Married Anglican clergy would pose two problems.
At the moment when a Catholic priest retires, the church only has responsibility towards him.
But what if the priest was married, has a wife and family?
Where would they go if they had to vacate their parochial home? What would they live on? What would happen to clerical widows or, even more distressingly, orphaned children?
Secondly, how could the Catholic Church maintain its stance on clerical celibacy?
All good question…..The RC Church is not prepared for married clergy and all that goes with such…clearly, the entire celibacy of clergy comes into question…
Much more to be worked out…but doable for those who wish to swim the Tiber.
I’m assuming each priest’s congregation would have to take care of him– set up a retirement account, buy life insurance covering the wife and kids in case of death, etc.
[blockquote] “But what if the priest was married, has a wife and family?
Where would they go if they had to vacate their parochial home? What would they live on? What would happen to clerical widows or, even more distressingly, orphaned children?”[/blockquote]
Gosh, isn’t it amazing how the plebes in Protestant Churches can cope with such an overwhelming problem. How on earth do they do it? It is a seemingly impossible task to care for the family of a priest. The expense will no doubt financially crush the RC Church.
[/sarcasm]
How do Eastern rite Catholic churches with married clergy do this?
It seems to me that by setting this up as they have, the former Anglican bishops who have much experience with taking care of their clergy will be in positions of leadership to be able to set up structures to do exactly those things that the author is worrying about. By being able to tap into the combined expertise of various Anglican bishops and priests, I’m sure they will be able to figure this out. These folks already have experience – it isn’t as if they come into the church not already having dealt with these issues!
Catholic Mom – in our diocese insurance, retirement, and so on is handled through the diocese. I don’t know the details, but I do remember one of our early married priests (we have 4 or so) telling of pushing the diocese to pay for his wife’s insurance. They did, and I suppose still do.
The real questions to ask is what happens when a priest divorces, or their kids get into trouble in the parish.
There’s no way the media will ever present Catholic news as good news.
Celibacy, celibacy, celibacy…
No, the (Roman) Catholic Church won’t be ordaining married men as a rule. It will use a dispensation to accomodate former anglican married priests. Anglican Catholic seminarians will have to accept celibacy. And if this can not be so much of a problem for those anglican groups that believe everything that is in the Catechism. Faith is more important than discipline. Pope Benedict XVI understands that, and that’s why he is making this dispensation available for this particular situation (former anglican married priests). I hope anglican groups who believe everything the (Roman) Catholic Church understand this too, and accept a future of non-celibate clergy presiding anglican catholics in communion with Rome.
Hmm…what kind of trouble did you have in mind?
At our church we have something called “Children’s Liturgy of the Word.” All the kids young enough not to have made their 1st communion are excused right before the first reading and they all go into a big room with “Miss Amy” who teaches them (at their level) the gospel message of the day.
Well, yesterday my youngest one was apparently playing tag and running around all through the lesson. There is a brother who runs all the religious education programs in our parish. He is about 70 years old and looks exactly like Friar Tuck, girth and all. If a kid misbehaves in any religious instruction class, he is sent to go sit with Brother Robert outside the class. This is approximately as threatening as requiring them to go sit with a big friendly dog. Brother Robert gives them a lollipop and asks them what the problem seems to be and what clever solution (such as not doing it again!) they might come up with to solve the problem. Then he sends them back to class.
So on the third misbehavior Miss Amy told my son he should leave the classroom and go talk to Brother Robert. Only what she didn’t know was that Brother Robert wasn’t there. (He always is so he must have gone to the bathroom or something.) So my son stood out in the hallway crying loudly (he is a bit of a crier.) Another lady came along and asked what was the problem and he said “Miss Amy says I have to leave the class because I’m misbehaving.” So the lady said “well then you’d better go back into church and sit with your mom.” So he comes into church sobbing and announces loudly “I’ve been expelled from Children’s Liturgy of the Word and I can never go back!” (He’s a bit of a drama queen too.)
So there you are…I have the only child in parish history expelled from Children’s Liturgy of the Word. How much worse could a Protestant’s kid be?? 🙂
Catholic Mom, that story’s so funny that I’m glad I wasn’t drinking a hot beverage when I was reading it! And even funnier cause I can see one of my…ahem…angels…doing the same thing! 😉
Yes indeed, what to do with those pesky PKs?! (That’s “preachers’ kids'” for ya’ll Roman types). From what I remember of the antics we used to get up to in my Southern Baptist low church settings, well, I can only imagine what will happen when you turn one or two loose on an all-out Catholic setting…
You guys don’t [i] drink [/i] that holy water, do you?
In all seriousness, my prayers to anyone who has to deal with this particular class of individuals. Preachers’ kids’ have been notoriously unruly going all the way back to Aaron. One also wonders if Eli paid as much attention to his own children as he did to Samuel.
There is most especially that problem as one goes into the teen-age years: it feels as if the eyes of all in the church are on you, and you are not even allowed to make the mistakes others of your peer-group make regularly. This pressure can more often than not lead to more extreme forms of behavior, as the person is well aware that there is a higher standard, there is confusion among others as to why this higher standard is not being met, and quite often confusion in the child himself as to why he is not so much more perfect than all others. Upon realizing that all these standards are unreachable, these same children who should know the truth, that the standards of God are indeed unreachable and that all fall short, will often fall into despair and despair can lead them to rebel against their standard by being so much worse than the other kids. It should be noted again that these children more often than not possess the intellectual knowledge that reveals their rebellion to be nonsense (for they are not ‘rebelling’ at all, they are [i] giving in [/i] ), the intellectual knowledge does not trump the emotional impact driven by the expectations of the congregation.
It should be noted that I am not speaking some kind of psychological blather, but the observations of both my own upbringing, and also that of my parents (PK being an inherited title in my family), as well as my association with many another PKs.
It should also be noted that this rebellion can go one of two ways, as well. But the other type of rebellion we need not go into right now, save to say that it is the proper type of rebellion and one I will always fully support when I encounter it. This is a rebellion against the hypocrisy and lies of the church, the judging of the congregation by it’s own standards and finding it wanting. This form of rebellion would turn the son of a liberal high-churchman into the next Billy Graham or the son of a legalism-minded evangelical into the next Pope. It is this form of rebellion that brings about Revival.
More hand wringing…little if any faith. Does not God provide for his creatures? Surely he will provide for his flock as well.
Intercessor
I’m talking about adultery within the parish, not children misbehaving.
Catholic Mom (#8),
LOL. That was absolutely delightful. Marvelous.
But as Kubla (#4) reminded us all, there is obviously a precedent for this. The Eastern Rite churches have been dealing with married priests, and their kids, for a long time. Somehow the Ukrainians and Byzantine Catholics have managed to cope with the challenges.
And then, of course, there are all the married deacons, with their spouses and kids, that even normal, western rite Catholics are familiar with now since Vatican II.
So I guess you RCs are perfectly capable of solving the inherent problems.
Besides, given the extreme shortage of priests in the Catholic Church, you’d think there’d be a willingness to endure all sorts of challenges in making this adventursome arrangement work.
David Handy+