Married clergy and the vocations problem

The first post on this blog was about married priests in the Anglican churches in the Philippines and how this created a minor controversy in the wake of the Vatican announcing Anglicanorum coetibus  two years ago. But before we proceed we have to make some things clear

The official facts:

The Catholic Church has married priests in the Eastern Catholic Churches. A majority of parishes in the Greek, Ukrainian, Ruthenian churches are staffed by married clergy.

The Latin rite of the Catholic Church (which comprises the vast majority of Catholics) requires that all priests should be celibate (meaning unmarried). However the popes have dispensed with this obligation especially for married ministers of Protestant and Anglican churches called to the Catholic priesthood. A majority of clergy which were given this dispensation were from the Anglican Communion.

The Eastern (Orthodox and Catholic) Churches and the Western (Latin) Church do not allow married men to be consecrated bishops. In the Eastern churches, the bishop is also a monk and since monks are celibate, the bishops must be too. Also the bishop is traditionally seen to be married to their dioceses. In the Eastern Churches a widow may be consecrated as a bishop. In the Roman Catholic Church we know of one cardinal, an former Anglican priest, Cardinal Henry Manning of Westminster, who was a widow. Upon his death and among his cardinal's regalia his staff found that he had a locket with his late wife's picture.

The Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches permit the ordination of married men as deacons. The Latin Church considers married deacons as permanently in the diaconal calling, while in the Eastern Churches they might be ordained as priests. In the Latin Church, the decision to do this lies with the national bishops conference. In the Philippines, the CBCP has not given the go signal but 20 years ago, the subject was brought before the Plenary Council of the Philippines. Deacons like priests and bishops are in Holy Orders

Married and celibate vocations have been honored in the Church since her founding. They are to be considered equal and of complementary value.

And here are some more

It is said that a married clergy will help solve the clergy problem. However even the Protestant churches have suffered a lack of vocations as our society becomes more secular. The Prime Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines, the Most Rev. Edward Malecdan has said that enrolment in the ECP's St Andrew's Theological Seminary has dropped in recent years.

It may be financially hard for a particular church to support married clergy and their families. The Ordinariate in England is facing a financial challenge to support its clergy all of which are former Anglican priests and many of them have families. The support for them should come from the diocese and in this case the Ordinariate. In the Philippines, Roman Catholic dioceses find it increasingly difficult to support secular priests, especially retired one and even the parish church buildings since then dioceses depend mostly on mass stipends. Fr Raymond Arre of UP told me that since the parish church is a national cultural treasure, the parish has to make sure the church and its artworks are well maintained and this entails increasing costs on top of supporting the priests and parish staff.

The Eastern Churches in the USA also face the same problems as they ordain married men for service in that country. In the Philippines, poor communities may find it difficult to support a married cleric and his family.

It appears that vocations to the clerical state in the Catholic, Anglican/Episcopal and Protestant churches have been decreasing and this isn't due to the religious traditions they have (clerical celibacy or a married clergy) but to the increasing secularization of Filipino society. Perhaps one solution is to revive spirituality among the youth. One Anglican UP graduate sent me a private message on Facebook and he told me that his Episcopalian grandparents who were devout Anglicans were the reason why his uncles and a brother had religious vocations. One uncle became a vicar general of a Roman Catholic diocese and his brother became a Roman Catholic priest!

It is the family and how the family lives out its faith traditions that is the seedbed of religious vocations to the Catholic Church and this religious tradition need not be Roman Catholic at all.

My personal take on the matter is that I value the call to celibacy and to the married state as equally valuable since they are premised on being faithful. If one is single and in the lay state, then there is no choice but to be celibate. If one is married then one is no longer celibate but has to be faithful to his/her spouse and family. As I said the family is the seedbed of religious vocations.

In a secularizing Philippines, it is increasingly hard to live out these Christian callings.

Scottish Anglican Clergyman Ordained a Catholic Priest

On July 17, 2011, a Scottish Anglican clergyman was ordained a Catholic priest and this is of interest to me here in the Philippines.

As reported in the Scottish Catholic Observer, Fr. Len Black, formerly of St Michael of All Angels Episcopal Church in Inverness, was ordained at a mass presided over by Bishop Philip Tartaglia of Paisley.  Interestingly, Fr. Black was ordained into the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, not into his local territorial diocese.

This is interesting because Scotland is not part of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales,* the bishops' conference of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and usually the jurisdiction of an Anglican Personal Ordinariate is limited to the geographical area covered by its bishops' conference (e.g. England and Wales, the United States, the Philippines).

This is good news to our effort in the Philippines for two reasons.

First, this means that the bishops are being generous and charitable in the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus.  Many critics of the Anglicanorum Coetibus said that established Catholic bishops wouldn't be.  I am thrilled that the bishops are proving the critics wrong.

Second, this means that we here in the Philippines if given permission can join an Anglican Ordinariate even if that Ordinariate is not under the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines but is rather part of the bishops' conference of Australia, the United States, or maybe even the United Kingdom.  A Filipino Anglican priest can become an Anglican Ordinariate priest and stay here in the Philippines ministering to Filipinos.  It is possible. This is precedent.  This is a possible road map to follow.

Of course, we should not get ahead of ourselves.  There is no prospect – yet – for such an ordination.  And there would be much work, prayer and discernment to do before that.  However now we know that such an outcome would be permissible under Anglicanorum Coetibus and acceptable to bishops and the Vatican.



For more information on the Ordinariate in Scotland, you can visit the Scottish Ordinariate group's webpage here: http://www.scotlandordinariate.com/

Here is the webpage for the group in Inverness, Scotland: http://www.ordinariate.org.uk/inverness.htm When you go to say hi to the Loch Ness Monster, stop by and join them for mass.


*Note: While the United Kingdom is a unitary, not a federal, state, the formerly separate Kingdoms of Scotland and of England (which includes Wales) still maintain many separate and distinct institutions.  Having different Catholic bishops' conferences is just one example. Other include having a different legal system and different established churches.


The two kingdoms were unified in a personal union in 1603 when Scottish King James VI also became King of England, James I.  The kingdoms were merged and became the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1807 with the addition of Ireland, which lasted until 1922 and Irish Independence.  In recent decades, during the time of Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Scottish Parliament was re-established, along with the Welsh Parliament, but despite this the United Kingdom remains a unitary state.

Anglicanorum Coetibus in the Philippines: some initial reactions on married clergy

Pope Benedict XVI promulgated the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus (AC) last October. The constitution is a significant church document that establishes a new particular church. In this case this church is not bounded by a territorial jurisdiction but is defined by persons having a similar faith tradition. The constitution established a personal ordinariate (equivalent to a territorial diocese) for individual or groups of Anglicans and Anglican churches who wish to join the Roman Catholic Church.

The Pope's constitution puts a premium in preserving Anglican patrimony and its liturgies as long as these do not contradict Catholic doctrine as stated in the Catholic Catechism. The Anglicans in the Catholic Church will be permitted to have their Anglican married clergy on a case to case basis, their bishops can be ordained bishops if unmarried, married Anglican bishops can be priest-ordinaries and can wear their episcopal insignia. The appointment of future bishops will be on the recommendation of the Anglican ordinariate governing council and not just by the Papal nuncio. This according to the norms, respects the synodical tradition in Anglicanism.

The AC as we call it is the subject of many discussion in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Anglicans planning to become Catholic and even secular blogosphere. Surely the Ordinariate scheme is a significant development in Church history but how will it be applied?

The secular press latched on the idea of the Ordinariate becoming the only place in the Roman Catholic Church where married priests are allowed. The Vatican had to clarify that the Church has previously allowed exception to celibacy for convert clergy but even in the Ordinariates it will still be the exception rather than the norm. I don't think a radical revision of the discipline of the Latin Church will be good as of this time. It has to be recalled that the Eastern Catholic Churches allow married priests but THEY ARE THE BIGGEST FANS of the discipline of celibacy.

In the Philippines this is the first initial reaction to the AC as evidenced by this bit of news about the opinions of the Catholic Bishop of Baguio and the Anglican Dean of Baguio on the matter. How workable is having married clergy in the Catholic Church? I find their reactions a bit strange and rather negative. Filipinos don't have a problem with married clergy. I believe that a majority of Filipino Catholics can accept married clergy if they are models for Christian living. Many would say if the Protestant pastor in town can have a family and manage to be holy, why can't the Catholic priest? Also the problem of poor communities having a married pastor is not a big hindrance. Many married Protestant ministers are serving poor communities. And another thing, many congregations are smaller than Catholic ones and are not organized along episcopal lines. Thus it would be more financially difficult  for a congregation to support a pastor than a larger Catholic diocese supporting a priest.

The Filipino Catholic resistance to a married clergy probably is with the clerics themselves. Having a married clergy would require a new way of looking at being clergy. We laypeople have dealt with Protestant ministers and Catholic priests and we don't see any problem at all. There have been faithful married pastors and Catholic priests [more in the majority, Deo gratias!] as well as unfaithful ones.

My opinion here does not mean that I downplay celibacy as an authentic vocation of the priesthood. Celibacy indeed has its gifts and is in perfect accordance to the will of Christ as stated in the Gospels.

It still puzzles me that the Philippine hierarchy has not yet instituted the permanent diaconate in the Philippines as revived by Vatican II. Our social and religious situation makes the role of the permanent deacon  more essential. There is a need for ordained ministers to fulfill tasks of catechesis and works of charity. This is the ministry of deacons.

Roman Catholic permanent deacons can be married and have secular jobs. They too can be unmarried but they will be required to remain celibate but can have a secular jobs. My parish in Louisiana has a married deacon who is a top notch trial lawyer. On many times I have approached him for advice on legal and spiritual matters. Surely many Filipino men can be deacons as they live holy lives and are successful in their professions or trades.

But permanent deacons can be married. And I'm pretty sure if the Philippine bishops institute it, many who will have the vocation will be married. And they will bring their wives and families to their ministries. I believe that the acerbic debate on reproductive health would be less acidic if you have married deacons [and a few convert married priests!] to explain the Catholic side.

But the question is if the hierarchy is able to accept a married clergy. The laypeople can.