Posted on 06/09/2002 12:04:47 PM PDT by sinkspur
These Catholic priests have parishes and families, too
Father John Gremmels, pastor of the largest Catholic parish in the Diocese of Fort Worth, excuses himself from a telephone interview to take what he says is an important call on his cell phone.
"Hello. Yes, Mom's on her way to get you," he says. "OK. Love you. Bye."
"That was my daughter," the priest says of Alban, who just turned 16. "She needs a ride from ballet."
No, this isn't another scandal in a church besieged by allegations of sexual abuse by priests and cover-ups by prominent bishops. The three Gremmels children will be the first to tell you that.
"Pope John Paul II approved it," they've learned to quickly answer when they get questioning looks from people who learn that their father is a Father.
"It definitely gets a conversation started," says 18-year-old Becket, who just completed his freshman year at the University of Notre Dame. "They always say, 'So, you're Episcopalian.' I say, 'No, I'm Catholic.' And they say, 'Well, how does that work?' "
In 1980, the Catholic priesthood was opened to Episcopal priests when the pope signed a "pastoral provision" providing that dispensation. Experts believe that there are about 80 married former Episcopal priests serving as priests in the U.S. Catholic Church. There are 10 times as many in England, says Father Paul Sullins, a professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Father Sullins himself was an Episcopal priest for 14 years before converting to Catholicism. Now he's an associate pastor in a Maryland parish.
Father Gremmels, pastor at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Keller, is one of four married priests in the Fort Worth Diocese. Father Allan Hawkins is another, serving at St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington, one of eight former Episcopal parishes nationwide that have corporately converted to Catholicism. And Father Loyd Morris, a grandfather, is one of five married priests in the Diocese of Dallas. He is pastor at St. Anthony in Wylie.
Some married priests, such as Father Gremmels and Father Morris, say the most difficult aspect is time.
"Time-wise, it's a zoo," says Father Gremmels. "There's not enough to go around."
Father Gremmels, who seems to know everyone by name at the parish attended by some 7,000 people on any given weekend, says he sometimes must make tough decisions. For example, wife Tracy says that Alban had a 4 p.m. ballet recital recently. Her husband had to miss the 4 p.m. Mass (an associate pastor stepped in) but raced back to the parish to celebrate the 5:30 Mass.
"He needs to be in two places at one time, and we all know that's impossible," she says.
But the family's faith is extremely important, and they work around the scheduling difficulties. And parishioners seem to like having a married priest.
Martha Garcia, a parishioner at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for 12 years, says she likes the fact that, as a father of three, Father Gremmels understands what parents are going through.
But not just anyone could do both, says Mary Bates, a parishioner for six years.
"The whole family has to be willing to do it," she says.
Father Morris, who has two grown sons, says it would be difficult for him if he were trying to raise young children. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1995 after serving as an Episcopal priest for 18 years.
"What I've got is two families now," he says, "and I love them both."
Both men say that allowing more married priests wouldn't necessarily be the answer to the current crisis.
Father Hawkins believes it could help. He and his wife and grown children have been at the same parish for 22 years and through its transition from Episcopal church to Catholic. St. Mary the Virgin is an "Anglican use" parish, which means it is permitted to retain the Anglican liturgy with modifications.
The Catholic Church has other married priests, in fact – parishes within the Eastern rite tradition have always had them – so it's not a matter of doctrine but of tradition and practice, says Father Hawkins. It can be reconsidered.
"I think Rome might feel that, in light of recent events, in light of the needs of the church currently, that the matter ought to be reconsidered," he says. "The Holy Father has said several times recently that the church is simply not the church without the Mass at its center. Now there are places where there are so few priests that that idea is threatened. So which becomes more important, maintaining the tradition of the celibate priesthood or making sure that there are actually Masses available to people?"
Dr. Dean Hoge, a sociology professor at Catholic University, has been surveying priests since 1970. His most recent survey, part of the "Pulpit and Pew" research initiative at Duke University Divinity School in 2001, found that:
• 72 percent of priests agree that the U.S. Catholic Church should continue to welcome married Episcopal priests.
• 52 percent agree that priests who have resigned should be invited to reapply for permission to function as priests, whether married or single.
• 56 percent believe that celibacy should be a matter of personal choice for priests.
Dr. Hoge says that, although the rule allowing former Episcopal priests who are married to become Catholic priests is unfair to others, there doesn't appear to be any resentment.
But another factor that comes into the picture is the priest shortage, he says. He says that about 60 or 70 percent of positions are going unfilled. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, the number of priests dropped from 58,632 in 1965 to 45,191 in 2001.
Those going into the vocation are doing so later in life, Dr. Hoge says. In 1970, the average age at ordination was 27 years and the average age of priests was 47. In 2001, the average age at ordination was 36, and the average age of priests was 60, according to his surveys.
"In my judgment, they need to increase the flow of married priests to fix the problem," he says. "I think there'd be more candidates if they made it easier. Why not bring in married Catholics? I promise you, some of them would love to come back."
Louise Haggett agrees. She founded C.I.T.I. (Celibacy Is The Issue). Mrs. Haggett started the group after having trouble in 1991 finding a priest to see her sick and grieving mother, who was in an assisted-living facility. She also discovered that a friend had been in a relationship with a priest for 13 years. She did some research and found that many priests had left to get married. She also found that married Episcopal priests were being ordained in the Catholic Church, and she considered that an injustice to Catholic priests who left the church to marry. She tried to contact as many of those priests as possible.
Today, her group numbers about 2,500 priests. Her web site, www.rentapriest.com, includes about 300 priests from all over the country who make themselves available to Catholics for weddings, funerals and baptisms. However, the church doesn't recognize their sacramental services.
"There are two crises in the church right now – a worldwide shortage of priests and the scandal of some 300 priests involved in abuse," says Mrs. Haggett, of Massachusetts. "Optional celibacy would end both those problems only because it would open up the pool to more psychologically fit people."
On the flip side is a group called The Coming Home Network, a support group for mostly Protestant pastors who have converted to Catholicism or are considering it and some of whom would like to be ordained. The Ohio group was founded by a Presbyterian minister who converted to Catholicism in 1992.
"He thought he was a strange duck at the time, but he found he wasn't as peculiar as he thought," says Jim Anderson, assistant director of the group. "He started finding lay Protestants and ordained ministers coming out of the woodwork."
The group numbers nearly 700 members, and they're from about 50 denominations, with Episcopalians leading the way. Second are Baptists. Others include Methodists, Presbyterians, Eastern Orthodox, Quakers and one Wiccan.
Regardless of what happens, Father Gremmels says he'll be happy with whatever the church does.
"Following the church is following Christ," he says.
Exceptions must always become normative for those who feel "different." Instead of being greatful, he demands that he be the norm and everyone else change.
I know there are PLENTY of priests who have abandoned their former church and found solace and refuge in Catholicism who do not feel a need to have everyone else change; but, as that is not the purpose of these articles - optional celibacy, married priests etc - so we don't hear from them
The largest parish in our diocese is in the care of a married priest, Fr. Gremmels. He's built a Church, and his parish wants to build an elementary school.
It makes little sense to welcome these men into the Catholic Church and continue to shut out married men who have spent their lives in the Catholic Faith.
Is it more important to maintain celibacy as a rule, or to provide the sacraments to the people?
Is the Pope a leftist because he allows these men to come into the Catholic priesthood?
Also, the Orthadox church allows priests to marry...I don't think married riests within the Catholic church will solve the problems of accusations of sexual molestation though, because I have had a sneaking suspician from the beginning that the persecution of Catholic priests is VERY similar to the rash of day care center molestation cases : more bogus witch hunt than fact.
HE MISSED SAYING MASS FOR A BALLET RECITAL???? THIS IS ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS!!!
It's obvious that he doesn't have a clue as to priorities.
This is exactly why priests should NOT be married except in extremely unusual circumstances, and where they've proven that they have some common sense.
Today, her group numbers about 2,500 priests. Her web site, www.rentapriest.com, includes about 300 priests from all over the country who make themselves available to Catholics for weddings, funerals and baptisms.
These people are in schism. They are not a part of the Catholic Church. Anyone receiving the sacraments from them are not receiving the sacraments at all.
Marriage is the norm for the vast majority of men,not celibacy. The Church has to decide if celibacy as a value is more important than the availability of the sacraments.
The presence of married men in the priesthood does nothing to denigrate the vocation of a man who is truly called to celibacy.
Let him accept it who can accept it.
Did you read the article? The associate pastor celebrated the Mass.
Our bishop entrusts the largest parish in our diocese to this man, and his parish absolutely loves him and his family.
These people are in schism. They are not a part of the Catholic Church. Anyone receiving the sacraments from them are not receiving the sacraments at all.
They are not in schism. The priests are functioning illicitly, since they don't have faculties to function as priests where they are.
But the sacraments over which they officiate are valid.
Yes, I read the article. The problem is that he chose going to a ballet recital over saying Mass.
The fact that an associate pastor said it for him is no excuse.
He is clueless when it comes to priorities, and it's obvious that man can't serve two mistresses at the same time: the Church as a priest, and marriage as a husband.
Read it again, bub yourself. I said that the group referred to in the article -- RentAPriest -- is not valid. Not all married priests.
Oh really? Unlike those who are saying mass whilst they abuse children who are servers or parishioners?
Matthew 23: (25) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
24 "You (26)blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For (27) you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.
26 "You blind Pharisee, first (28) clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
27 "(29) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
28 "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Celibacy is a charism, recognized in our Church and in yours.
But only the Latin Rite chooses to ordain celibate Catholic men exclusively. It will admit to the priesthood, however, married men from other faiths.
Doesn't make sense.
Instead, it seems to say that married priests face extraordinary challenges. I think it's great that these guys are able to do it, to the extent they actually succeed, but it hardly sounds like a good argument for married priests at large.
I think they should keep this small window open for the Episcopalians, but that's it.
A Mass that another priest said.
You're just being petty.
And you're dead wrong about the validity of the sacraments of priests from this group. Catholics should not seek them out, to be sure. But they are validly ordained men that the Church ought to be utilizing.
I believe this logical fallacy is called "false choice."
There are many theories as to what causes clerical abuse. The fact that it is not limited to Catholics, as well as, from what I've read, not statistically more prevalent leads me to doubt any causal link to the celibacy requirement.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.