German man married to nun ordained as priest with pope's approval

[catharina]

winnipegfreepress.com/world/breakingnews/german-man-married-to-nun-to-be-ordained-priest-with-popes-approval-116643899.html

"BERLIN - In a rare move that needed the pope’s approval, a Lutheran convert was ordained Tuesday as a Catholic priest in Germany and is being allowed to remain married to his wife — who has already become a nun.

Harm Klueting, 61, was ordained by Archbishop Joachim Cardinal Meisner in a private ceremony at the city’s seminary, the Cologne archdiocese said.

Pope Benedict XVI gave Klueting a special permission to remain married to his wife Edeltraut Klueting, who became a Catholic Carmelite nun in 2004.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s chief spokesman, said the exception is rare but there have been similar cases.

“It doesn’t happen every day,” he said.

Klueting and his wife were Lutherans when they married in 1977 and both served as Lutheran clerics before converting to Catholicism several years ago. They have two grown children.

… ."

Remarkable story, God bless both of them and their children.

 

[Cristiano]

I do not believe that his wife is a nun. I think that the press is wrong. Probably she is a 3rd order member of a religious order.

 

[Corki]

I do not believe that his wife is a nun. I think that the press is wrong. Probably she is a 3rd order member of a religious order.

I believe you are correct. I googled her name and came up with her webpage. It’s in German but it lists her as “Dr. phil. Edeltraud Klueting T.OCarm, M. A.”

Of course every new outlet just seems to be printing the exact same story, word-for-word. What ever happened to journalism?

 

[Yellow_Belle]

I believe you are correct. I googled her name and came up with her webpage. It’s in German but it lists her as “Dr. phil. Edeltraud Klueting T.OCarm, M. A.”

Of course every new outlet just seems to be printing the exact same story, word-for-word. What ever happened to journalism?

edeltraud-klueting.eu/page1.html seems to confirm this:

2004 Noviziat im Karmelitenorden (Ordo Fratrum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo)
2005 27. August Profess als** Karmeliten-Tertiarin**, Kloster Springiersbach an der Mosel

 

[SonCatcher]

They’re playing a reversal game of sorts. Luther infamously quit the Catholic church and married a former nun, so they’re having fun with the current situation, even at the expanse of accuracy.

It’s unfortunate, really, as such conceptual abuses are more fitting of the checkout-line periodicals than professional journalism.

 

[Dale_M]

They’re playing a reversal game of sorts. Luther infamously quit the Catholic church and married a former nun, so they’re having fun with the current situation, even at the expanse of accuracy.

It’s unfortunate, really, as such conceptual abuses are more fitting of the checkout-line periodicals than professional journalism.

I think you are giving the author of the news article more credit than they deserve. Religious details often elude reporters, who in turn don’t take the time to investigate deeply enough to avoid mistakes Knowledge of that small bit of history seems questionable.

My guess is that they looked at her official biography and saw that she served a novitiate in 2004, becoming a Carmelite tertiary in 2005. Not knowing what a tertiary is, but vaguely aware that a novitiate was part of the process of becoming professed religious, the reporter likely assumed this meant that she had become a Carmelite nun.

 

[AcolyteLector]

I think you are giving the author of the news article more credit than they deserve. Religious details often elude reporters, who in turn don’t take the time to investigate deeply enough to avoid mistakes Knowledge of that small bit of history seems questionable.

My guess is that they looked at her official biography and saw that she served a novitiate in 2004, becoming a Carmelite tertiary in 2005. Not knowing what a tertiary is, but vaguely aware that a novitiate was part of the process of becoming professed religious, the reporter likely assumed this meant that she had become a Carmelite nun.

You know, Dale, we’ll understand if you want to ‘come out’ and list Journalism as your religion.

 

[Cristiano]

I think you are giving the author of the news article more credit than they deserve. Religious details often elude reporters, who in turn don’t take the time to investigate deeply enough to avoid mistakes Knowledge of that small bit of history seems questionable.

My guess is that they looked at her official biography and saw that she served a novitiate in 2004, becoming a Carmelite tertiary in 2005. Not knowing what a tertiary is, but vaguely aware that a novitiate was part of the process of becoming professed religious, the reporter likely assumed this meant that she had become a Carmelite nun.

I think that you are correct. I am sorry to say it but I am ready to bet that a lot of Catholics would have made the same assumption.

 

[Corki]

The funny thing is that if a married woman was allowed to become a nun, that would actually be a much bigger story than a married man being ordained a priest. The former virtually never happens unless the woman is widowed. The latter is still rare but not unheard of, especially with the Anglicans converting.

 

[SonCatcher]

I think you are giving the author of the news article more credit than they deserve. Religious details often elude reporters, who in turn don’t take the time to investigate deeply enough to avoid mistakes Knowledge of that small bit of history seems questionable.

My guess is that they looked at her official biography and saw that she served a novitiate in 2004, becoming a Carmelite tertiary in 2005. Not knowing what a tertiary is, but vaguely aware that a novitiate was part of the process of becoming professed religious, the reporter likely assumed this meant that she had become a Carmelite nun.

Why mention it at all if not to sell copy? The reporter may well have guessed that further investigation would be disappointing.

 

[Dale_M]

You know, Dale, we’ll understand if you want to ‘come out’ and list Journalism as your religion.

Wow, that would be frightening religion…

 

[Dakota_Roberts]

I think you are giving the author of the news article more credit than they deserve. Religious details often elude reporters, who in turn don’t take the time to investigate deeply enough to avoid mistakes Knowledge of that small bit of history seems questionable.

My guess is that they looked at her official biography and saw that she served a novitiate in 2004, becoming a Carmelite tertiary in 2005. Not knowing what a tertiary is, but vaguely aware that a novitiate was part of the process of becoming professed religious, the reporter likely assumed this meant that she had become a Carmelite nun.

tertiary, noun: a lay associate of certain Christian monastic organizations (also means third in order).

 

[CatholicBoy1957]

The funny thing is that if a married woman was allowed to become a nun, that would actually be a much bigger story than a married man being ordained a priest. The former virtually never happens unless the woman is widowed. The latter is still rare but not unheard of, especially with the Anglicans converting.

Except for St. Maximilian’s mother, who became a nun while married.

 

[Corki]

Except for St. Maximilian’s mother, who became a nun while married.

I did not know that. Do you have a link to the story? I love life stories of saints and their families.

There are actually a few saints who, by mutual consent, separated from their spouses and one, or both, entered religious life. These were all in the middle ages and shortly after, as far as I know. It would be rare indeed for a married woman to become a nun and continue living in her marriage as Edeltraud Klueting is.

Still, the fact that there might be a very small number of these cases is much more “newsworthy” than for a married convert to be ordained. In the US alone, there are over 100 of the latter.

 

[CatholicBoy1957]

I’m not so sure that the Kluetings live together under one roof. Consider this mention:

Klueting and his family could not be reached for comment, and it was not clear whether they still lived together as a couple.

npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=133964538

While we’re at it, someone made a good point on another forum:

A Catholic married couple in Germany, Harm and Edeltraut Klueting, has received papal permission for him to be ordained to priesthood and for her to enter religious life. It would be nice if we had all the relevant facts on this interesting case (the Vatican Press Office seems to know little about it), but until then, we can at least correct one widely repeated mistake: this couple did not receive the pope’s “permission to remain married” as several secular news sites put it. A consummated marriage between two baptized persons can be dissolved only by death. So the pope did not need to approve this couple’s “staying married”.

christianforums.com/t7538260/

I first learned of the story of St. Max’s parents when I read a biography about 20 years ago. As was pointed out by the post in that other forum, they would still be married, even if they release each other from their marital obligations, and live in a convent, as Maria Kolbe did, and a monastery, as did Julius Kolbe.

Although this isn’t the same book I read 20 years ago, I found a link to another book that mentions the matter:

books.google.com/books?id=glnqs0CsRckC&lpg=PA19&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false

I did not know that. Do you have a link to the story? I love life stories of saints and their families.

There are actually a few saints who, by mutual consent, separated from their spouses and one, or both, entered religious life. These were all in the middle ages and shortly after, as far as I know. It would be rare indeed for a married woman to become a nun and continue living in her marriage as Edeltraud Klueting is.

Still, the fact that there might be a very small number of these cases is much more “newsworthy” than for a married convert to be ordained. In the US alone, there are over 100 of the latter.

 

[CatholicBoy1957]

I’m loving this subject. It looks as though there’s a good chance that the media ran away with artistic license on this story. I don’t think she’s a nun. I found her on Wikipedia, but in German, which I’m not too good at:

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edeltraud_Klueting

Then, I remembered that Google has a translate feature. I hope this link works. It should make the page appear in English if you click this link, if not, I hope you know German:

translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FEdeltraud_Klueting&act=url