Priest "resigns"?

[MikeInMo]

Recently a Priest in our Parish turned his “resignation” into our Archbishop. I am a little distraught that his letter in the bulletin said he “resigned”. If a Priest can “resign”, can a married person “resign” from their marriage? What is the process for a Priest to “resign”? What is it called?

 

[Toni]

MikeInMo:

Recently a Priest in our Parish turned his “resignation” into our Archbishop. I am a little distraught that his letter in the bulletin said he “resigned”. If a Priest can “resign”, can a married person “resign” from their marriage? What is the process for a Priest to “resign”? What is it called?

I have never seen a term for this and there may be something as an annulment type thing. But I have never heard of it.

I have only ever heard once they are a priest they are always a priest. Even if they were to marry a woman and someone was dying on the street they could hear a confession. But this was a while ago and as far as I know it is still true.

 

[John_Higgins]

Found in another spot:

Laicization

The common term for the process whereby a cleric is officially returned to the lay state. When this happens the cleric, although he retains the Sacred Orders received, cannot exercise any of the powers of those orders. An exception is made by the law to allow laicized priests or bishops to minister to those in danger of death.

A laicized cleric is prohibited from holding ecclesiastical offices, exercising the power of jurisdiction and wearing clerical dress.

Laicization can come about in three ways. The most common is when a cleric petitions the Holy See to be returned to the lay state. The Holy See, acting through the Congregation for the Clergy, prepares the request, which is presented to the Holy Father for decision. The return to the lay state in this manner is usually, but not always, accompanied by a dispensation from clerical celibacy, with the consequent right to marry.

A cleric can also be returned to the lay state if he is dismissed from the clerical state by a judicial penal process. In this case, laicization is a penalty imposed for a crime committed. The penalty of dismissal does not carry with it the dispensation from clerical celibacy. Such trials have been extremely rare in recent times.

Finally, a cleric can be involuntarily laicized by an administrative process and decree of the Holy See (although no instances of this have come to light since the new Code). This is usually done at the request of his bishop or religious superior. It usually involves a cleric who is manifestly unsuited to ministry for most serious reasons. Dispensation from celibacy is an option that depends on the Holy See.

A cleric who has been returned to the lay state either voluntarily or by dismissal can be reinstated in the clerical state, with the right to exercise ministry, by a decree of the Holy See.

Large numbers of priests requested and received laicization in the years immediately following Vatican II, but more recently Roman practice has become stricter. Generally, requests for laicization from priests under age forty are not considered because modern young men not uncommonly try to change their life’s direction more than once and, if a laicization request is granted too hastily, the obstacles to reentering ministry in later life are greatly increased. On the other hand, petitions from priests who have been away from the ministry for many years, or who have civilly married and started families, as well as requests based on the traditional hardship reasons (e.g., personal or family health problems) are considered in due course.

Most voluntary laicizations are investigated at the diocesan level by a priest-instructor appointed by the local bishop. When petitions and testimony are forwarded to Rome, they are divided into two types, “petitions in justice” (in which the appropriateness of having ordained the priest in the first place is studied) and “petitions in charity” (in which the hardship of the priest’s remaining in the clerical state is the focus of inquiry). Both types of petitions require extensive testimony from the petitioner and qualified witnesses, as well as supporting statements from the superior of the priest in question. Generally, the laicization process used by priests is the same as that used for deacons.

There never has been an instance when a bishop has been voluntarily laicized and given permission to marry (cf. Canons 290-293).

Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia

The only voluntary laicization of a bishop in recent times I know of was Bishop James Patrick Shannon an auxiliary in St. Paul-Minneapolis. He did get married.

John

Toni:

Even if they were to marry a woman and someone was dying on the street they could hear a confession. But this was a while ago and as far as I know it is still true.

True…jh

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

MikeInMo:

Recently a Priest in our Parish turned his “resignation” into our Archbishop. I am a little distraught that his letter in the bulletin said he “resigned”. If a Priest can “resign”, can a married person “resign” from their marriage? What is the process for a Priest to “resign”? What is it called?

If a Priest can “resign”, can a married person “resign” from their marriage?

Yes, it’s called Civil separation or Divorce. Just as this priest did not “resign” his priesthood only his position in that parish or in a broad sense the Church.

I believe that you may be thinking of when a priest wishes to return for all practical purposes to a “Lay state” However his Sacrament of Holy Orders is never undone. He can be granted by the Pope alone a release from the active priesthood and the ability to live as a lay person.

From your post it does not sound like he has taken this final step. It takes many years and is not given very easily by the Holy Father.

.

 

[Charlemagne]

In my Diocese, I have heard of Priests resigning as the Pastor of a Parish. This usually occurs for health reasons - a Priest has a heart attack or is in the late stages of cancer - and can no longer shoulder the burden of being a Pastor. These Priests usually continue as Assistant Pastors (we call them Parochial Vicars here - I don’t know why - it sounds very Protestant to me). So they’re still Priests, but they just can’t perform all of the duties and responsibilities assigned to them. We need to remember that Priests are human. They age just like the rest of us and have health problems. Some people on here would point to the Pope and say he should be their example, but I think that’s apples and oranges. Most Pastors serve by themselves while the Pope has legions of assistants.

 

[Tintin]

Perhaps he had reached age 75 and was retiring?

Or perhaps just simply leaving his post as Pastor and moving to different responsibilities in diocese?

I expect he was just trying to express what was happening in everyday language.

 

[flameburns623]

OK:

I’m trying to ask this question in an interesting fashion, not disrespectfully. Let’s say that Father Jim, aged 34, decides one day that he’s done. No particular problems or such, though (as in most resignations, a general disgust with some aspect of the job). He does what I would do in my position in my secular job: he gives due notice, serves his remaining time, and at the end of his two weeks he takes a job as a used-car salesman and starts dating the redhead at the auto showroom reception desk. Six months later they are engaged, three months after that they get married by a priest-friend of his. He turns out to be a darned-good car salesman and makes a pretty decent living.

He DOESN’T wait for ‘permission’, though he tells the Bishop in his letter of resignation that he wants and expects laiciztion forthwith. So far as he’s concerned, once he’s done his two weeks’ notice, he’s done. He gave the Church, oh, say 16 years of his adult life: they don’t have any ‘right’ to any more of it. He’s not taking time out of his life to go see any bishops or canon lawyers or such: so far as he cares they can go soak their heads. He feels no further obligation to the vows he voluntarily took and which he voluntarily renounced: he tells anyone who brings such a notion up to get a hobby. He just goes and makes a pretty-good life for himself, his wife, and the subsequent children of their union. He goes to church, at least usually, and does all of the usual ‘Catholic’ things a more-or-less devout layperson does, but he’s not going out of his way any longer for the Church. So far as he’s concerned he’s shucked his old vocation of ministry and is living out his new vocation as a married family man.

What is his status vis’a’vis this whole process? Does someone go ahead and laicise him? Do they forward a bull of excommunication to him and send him dire notices of the agonizing fate awaiting him in the afterlife? Or what?

 

[Brendan]

Charlemagne:

In my Diocese, I have heard of Priests resigning as the Pastor of a Parish. … .

That is also not unheard of as well. Is the pastor ‘resigning’ as a priest and thus requesting lacization, or his he resigning as your pastor, and requesting another assignment. Or his he resigning as a pastor and will serve the Church as a priest in another capacity.

I knew a priest who resigned his pastorship because he felt called to missionary work. He is now a priest in Guatemala.

These Priests usually continue as Assistant Pastors (we call them Parochial Vicars here - I don’t know why - it sounds very Protestant to me).

It’s actually the official name of an Associate Pastor and very, very Catholic.

Vicar comes from the Latin Vicarae, in place of, or Lieutenant. In this case, the ‘associate’ can act ‘in place of’ the Pastor. The Pastor’s Lieutenant. (military trivia here- ‘Lieutenant’ is a contraction of ‘En Lieu Tenant’ ; French for, “in Place of the Commander” ) The commander’s Vicar.

Traditionally Catholic Parishes are grouped into Vicariates. Each Vicariate has a Vicar, that acts with the authority of the Bishop, when the Bishop is unavailable. This really has little meaning now-a-days when one can usually reach the Bishop on their cell phone, but the organization still stands.

The Anglicans kept that structure of Vicariates as well, and thus have Vicars too.

The Pope himself is Vicarius Christi, the Vicar of Christ.

 

[Psalm45_9]

In my diocese a priest resigned inorder to get married. I always thought there was a way that a priest could return to the lay state. I thought that if the church could verify that a marriage could get an annulment for certain reasons, then why could there not be something similar for Holy Orders? Well anyways my priest told me that there was no way a priest could return to the lay state, now I see there is, thank you all! Could someone provide me with some more sources so I can present the facts to him?

 

[thechrismyster]

Br. Rich SFO:

If a Priest can “resign”, can a married person “resign” from their marriage?

Yes, it’s called Civil separation or Divorce. Just as this priest did not “resign” his priesthood only his position in that parish or in a broad sense the Church.

I believe that you may be thinking of when a priest wishes to return for all practical purposes to a “Lay state” However his Sacrament of Holy Orders is never undone. He can be granted by the Pope alone a release from the active priesthood and the ability to live as a lay person.

From your post it does not sound like he has taken this final step. It takes many years and is not given very easily by the Holy Father.

.

well said.

 

[flameburns623]

flameburns623:

OK:

I’m trying to ask this question in an interesting fashion, not disrespectfully. Let’s say that Father Jim, aged 34, decides one day that he’s done. No particular problems or such, though (as in most resignations, a general disgust with some aspect of the job). He does what I would do in my position in my secular job: he gives due notice, serves his remaining time, and at the end of his two weeks he takes a job as a used-car salesman and starts dating the redhead at the auto showroom reception desk. Six months later they are engaged, three months after that they get married by a priest-friend of his. He turns out to be a darned-good car salesman and makes a pretty decent living.

He DOESN’T wait for ‘permission’, though he tells the Bishop in his letter of resignation that he wants and expects laiciztion forthwith. So far as he’s concerned, once he’s done his two weeks’ notice, he’s done. He gave the Church, oh, say 16 years of his adult life: they don’t have any ‘right’ to any more of it. He’s not taking time out of his life to go see any bishops or canon lawyers or such: so far as he cares they can go soak their heads. He feels no further obligation to the vows he voluntarily took and which he voluntarily renounced: he tells anyone who brings such a notion up to get a hobby. He just goes and makes a pretty-good life for himself, his wife, and the subsequent children of their union. He goes to church, at least usually, and does all of the usual ‘Catholic’ things a more-or-less devout layperson does, but he’s not going out of his way any longer for the Church. So far as he’s concerned he’s shucked his old vocation of ministry and is living out his new vocation as a married family man.

What is his status vis’a’vis this whole process? Does someone go ahead and laicise him? Do they forward a bull of excommunication to him and send him dire notices of the agonizing fate awaiting him in the afterlife? Or what?

Any responses to my questions?

 

[malta]

flameburns623:

Any responses to my questions?

He would probably be suspended( forbidden to function as a priest).
as soon as the letter hit the bishop’s desk. No one would wait two weeks.
At the time of his “marriage” he would be guilty of what Canon Law calls concubinage and be prevented from receiving the sacraments.

He would not be formerly excommunicated but would probably be reprimanded by his bishop and warned to give up his “wife” and return to his priestly duties.

 

[tTt]

Our pastor left the priesthood recently(16yrs). He announced it just after Easter and the Bishop kept him in ministry til June 30th. How wierd is that?

I asked the Bishop to move things along but got no response.

now Ex-pastor is quickly living a lay life in the same community, apparently golfing and dating. how wierd is that?

This has been very painful.

My question is similar. He can divorce the Church and get married?

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

tTt:

Our pastor left the priesthood recently(16yrs). He announced it just after Easter and the Bishop kept him in ministry til June 30th. How wierd is that?

I asked the Bishop to move things along but got no response.

now Ex-pastor is quickly living a lay life in the same community, apparently golfing and dating. how wierd is that?

This has been very painful.

My question is similar. He can divorce the Church and get married?

Yes, If you look at Canon Law it basically says that a Married man can receive Holy orders with the permission of Rome. It also says that a man who has received Holy Orders invalidly contracts Marriage. However the Pope can dispense from most any of the disciplinary Canons. So when ,if, the Pope grants him a dispensation from having to live the clerical life. He would then be free to enter into Marriage. I understand that the Holy Father is not giving these permissions away as freely (if you can call it that) as he once did.

 

[flameburns623]

malta:

He would probably be suspended( forbidden to function as a priest).as soon as the letter hit the bishop’s desk. No one would wait two weeks.

Good grief. The fellow served faithfully for his entire adult life. He’s either really, really mad about something or really really burned out. And he’s trying to do the right thing. I’d have expected at least a civil sendoff, a letter of thanks for his years of service, and maybe an offer of counseling.

At the time of his “marriage” he would be guilty of what Canon Law calls concubinage and be prevented from receiving the sacraments.

I don’t quite get the idea of ‘concubinage’: Celibacy is a discipline, not a doctrine. Marriage is a sacrament performed by the celebrants upon each other: the priest is just there as witness for the church, last I knew anything about it. I’d think the marriage would be ‘illicit but valid’. I sort’ve expected the ‘no sacraments’ thing, unless someone had said that the laicization process in a case like this were automatic.

He would not be formally excommunicated but would probably be reprimanded by his bishop and warned to give up his “wife” and return to his priestly duties.

If the former ‘Father Jim’ is an Irishman like most I’ve known–the bishop would be well advised to convey his reprimand by way of postal mail. He would be well out of line. I stress again: ‘Father Jim’ gave 16 years of life to full-time Christian service. He didn’t rob the parish till on the way out the door. He’s not running around doing Charles Chiniquy exposes nor operating an anti-Catholic press: he just got tired of it all and now he’s trying to live a normal life. I’d think there’d be a heckuva lot more concern to encourage the man’s regular attendance in the local parish (as a layperson, you understand, not for further service in any capacity); to let him know that no matter what ‘went wrong’ in his vocation, God and the Church still care about him and wish him well. Issuing reprimands and orders would likely drive ‘Father Jim’ plumb out of the Catholic Church.

And–respectfully–how stupid are Catholic bishops, generally, to give orders to a man who has already quit once to ‘return to priestly duties’? Why would they want him back? However effective or stable the former ‘Father Jim’ is as a spouse, as a parent, or as a secular employee, he has established that as a priest he is unreliable. He’ll quit when things get tough behind the pulpit. I’d think Sir Bishop would be much too bright to ever want such a fellow working for him again.

All in all, the response depicts the Roman Catholic Church in a really bad light. Perhaps the way I shaped the question prompted the way the response went? ‘Fr. Jim’ was depicted as a bit curt and surly about his departure: I used as a model a couple of folks I’ve seen come-and-go in my secular job after some years of service which ended in burnout and disillusion. Thanks for your response Malta, but–with all due respect–I would hope you’re a hidebound reactionary. I’d hate to think anyone would be treated as you suggest.

 

[cestusdei]

A priest can “resign” and just take off as the fictional one above did. He would be suspended until he was laicized, which might never happen. If he married he would be unable to receive the sacraments. You could say he would be in limbo.

 

[asquared]

a priest who rejects his obligations and duties without any canonical due process remains a priest, until and unless his bishop petitions the Vatican to return him to the lay state. He is like a man who leaves his wife and lives with another women, even in a civil marriage, living in adultery. A priest who goes through the formal process of laicization, granted only by the Vatican, is free to marry in the Church and receive the sacraments, however he may not take any public role in the diocese or parish, including lector, EME, catechist, publisher of diocesan newspaper, head of diocesan radio station, job in the chancery, parochial school, professor in Catholic college. This rule is most often observed in its breach. He may not serve as a permanent deacon, either. Both men are priests forever having received an indelible mark on the soul at ordination, but are prohibited from performing any priestly function - preacing, teaching, forgiving sins, confecting the Eucharist. In case of dire emergency life or death, either man may hear the dying person’s confession. Any priest or bishop who assists another priest in doing anything that is prohibited by canon law is guilty of grave sin, absolution for which is, in some cases, reserved to the Pope.
Canon Law book section on priesthood has all this, too bulky to quote.

 

[Maggie]

flameburns623:

Any responses to my questions?

Umm, yeah. This would be my dad. No they don’t ask him to leave. But yeah, they do deny him the sacraments until and unless the laicization comes. Dad of course decided after knocking up mom that maybe the priesthood was in fact for him (guess he couldn’t handle the responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood any better than the priesthood ). Anyway, these people aren’t good priests, good husbands or good fathers. He’s since divorced mom with four kids, and is married to someone else. He who abandons his first obligation will eventually abandon his second. No the Church wasn’t hard on him. He had to do penance for the adultery part and he had to refrain from the sacraments and get the marriage blessed or whatever after the laicization came through… (being that he wasn’t much into rules he got around this by going to an underground church in the meantime where the consecration was valid but the Mass was illicit – I’m only figuring this stuff out now). Anyway, the Church was not at all hard on them, you can’t very well force someone to fulfill what is supposed to be a vocation. I still think they ought to have made him pay them back for the education though.

 

[Evan]

Psalm45:9:

In my diocese a priest resigned inorder to get married. I always thought there was a way that a priest could return to the lay state. I thought that if the church could verify that a marriage could get an annulment for certain reasons, then why could there not be something similar for Holy Orders? Well anyways my priest told me that there was no way a priest could return to the lay state, now I see there is, thank you all! Could someone provide me with some more sources so I can present the facts to him?

One does not “get and annulment”. One gets a decree of nullity. That is, a recognition that there never was a Sacramental Marriage. If there was a marriage, no time or reason can nullify it. It remains until one of the spouses is dead (physically, not spiritually).

In holy orders, the formation of a priest is assumed to be complete enough that he knew it was a life long commitment and he was old enough to know what he was doing. I don’t think one could go through the seminary and not understand what orders is. So no decree of nullity can be issued for the sacrament of orders.

 

[cestusdei]

Actually there are circumstances where an ordination could be declared null. But it would be very very hard to prove. It would mean that all of the sacraments that priest did, other then baptism and marriage, would also be null. That would be a huge headache. So the bar to prove it is extremely high. I haven’t heard of a case in modern times.