Thanks to a news item I posted earlier, I just discovered an interesting loophole in the Roman Catholic practice of celibacy among priests. It seems that there have been special dispensations of “favors” granted by various Popes which have granted a waiver to Anglican and Episcopalian priests who are converting to Catholicism. I’m not sure how common it is, but there’s a decent discussion of the history of it here, by a Father William Saunders, who says the practice originated in a papal decision in 1980.
Here an entire Episcopalian congregation could enter the Catholic Church and be allowed to remain a parish and use an Anglican-style Catholic Mass with either the traditional language of Archbishop Cranmer’s
or the modern English version. Second, individual members of the Episcopal Church could enter into the Catholic Church on their own initiative. As in accord with the “Decree on Ecumenism” of the Second Vatican Council, this action could be seen as a “reconciliation of those individuals who wish for full Catholic communion.”
Finally, concerning married Episcopalian clergy becoming Catholic priests, “the Holy See has specified that this exception to the rule of celibacy is granted in favor of these individual persons, and should not be understood as implying any change in the Church’s conviction of the value of priestly celibacy, which will remain the rule for future candidates for the priesthood from this group.”
In other words, an ordained Episcopalian minister would make a profession of Faith and be received into the Catholic Church, and thereupon receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. He would then take appropriate courses which would enable him to minister as a Catholic priest.
After proper examination by his Catholic bishop and with the permission of the Holy Father, he would be then ordained first as a Catholic transitional deacon and then as a priest. If the former Episcopalian minister were single at the time of his ordination as a Catholic deacon and then priest, he would indeed take the vow of celibacy. If the married former Episcopalian minister were ordained as a Catholic deacon and then priest, he would be exempt by a special favor from the Holy Father of making the promise of celibacy; however, if he later became a widower, then he would be bound to a celibate lifestyle and could not remarry. In the future, if a lay member of one of these reunited parishes wanted to become a Catholic priest, he would be required to take the promise of celibacy.
The promise of celibacy is waived as a favor to those married clergy, given their particular circumstances and their desire to unite with the Catholic Church.
I would be really interested in seeing some solid numbers of just how many times this has happened and how many married Catholic priests exist today. I find this rather weird, because I was raised in a Catholic household where both my parents work for the church, and I never heard of anything like this. It makes me wonder though if they’ve already made this exception, then the chances seem much better at seeing a non-celibate priesthood in the future - possibly when the number of priests drops below a certain point.
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9 Comments
That is what the Romans call the Pastoral Provision, and I believe there are only a handful of priests who’ve received this dispensation from Rome.
It’s just an acknowledgement of the truth, celibacy is not an integral part of a vocation to sacramental priestly ministry.
Sadly, despite the declining number of vocations (and the increasing age of new vocations), Rome seems dead set to honour the notion of celibacy by sticking its head in the ground and embracing new things like this bizarre Matrix recruitment plan.
And, on a slightly related note, check this Newsweek article out.
The “Other” J+
Well here’s the weird thing about this. Say somebody really wants to be a Catholic priest. What’s barring them from becoming an Anglican or Episcopalian and using a backdoor provision like this? I realize that such wanton acts of deception are probably antithetical to the priestly lifestyle, but it still seems like a fair question.
There’s a priest in Spain with a wife and two kids whose just been ordained, here’s the link…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4172000/4172162.stm
I seem to remember a group of 20 or 25 married Anglican or Anglo-Catholic priests being accepted as Roman Catholic under this rule back in the 1980s. I don’t think there are a lot more.
Considering the drastic lack of celibate male priests –and the current Vatican’s hostility toward women functioning in any real position of authority — we are likely to see married male priests in the Roman Catholic church long before any of the thousands of nuns and other women religious who have already completed all the scholastic work required for ordination would ever be ordained.
Uh, Broomvondle, I already wrote about that. It’s what started this whole line of inquiry.
There are other churches (aka rites) within the Catholic church, under the authority of the pope, that allow priests to marry. I think this includes all or most of the Eastern Rite churches.
Yeah I saw some items about that last night as well. I need to look into it more and will write about it separately when I have uncovered more.
I was just checking to see if there was the possibility of a married pope. There are a few Eastern Rite patriarchs, the equivalent of Latin Rite cardinals, in the College of Cardinals. So there would be the remote chance of a pope chosen from one of the Eastern Rites.
It turns out, though, that the Eastern Rite churches don’t allow married bishops (bishops are chosen from monastic priests), just as in the Eastern Orthodox church.
According to church law, one doesn’t even have to be a priest to be elevated to Pope. A lay Catholic male could be elected to the papacy in theory. So a married Pope? Theoretically possible, yes. That being said, it will never happen.
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[...] Got an interesting email response from somebody regarding an old post about how the Catholic Church has special provisions which allow married Anglican priests to convert to Catholicism and still retain their priesthood. This person writes: As a recently received convert to Catholicism from Anglicanism, where I was a priest, I can perhaps shed some light on this ‘loophole’! Firstly, like much in the Catholic Church, a lot depends on the individual bishop. There are some dioceses, like Liverpool, where there are no married ex-Anglican priests who have been ordained as Catholic priests. There are others, particularly East Anglia and Westminster where there are comparatively large numbers. There has recently been a decree from Rome that permission for ex-Anglican married priests to be ordained as Catholic priests will continue until further notice, but it is still approached with a great deal of caution and care. Reference will always be made however (I suspect) to the decisions of the Catholic bishops in 1995 when the issue first became general (see here for more). As to the business of a loophole, it is worth noting that any Catholic who worships in another Church remains a Catholic and can go back anytime with little fuss. However, if that person becomes a minister in that other Church, then they require special permission from the Pope before they can be ordained: this is definitely not automatic, as a friend of mine could testify. Hope this clears things up a little! [...]
[...] It’s a tough one to verify, but here are some clues. [...]