NYT does a story on a UGCC priest and his family

[Badaliyyah]

While it is fairly obvious that the author is using Eastern Catholicism to take shots at the Latin discipline of priestly celibacy, it is, just the same, a rare look by the media at the UGCC. The portrayal of the priest and his family is very nice.

 

[Diak]

Wonderful article; I didn’t really see any outright “cheap shots” against the Latins but just rehashing recent events and statements. I hope this opens the door even more on knowledge of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Чyдово!

 

[Tradycja]

The liberal media always distorts things:

For example:

“It seems to me that when a priest is not married, it is difficult for him to explain things to parishioners,” Father Kravchyk said. “Because he has not lived through them.”

He added that celibacy would seem to go against human nature.

“Having a sexual life, no one can escape that,” he said. “We are all living people. We are not stones. Though there have to be limits.”

What I have highlighted in red, I HIGHLY doubt Fr. Kravchyk would say or mean that. The East holds monks in high esteem and they are celibate. Also maybe he said that it would SEEM that way but isn’t. Somehow in interviews the media tends to tailor the end result of interviews to their intentions. I know personally a married Ukrainian priest who holds celibate priests in high regard and actually thinks priests SHOULD be celibate.

 

[Diak]

What I have highlighted in red, I HIGHLY doubt Fr. Kravchyk would say or mean that. The East holds monks in high esteem and they are celibate. Also maybe he said that it would SEEM that way but isn’t. Somehow in interviews the media tends to tailor the end result of interviews to their intentions. I know personally a married Ukrainian priest who holds celibate priests in high regard and actually thinks priests SHOULD be celibate.

I am a married deacon and I also greatly, greatly value the spiritual fatherhood of our monastics. I am sure there are also some issues of translation involved here as well. I suppose my expectations from the Times are not high (nor have been in several decades) but I am at least happy the Times got most of it right, unlike most articles it prints about the Church, and the article is in general a positive portrayal of a priest and his family of our Church.