https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/roman-catholic-bishops-propose-opening-priesthood-to-married-deacons-in-the-amazon-region/2019/10/26/671b9ae2-f6a0-11e9-b2d2-1f37c9d82dbb_story.html

A gathering of Roman Catholic bishops recommended Saturday allowing married deacons in the Amazon to become priests — a proposal intended to address a severe priest shortage in the vast region, but one that critics say could eventually alter the priesthood in fundamental ways.

The recommendation by the global gathering at the Vatican — which still needs to be affirmed by Pope Francis — marks a significant shift in church views and could potentially signal a new strategy to modernize key tenets of Catholic tradition as the church faces a worldwide decline in the priesthood.

The proposal, proponents say, would be narrowly applied to permit men ordained as deacons to become priests. The gathering, however, did not endorse suggestions to allow women as deacons, an ecclesiastical position that can preside over some rites such as baptism and marriages but cannot celebrate Mass.

Pope Frank recently convened a conference to discuss structural reforms. The catalyst was concern that there are not enough priests in Latin America and particularly the Amazon basin. It's a major problem and the solution could cause a global schism. The Arizona debate is part of that debate.

There is another element of this, however, that merits attention given our RfM concerns. You'll recall that nearly a year ago the US bishops held a conference aimed at tightening down on child molestation and coverups. They felt that this issue could destroy the Catholic church in the United States. But the pope intervened, saying that the Americans should not proceed down this road and promising that the Vatican was on the verge of adopting new policies to protect children on a worldwide basis and hence there was no need for US reform.

Frank lied. As a number of the American bishops and other advocates of protecting children predicted, the Vatican has not done anything to help kids. The pope is concerned about priests, marriage, homosexuality: children are far down his list of priorities. Anyone who thinks Frank cares deeply about child abuse has to account for the lack of any significant church-wide reforms in the six years of his papacy and the absence of any efforts to develop a global policy since his specific promise last autumn.

Six years.

I can see the potential inter-"political" problems here, but I think the timing is way off--given that married Catholic priests have been part of the Roman Catholic clerical hierarchy for a number of decades now, so the "bugs" should have been worked out long ago.

[Married priests exist in other Catholic rites, as well as in the Orthodox denominations, and long ago the decision was made to allow these other-than-Roman-rite priests to enter the Roman Catholic priesthood, with some restrictions. Among these were (as I remember; I wrote about this during the time when I was writing for the teen fan magazines!) that the priests could ONLY be married to their then-current wife (meaning: if that wife then died, or if there was a subsequent divorce, the priest could not then marry another woman).

During that time, I interviewed several Roman Catholic priests who had come into the Roman Catholic priesthood this particular way, and the then new program appeared to be going well. The men I interviewed seemed to be quite happy with their new Roman Catholic identity, most of them felt feelings similar to "coming home," and they were quite happy that--as "new" Roman Catholics--they could continue to be husbands to their wives, and fathers of their own biological children.

With this experience now part of modern Roman Catholic Church history, I don't understand what the problem with deacons is, most especially if there is a Roman Catholic priest shortage in specific areas.]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2019 05:25PM by Tevai.

Yes, Tevai, you are correct. Married priests are currently allowed as long as they are convert priests from other Christian traditions. And they are not allowed to remarry when their spouse dies.

I've long predicted that the Catholic church would accept married priests (that are non-converts) long before they would accept female priests. Sad, but true. Misogyny is alive and well in the Roman Catholic church. It was my primary impetus for leaving.

>>>Married priests are currently allowed as long as they are convert priests from other Christian traditions.


A decade or more ago, the RCC had a special program for married Episcopal priests. With the benefit of untrustworthy memory, I think that the husband became a Catholic priest and the wife became a Catholic nun. Or not ...

I know of priests that have converted from the Episcopal church and also the Orthodox churches. Normally they continue to live with their wives and children as a family unit. I've never heard of a wife becoming a nun.

nun 4 you tonight ~


nun 4 you tomorrow night neither ~

...desperation theater. Like any failing institutional org, they must adapt to some modicum of traditional thought to remain relevant. It's only a cosmetic proposition to keep the adherents and the critics thinking positively about the "Vicar of Christ."

"Vicar of Christ" gets his power from a celibate son of a virgin mother.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2019 01:26PM by Elder Berry.

in b 4 ~ it is nice of them to give the alter-boys a break ~

Ouch!

how old must one be to become a Catholic DEACON???

I see a problem if a catholic priest gets a divorce / gets divorced; what will the parish members think, who will they believe?

The Catholic church does not recognize divorces, just annulments. My best guess is that in a case like that, the priest and his wife would simply live separately, but not divorce.

OTOH, ChurchCo loves it when a 'tbm' divorces a doubter, no adultery or abuse are required.

Even some deception, hatred, & greed are ignored, I Know, it happened to me.