With Married Eastern Catholic Priests, Pope Francis Shows
Catholic Church Respects Eastern Traditions
By Father Ronald
Roberson, CSP
MONDAY, NOVEMBER
24, 2014
It was recently
announced that Pope Francis had decided to allow Eastern Catholic bishops
anywhere in the world to ordain married men to the priesthood.
Previously, even if Eastern Catholic bishops in their homelands could ordain
married men, this was not allowed in other parts of the world, including North
America. The tradition of ordaining married men to the priesthood is very
strong in the Christian East: for many centuries the norm in those churches has
been that the parish priesthood is mostly married while the charism of celibacy
is preserved in the monasteries and the episcopate. This tradition continued in
the Eastern Churches that came into full communion with Rome beginning, for the
most part, in the 16th century.
Towards the end of the 19th century increasing numbers of immigrants from
eastern and central Europe came to North America. Many of them were “Greek
Catholics” (at that time mostly Ukrainians and Ruthenians) who were accompanied
by their married priests and their families. But the presence of such married
Catholic priests in the United States caused great concern in the hierarchy,
who felt that preserving the unity of their Catholic flock required uniformity
in discipline, including celibacy of the clergy. Even after hearing warnings
that such a decision could result in a schism among Eastern Catholics, they
felt so strongly on this point that, at a meeting in 1893, the country’s Catholic
archbishops unanimously adopted this resolution: “It is the solemn judgment of
the Archbishops of the United States that the presence of married priests of
the Greek rite in our midst is a constant menace to the chastity of our
unmarried clergy, a source of scandal to the laity and therefore the sooner
this point of discipline is abolished before these evils obtain large
proportions, the better for religion, because the possible loss of a few souls
of the Greek rite, bears no proportion to the blessings resulting from
uniformity of discipline.”
Eventually the Holy See responded to repeated petitions of this type, and in
first half of the 20th century issued a number of decrees that had the effect
of banning the ordination of married men to the priesthood not only North
America but everywhere in the world outside the traditional territories of
these Eastern Catholic Churches, mostly in eastern Europe and the Middle East.
True, a number of married Eastern Catholic priests have always been present in
the United States and elsewhere, but virtually all of them were ordained by
bishops overseas where the practice was allowed.
As the recent document lifting the ban acknowledges, the Holy See’s action
resulted in as many as 200,000 Eastern Catholics leaving the Catholic Church
and becoming Orthodox in order to retain their married clergy. This was a
devastating loss to the Eastern Catholic communities in the United States and
elsewhere. Eastern Catholics have long felt that the ban represented a great
injustice, a lack of respect for their ancient traditions, and for the terms by
which they entered into full communion with the Catholic Church centuries ago.
Attitudes towards this issue began to shift in the wake of the Second Vatican
Council, which called for each Eastern Catholic church to “retain its
traditions whole and entire” (Orientalium
Ecclesiarum n. 6), and spoke of the “holy vocation” of
those individuals who have received both the sacraments of marriage and
priesthood (Presbyterorum
Ordinis n. 16). Gradually the Catholic bishops of several
countries, including Canada and Australia, went on record as having no
objection to the restoration of a married Eastern Catholic priesthood. Speaking
at a gathering of Eastern Catholic Bishops from around the world in Boston in
November 1999, Bishop Wilton Gregory, then bishop of Belleville and vice
president of the USCCB, commented on the growing acceptance of married Eastern
Catholic priests, assuring them that “if in the judgment of our Eastern
Catholic brothers in the episcopate such a resolution would be helpful, I
believe that the bishops of the United States would give it the highest
consideration.”
This question also has an ecumenical dimension. Just last June the North American
Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation issued an agreed statement calling
for a lifting of the ban. They wrote: “This action would affirm the ancient and
legitimate Eastern Christian tradition, and would assure the Orthodox that, in
the event of the restoration of full communion between the two Churches, the
traditions of the Orthodox Church would not be questioned.”
The fact that Pope Francis has decided to allow Eastern Catholic bishops
anywhere in the world to ordain worthy married men to the priesthood is a great
step forward. He has recognized that the validity of Eastern Catholic
traditions is not limited to certain geographical areas, but applies to those
churches wherever they may be found. The Latin practice of ordaining celibate
men to the priesthood remains intact and unthreatened by those observing a
different tradition. The presence of an increasing number of married Eastern
Catholic priests in our midst should be welcomed because “far from being an
obstacle to the Church's unity, a certain diversity of customs and observances
only adds to her splendor, and is of great help in carrying out her mission” (Unitatis
Redintegratio, n. 16).
Father Ronald Roberson, CSP is associate director of the Secretariat for
Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops. He is also a consultor to the Vatican's Congregation for the Oriental
Churches.
