Man wants to remarry, gets govt. involved

(YLE) - A former Orthodox minister has lodged a complaint with the Parliamentary Ombudsman, challenging the Orthodox church’s laws of celibacy. Kuisma Suopela filed the complaint after he was defrocked as deacon of the Oulu diocese when he married for a second time.

At the end of 2012 a bishop’s conference removed Suopela’s minister’s rights and demoted him to the level of a layman. The caucus deemed that according to the church’s celibacy laws, the widower priest should have lived a life of celibacy, rather than remarry.

While the Orthodox religion may ordain married men as priests, it bans ministers who become widowers from tying the knot a second time once they have been ordained.

“The bishops took the view than canonical law takes precedence over secular laws. On that basis they can bypass secular laws, violate workers rights and even basic human rights. We have to consider this. According to Orthodox canonical law – or rather the bishops interpret the canonical law such that – a widower priest should be celibate, nor can he remarry,” Suopela told Yle’s A-studio programme.

“The bishops interpret the canonical law on a case by case basis and I might even say they do so arbitrarily,” Suopela added.

Comments

  1. Reader JohnMarch 27, 2013 at 4:23 PM

    Please, where is YLE? I cannot discern the country from which this story originates. As a religious freedom junky, it matters to me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ElizabethMarch 27, 2013 at 4:35 PM

    YLE appears to be a news outlet in Finland.
    The link attached to the Byztex story takes you to their page, which is in English.

    Here is the full address: http://yle.fi/uutiset/orthodox_priest_defrocked_after_remarrying/6556997

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steve_BarrieMarch 28, 2013 at 8:47 AM

    If you google the former-priest's name you can find a number of news articles in Finnish in their regular newspapers about this. It is true.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A readerMarch 28, 2013 at 10:16 AM

    Nobody is forcing the man to remain Orthodox. If remarriage matters more to him than accepting Church teachings, he is free to change to another religion. I hope the courts would deem his a "frivolous lawsuit."

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownMarch 28, 2013 at 11:32 AM

    To put it bluntly - and outside of the spiritual context: It's a stipulation of the job and he knew it when he signed up. If he didn't, he needed to read the fine print, i.e., the Holy Canons. Is he going to sue next because he isn't allowed to be a married bishop?
    God preserve us!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Steve_BarrieApril 1, 2013 at 8:04 AM

    We know that in the Romanian Orthodox church some divorced and widowed priests ahve been allowed to re-marry and continue as priests in rural areas. In other words under the radar. What about in Russia where the divorce rate is 70%? I only know about the Romanian Orthodox Church. But even in Romania, the church is trying to put a stop to this and sees it as an abuse to be corrected.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sr. Vassa: There's no ontological impediment to priestesses

Image
Is the male-only priesthood a discipline or essential to the nature of being a priest? Sr. Vassa (again unflinchingly taking up a contentious topic by climbing up the ladder to the highest platform and then jumping into the deep end head first) dives right in and says there is no reason beyond personal preference to not have female clergy. You know, when people ask me about women in priesthood, they say, 'Sister, why can't women be priests?' And I say, 'Women CAN be priests. We don't WANT them to be priests.' Because you see, God can do anything, and the Church, by divine authority, uh, can do anything, but, the Church doesn't want to - and that's a legitimate reason. What I don't like is when we TRY to pretend that there are other reasons for this, because it's legitimate not to want something, and there are reasons not to want this - right? - but, we shouldn't pretent that there's some... reason, that, for example, the maleness...
Read more

Big news for the Western Rite, ROCOR, and Bp. Jerome

Image
NEW YORK: July 12, 2013 ( ROCOR ) - An Extraordinary Session of the Synod of Bishops is Held On Wednesday, July 10, 2013, an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was held, presided over by its First Hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York. Participating in the meeting were permanent members of the Synod of Bishops: His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Berlin and Germany; His Eminence Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America; His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada, and His Grace Bishop Peter of Cleveland, Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America. Deliberating on the matter of Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, the Synod of Bishops made a decision as follows: “During a meeting of the Synod of Bishops on Wednesday, July 10, 2013, presided over by the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, A DECISION WAS MADE: on the activities of Bishop Jerome of Ma...
Read more

OCA takes strong stand for canonical Orthodoxy

( Orthochristian.com ) - The primate of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington and All America and Canada, will concelebrate with the primate of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, in western Ukraine later this week. The Ukrainian Orthodox Diocese of Chernivtsi and Bukovina “awaits the visit of the primate of the Orthodox Church in America on June 1–2, 2024. Solemn services will be held in the Cathedral of the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Chernivtsi, with the participation of both primates.” The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America formally rejects communion with the schismatics of the “Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” recognizing only the canonical UOC under Met. Onuphry. The Ukrainian primate was the honored guest at the OCA’s 18th All-American Council in July 2015.
Read more