Married Priests

 

QUICK FACTS

• Yes, being a married priest is traditional and orthodox. The undivided Catholic and Orthodox Church had married priests for the first 1,000 years of Christendom. This is true also for bishops. 
• Yes, a married priest can have a secular occupation to provide for himself, his family, and his church. 
  
• No, allowing married priests is not an attack on celibacy. Celibacy is an extremely holy state.
• No, the married priesthood is not nor should it be used as an invitation to modern liberal innovations. It exists in its own right as a legitimate practice of the universal church. 

 For any young men reading this blog who, like myself, wrestled with the sometimes excruciating pain of having to pick between a celibate life or a married life, take courage. Unlike the false-dichotomy the Roman church gives to discerning men, the call to priesthood is entirely separate from the call to celibacy. This may not be true in practice for Roman Catholics in this day and age, but it is always true in principle. Because the church accepted married priests throughout the first seven Ecumenical councils, there can be no error in the state of a married priest. Thus, even if Rome mandates celibacy for priests, every priest must discern both calls separately, even unbeknownst to himself. 

 Too often the legitimacy of the 'married priesthood', so to speak, is jeopardized by the cacophony of seemingly unorthodox and apparently illegitimate controversies which follow: women's ordination and same-sex 'marriage'. Even if theoretically such changes were legitimate, the rapid succession which they follow the institution of a married priesthood overwhelms and overshadows it.  This is why Rome and even schismatic traditionalist Catholics refuse to consider the question entirely.

If you seek to become a married priest without the distractions of social controversy, consider becoming Old Catholic. 

Contact me using the sidebar on the blog main page and I can connect you to a vocations director.