Priest Qualifications

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Can someone be a priest (pastor of a church) if their parents had him before they were married, and the parents never got married?
 
musicmantg11 said:
Can someone be a priest (pastor of a church) if their parents had him before they were married, and the parents never got married?
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Yes. At one point a man needed a Papal dispensation to be ordained if he was born out of wedlock (the dispensation was freely given), but I am almost certain that rule has been eliminated.

God Bless
 
bilop said:
Yes. At one point a man needed a Papal dispensation to be ordained if he was born out of wedlock (the dispensation was freely given), but I am almost certain that rule has been eliminated.

God Bless
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Right on both points. That “impediment” no longer exists in the law.

This in an example of what we see a lot on these posts, and in Catholic culture in general. Many times, older laws (especially the 1917 Codex), or even practices which were never laws in the first place (saints name at baptism, or a priest required to say Mass every day) are so ingrained into people’s consciousness that we don’t realize that the law no longer applies.
 
You can always check out the qualifications for Holy Orders in the catechism (it’s online); or go to the Vatican online and search there.
 
Shaken said:
You can always check out the qualifications for Holy Orders in the catechism (it’s online); or go to the Vatican online and search there.
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Not only that but Canon Law.

Also, in the States you need to look at the Program for Priestly Formation, 5th edition.

That tells what one needs to have to be ordained.
 
FrDavid96 said:
Right on both points. That “impediment” no longer exists in the law.

This in an example of what we see a lot on these posts, and in Catholic culture in general. Many times, older laws (especially the 1917 Codex), or even practices which were never laws in the first place (saints name at baptism, or a priest required to say Mass every day) are so ingrained into people’s consciousness that we don’t realize that the law no longer applies.
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Personally; I don’t see it as an impediment that a priest “should” make the honest effort to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass each day even if he is alone. I know that a lot of priest still offer Mass every day. Perhaps most of these surviving priests are from the old school taught in their orthodox seminaries. Secular priests have much more daily duties in parishes which often sees many priests putting in a full twelve hour day before they retire at night.

(“Canon 904”): states that since, in the mystery of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the work of redemption is continually being carried out; priests are to celebrate it frequently. In fact, the canon adds that daily celebration of the Mass is earnestly recommended — but it specifically avoids requiring priests to say Mass every day.
In other words, the code obliges priests to pray their Breviary every day, but does not oblige them to say daily Mass. What is going on here?
The primary reason for this is not legal, but theological. A priest should, if he can, avoid celebrating Mass if he is in a state of grave sin. Until he has the opportunity to make a sacramental confession, such a priest may very well wish not to say Mass, if possible. This avoidance would thus stem not from a lack of devotion, but on the contrary, from a consciousness of personal guilt and a respect for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. While he might wish to go to confession immediately, a missionary priest, or one who is assigned to a very rural area, may find it difficult to find another priest to hear his confession right away.
If the code required every priest to say Mass daily, a priest in such a situation would find himself in a moral dilemma. He could either obey the law or offer Mass in a state of grave sin; or he could violate the law out of deference to the Eucharist. In such a situation, canon law would then be in direct conflict with sound sacramental theology. Obviously this is untenable — which is why the code refrains from imposing the absolute obligation of saying daily Mass on every priest across the board.
(“Canon 906”) notes that a priest should not celebrate Mass without the participation of at least one other person; but it also makes an exception if the priest has a good and reasonable cause for offering the Mass alone. If a parish priest is not scheduled to say a particular Mass at his parish at a publicized time, he may very well end up saying his Mass with no one else present, if he says it at an hour when nobody else happens to be in the church. The mere fact that no one else is present does not prevent a priest from offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
 
I was confirming an earlier response which explained that:
a man who was born out-of-wedlock was impeded from being ordained under the old code, but that law no longer applies.

In other words, the impediment of illegitimacy no longer exists.
 
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