Scottish Cardinal Suggests Priests Should Marry

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lol suffer you say…I would not have a problem with a priest being married. I really find no issue with it. Every priest I have ever spoken with love being single and “married” to the Church.
 
aidanbradypop said:
lol suffer you say…I would not have a problem with a priest being married. I really find no issue with it. Every priest I have ever spoken with love being single and “married” to the Church.
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What about Catholic married priests? Are they bigamous?
 
A married clergy would certainly pose economic problems for the church. In fact, it was because of the economics that celibacy was imposed originally.
 
RevDon said:
A married clergy would certainly pose economic problems for the church. In fact, it was because of the economics that celibacy was imposed originally.
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Very true. It would be hard for a family of 3 to survive on the salary of a priest in a small parish.
 
I don’t know if the article just got it wrong as the media usually does, but no one, especially a bishop has any business calling for priests to be allowed to get married. It’s a completely different thing from allowing married men to be ordained priests.
 
I rember a non-Catholic paster say that he understrude why the Catholic Church did not allow priests to marry because of the respensableties of a wife, children, and a church. He was in his late twenties with a wife and three children under six at the time. :)🙂
 
Hasire said:
Weird… The Ukrainians are doing very well after all. 👍
youtube.com/watch?v=FgjC2BXB5p8
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Interesting video, but it really does not address the economic aspect which is what RevDon was talking about.

There can be no doubt that should the the Church widen it’s acceptance of married men as priests, there would be an economic component. Just how much it would be, or how much that plays into the discussion I do not know.

Peace
James
 
aidanbradypop said:
Very true. It would be hard for a family of 3 to survive on the salary of a priest in a small parish.
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There is no reason why they would need to survive on his salary alone - his wife can go to work and would probably earn more than he does to help support a family.
 
I am sure there are many great married priests but a married priest has a wife and perhaps children to be concerned about, and considering that, can they give themselves entirely to their vocation?

I am skeptical if it should be changed
 
A married clergy would certainly pose economic problems for the church.
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Maybe, or maybe not. What is being missed here, I think, is that so many women are now learned and skilled and working outside of the home, that even without increased income from the Priest, its likely most families would do just fine.

You say most Priests you talk to are happy being single and married outside the church…and I’m sure most current priests are. But how many people - deeply religious and faithful men - choose NOT to pursue ministry, because it would mean giving up the opportunity to have a family? Though perhaps not entirely, permitting married Priests would probably make a huge dent in the vocational problems in the Western Church.

I’m all for it.
 
I disagree with the way the Bishop stated his opinion. Married men must be allowed to become priests, however after ordination, marriage shouldn’t be allowed. It’s perfectly fine among Maronites, Ukrainians, Melkites, Anglicans, etc. It should be expanded to the whole of the church to ordain married men who received the call from the Lord.
 
We should all remember that few but some are married if converts.

But I think the key to the subject that is always overlooked is time.

There is a reason for the sacrament of marriage and the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Specifically separate. Unique in their own. Time consuming in their own.

Otherwise, it would be the sacrament of Marriage or Holy Orders.
 
The good Cardinal is certainly permitted to voice his opinion on the matter. And there is certainly nothing preventing the Church from modifying the rules here.
In fact, if I were to hazard a guess - if the Church WERE to move more toward married priests the first place they would look is to those in the permanent deaconate. Here we have a body of men, already serving the Church on a pastoral level and many of whom are married.
If one wishes to examine the economic impact of married priests…perhaps this is the place to look.

Lastly I would suggest that if Rome were to revisit this issue, they would look east for examples and guidelines. As we know the eastern Catholic Churches have had married priests all along. So why “re-invent the wheel”? I’d look for something very much like that used by the Eastern Rite Churches.

Peace
James
 
Didn’t have time to listen to the whole interview. Did the Cardinal say he supported the idea of allowing married men to be ordained to the priesthood, or did he say he supports allowing ordained priests to get married ? If it’s the latter, then I’m very uncomfortable with this man.
Theoretically I see nothing wrong with the Eastern Rites having married priests, but realistically speaking, even there, economic times are changing and it may not be workable in many places.
 
mburn16 said:
Maybe, or maybe not. What is being missed here, I think, is that so many women are now learned and skilled and working outside of the home, that even without increased income from the Priest, its likely most families would do just fine.

You say most Priests you talk to are happy being single and married outside the church…and I’m sure most current priests are. But how many people - deeply religious and faithful men - choose NOT to pursue ministry, because it would mean giving up the opportunity to have a family? Though perhaps not entirely, permitting married Priests would probably make a huge dent in the vocational problems in the Western Church.

I’m all for it.
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The bolded…

This is something that is often missed in the “abuse scandal” discussions. Not the idea that married men are less likely to be abusers, but just that it creates a much larger pool of candidates for the priesthood.
I cannot speak for other seminaries but the one near us always seems to have a deaconate class of that is about 3 times the size of those studying for the priesthood. One wonders how many of these (married) men would choose to the priesthood if they were able.

Peace
James
 
but realistically speaking, even there, economic times are changing and it may not be workable in many places.
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Well, quite frankly, the current situation is quickly becoming unworkable in many areas as well. We simply don’t have enough Priests, and I’m quite sure that becoming ordained equaling giving up the chance to have a family has much to do with it.
 
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