Can you imagine how much stress it would cause a priest to have to move his wife and family each time he is assigned to a new parish? Moreover, many of those calling for a married priesthood challenge the Catholic doctrine of the role of the priesthood and dissent on other issues. This, what you have said here, is not at all true. 9. Now they have spoken. And all of the things youve mentioned here, like the priest having an affair with the housekeeper or other any other possible female associate, the possible homosexual affairs, etc., that these are typical of the average priest? The potential for schism here is great, particularly in light of this bit of information from the story that the reader links (which is one of the more insightful stories I have read): The archbishop plans to hold a convention in the New York City area Dec. 8-10 with 1,000 married priests and their wives. Since Holy Orders is a character sacrament, once it has been validly received, it never is invalidated for any reason whatsoever. After that, the task was I suspect that this is partly due to their personal dispositions and partly due to the fact that JP2 came into office when the Church was in freefall. He was not a priest but he was an astute observer of the clergy in the mid-west. I cant see them coming back any time soon if this is glossed over. Perhaps in old age if I were a widower (my wife is older than I am)? Thanks for the chapter-length response! How much do you think would be a decent wage for a married priest and the family hell be raising? Considering the relatively large number of pedophiles that were attracted to the job (Because in their case it was a job and not a vocation. But his right and his responsibility to exercise that sacred power and to live according to the priestly state is removed. They are all human, with human shortcomings. That isnt so incredible since Christ gave the Church the authority to forgive sins, not to mention the power to make him truly present in the Eucharist. One ought not to declare that any custom of the Churchs life, no matter how deeply anchored and well founded, is wholly absolute, Ratzinger said then. One of the ways that happened was by him forcefully removing certain topics from discussion. Removal from the clerical state, on the contrary, is a permanent measure, whereby for a sufficient reason a cleric is from then on juridically treated as a layman. All rights reserved. Can either of you offer evidence to refute his argument or research? to public ministry. Some of these limitations may be relaxed according to the judgment of the local bishop[14] including the teaching of theology in schools or universities (both Catholic and non-Catholic), maintaining contact with the parish where the priest used to serve, and administering the Eucharist. True, our Blessed Mother knew that Her Son was sacrificing His life for an abusive spouse, but that doesnt validate our abuse and our selfishness. None of the content of this website may be reproduced, either in whole or in part, without the advance written permission of the author. The fact that one nevertheless occasionally encounters an ex-priest would therefore appear to be a contradiction. Practically speaking, this would mean that a priest no longer functioned outwardly as a priest. In fact, such a dispensation would have to be requested separately, and can only be granted by the Pope himself. If the information on this website has helped you, please consider making a contribution so that it can continue to help others. So what happens when a priest leaves the priesthood? Part I.) One might presume that once a priest has been reduced to the lay state, his obligation to remain celibate ceases. But should the Church continue to require celibacy of all priest, especially when there is a great priest shortage and many men, both ex-priests and simply faithful married men who would be willing to take the long discernment path the priesthood should they have the chance, are available to fill positions at all those clustered parished that lack priests? If the pope were to start granting their requests, there would no doubt be significant conditions attachedsuch as the priests either separating from their spouses or regularizing their marriages via convalidation (most such priests are only civilly married)and the granting of the request would not be automatic. Now if one has some pathological kind of personality disorder then thats something else. The other thought that occurs to me on this subject is this: If a man wishes to be married and a priest, and only the Latin rite of the Catholic Church requires priests to be celibate, why not seek ordination in one of the rites within the Church which allows married men to be ordained? The last thing the church needs is divorced priests The 35-year-old minimum is a good idea, too. Would it work? Why priests veil their hands while carrying the monstrance, The three oils used in the Catholic Church, What is the Brown Scapular in the Catholic Church. Theyre still a priest?, Yes! I tell them, which only seems to add to the confusion. the proximate cause of my leaving the priesthood was an ultimatum from the bishop to either abandon my lover or not return to ministry, with . Our correspondent wrote: If a bishop/religious superior has decided that the laicized priest should be permitted to return, the abovementioned canon 293 kicks in, and the request has to be sent to Rome for final approval. There would also be the issue of costs that would be entailed in his raising a family and his children as well, which I highly doubt that the archdiocese can cover, especially during these times. Can a Laicized Priest Return to the Priesthood? Inocencio (Interestingly, loss of the clerical state does not automatically remove the obligation of celibacy. Then theres the issue of the men he attempted to consecrate as bishops, which we wont even go into right now. I am even more adamantly opposed to readmitting the laicized. ! Some would see the fact that these men left the priesthood to marry as either an indication that their vocation was not truly discerned or that they betrayed it by marrying. Were managing to raise our seven born children (Thomas, in utero, doesnt cost much yet) on one salary, and it doesnt cost as much as you might imagine. and the actions of others, most of whom are in the episcopate, in covering up for them it becomes fairly obvious to me that the lack of a personal attachment to ones own children makes it easier to look the other way when there is an accusation. But she that is married thinketh on the things of this world how she may please her husband. Perhaps in old age if I were a widower (my wife is older than I am)? Like the sacrament of Baptism, it can never be eraseda baptized Christian can cease to practice his faith, and even publicly deny Christ, but he can never undo his baptism. Some of the details of his stories are still in my mind especially of the power struggles between the pastor and the nuns. my $.02 worth: Sorry to mistake you, Esau; its a long post. A: This is certainly an excellent question, because it is true that the Church teaches that you are a priest forever (Ps. Was it F.J.Powers or J.F.Powers who wrote Morte De Urban way back in the 50s, focusing on the life of a shallow fellow who wore the collar somewhere in the mid-west. A priest can resign from the priesthood and seek dispensation from his clerical obligations, yet the Church will always regard him as a 'laicised' priest, since ordination is regarded as irrevocable. Anyone have any ideas? He was a master at exposing the cruelties many nuns suffered quietly under the absolute rulers loving care. wonderful or Fr. Might I ask, when did I refused to acknowledge this? . History of the Bible translation [different versions of the Bible], Difference between KJV and NIV version of the Bible. Catholic Doctrines and Teachings about Divorce, Why Catholics pray to Virgin Mary to interced for them, History of the feast of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To deal directly with the question that the reader asks, whether there is hope that he might one day be allowed to exercise his priesthood again (apart from emergency circumstances, such as when someone is dying), I can only say that the answer is yes. These, however, are the exception. to exercise that sacred power and to live according to the priestly state is removed. FROM ANON: However, I believe you are wrong to say it is the norm. You hit on it exactly! But the same What happens when a Catholic Priest leaves the Priesthood, Laicized or Defrocked. Since this is what the priest is requesting anyway, there is usually little fear that he will violate this restriction. And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. The priests make as much as any other unmarried officer does, and there is already help in place to help wives with deployed husbands (and vice versa, of course). So if David has in fact met one or more married men who have said that they were former priests, what conclusions can be drawn from this? But in any case, a previously-laicized priest returning to ministry would not be ordained again, as he would still be an ordained priest already. [2] However, others consider "defrocking" a synonym to laicization that is especially popular in English. To be able to lay his life down for his flock. Should there always be monastic and other orders where celibacy is a required vow? That was very moving, M. Archangelo. Heres my question: is there any basis for me to hope that one day I might be allowed to exercise my Priesthood again? Laicization can be either voluntary as a favor, or involuntary as a punishment. Nice spin, but ministry in all of its various forms was not the point here. He is a poor witness for the all-celibate priesthood. If there were married priests allowed (and lets say for the sake of argument that there are parishes able to provide this strong financial support you speak of for such priests), you mean to tell me that these married priests should be given a sort of preferred status and be specifically selected to serve at such well-endowed parishes over the celibate priest? To sum up, we can see that both Catholic theology and canon law acknowledge that sacred ordination is forever, but there are real-life situations where it is possible for an ordained priest to live as a layman and still be a Catholic in good standing. What was the nature of Pope St. John Paul IIs devotion to Our Lady? That actually, as far as the Roman Church is concerned with all its vast resources, these aspects of the priesthood does weed out those persons who would otherwise take advantage of the Church and are really there for themselves and not for the priesthood. Plus you have the *widely* acknowledge foxhole effect. to the priesthood, providing there are no Canon Law obstacles. Let us present some of the most outstanding cases. Once again, the Vatican will investigate the full situation, and listen to the bishop's reasons for wanting the priest back. The undeniable fact is that in some cases, it might be fairly easy (relatively speaking) for a laicized priest to return to ministry again; while in other cases, it will be absolutely out of the question. He wasnt totally in the marriage . No. Such a person would need help and then maybe be called to practice his priesthood in some more individual, quiet setting. I dont know I dont think a priest with a temper is so bad. The action may be voluntarily requested or it may be involuntarily applied by either a bishop or the Holy See, depending upon the circumstances. And its also strange that your craziness was predicted as far back as Leo XIII and Pius IX: The fact that it is impossible to un-ordain a priest explains the otherwise curious wording of canon 976. In fact, I dont see how we can do one without the other. or can be forbidden to exercise them; but he cannot become a layman again in the If Rome disagrees and declines to approve the request, the laicized priest is basically out of luck. . Similarly, canon 290 of the Code of Canon Law states bluntly that once a man validly receives sacred ordination, the sacrament never becomes invalid. If you read my post correctly, you would see that I found this to have its faults, not the least of which among them, the fact that it would appear discriminatory to those priests who were celibate. Were talking about people who really strive to be like Christ not the excuses. Most of them are above average and a few are truly holy enough to assure me that Christ is still present to His Church in the ministerial priesthood. Priestly ordination works in exactly the same way. If a priest couldnt find a bishop willing to accept him in the diocese then the priest would not be returned to public ministry. But not so fast. Theyll always be there always were why the road was called narrow. Esaus second point, the one about a priest and his family having to move all the way across the diocese every few years, isnt a strong argument to military families, who have to move across the world or country every few years. Obviously, it seems you didnt read the post carefully. I have available in hand the financial information of many parishes and the financials for many archdiocese, and I dont really think that the data youre presenting is actually typical or even representative of the average parish. Do you think that the lifting of celibacy will actually increase vocations in the Church and solve the vocation problem, making the priesthood such a preferable occupation as opposed to others out there? 19:12). The difference between Mass and confession, why the former would happen but the latter would not, is that for a confession to be valid, a priest must be given the specific faculty, or permission, to hear confessions from his bishop (Canon 966.1), and a priest loses that faculty if hes laicized. We worry about how much money we will have to shell out and whether or not a married priest can be at our beck and call far more than we worry about whether some of our priests are living in a context that is too difficult to bear; ie, the context of abuse. One bishop said that he has no shortage of priest in his Diocese, so he is not interested. Priests who have come in via the pastoral provision serve all over the country, and some serve as pastors (by the rules they are not supposed to, but as a priest I know said, You can get a dispensation for anything.) Here's what I learned. By Rev. While a laicized priest is no longer a member of the clergy, he is still considered ordained and may be addressed as "Father" or "Father [Name]". In those years, a total of 9,551 returned 9thats an average of 367 a yearja]. As Pius himself said, Since we have fallen on these evil times let us take care first and foremost, as good soldiers of Christ, not to lose heart. So the being fruitful and multiplying times offered less resistance to the religious life by parents because there were other children to carry on the family name. http://www.tfp.org/TFPForum/catholic_perspective/tracing_the_glorious_origins_of_celibacy.htm If he were to come across a person in danger of death, he would still have the power to forgive sins through sacramental absolution, and in such a case he would be allowed to do so.
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