Tag: married priests

Catechism 101 on Married Priests for Sean Hannity

Earlier this week, on Monday, I was flipping through the channels and caught the end of an interview between Sean Hannity and Fr. Jonathan Morris. The interview covered issues of…

Earlier this week, on Monday, I was flipping through the channels and caught the end of an interview between Sean Hannity and Fr. Jonathan Morris. The interview covered issues of pedophilia and married priests related to a recent account of a conversation with Pope Francis. (Scalfari, the editor who wrote up the interview has stated publicly that he takes no notes, records nothing, and just goes from memory. In other words, when he sits down with the Pope, he plays his own personal game of Telephone….)

Back to Hannity. As he closed the interview, he asked Fr. Morris if he would start dating if the Roman Catholic Church changed its rule on celibacy.

Ouch. This question was wrong on so many levels, some of which I won’t go into here.

But the most important part is that the tradition of married priests in the various Catholic Rites has been about married men who become priests, not priests who get married. In every Catholic Church (and perhaps the Orthodox, too), a priest must be married before he’s ordained.

As a married priest, if his wife dies, he will not be able to marry again. Just like the rule for married deacons, which is why younger married men are not encouraged to pursue the permanent deaconate diaconate – it’s too early in their lives for most of them to be able to make that commitment.

And for what it’s worth, none of the Rites that allow married priests allow them to ascend to the levels of the hierarchy.

Now, if Hannity were a non-Catholic media personality, I’d chalk this up to ignorance or laziness, including his producers. But Hannity is a professed Catholic and Fr. Morris is a FoxNews regular. There’s just no excuse for this kind of sloppy reporting. If he was confused, he or one of his producers could’ve asked Fr. Morris before the segment.

Catholics, above all, should take the time to inform themselves. If not, hire a moral theologian, like myself, or another Catholic expert (or use the experts you’ve already got) to get the questions and issues right.

I’m sorry I don’t have the clip – have been looking for it and haven’t found it. If a reader has it, I’m happy to post it.

 

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Married Priests

One of the standard hurdles thrown at Catholics is the question of why doesn’t the Catholic Church allow married priests, particularly when there’s a vocation crisis? [Aside – In interviews,…

One of the standard hurdles thrown at Catholics is the question of why doesn’t the Catholic Church allow married priests, particularly when there’s a vocation crisis?

[Aside – In interviews, I generally try to point out that we need to define what is meant by a “vocations crisis” because vocations to the clerical and religious lives are in fact thriving in some areas..]

Fr. Dwight Longenecker, fellow blogger at here Patheos has a great column in ZENIT addressing precisely this question. Here’s a quick glimpse. [Emphasis mine]:

Not necessarily. Having married priests would certainly help the vocations crisis, and married men might relate better to married people. However, believing that married priests are the answer assumes that they are mature, happily married men. With a bit of reflection we can all see that marriage in and of itself does not automatically make a man mature, self giving and happy….

Remember married men are not perfect. Married clergymen are often workaholics. Many married clergymen are immature. Some  married clergymen have sexual problems just like celibate men do. Married clergymen have drink problems. Married clergymen struggle with porn and same sex attraction and abuse children. When a clergy marriage breaks down it is usually disastrous and scandalous and the hurt and pain ripple right through the whole church. I don’t mean to paint a horrible picture of married clergy–just reminding people that it’s not all quite as happy and wonderful as they seem to think.

There are other practical problems. Catholics say they want married clergy, but do they want to pay for them? As a married man with a family I get by because I earn an extra income through my writing and speaking. In addition to this my wife runs her own business. Not all married priests and their families can do this.

Do read the whole piece here. Fr. Dwight’s experience as a married priest brings a lot to the discussion.

The point about whether we’re willing to pay for married priests is particularly interesting. Based on what I’ve seen of diocesan budgets, appeals, and parish giving, I see no indication that we are.

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