Married Catholic priests? There may already be 120 in the United States. here’s how

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Pope Francis made headlines around the world when he suggested he was open to the idea of ​​ordaining married men as a way of alleviating the shortage of priests in remote areas.

Some raised their eyebrows and took notice, while other Catholics shrugged, pointing out that avenues, though narrow, already exist for married men to enter the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church. .

Experts say as many as 120 Catholic priests in the United States are married.

This is largely due to a policy change made by Pope John Paul II in 1980, which offered married Episcopal priests the option of continuing their ministry after converting to Catholicism.

Under the pastoral arrangement, Father Paul Sullins, a former Episcopal priest, was ordained into the Catholic Church in 2002 after converting four years earlier.

Each diocese is allowed up to two active married priests, according to the Office of Pastoral Provision, which facilitates Vatican policy. The restriction came several years ago after a number of dioceses sponsored four or five candidates, raising concerns that it may appear that the discipline of celibacy is being relaxed.

As a married man with three adult children, Sullins said his parishioners at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Hyattsville, Md., feel more comfortable coming to him with marital issues. He and his wife sometimes co-counsel couples together.

“If I have difficulties or struggles in my vocation, I can come home and have a sounding board that will give me honest guidance,” he said.

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez delivers a prayer over new Catholic priests during their ordination in 2014. The number of priests has dropped more than 30% in the United States since 1965.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Nearly a decade after Sullins converted to Catholicism, the Vatican revised the policy to apply to other denominations with Anglican roots, not just the 2 million-member Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church has been rocked in recent years by divisions over doctrine and the role of gays and lesbians in church life.

Some disgruntled congregations aligned themselves with overseas Anglican bishops, and others sought to leave Anglicanism altogether. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI established the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for groups of Anglicans in the United States seeking to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.

Many married Catholic priests in the United States are former Episcopalians, but there is another route for married men to work as priests in the Catholic Church.

The Eastern Catholic Churches have permitted the ordination of married men as priests for centuries. In 2014, Francis quietly lifted a 114-year ban on married Eastern Catholic priests serving outside their rite’s home country, opening the door for them to serve in the United States, according to Sullins’ book “Keeping the Vow : The Untold Story of Married Catholic Priests.

The pope’s recent remarks came during an interview published Thursday with a German newspaper, Die Zeit, when Francis was asked about creating incentives to attract young men to the church.

“Optional celibacy is not a solution,” Francis said, ruling out a suggestion to allow ordained men to marry.

The interviewer then asked, “What about the viri probatithose “tried men” who are married but can be ordained deacons because of their exemplary lives according to Catholic standards?

“We have to ask ourselves if viri probati are a possibility,” Francis replied. “Then we also need to figure out what tasks they can take on, for example, in remote communities.”

The Latin expression “viri probati” refers to proven men of exemplary faith. Often middle-aged, they are usually married, but sometimes widowed or single, according to Father Allan Deck, a Catholic priest and professor at Loyola Marymount University.

“In the majority of cases, when you use the term viri probatiyou refer to good married men, men who have families,” he said.

According to Vatican figures, between 1964 and 2004, 69,063 men left the priesthood worldwide, Sullins wrote. Thousands quit because they wanted to get married.

But some came to regret their decisions and 11,213 were allowed to return to priestly service. That included widows or men whose marriages had been annulled, Sullins said.

The number of Catholic priests in the United States has fallen more than 30% since 1965, when there were 58,632 priests, according to the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate. In 2016, there were 37,192.

But Latin America has the worst shortage of priests. In Brazil, which has the largest Catholic population in the world, there were more than 10,000 Catholics per priest last year, Sullins said. In the United States, there were more than 1,800 Catholics for every priest, he added.

Sullins has a different interpretation of the pope’s remarks to the German newspaper. He believes the pope was indicating that a solution to the shortage of priests would lie in canon 517 which allows deacons, who can marry, to oversee parishes in the event of a shortage of priests.

But others said Pope Francis signaled his willingness to consider ordaining married men in 2014 when he met Erwin Krautler, the bishop of Xingu in the Brazilian rainforest. Krautler complains that in his diocese, which has 700,000 faithful, he has only 27 priests.

“He wouldn’t do it unilaterally,” Deck said of the pope’s consideration of ordaining married men. “But he wanted the bishops to get together and discuss it.”

Having married men in the ranks of Catholic priests has advantages, as well as disadvantages, Sullins said.

Married priests, Sullins said, are less mobile than single people and therefore harder to reassign. Sullins said priests are reassigned every five to seven years on average.

“Reassigning a married priest is more difficult,” he said, noting that they may have children in school or own their homes. Her children are between 19 and 37 years old. “We are more deeply rooted in our community – it would be harder for us to get up and move.

Sullins, who has served as an associate pastor in the same church since his ordination, has seen four senior pastors rotate through his parish.

But Sullins also notes that having a partner in life provides additional guidance and encouragement for a clergyman to do their best.

If he receives a call in the middle of the night, he says, his wife encourages him to get up and leave, whereas a celibate priest may be tempted to roll over and go back to sleep.

“We all married women who knew they were going to marry a man who was going to be a minister,” he said. “A married man gets an elbow to the side, ‘Hey, honey, you’re a priest. Get up and do your duty. Our wives actually encourage us to be better priests than we otherwise would be.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

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