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Medical_Student
Guest
Syro-Malabar
Syro-Malankara
Who else?
Syro-Malankara
Who else?
Which Eastern Catholic Churches practice priestly celibacy
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SyroMalankara
Guest
Now that the Pope has officially stated his affirmation of Eastern Church’s rights to ordain any man that his bishop sees fit – no other. Technically, there are a few that have the ‘rule’ in their history, for example the Syriac Catholics, but this has never been implemented, enforced, practiced, or recommended universally so it’s basically a dead law.
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malphono
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adamhovey1988
Guest
If I am not mistaken the Ethiopian Catholic Church has clerical celibacy for priests
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SyroMalankara
Guest
To be specific, the Latin Church attempted to impose celibacy on the Syriac Catholic Church in 1888 at the local Synod of Sharfeh, although the law was passed, it was ignored from the moment of its passing
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malphono
Guest
IOW passed to shut the the overlords up but not promulgated to respect authentic Syriac tradition.
A round of applause :clapping: for Moran Mor Ignatios Gewargios 
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Augustine
Guest
Technically, all the Apostolic Churches, both in the East and in the West, practice priestly celibacy. The difference is actually whether it’s mandatory for the diocesan priesthood or not. However, they all agree in bishops being obligatorily celibate, don’t they?
Pax Christi
Pax Christi
C
commenter
Guest
My understanding is that bishops are selected from members of religious orders, so that makes it de facto celibacy rule for bishops. Correct me if I am wrong. But out of curiosity, about what percentage of Eastern clergy are members of religious orders, as compared to diocesan? Are there many diocesan clergy who are single, in the countries of origin?
(I know there were different circumstances with eastern priests in the USA for many decades, but I wonder if that is at all common over there.)
My assumption is that religious sisters and brothers must remain celibate.
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Yeoman
Guest
I just logged on to ask a related question, so this is timely.
I was listening to Catholic Stuff You Should Know’s recent episode on the Eastern Catholics and I thought I heard that certain sacraments can only be performed by “celibates”, confession being the one that sticks out.
So now I’m a bit confused. Can married priests in the Eastern Rites hear confession?
I was listening to Catholic Stuff You Should Know’s recent episode on the Eastern Catholics and I thought I heard that certain sacraments can only be performed by “celibates”, confession being the one that sticks out.
So now I’m a bit confused. Can married priests in the Eastern Rites hear confession?
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SyroMalankara
Guest
Yes married priests can celebrate any Mystery as any other priest. The Tradition is actually in the other way. Except for some urgent need, a celibate monk would not be assigned to a parish, but a married priest would. The only Sacrament that a married priest would not be having is consecration to monastic life or ordination to bishop
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Yeoman
Guest
Thanks.
I thought that was likely the case, and I probably heard it incorrectly.
I always find these Eastern churches fascinating, but they are not any at all in my state. The nearest one is in the neighboring state. There are some Orthodox churches here in the state, but not many.
C
commenter
Guest
I sometimes see references to “monks” in Eastern Catholicism, but are there other kinds of religious order men as there are in the West? For instance in the West there are friars, and others (Jesuits, etc) who take vows of celibacy, but are not “monks”. Or are people just using the word “monk” as a generic term for all men in religious life?
Besides Catholics, I would also be interested in whether EO Christians have others, besides monks.
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malphono
Guest
Just as in the Latin Church, the term is often misused (e.g, the common misnomer of “Franciscan monks”) but the designation “monk” is not generic. IOW, in the East and Orient, just as in the Latin Church, a monk is a monk.
Traditionally, there was no such thing as a religious order, monastic or otherwise. Monasteries were always independent under the immediate jurisdiction of the abbot, in much the same was as an Abbey in the Latin Church. Since the 18th Century, however, the concept of “religious orders/congregations” has crept into the East and Orient, in varying degrees depending on the particular Church.
For example, the Maronites have 3 Orders (of Pontifical Right) of monks. For historical reasons which I won’t go into here, the custom of independent Maronite monasteries faded away by the 19th Century. In addition to those three Orders, there is also a congregation (of Patriarchal Right) of religious (known as the Lebanese Missionaries or MLM) which is modeled on the Jesuits.
Likewise the the Melkite church has its monks organized into an order (I don’t know whether it’s of Pontifical or Patriarchal Right) known as the Basilian Salvatorians, or BS. AFAIK, there are no longer any independent Melkite monasteries. I believe the Ukrainian GCC has a something similar, with Order of St Basil the Great or OSBM. Whether the UGCC retains independent monasteries I don’t know.
AFAIK, the various Orthodox Churches, Eastern and Oriental alike, continue to maintain the tradition of independent monasteries, to the exclusion of Western-type orders and congregations.
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adamhovey1988
Guest
That is odd, I have never heard that. I have received the Eucharist from the hands of married priests and have even gone to confession to one.
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Phillip_Rolfes
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As have I!
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commenter
Guest
Celibacy has no connection with the power to forgive sins. Not only Eastern priests, but married priests in the Ordinariate, Western Rite, forgive sins. Prior to the practice of universal celibacy in the West, married priests forgave sins, along with the celibates.
Celibacy is a (highly valued) discipline, not doctrine.
Celibacy is a (highly valued) discipline, not doctrine.
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ByzCathCantor
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Ditto! Don’t know where that came from …
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Bishop_Gavrilo
Guest
To add my five cents (or is it “two cents” in English?), Orthodoxy has valid priesthood (a generally recognized fact, but confer for example Dominus Iesus, the Papal Declaration of 2000). Depending on locality, somewhere between 80 and 95 per cent of Orthodx clergy are married priests. They often have a bunch of children. They all administer Holy Mysteries (i.e. “sacraments” in Catholic language) as ordinarily as any Roman Catholic priest. Trust me, an Orthodox bishop, that they hear Holy Confessions, serve Divine Liturgy, admnster Eucharist, baptize babies and adults, simply normal parish life. And they are married. And quite obviously keep having marital sex with their wife.
We Easterners have always placed a lot of emphasis on our holy tradition. It is our holy tradition that married men may become deacons and priests and may serve in the very same capacity as celibate or monastic priests. In the same capacity = interchangeably. And our people had always a lot of appreciation for our married priests, and had them in high esteem. They kiss the back of their hands when they meet them, to show ho happy they are to have them. From what I see, and maybe what I see is a distorted picture, but I see that quite a lot of Catholics do not appreciate their priests that much. Do not have them in high esteem. Do not honour them. What happened?
In Christ,
+Gavrilo
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Vico
Guest
Back in 2011, Fr. Deacon Lance wrote, on The Byzantine Forum:
“One must remember that the Coptic Catholic Church, as well as the Syriac and Ethiopian Catholic Churches all adopted celibacy as normative for those aspiring to the presbyterate with the Patriarch, and in the case of the Ethiopians the Metropolitan, able to dispense from this requirement. The CCEO did not abrogate the particular law of these Churches nor that of the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Catholic Churches, which voluntarily adopted mandatory celibacy for the presbyterate. In addition, the Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean Catholic Churches seem fine with using only celibate priests in their diaspora eparchies/exarchates.”
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