Married Priesthood in U.S.?

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I’ve heard conflicting statements on this both ways, and figured y’all would know for certain. In the U.S., are the Eastern Churches allowed to ordain married men?
 
I think the Ukrainians can
The Ruthenians need permission

Not sure about the others
 
None of them are “supposed to” some bishops have the guts to do it anyway some don’t.
No, the CCEO clearly states that they are to follow their particular law. The UGCC and Melkites have the ordination of married men to the priesthood in their particular law, the Ruthenians left in that they must obtain permission from Rome to do so.

I know both the UGCC and the Melkites have done so in the recent past. They just do not run around shouting it out so as to not cause issues.
 
Ahh, this would explain the conflicting answers. I assumed they all could or none could. Thank you all very much!
 
Side question, wouldn’t the Patriarch of the Ruthenians be able to change that? Or does he need Papal approval to do so?
 
I…Don’t…Think…There…Is…A…Patriarch…Of the Ruthenians…
 
Side question, wouldn’t the Patriarch of the Ruthenians be able to change that? Or does he need Papal approval to do so?
The Ruthenian Church is merely metropolitan, not patriarchal. And our primatial see is empty at the moment.
 
Side question, wouldn’t the Patriarch of the Ruthenians be able to change that? Or does he need Papal approval to do so?
The Ruthenian Church is merely metropolitan, not patriarchal. And our primatial see is empty at the moment.
I believe the synod could change particular law but they have chosen not to.

Or do they need any changes approved by the Oriental congregation?
 
My husband was the first Romanian Byzantine Catholic to be ordained in the US after JPII loosened up restrictions- in our eparchy, it just so happens that only men born in the old country have been married- our few vocations from American-born men, they have been celibate
 

  1. *]Do all 22 Eastern Catholic Churches allow married deacons and priests?
    *]Do they all require celibate bishops?
    *]If an Eastern Catholic deacon/priest is married and then widowed may he marry again (or, does it depend on the Church)?
    *]Why can’t Eastern Catholic clergy be married outside the traditional territories of those churches? Are we Latin Catholics so lacking in intelligence that we can’t understand that Eastern Catholic clergy marry, even though Latin Catholic ones don’t?

    There are former Anglicans who are Latin Catholic priests and married.

    After all, marriage or celibacy is a matter discipline isn’t it? It’s not a doctrinal matter.
 

  1. *]Do all 22 Eastern Catholic Churches allow married deacons and priests?
    *]Do they all require celibate bishops?
    *]If an Eastern Catholic deacon/priest is married and then widowed may he marry again (or, does it depend on the Church)?
    *]Why can’t Eastern Catholic clergy be married outside the traditional territories of those churches? Are we Latin Catholics so lacking in intelligence that we can’t understand that Eastern Catholic clergy marry, even though Latin Catholic ones don’t?

    There are former Anglicans who are Latin Catholic priests and married.

    After all, marriage or celibacy is a matter discipline isn’t it? It’s not a doctrinal matter.
    1. I am not sure, I know the Byzantine rite Churches do.
    2. All bishops must be celibate.
    3. No. There have been a very, very, very, few cases where a deacon or a priest with very young children who was widowed was allowed to marry again but only with the approval of the Pope.
    4. They can be, there have been married men ordain in various Byzantine jurisdictions in North America. These Churches just do not advertise it all that much.
    The celibate only secular priesthood is a discipline.
 

  1. *]Do all 22 Eastern Catholic Churches allow married deacons and priests?

  1. Not sure. In the Byzantine Rite there are married priests. Not sure about the others.
    *]Do they all require celibate bishops?
    This is a universal requirement by the Church established well before the Great Schism. You will not see a married Bishop not only in the Eastern Catholic Church, but in the Orthodox Church as well. Its one tell-tale sign of knowing if one group who claims to be Catholic or Orthodox are the real deal. Check their bishops. Usually schismatics or pretenders have married bishops.

    Also, this is one of the issues that came up when the Traditional Anglican Communion expressed their intent to reunite with Rome. They have married Bishops. Solution, They will only be ordained priests but will be given political power to that of a Bishop within their Ordinariate so they can govern their parishes as if a bishop without actually being a bishop.
    *]If an Eastern Catholic deacon/priest is married and then widowed may he marry again (or, does it depend on the Church)?
    Same with the RC. Its possible, but only in very rare cases. One such scenario is if there are young children who can benefit from the care of a mother. But it will have to be an indult.
    *]Why can’t Eastern Catholic clergy be married outside the traditional territories of those churches? Are we Latin Catholics so lacking in intelligence that we can’t understand that Eastern Catholic clergy marry, even though Latin Catholic ones don’t?
    Sadly, that is the exact reason (or pretty close). I believe it was the American Bishops who requested that no priests in any Catholic Rite may be ordained in the US or anywhere outside the traditional territory of the sui juris Church. That restriction now has been relaxed but I believe the request is to just keep in low so as not to arouse the masses one way or another.
    There are former Anglicans who are Latin Catholic priests and married.

    After all, marriage or celibacy is a matter discipline isn’t it? It’s not a doctrinal matter.
    Yes, there are also former Lutherans, Baptists, etc.
 
I believe the synod could change particular law but they have chosen not to.

Or do they need any changes approved by the Oriental congregation?
Changes have to be signed off on by the pope.
 
Changes have to be signed off on by the pope.
Are you sure? According to Canon 167, all that is required for a law promulgated by a Metropolitan Church sui juris is acknowledgement by the Holy See that it has knowledge of the law enacted. I don’t think the Pope has to actually approve the law.

Blessings
 
I’ve heard conflicting statements on this both ways, and figured y’all would know for certain. In the U.S., are the Eastern Churches allowed to ordain married men?
Here is what I was taught:
This began in the old country. Old country priests were not like Roman Catholic priests. There was a church with some property around it and that is how the priest earned a living farming (because of course the people were poor and had no money to donate). So that the priests could survive and continue their duties they were permitted to be married (that is, a married man can become a priest, but once a priest he could not marry).
Now here in the US, I know a few married priests.
  1. While in seminary and for a short period afterwards, they are permitted to marry. Again, once they are ordained they cannot marry.
  2. I know a few married priests in the US presently and I must say their families are above reproach. The children are raised in the faith first and I must say are beautiful examples of what a true catholic family should be like. Modesty, prayer time together, nothing you can say about them. To me they are the perfect examples of what an American Catholic family should be.
  3. I LOVE CONFESSING TO A MARRIED PRIEST: He really knows what issues we have in marriages and raising children.
  4. ABOVE ALL - I PRAY DAILY THAT OUR POPE WILL EXCOMUNICATE PEDOFILE PRIESTS IN ORDER TO CLEANSE OUR CHURCH. You never heard of a pedofile priest in the Eastern Rite. My thoughts are: if I would remarry (being a valid reason for the first divorce such as an abusive husband) and could not remarry in a Catholic church (because 1st husband is still living and annulment was not financially possible), I’d be excommunicated (unless I was Jackie Kennedy Onasis). Yet pedofile priests can continue in their ‘service to God’ destroying young boys in the meantime. And WE are to confess to THEM?
 
Are you sure? According to Canon 167, all that is required for a law promulgated by a Metropolitan Church sui juris is acknowledgement by the Holy See that it has knowledge of the law enacted. I don’t think the Pope has to actually approve the law.

Blessings
For metropolitan churches, CCEO Canon 167 §2 requires Rome acknowledge prior to publication, and the power of laws is the Metropolitan Council of Hierarchs, not the metropolitan’s.
CCEO Canon 167 §2
2. The metropolitan will notify the Apostolic See as soon as possible of the laws and norms enacted by the council of hierarchs; nor can laws and norms be validly promulgated before the metropolitan has written notification from the Apostolic See of the reception of the acts of the council; the metropolitan is also to notify the Apostolic See of other actions of the council of hierarchs.

Reception is a loaded term. As I understand it, it’s more than just a “Yes, we got your letter of notice.”
 
Dear brother Aramis,
For metropolitan churches, CCEO Canon 167 §2 requires Rome acknowledge prior to publication, and the power of laws is the Metropolitan Council of Hierarchs, not the metropolitan’s.
Something did not sit well with me when I read that (sorry :o). I would revise your statement to say, “and the power of laws is the Metropolitan Council of Hierarchs, not the metropolitan’s alone.” The Metropolitan is the protos of the Council of hierarchs and should not be considered apart from it. My concern is the same problem I have with Absolutist and Low Petrine advocates who, when speaking of an Ecumenical Council, consistently style the Pope as a singularly separate entity from the Ecumenical Council.

Aramis said:
]CCEO Canon 167 §2
2. The metropolitan will notify the Apostolic See as soon as possible of the laws and norms enacted by the council of hierarchs; nor can laws and norms be validly promulgated before the metropolitan has written notification from the Apostolic See of the reception of the acts of the council; the metropolitan is also to notify the Apostolic See of other actions of the council of hierarchs.

Reception is a loaded term. As I understand it, it’s more than just a “Yes, we got your letter of notice.”

I wouldn’t take it any more than it says. Other canons indicate a strict interpretation of “reception.” For example:
Canon 1489, S1: Laws of the Apostolic See are promulgated by… S2: Laws given by other legislators are promulgated in the manner determined by these legislators and begin to oblige from the date prescribed by them.

Obviously, the Council of hierarchs is a body of “other legislators” who has the competence to promulgate its own laws.

Canon 176: If common law remits something to particular law or to the superior administrative authority of a Church sui iuris, the competent authority in these Churches is the hierarch who presides over it according to the norm of law with the consent of the Apostolic See, unless it is expressly stated otherwise.

It seems to me that if Canon 167 required the consent of the Holy Father, it would have explicitly stated so, and not used the word “reception.”

Canon 1499: Laws are to be understood in accord with the proper meaning of the words considered in their text and context.

Blessings,
Marduk
 
Some time ago, when Pittsburgh had Relevant Radio, I remember listening to one of the programs, Light of the East, hosted by Father Thomas Loya. Fr. Loya’s father told a story about a time when he was a young boy in one of the steel towns near Pittsburgh. Fr. Loya’s grandfather was a married Byzantine Catholic priest and they were going to visit the Bishop.

Bishop John Botean of the Romanian Byzantine Catholic Church ordained married men to the priesthood a few years ago.
 
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