Rent a married Catholic priest?

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I was browsing through the ads section of an old Parenting magazine and saw an ad for renting a priest for giving sacraments and in-home masses. The kicker is- it advertised Married Catholic Priests! The website given was rentapriest.com and lists several states that have married "Catholic" priests available to rent for weddings, baptisms, first communions, etc. I guess this would be a good way to get an overpriced sacrament 😛 .
 
These are priests who have gotten married, usually without the appropriate permissions. While any Mass they celebrate is valid it is illicit. Sacraments such as marriage and confession require permission (granted by the bishop or the pastor of the local church) which they do not have and, as a consequence, they are invalid.

Deacon Ed
 
I’m guessing they would have no problems doing beach weddings! 😃
 
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NFPfamily:
I’m guessing they would have no problems doing beach weddings! 😃
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My experience with cleaning up the messes they create is that they’ll go anywhere and do a marriage anyplace the people with money want. After all, it’s the money that counts in this case.

Deacon Ed
 
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NFPfamily:
I’m guessing they would have no problems doing beach weddings! 😃
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Not at all. I read an article awhile back about a Catholic woman who wanted to have an outdoor wedding. Since the Church would not allow it, she “rented” one of these “priests” to do her wedding instead.
 
Deacon Ed is right. We call the right to witness weddings Etc, “Faculties.” Without faculties from the bishop, you have no right to witness a marriage and sign a marriage license. The bishop has the authority from the state and the Church and allows those in good standing the faculties to carry out these ceremonies. This also covers deacons, since we can sign marriage licenses. I asked someone from this group that recruits these priests and they said that they did not need faculties. (Which is a fib)
 
I recently read an article that some cruise lines were using these priests without faculties on their cruises. The cruise lines offer Mass on board ship. There is only one group of Chaplains who make sure that all of their members are actually priests in good standing.

Something to think about if you ever go a-sailing.

CA, of course, brings its own priests on the cruises, it appears.
 
I believe I would be very wary of any rent a priest. I don’t think any of the duties he would perform would be legal, such as a wedding, Mass, etc.
 
As a general rule, its not advisable to use rent-a-priests.

But there are individuals who the local parishes will refuse to marry them or baptise their children. I think that the rent-a-priest idea is better than going to a local protestant pastor for those sacraments.
 
If the Bishop doesn’t grant faculties, can I rent-a-bishop, too? :rolleyes:
 
I think there’s nothing wrong with rent-a-priest. The thing is married priest are not allowed to practice some sacraments. They are still priest but not allowed to perform some sacraments.
 
qoute from the above site
These men, who still consider themselves Roman Catholic priests, have wives, children — and unflinching commitments to their 2,000-year-old faith. As married priests, they say, they are not heretical anomalies but, instead, are following a model set by priests and popes in the earliest days of their church. …
These married priests honor ordination as an irreversible sacrament, though the church no longer recognizes them as priests. They are solemnizing marriages — including second marriages and same-sex unions. They baptize babies. They officiate at funerals. They say Masses at healthcare facilities and private homes.
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I don’t know what to say when they say that they are not heretical if they do such things like same sex marriage.,
 
These are priests who have gotten married, usually without the appropriate permissions. While any Mass they celebrate is valid it is illicit. Sacraments such as marriage and confession require permission (granted by the bishop or the pastor of the local church) which they do not have and, as a consequence, they are invalid.
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Absolutely correct.

Their Baptisms (like any human being’s), Masses, and Annointings of the Sick are valid, but illicit, as these priests are generally defrocked or at least not in proper standing with the Church.

But any Confessions, Confirmations, or Marriages they try to celebrate are invalid…because these require faculties.

Only in danger of death does the Church grant universal faculties for Confession (and confirmation too, I think) to all ordained priests…whether they are active or not.

Any weddings they preform are invalid and sure grounds for an annulment.
 
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Kielbasi:
As a general rule, its not advisable to use rent-a-priests.
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I’m thinking its not a good idea to rent a priest for the same reason its kinda gross to rent shoes at a bowling alley… you never really know where they’ve been or who’s feet they’ve been touching. 🙂
 
I went to this site awhile back. What gets me is a link to a page that tries to incite people not only to use their services for sacraments, but actually encourages dissention and disobedience by the faithful as a way to make “the Church” change!!!
 
viktor aleksndr:
I think there’s nothing wrong with rent-a-priest. The thing is married priest are not allowed to practice some sacraments. They are still priest but not allowed to perform some sacraments.
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A priest who has been laicized, if he validly received laicization, can no longer act as a priest except in the gravest of circumstances (ob graves tantum causas). If he never received a valid laicization and got married, his priestly faculties are suspended *latae sententiae *(see Canon 1394).

Therefore, if these priests are laicized and they are exercising their priestly faculties, the sacraments are valid, but are extremely illicit. If they never received a rescript from the Holy See, which I am going to assume is the case, the sacraments they perform with the exception of baptism, are invalid. Although a case may be able to be made by a fairly competent canon lawyer that a marriage would be valid (but still illicit), since, in the Latin Rite, the ordinary ministers of the Sacrament of Matrimony are the spouses (CCC 1622; Familiaris consortio) with the priest or deacon acting as the primary witness.

Adam
 
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