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ciero
Guest
It is the tradition of all the Eastern churches to have married priests…some here in the US have been so Latinized as to have only celibate priests…and don’t even get me started about the Maronites!
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Jen929
Guest
Oh! Yes, I knew that. Sorry, it was late when I read your reply
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Jen929
Guest
I know, my DHs grandmother was born in Slovakia and speaks fondly about her priest, his wife and their children. When she came here, she had a married priest for a bit (and his wife worked!) but that died out…It is the tradition of all the Eastern churches to have married priests…some here in the US have been so Latinized as to have only celibate priests…and don’t even get me started about the Maronites!
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angelic06
Guest
If only I were a woman so that I, too, could marry a seminarian (that way we could have some interesting dinner time conversations on theology, etc.)! jk…I understand that about 70% of our priests up here are married. A friend of mine is a married priest and his daughter is studying Catholic philosophy in university and will be getting married to a UGCC seminarian (also a canon lawyer) in three weeks - my wife and I will both “dance at their wedding” and “sing at the ordination!”
I’m hoping that as many married Anglican and Lutheran ministers join the Catholic Church as possible and become ordained priests.
There’s really nothing like having a Presbytera/wife of a Priest in the parish!
You Latins don’t know what you are missing!
Alex
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Little_Boy_Lost
Guest
Two points I wanted to bring up. To the person who said “Eastern Catholics are Under the Vatican”.
That might be a rough way of putting it, but more correctly we are “In Communion with” meaning we share the same faith but are subject in ordinary ways to our Holy Synods and Patriarchs (Or Metropolita or Archbishop depending on jurisdiction).
Secondly, I think it’s really the size of the parish more than anything. My pastor is a celibate Melkite Priest, and he does have a schedule to take into consideration, but it’s fairly easy to find time to see him for confession or chit chat during the week. It would probably near impossible to do that at the local Latin Parish where the parishioner size is close to 5,000 families. Our parish is a mere 60 families. One friend of mine is running a confirmation program at the latin parish I spoke of above and she called my pastor to invite him to speak on the Byzantine Churches. Well she assumed he would be super busy like most priests she’s interacted with so she invited him for January. He was sad to hear it was so far away, cause he could have spoken this month. It was surprising for her, that he was so available so soon.
That might be a rough way of putting it, but more correctly we are “In Communion with” meaning we share the same faith but are subject in ordinary ways to our Holy Synods and Patriarchs (Or Metropolita or Archbishop depending on jurisdiction).
Secondly, I think it’s really the size of the parish more than anything. My pastor is a celibate Melkite Priest, and he does have a schedule to take into consideration, but it’s fairly easy to find time to see him for confession or chit chat during the week. It would probably near impossible to do that at the local Latin Parish where the parishioner size is close to 5,000 families. Our parish is a mere 60 families. One friend of mine is running a confirmation program at the latin parish I spoke of above and she called my pastor to invite him to speak on the Byzantine Churches. Well she assumed he would be super busy like most priests she’s interacted with so she invited him for January. He was sad to hear it was so far away, cause he could have spoken this month. It was surprising for her, that he was so available so soon.
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Alexander_Roman
Guest
You are right, sorry. Let me rephrase that - “Any Church/community that doesn’t have married priests is missing out a lot.”
But the last time I looked, “you Latins” have the lion’s share of celibate priests. Not all of them are celibate by choice too . . .
Perhaps, one day, you Latins will get over your hangup about marriage and the priesthood.
Alex
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Augustus24
Guest
The Ruthenian Church in the US does have a few married priests.
At the turn of the century the Latin Church basically forced Eastern Catholics in the US to only have celibate priests, basically reneging on their side of the Union by abrogating the Eastern Churches “sui juris” status. This caused a major schism in the Church. Thankfully, in the past few decades the Latin Church has backed off and allowed more and more married eastern priests in the US.
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Diakonia
Guest
It caused at least three. What are today the UOC-USA, and ACROD still consist in large numbers of the descendents of Ukrainian Greek-Catholics and Carpatho-Rusyn Greek-Catholics who translated to Orthodoxy as a consequence of the celibacy rules and other issues relative to self-governance imposed on them. As well, the OCA, although today much broader in its membership, in its early years as the Russian Metropolia, was similarly populated.
While I’m certain that you don’t mean it that way, it is offensive to believe that we need to be thankful that the Latin Church has backed off from something that they had no right to impose and it is not now, nor was it ever, the right of the Latin Church to ‘allow’ married clergy of the Eastern and Oriental Catholic Churches.
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