Not a few Ukrainian Catholic Seminarians delay ordination in order to marry. The UGCC, which is in union with Rome, has no shortage of married priests. And many of its permanent deacons are celibate… and remain deacons by choice.
I don’t think that will happen either. The only case of married clergy in the Latin Rite is when a married priest of Anglicanism or other recognized priesthood converts to Catholicism and is allowed to practice as a Catholic priest, they may remain married. However, if the wife should die, they cannot remarry.
Deacons are clergy, too. And quite a few native sons of the Roman Rite are married men ordained to the diaconate.
That’s a discipline not a doctrine. It’s an extremely longstanding discipline that’s unlikely to change, but it’s not a doctrine.
As pointed out by another poster, deacons are clergy also. Based on the last statistics I saw, approximately 95 % of the 17,000 or so deacons in the U.S. are married. And just as with ministerial converts who are subsequently ordained as Catholic priests, if the wife of a deacon predeceases him, he cannot remarry – without the explicit and special (and rare) permission from Rome.
True. Religious also take vows of obedience and poverty which also would preclude membership in a religious order. The Church’s celibacy discipline is based not only on our concept of Holy Orders, but on our understanding of Marriage. That being said, the Ordinariates in the UK, US, and Australia open the door a little wider to reconsidering celibacy. It’s no longer on a rare, case by case exception, as it was since the early 80s. The ranks of married former Anglican priests keeps growing steadily. Most of them will work part time outside their mostly tiny congregations, with non-Ordinariate Catholics. It’s going to be harder to deny priesthood to married young men who have known married priests for years, either in their Ordinariate parish or through other ministries.
Since we are all entertaining a far-fetched hypothetical here, why not complete the thought?
It seems to me that the very long implementation plan has already begun, if the Church chooses to move in that direction. First, you have converted protestant ministers eligible for ordination. In the 80s, when this first started happening, they were not eligible to be assigned to parish work. The people very gradually came to understand that married priests were indeed possible and many have come to accept or even embrace the idea. Simultaneously, the people have become used to the role of married deacons. Then, married priests were allowed into parish work, and in some cases have even become pastors of parishes. Then came the ordinariate. It has taken more than twenty years from the first pastoral provision to where we are today. If the Church chooses to move in the direction of a married priesthood, the groundwork has already been laid. I agree that the next step would be allowing married deacons, on a case-by-case basis, to apply for ordination to the priesthood. Maybe in 10 years? Another 20 years of that, with growing acceptance and gradual changes in the way that compensation and housing are handled, and perhaps another small step could be taken. I don’t think the Church is on any sort of long-term plan to implement a married priesthood, though, but I can see how it could happen within the next 75 years or so.
I believe the provision said other than Pastors, not other than parishes. Almost all were assigned as second priests to large parishes. (Fr. Scott Medlock comes to mind. He’s been assigned as canonical pastor recently, tho’… since the relaxation of the rules for the pastoral provision.)Since we are all entertaining a far-fetched hypothetical here, why not complete the thought?
It would probably depend on the local Bishop. There would need to be HUGE changes in the formation process for priests in order for this to happen. One possibility would be a “gap” period between the completion of the initial seminary stage and ordination to the transitional diaconate. Where would they put the pre-cana process? Then they would have to figure out how to house the familes for the remainder of the seminary time, what formation the wives would undergo and the “biggie” – how to pay for it all.
There’s a Catch-22 to married priests at the parish level. Because of the additional responsibilities to family, a married priest would probably be most suited to a parish with multiple priests. But parishes with multiple priests usually have a rectory for their priests to live in and that would be very inappropriate for a wife and kids. This is one of the reasons why the original pastoral provision for married Anglican priests who converted specified that they be assigned to positions other than parishes.
In my personal opinion, any change involving young men would need a very long implementation plan. The most likely expansion, in my personal opinon, would be for the Church to entertain, on a case-by-case basis, allowing married deacons to apply for ordination to the priesthood.