On Married Priests: Our Sunday Visitor Looks at the new reality

On the web site of Our Sunday Vistor there's a long article that looks at married men who are priests; most of these, of course, being Pastoral Provision and Ordinariate priests. The article begins:

Understanding married priesthood
Since the pastoral provision, the Roman Catholic Church has permitted some men with wives and families to become priests. Here’s an in-depth look at the issue.

By Brian Fraga - OSV Newsweekly, 11/18/2012

There are widened eyes, some confused looks and questions.

Many knowledgeable, faithful Catholics are taken aback for the first time when they meet a Catholic priest — and his wife.

“For some, it’s a surprise. For others, I think, there is a sense that this is something they have thought is a direction the Church should head in,” said Father John Lipscomb, a former Episcopalian bishop who entered the Catholic Church five years ago with his wife of 44 years.

“I think people see this as something very positive in the life of the Church,” said Father Lipscomb, 62, the spiritual director of the Bethany Retreat Center in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Father Lipscomb is one of about 70 married Catholic priests in the United States. Most of them were ordained priests in the Episcopal Church, but eventually left that denomination and were allowed to become priests in the Catholic Church, thanks to a 1980 pastoral provision approved by Blessed Pope John Paul II.

Earlier this year, the Vatican expanded the provision by creating ordinariates — similar to dioceses — where entire Anglican parishes can enter into communion with the Catholic Church. In the United States and Canada, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter includes 18 parish communities...

Read the rest at the OSV.

Hat tip to Deacon Greg Kandra at the Deacon's Bench.

New questions, challenges confront Episcopal-turned-Catholic leader

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Father Jeffrey N. Steenson is finding that there are a lot of new roads to travel and new questions to resolve since his Jan. 1 appointment as head of the Houston-based Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for former Anglicans who want to become Catholics.

The former Episcopal bishop of the Rio Grande, who was ordained a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., in February 2009, was to be installed in his new post Feb. 12. Also in February, a class of about 40 former Episcopal priests will begin an intensive, Internet-based course of studies to become Catholic priests within the ordinariate.

Father Steenson and his wife, Debra, have three grown children and a grandson. Because he is married, he will not be ordained a bishop, but he will become a full voting member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He spoke to Catholic News Service during a busy day Jan. 22 at Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore, where he celebrated Mass, received a group of parishioners into the Catholic Church, performed a baptism and led an evensong service.

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the ordinariate and yourself in the next months or years?

A: We have to create a set of norms to govern it -- I'm not a canon lawyer, but the canon lawyers call it particular law. None of that exists yet so that's what we've been working overtime on for the last month, just to try and create that. So there's the practical question of getting the legal and business structure set up, and I've noticed that there are so many questions about the ordinariate -- about what it is, what its mission is -- that it's easy for people to misunderstand or draw wrong conclusions. Like, the Episcopalians shouldn't think we're sheep stealing because we could never contact an Episcopalian directly. The Catholic Church wonders, "Will you fit in or will you just be a separate entity?" So we have to show that we're going to keep our patrimony, our identity intact but we're a fully functioning part of the Catholic Church and we have deep respect for the ecumenical protocols whenever there are these awkward situations coming up. So I would say this is very, very difficult. (Laughs) God is really going to have to watch over us in all this.

Q: Are there special challenges to governing a church jurisdiction that covers so large a geographical area?

A: I'm sure there are going to be many, and it's primarily going to be for the clergy to be able to build relationships with each other. We're going to be virtual in so many respects. We're going to really depend on technology to keep communication open. Our formation program for the clergy is going to be run via a really high-tech Internet system that will allow real-time, two-way communications, which I'm told has never been attempted before in any kind of a theological exercise. So that will be hard, and I'm concerned that a small group -- I mean, this church (Mount Calvary) is not going to have any problems -- but a small group that is out in the middle of nowhere doesn't feel isolated and forgotten. So we will have to work really hard on that...

Read the rest of the interview at Catholic News Service.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

U.S. bishop okay with married priests for Eastern churches

This is an older post from the blog at the National Catholic Reporter which may give some insight on attitudes of Latin bishops toward the ordinriates handling of priestly celibacy. Archbishop Collins of Toronto is the liaison of the Canadian Catholic Bishops conference to assist in the setting up of the Ordinariate in that country.

Oct. 13, 2010
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, which has a large community of Christians belonging to various Eastern churches from the Middle East, said he would not be opposed if those Eastern churches decided to ordain more married priests in North America.
Both Vigneron and Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto also said, however, that bishops from Eastern churches do not seem to have a consensus on such a move.
The comments came during a press conference today organized by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and the Canadian Catholic media network “Salt and Light.”
Yesterday, Archbishop Antonios Aziz Mina, a Coptic prelate from Egypt, argued in favor of extending the practice of married priests in the Eastern churches during the Oct. 10-24 Synod of Bishops for the Middle East.
Read NCR's full coverage of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East: Index of stories from the Synod.
“Since the 1930s there has been a ban on the ordination of and the practice of the ministry by married priests outside the territories of the Patriarchy and the ‘Historically Eastern regions,’ Mina said.
“I think, in line with whatever the Holy Father decides, that the time has come to take this step in favor of the pastoral care of the Eastern faithful throughout the diaspora,” he said.
Asked what he thinks about that, Vigneron said he would be inclined to defer to what the bishops of the Eastern churches recommend.
“The question is what will help the bishops, priests and the members of the Eastern churches in the expansion,” Vigneron said, adding that some Eastern Catholics prefer the term “expansion” to “diaspora.”
“If it helps them, it would be fine,” Vigneron said, referring to the ordination of married priests for the Eastern churches. “If they feel it’s not helpful, I would pay most attention to that.”
Since the issue arose in the synod, Vigneron said he’s talked to several Eastern bishops about it, and “they don’t all have the same view.”
Asked directly if he would worry that more married priests in the Eastern churches might call into question the obligation of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests, Vigneron said, “I would not.”
Collins said that it’s a “complex issue” and that “there’s not a common view” among the Eastern bishops...

Read the full post by Mr. Allen at the NCR Blog.

The danger of married priesthood

On his blog "The Maccabean", Fr. Seraiah writes in part:

"The debate regarding "married versus celibate" clergy misses many of these points. It is not "married vs. celibate" as much as it is "faithful vs. unfaithful". A faithful married priest is a great asset to a church and his family can be a wonderful example. An unfaithful married priest (and that means more than sexually) is a plague on the church.

Read the rest of his reflection on his blog.

Myth #1: Future Ordinariate Priests Must Be Celibate

Christian Campbell explores what he has termed "myths", i.e., misunderstandings, about the provisions in Anglicanorum Coetibus. The first myth is about clerical celibacy.

Myth #1: Future Ordinariate Priests Must Be Celibate
Dec 11th
Posted by Christian Campbell in General

As promised, this is the first in a series of articles intended to counter the most egregious misrepresentations of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

Since the Reformation, the Anglican Church has both accepted married candidates for Holy Orders and permitted clerics to marry. It is important to distinguish between the two disciplines. Both the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with the Holy See permit married men to be promoted to the priestly dignity (though bishops East and West must be celibate). Since the time of the Early Church, however, no Catholic body has allowed clerics to marry once in orders. The Anglican discipline was, on this wise, innovative and a significant departure from tradition. Nonetheless, this custom of a married priesthood is now integral to the Anglican identity and its abandonment would certainly have serious ramifications in our ecclesial life...

The Roman Catholic Church — that is the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church — requires that all candidates for Holy Orders be celibate and clerics are not allowed to marry. It has been contended that Anglicanorum Coetibus, while generously making provision for the reception of married ministers from the Anglican tradition, requires all future seminarians and candidates for Holy Orders to be celibate. This assertion is not true...

Read Christian's full exposition at The Anglo-Catholic.

Vatican opens its doors to married Anglican clergy

November 10, 2009
by Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent


The Pope has made it as easy as possible for traditional and “continuing” Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism while retaining key elements of their ecclesiastical heritage.

The eagerly awaited Apostolic Constitution, published by the Vatican yesterday, will enable hundreds of thousands of disaffected Anglicans to become Catholics.

Married Anglican clergy will be allowed to train for the priesthood in seminaries set up within the new Anglican Ordinariates — as long as their marital state is not “irregular”. The constitution states that the admission of married men will be considered “on a case-by-case basis”...

Read the rest on The TimesOnline.

Vatican Keeps Celibacy in Rules on Anglicans

November 9, 2009
By RACHEL DONADIO

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican said on Monday that its new rules facilitating the conversion of Anglicans, including married Anglican priests, did not “signify any change” in its rules for priestly celibacy.

The announcement seemed aimed at dampening recent debate about whether in creating a new Anglican rite within the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican had brought in a kind of Trojan horse — married former Anglican clergy — a practice that might someday normalize the acceptance of married Catholic priests...

Read the rest in The New York Times.

Clarification on the Apostolic Constitution

Fr. Phillips posts the text of a clarification issued through the Vatican Press Office on the issue of celibacy in the forthcoming Apostolic Constitution:

This important clarification has been issued:

CLARIFICATION BY THE DIRECTOR OF THE HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE, FR. FEDERICO LOMBARDI, S.I., ON SPECULATIONS ABOUT THE CELIBACY ISSUE IN THE ANNOUNCED APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION REGARDING PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICAN ENTERING INTO FULL COMMUNION WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

There has been widespread speculation, based on supposedly knowledgeable remarks by an Italian correspondent Andrea Tornielli, that the delay in publication of the Apostolic Constitution regarding Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church, announced on October 20, 2009, by Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is due to more than "technical" reasons. According to this speculation, there is a serious substantial issue at the basis of the delay, namely, disagreement about whether celibacy will be the norm for the future clergy of the Provision...

Read the full post at Atonement Online

Here's the Vatican link.

Cardinal Seán O'Malley's blog on the Apostoloic Constitution

Seán Cardinal O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, produces a weekly blog, which goes out by email to anyone who wants to sign up. He begins his email this week with a discussion of the initiative of the Holy Father in response to requests by Anglicans for reception into the Church.

Greetings to you all.
Before I begin with the events of my week, I want to briefly comment on the news that the Holy Father is going to issue an Apostolic Constitution in order to accommodate Anglicans who wish to join the Church, and at the same time, preserve some of their Anglican traditions.
In the years immediately following the Second Vatican Council there was a great optimism about the possibility of the Anglican Church being reunited with the Roman Catholic Church. I had many Anglican friends who were very positive and very hopeful about this...
I know people are saying that this threatens the practice of celibacy in the Catholic Church. But, I look at it as being actually a better solution than the one that we have had — particularly in England — where scores of Anglican priests have been ordained as Catholic priests. This resulted in presbyterates wherein you have both married and celibate clergy. I think that was a much greater challenge than the current decision that will establish a separate jurisdiction for the Anglican priests who would become Catholic priests....

To read the rest go to the Cardinal Seán's blog.

Vatican row delays Anglo-Catholic text

October 29, 2009
Richard Owen in Rome

A row has broken out behind the Vatican walls over the "confusion" surrounding Pope Benedict XVI's opening to disaffected Anglicans, according to a papal biographer. Andrea Tornielli, the biographer of several modern Popes including Pope Benedict, said that just over a week after its existence was revealed by the Vatican, the text of the Apostolic Constitution laying down the conditions for the creation of a new "Anglo-Catholic" section of the Church was still not ready for publication. This was not because of translation problems but "something more serious", Mr Tornielli said. There was still debate behind the scenes over priestly celibacy...

Read the rest on The Times Online.

Special Report: Five Myths about the Pope’s Anglican Ordinariates

Taylor Marshall does his best to dispel five myths about the forthcoming Personal Ordinariates that have arisen in traditional media and the blogosphere.

The New York Times, the London Times and almost every known newspaper has printed articles about this new announcement. The blogs are ablaze. However, there is a lot of misinformation churning around out there. I have collected five common misconceptions about the Holy See’s announcement. Each myth merits an informed and measured response.
Myth #1 The Pope is sheep-stealing...
Myth #2 Rome is preparing the world for a general married priesthood...
Myth #3 Rome has reconciled itself to the Protestant Reformation...
Myth #4 The Anglican Personal Ordinariates will be like Opus Dei (or they will be like the Eastern Catholic Churches)...
Myth #5 We already know everything about the Anglican personal ordinariates...

To read Taylor's explanations, read the full post on Catholic Online.