(Pro Unione) - The Congregation for Oriental Churches is issuing a precept, “Pontificia Praecepta de clero Uxorato Orientali” – signed back in June and with papal approval– which allows the Eastern Churches to ordain married men wherever the Church is found, and to bring in already married priests to serve as needed, throughout the world. [6/106 Acta Apostolica Sedes, 496-99] (PDF)
The Eastern Churches find themselves in three jurisdictional situations, basically, which have different practical consequences:
Still, one more reform on the long list of “no-brainers” that could have been done ages ago without actually challenging either doctrine or even its articulation. It is simply the correction of an historical mistake that ought never have happened in the first place – and certainly ought not to have taken 135 years. It is this kind of thing, no matter how small, that demonstrates real “concrete progress” that the ecumenically minded – both “at home and abroad” are looking for.
- First, where there is a regular hierarchy, it is up to the competent ecclesiastical authority – the metropolitan, eparch, or exarch – to ordain according to the traditions of their churches, without restriction from the Latin church.
- Second, where there is an Ordinariate without a bishop or heirarch, such ordinations would be carried out by the ordinary, but while informing the Latin hierarchy. (there are less than a half-dozen countries where this is the case)
- Third, where there are groups of the faithful of an Eastern Church under the pastoral care of a Latin ordinary – such as the Italo-Albanians here in Italy – it continues to be a case-by-case basis.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Married clergy for Eastern Catholics in diaspora
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This Pope continues to surprise me. But while the move is long overdue, I still think he is a liberal. My gut says this has more to do with sending a signal to the bishops of his own rite, that it might be time to rethink mandatory celibacy.
ReplyDeleteDuring part of his grad-school days Francis served at a Ukrainian Greek Liturgy on a daily basis. just an fyi. Also he acted as a mentor to Patriarch Sviatoslav when they were both bishops in Argentina. Francis is really comfortable with the Christian east.
DeleteMoreover could there be an (little o) orthodox case for married clergy in the west? I'd like to think so.
Whatever Pope Francis' human reason for doing so, the end result is the same. Praise God!
ReplyDeleteEarlier this year, the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation voted to encourage the “lifting of the restrictions regarding the ordination of married men to the priesthood in the Eastern Catholic Churches of North America.” The vote was in June, the same month that the precept was signed. I wonder if there is any connection between the two.
ReplyDeleteWhy is this only coming out now, if this was signed back in June? Who do we think will take the first step? The Melkites?
ReplyDeleteI think the Melkites already have the structure and ordain married men, at least in the United States. The Ukranians have married priests here (my parish priest is married). I believe the Ruthenians might not though...
DeleteThe Ruthenian Church has ordained a few married priests recently. My own Eparchy ordained two married deacons to the priesthood last year. Another married deacon was sent to our seminary this year for studies for the priesthood. The Eparchy of Parma also recently ordained two married priests.
DeleteGotcha.
DeleteI also heard the Maronites ordained their first married man in a few centuries. This is a huge step forward in ridding out the unfortunate latinizations (some things like the rosary and certain devotions are fine - just ask St. Seraphim - but what was done to the liturgies was atrocious), seeing as the Maronites are by far the most latinized of the bunch.
I think, though, in those cases above the eparchs sought permission from Rome. There hasn't been an issue with ordaining married men as deacons since the Roman Church already does that anyway. I do know that at the Melkite parish in northern Virginia one of the married deacons had to go back to Palestine, his homeland, to be ordained to the presbyerate.
DeleteThat has been the trick so far. They send someone to the old country to be ordained and then they come back to serve. Money laundering, but with people.
DeleteIt's an unfortunate leftover thing from the days of John Ireland. In those days, Eastern Catholics were subject to the Roman ordinary as "auxiliaries". The overall situation has long since been rectified, but a few trappings remain.
DeleteI heard that a Melkite priest once was ordained in the US, but he went and told the New York Times or some other newspaper. The headline the next morning was "Catholic Church Ordains Married Men".
Please re-read the post of Nelson Chase. Four married men have been ordained to the priesthood in the Ruthenian church in the US within the past two years. Not the diaconate, but the priesthood. No tricks or laundering in the old country, but ordination in the US. Not sure about permissions. Would be nice if posts were informed by facts.
ReplyDelete"Would be nice if posts were informed by facts." This story wasn't released in the traditional way and rather lurched onto the Internet.
DeleteEvery EC group has been doing different things at different times. For a few years the Ruthenians borrowed Ukrainian clergy for differing periods of time until that idea died away. The old country practice had its day as well. If it has ended, I'm glad that end run technique has ended.
At the same time the "Ruthenians" themselves haven't been announcing these ordinations of married men to the world. If we aren't fully informed, it's not because people aren't trying to keep up with things.
The facts are readily obtained, even if just by reading the posts here and doing a little checking. Instead there is an odd response of explaining things away. What is the point of this: "Ruthenians borrowed Ukrainian clergy for differing periods of time until that idea died away"? What facts make the "end run" "trick" of people "laundering" relevant to the Ruthenian church?
DeleteBecause that's who did it. I'm not sure how it couldn't be relevant. The BCC has had a problem getting vocations so they use bi-vocational priests, borrowed priests from Ukraine, sent married men to the old country to get ordained, and are now finally to be permitted to ordain married men.
DeleteHow does one find out about the occasional ordaining of married men before now? If there's an online resource for that, please send it our way.
"... that's who did it."
DeleteI think that you are wrong about this, particularly on the matter that provoked my response - the "trick so far" of people "laundering". If not nonexistent in the BCC, it has been extremely rare and was not a strategy to address a "problem getting vocations". The immigration - arguably more apt a term than "borrowing" - of priests from the old country was the norm in the early days, was interrupted when our churches were outlawed and occupied, and has recently resumed with the arrival of priests from Slovakia and Zakarpatskaya. We do enjoy the assistance of some bi-ritual priests in our Metropolia, but these should not be confused with priests who transfer from the Latin church and are fully incardinated in our eparchies. Finally, while we face difficulties in staffing all of our parishes, with a priest for every 500 parishioners, our issues not reasonably framed as a "problem getting vocations", or for that matter immediately linked to the issue of celibacy.
Old country trick - if we measure in scale it might seem larger than that. When last I was at the seminary there were around 8 students. If one person a year is sent to the old country that's isn't an insignificant percentage.
DeleteBorrowing - as late as three years ago I know of priests that came from Ukraine to the US to serve BCC parishes in the US for the summer or for other set periods before returning to Ukraine. That effort was even more concerted over a decade ago, but was reduced when priests ran into problems assimilating with American life and fell into alcoholism or requested to be sent back home. I'm not speaking about the 1940s. I'm speaking about very recent history.
Bi-ritual - if you look at the census of how many BCC parishes are serviced by bi-ritual priests, it's a rather high number. If you look at how few seminarians the Archeparchy has sent to the seminary compared to Van Nuys or Parma or Passaic it's alarming.
Problem getting vocations - that was not my wording. That was the wording of professors I spoke to at last year's Cyril and Methodius lecture. That was also the words used by the late Met. Basil.
Old country trick: Interesting calculation, but the number is not one in eight, but pretty much zero.
DeleteBorrowing: Priests from abroad on short term visits may help out, but are not to be confused with priests who have immigrated here from the old country. Since the possibility of immigration has resumed, there are a notable number of immigrant priests in all of our eparchies. (I notice that you write with more seeming awareness of alcohol problems among our priests than of ordination of married men in our church.)
Bi-ritual (progress!) priests. As I suggested above, this matter needs some clarification. Are you talking about priests ordained in the RCC who transfer to ours and are incardinated in our eparchies – like Bishop John? If so, why? If you are talking of priests who serve in the RCC but occasionally fill in when priests are absent –the frequency is not very high; it is probably very similar the frequency of absences in EO churches, where, instead of having guest celebrants, Obednitsa is served. Finally, if you are talking about priests with regular assignments in the RCC, who also have regular parish responsibilities in our churches, that number is rather low.
Problems: If you blog the words, they are yours. And if I were to hear this from a priest in the BCC, I would have the same response. We have a decent vocation rate, but a problem – for a variety of historical and contemporary reasons – in staffing parishes. An effective solution to that problem should – and clearly does – involve a multi-faceted approach that goes beyond seeking extraordinarily high rates of vocations.
It seems to be lost on many that the key issue was how to manage situations that arise when there is a large scale immigration of people from a particular church into a region where another particular church is already established. Yes it did take a century in to work this out for the Catholic Church in America. The clock is still running for the Orthodox.
ReplyDelete