Comments on: The Celibacy Loophole

By: Here and There » Blog Archive » mepedia 4: August 23-25, 2007

Here and There » Blog Archive » mepedia 4: August 23-25, 2007 — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:41:05 +0000

[...] It’s a tough one to verify, but here are some clues. [...]

By: Anglican Priests Turned Catholic - Pop Occulture

Anglican Priests Turned Catholic - Pop Occulture — Thu, 04 May 2006 18:44:44 +0000

[...] 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! [...]

By: psicosm

psicosm — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 21:44:09 +0000

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.

By: Yasha

Yasha — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 18:15:10 +0000

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.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:47:51 +0000

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.

By: Yasha

Yasha — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:41:27 +0000

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.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:07:59 +0000

Uh, Broomvondle, I already wrote about that. It’s what started this whole line of inquiry.

By: twistedchick

twistedchick — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 13:43:46 +0000

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.

By: Broomvondle

Broomvondle — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 12:25:33 +0000

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

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 03:56:11 +0000

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.

By: Justin+

Justin+ — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 03:48:57 +0000

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+