Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Fr. Dwight Longenecker on Married Catholic Clergy




I have been a fan of Fr. Dwight Longenecker ever since I read More Christianity, and listening to his conversion story on the Journey Home with Marcus Grodi, where he told the story of how he went from a married Anglican priest to a married Catholic Priest.

Recently he published an article sharing his thoughts on the discipline (not dogma / doctrine) of the Catholic Church regarding married priests. I recently had a conversation with a good friend of mine regarding this discipline, and thought that Fr. Longenecker's post was quite timely.

If you can spare a couple of minutes, I would highly suggest the read.


Excerpt:
From time to time I am asked to justify or explain the fact that I am a married man with four children, and also a Catholic priest. There are strong feelings in the 'celibate priests' debate on both sides, and people expect me to have all the answers. I hate to disillusion those who wish to recruit me for either side of the debate. My own views are a mixture of common sense and loyalty to the traditions and teachings of Mother Church....

1 comment:

Belteshazzar Mouse said...

Wow, timely and very well put. I will look toward Father Longenecker's site again, even though it appears to be somewhat sensationalist occasionally (Elton John leader of the Church of England8^).

The one thing that Father Longenecker fails to mention is married Catholic priests are accepted in the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church. There are other eastern rites, like Maronite, that _may_ also allow married priests outside of the United States. (I am not certain on Maronites. I know married Eastern Catholic Priests.)

So, it does confuse me that the current Roman rite leaders continue to deny that married priests could be valid in the Roman rite and site passages of scripture that they believe supports their idea. What makes the Roman rite so different?

What does not confuse me is that the Holy Spirit has not led this to the point of Doctrine. I do believe that if and when the time is right, there will be ordination of priests in the Roman rite once again.