Questions re: Married Priests in the Eastern Church

[bilop]

There is a discussion going on in Liturgy and Sacraments about the advisability of married priests for the Latin Church.

I was wondering, how do the Eastern Churches handle the ordination of married men?

Must a man be married before approaching the bishop to discern his call?

Can a man date and marry during the seminary?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless

 

[Chaldean_Rite]

In the Chaldean Church, you would have needed to get your calling to the priesthood after you are married. and if you are in the seminary, you do not date. At least, this is what is currently happeing at my diocese:

kaldu.org/2008/07/july26_08E1.html

 

[bilop]

In the Chaldean Church, you would have needed to get your calling to the priesthood after you are married. and if you are in the seminary, you do not date. At least, this is what is currently happeing at my diocese:

kaldu.org/2008/07/july26_08E1.html

Thanks.

Is that true outside the U.S. as well? I know sometimes the Eastern Churches have restricted ordaining married men in the U.S. under pressure from the Latin Church.

God Bless

 

[Chaldean_Rite]

Thanks.

Is that true outside the U.S. as well? I know sometimes the Eastern Churches have restricted ordaining married men in the U.S. under pressure from the Latin Church.

God Bless

That I don’t know. We have only a few priests that are actually married (i hear around 5%).

 

[Fuerza]

Another question. When a married man is chosen to be ordained as a priest, is he required to live away from his family during seminary training if there isn’t one in his city? Also, do married Eastern Catholic priests receive a salary as Latin priests do?

 

[Aramis]

Tradition is that the wife is to attend and learn quite a few useful skills. But that tradition, in the US, is 100 years out of use…

In the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, one must be married prior to seminary to be a married cleric.

The wife has to be supportive of his ministry.

Given the scant few married men ordained within the BCMCoP… I believe it has been handled on a case by case basis.

 

[Patchunky]

Tradition is that the wife is to attend and learn quite a few useful skills. But that tradition, in the US, is 100 years out of use…

Tradition was the sons of priests/cantors married the daughters of priests/cantors. The “wife” didn’t attend Seminary at all.:byzsoc:

Tradition also dictated that the marriage took place on Saturday. Ordination to the Holy Diaconate took place the next day, Sunday and ordination to the Holy Priesthood took place the following Sunday.:byzsoc:

One of my best friend’s, who is a priest, met his wife while he was attending seminary in Rome. They dated while he was attending seminary in Rome.

 

[bilop]

Tradition was the sons of priests/cantors married the daughters of priests/cantors. The “wife” didn’t attend Seminary at all.:byzsoc:

Tradition also dictated that the marriage took place on Saturday. Ordination to the Holy Diaconate took place the next day, Sunday and ordination to the Holy Priesthood took place the following Sunday.:byzsoc:

One of my best friend’s, who is a priest, met his wife while he was attending seminary in Rome. They dated while he was attending seminary in Rome.

What Church is he a priest in?

God Bless

 

[Patchunky]

What Church is he a priest in?

God Bless

Byzantine Ruthenian Rite.

His brother is a priest…:byzsoc:

His sister is a Basilian nun…:byzsoc:

His father is also a priest who was ordained at a kitchen table in the middle of the night in the underground church…:byzsoc:

There is another priest in this country who was ordained in Europe and met his wife while he was a seminary student in Rome…

 

[bilop]

Byzantine Ruthenian Rite.

His brother is a priest…:byzsoc:

His sister is a Basilian nun…:byzsoc:

His father is also a priest who was ordained at a kitchen table in the middle of the night in the underground church…:byzsoc:

There is another priest in this country who was ordained in Europe and met his wife while he was a seminary student in Rome…

Wow! That’s a pretty amazing family!

God Bless

 

[bpbasilphx]

I will say here what I said there.

There are three married eastern Catholic priests in my city, and one who is now a widower, but was ordained while his wife was alive.

They are among the best priests I know, and I’ve seen many up close.

Married priest and celibate priests have different experiences, and hence different and complementary gifts to bring to the Church.

Both are needed.

I would include the Latin church in this assessment.

 

[The_Prodigal]

Tradition was the sons of priests/cantors married the daughters of priests/cantors. The “wife” didn’t attend Seminary at all.:byzsoc:

Byzantine Ruthenian Rite.

His brother is a priest…

His sister is a Basilian nun…

His father is also a priest who was ordained at a kitchen table in the middle of the night in the underground church…

This makes me wonder to what extent the priesthood in the Eastern Churches (whether Catholic or Orthodox) is informally hereditary.

Also, do you think the son of a priest has a higher likelihood of considering the vocation ?

Sorry if this is off-topic…

 

[bilop]

I will say here what I said there.

There are three married eastern Catholic priests in my city, and one who is now a widower, but was ordained while his wife was alive.

They are among the best priests I know, and I’ve seen many up close.

Married priest and celibate priests have different experiences, and hence different and complementary gifts to bring to the Church.

Both are needed.

I would include the Latin church in this assessment.

I would tend to agree with you.

God Bless

 

[bilop]

This makes me wonder to what extent the priesthood in the Eastern Churches (whether Catholic or Orthodox) is informally hereditary.

Also, do you think the son of a priest has a higher likelihood of considering the vocation ?

Sorry if this is off-topic…

I think you see this in the Latin Church as well, although obviously not the son part.

Among the recently ordained in my diocese (last 5 years), One has a brother who’s a priest, another has a cousin who’s a monsignor, and another has an uncle who’s a priest.

I would expect that close contact with a positive priestly role model would tend to increase the likelihood of pursuing a vocation. That’s the whole idea behind altar boys.

I would be shocked if the sons of priest didn’t have a higher rate of vocations, just like the sons of cops have a higher rate of joining the police.

I also don’t really see a downside, as long as the bishop moves the sons around and doen’t allow parishes to become “hereditary”.

God Bless

 

[Patchunky]

This makes me wonder to what extent the priesthood in the Eastern Churches (whether Catholic or Orthodox) is informally hereditary.

Also, do you think the son of a priest has a higher likelihood of considering the vocation ?

Sorry if this is off-topic…

Well, we had a priest in my Eparchy who, when he passed away, had written in his obit he was a 5th generation priest…he was THE LAST ONE IN HIS FAMILY…:byzsoc:

 

[Patchunky]

Can a man date and marry during the seminary?

This is from 'LET THE HEAVENS REJOICE" A concert tour of Sacred Music of the Carpathian Mountains, the Seminary Choir of Blessed Theodore Romzha Theological Academy, Uzhorod, Ukraine, Concert Program:

pg 5 “Seminary Life: Many seminarians plan to serve as married priests and therefore dating and other activities with young women are included in their formation.”

Hope this helps…

 

[Tidus]

Another question. When a married man is chosen to be ordained as a priest, is he required to live away from his family during seminary training if there isn’t one in his city? Also, do married Eastern Catholic priests receive a salary as Latin priests do?

At the Ukrainian seminary in Canada I think they have extra housing for married seminarians.

They get a salary but the amount depends on the eparchy (in mine it is not great at all) and the parish is usually responsible for their life insurance etc from my understanding. A lot of married priests in the Eastern Orthodox Church have professional careers to support themselves, my own Ukrainian Catholic priest dose and he is celibate.

 

[ASimpleSinner]

Can a man date and marry during the seminary?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless

More commonly, the men bishops are ordaining as married priests have been married for some time. While marriage during candidacy is not totally out of the question, more and more our bishops realize that a history of a stable marriage is very much desired.

Personally, I don’t think married priesthood would change all that much in the Latin Church - at least not in the ways some are thinking it would. The Latins have done rather well with celibacy, and I don’t think the institution needs to be changed because of the cultural situation we now face. Now, more than ever, the west needs it.

 

[DL82]

One thing worth remembering is the cultural difference between modern Western Europe and America and the Eastern Churches.

The Orthodox chaplain at my university was married to an Ikon painter, they met and married while he was at seminary in Greece, and it sounds like there was some kind of ‘matchmaker’ involved who paired off young seminarians with young cantors and iconographers.

Eastern Europe and the Middle East doesn’t have the same ‘romantic’ tradition that has existed in the West since medieval times. People marry young, and arranged marriage or village matchmakers are not uncommon. I think if the Latin Church admitted married priests you wouldn’t see a single priest under 40, people would wait until they were graduated to marry, then spend a few years married, then enter seminary in their late 30s.

Also, over the years, the Catholic Church has built up a lot of real-estate that’s designed to be ‘fit for purpose’, i.e. the priest’s house will be a small place, with one bedroom, a guest bedroom and a study, or in a large parish there will be a large house for several priests, because several priests are needed to run the parish. You can’t have multiple married priests living in one house.

The Anglican church pays its’ priests a lot more than the Catholic Church, and has all kinds of schemes for widows’ pensions, school fees for priests’ children, etc. to make sure the priests are well looked after. The whole apparatus of the Catholic Church just isn’t set up for that. It would be a mammoth task, like turning around the proverbial oil tanker.