Father Albert is a secular priest. He never made a vow of chastity. Secular priests do not make such a vow. That’s why they are called secular. Otherwise, they would be religious men and they are not. Religious make vows of chastity, not secular priests. Secular priests make a simple promise of celibacy, which is very different from a vow of chastity made by a religious brother or a cloistered nun. They are the only ones in the Church who make solemn vows of chastity.
As to the marriage vows, they are also solemn vows, not promises. However, they are different vows. We cannot equate the promise of celibacy with the vows of marriage. The essence, the matter and the substance are theologically and ontologically different.
The promise of celibacy does not cause an ontological change in the person. It can be dispensed with by the Church. What causes an ontological change in a man is the Sacrament of Holy Orders: deacon, priest and bishop. The Church can dispense the promise of celibacy, but it cannot undo the ordination.
The vows of marriage cannot be dispensed by the Church. They are binding until death and there is nothing that the Church can do to change that.
That being said, it is possible that a man can receive the graces necessary for marriage. The Church believes this. Thus she occasionally grants men dispensation from celibacy to get married. However, there is a trade-off. The man must give up the ministry. He does not give up being a priest. He will be a priest until the day that he dies. There is no such thing in the Catholic or Orthodox Churches as an ex-priest. There are dispensed priests. These often go on to become very good husbands and fathers.
The issue at hand is that the Holy Father is not granting dispensations to religious brothers in solemn vows, nuns in solemn vows or secular deacons, priests and bishops who are celibate. This does not mean that the Holy Father cannot grant such a dispensation and allow such a person to marry. But at the moment, he is not doing so. He prefers to see these men become reconciled with the Church and with God and return to the ministry.
Thus he gives bishops the freedom to offer them various other options in the hope that they can return.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
AMEN! This man cannot keep his vow of chastity…what makes people think he would keep a vow of marriage?
The bottom line is that people are very silly. They think that sacred vows are no longer binding if you have a “change of heart.”
This society no longer understands what it means to keep a promise before God, whether that be a vow of marriage or a vow of celibacy. I have no respect for anyone who unrepentantly breaks sacred vows.
