is a married priest with children), got up to speak.

He quoted St Paul where the Apostle refers to the bishop as being a “man of one wife.”

He then turned to the assembled bishops there (Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Eastern Orthodox) and said with a straight face, “And where are your wives, Most Reverend Bishops?”

My grandfather was a married Greek Catholic priest with seven children (two others died as children).

He was a priest for seventy years and he came to Canada in 1966, one of two priests the communists allowed to travel outside the USSR that year.

I had the benefit of growing up in a priestly/religious environment I would otherwise not have had. My grandmother, Presbytera Irene, prayed an hour morning and night and said the Rosary mid-morning after the Divine Liturgy and Communion and then the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy/Wounds of Christ at 3:00 pm. In the evening, she would bless everything by making Signs of the Cross all over.

My grandfather would wander the halls at home saying his Office and praying the Rosary for everyone.

My grandparents wanted me to be a priest - but a married one. My grandmother was categorically against me being a celibate priest . She had a dozen cousins and uncles who were all married priests (all with doctorates in theology) and she herself was the daughter of a married Greek-Catholic priest (who died suddenly after a day of hard work on construction of his new church).

I also had the privilege of going to Confession to my grandfather and benefited from his life experience. I don’t mind saying that his main teaching to me was that my sins were being caused by my weak prayer life.

To remedy this, his penance for me was always a long, involved one. So many Our Father’s and Hail Mary’s “after confession, this evening before you go to bed, tomorrow morning, afternoon and evening, and so on for the next two weeks. Then come back to see me.”

He told me that there can never be any excuse for leaving off one’s prayers and that without a prayer life there can be no good Christian life, the moral imperatives would be impossible to observe etc.

I was also his altar-server and he would get me up rather early to go with him to Church for his Divine LIturgy/Mass - he liked to be in Church at least two hours ahead of time

On one Gregorian Calendar Easter Sunday, we were waiting for the bus when a police officer came walking by. My grandfather looked at me with a smile and said, "He must be on the Julian Calendar with us. . "

May the Rev. Fr. John and Presbytera Irene rest in the peace of Christ!

Alex