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Pope Francis indicated he was open to the idea of ordaining married men as a way to alleviate priest shortages in remote areas. The U.S. already has as many as 120.
What many people—including many Catholics—do not realize, however, is that the celibate priesthood is a disciplinary matter, not a doctrinal one, and there are, in fact, many married Catholic priests, including in the United States.
Experts say as many as 120 Catholic priests in the U.S. are married. That’s largely because of a policy change made by Pope John Paul II in 1980, which offered a path for married Episcopal priests to continue their ministry after converting to Catholicism.
There are around 125 married Roman Catholic priests like Whitfield, an Episcopal convert, across the U.S., experts say, and perhaps a couple hundred total around the world. Surveys of...
Among the confused questions: Is Pope Francis open to married priests? Is he committed to maintaining celibacy for priests? Will men who are already priests be allowed to marry?
Married priests are common in the Eastern Catholic Church, the pope noted, while the discipline of priestly celibacy is a “temporary prescription” in the Western Church.
A Vatican official has said that he thinks the Catholic Church’s priestly celibacy requirement in the Latin rite should be revised.
It is time for the Catholic bishops to stop hoping for an increase in vocations to the celibate priesthood and to acknowledge that the church needs married priests to serve the people of God.
Since 1980 over a hundred married men have become Catholic priests via an exception for former Anglican priests known as the Pastoral Provision. Written by a sociologist and married priest himself, this book tells the untold story of these men and their wives based on 115 interviews, survey data, and historical research, bringing the subjects ...
A new book out this week explores the lives of Catholic priests in America who have married, and the married priesthood in the history of the church.