Posted on 05/31/2019 6:25:55 AM PDT by ebb tide
May 30, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Thomas Schüller, a German canon law expert and university professor, predicts that the upcoming Amazon Synod will ask for married priests for the Amazon region, after which the German bishops will also “for sure” ask for them.
“This [Amazon Synod] will encourage the bishops’ conferences and the regions of the Universal Church — which are also affected by the lack of priests — to make a similar request while at the same time honoring a freely chosen celibacy.” Rome would “surely examine such a request with a benevolent attitude,” he explains.
The German professor predicts married priests in Germany as well.
Speaking with the diocesan online newspaper Kirche und Leben, the professor from Münster argues that the majority of German bishops have already shown interest in the introduction of married priests in Germany.
Schüller expects that the Amazon Synod this fall will make a decision in favor of married priests for the West (Leute-Priester — “people’s priests”) in the face of the lack of priests in Latin America generally. These new priests would be “married men with an experience of marriage and family life who would fulfill their priestly duties on the weekends.”
This new model of the married priest seems to assume that the priest has a civil profession during the week and thus sustains his family.
“The overwhelming majority of the German bishops,” Schüller added, “have already positioned themselves to be in favor of it [married priesthood]. Why should they not send such a request to Rome?”
In any event, the German professor is of the opinion that regional bishops’ conferences should be able to go their own ways. He will present his ideas at an upcoming May 24–25 conference in Münster, in the presence of Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, who recently announced that after the Amazon Synod, “nothing will be the same as before” in the Church. Professor Thomas Sternberg, the head of the German Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), a strong proponent of liberal Church reforms, will be present as well.
Professor Hermann Josef Pottmeyer will also be among the speakers at that conference. He is an opponent of papal centralism and of a “preconciliar ecclesiology” and stated in 2010 with regard to the role of the pope: “In other words, the bishop of Rome should normally make no decrees and no decisions affecting the universal church without formally [first] inviting the participation of the local churches and their bishops. Further, the local churches and their regional associations or bishops’ conferences should decide any regulations that do not threaten the unity of the whole Church.”
Pottmeyer was also one of the speakers at a seminar dedicated to the theme “The Reform and the Reforms of the Church and in the Church,” organized by Father Antonio Spadaro, S.J., a papal confidant. The seminar had taken place before the second Family Synod in 2015 and aroused suspicion due to its secret character.
Professor Schüller stated in his interview in light of the conference on the role of the national bishops’ conferences that “it is important to maintain unity in the essential matters, but at the same time to make possible a plurality which nevertheless is Catholic.”
As an example, he mentioned the admission of Protestant spouses of Catholics to Holy Communion. This question is more important in Germany than in Italy, where there are barely any Protestants. “Why, in such cases, should a national bishops’ conference not go down its own path?”
Another theologian, the Austrian professor Paul Zulehner, earlier argued for this kind of approach. He is a proponent of married priests and even claimed, in a January 2018 interview, that there will be “first married priests” and then “female priests.” In this 2018 interview, he stressed that there is taking place in Rome a change of attitude and that Rome wishes now to learn from the local bishops’ conferences.
He then told the Austrian newspaper Kurier: “Before there will be female priests, there will take place an opening up of the Catholic ecclesiastical office [the priesthood] to the married [in the Latin rite]. I guess that the Latin American bishops will decide this at the Synod for the Pan-Amazon Region in 2019. The pope probably will back them up. This will then put others under pressure to follow the example of the Latin Americans. This way, the Church will change.”
Speaking about the change of attitude in Rome under Pope Francis, Zulehner explained that “now the bishops’ conferences are being asked to decide about things which are important for us and then to inform the Vatican and then the Pope can say: Do it exactly that way!”
Pope Francis: Making a mess.
Ping
Will we see the wedding vowels of a Father Philip and a Father Bruce?
Plus also St.Peter, the first Pope was married.
We already accept married priests from Eastern Rite and Anglican churches. This is a non-issue to me.
From a pragmatic standpoint the choice is rapidly coming down to one between married priests and no priests.
Plus the Eastern Rite Catholics have married priests allowed. But their bishops have to come from the monesteries. Also permanent deacons are often married.
Clerical celibacy was the rule (not doctrine, but discipline) at the time, he just didn't care (until he rose up the ranks).
It's o.k. though, lots of us have ancestors on the wrong side of the blanket. And, like my ggggg grandfather who was an outlawed MacGregor who left Scotland one jump ahead of the hangman, when they're a few generations removed it's all rather romantic.
Plus we have permanent deacons.
This issue is pretty much a non-issue.
Wolsey and Richilieu both had mistresses, not wives. The celibate priesthood as a mandatory thing goes back a lot further than that. As a voluntary thing it goes back to St. Paul who wrote about it.
Byzantine Catholics have always had married priests. They have to be married before entering seminary, but they are not only allowed but encouraged. We have one in our parish now. He will be leaving for Pittsburgh (I think) to teach ethics in the Byzantine Catholic Seminary there. Our pastor, on the other hand, is celibate.
“From a pragmatic standpoint the choice is rapidly coming down to one between married priests.”
I have the same opinion as well. The “unmarried priesthood” and a vow of celebacy ensured that most the people who chose to be priests were damaged in some way that prevented them from a normal family life. It opened the door of the church priesthood to queers, pedophiles, and mysoginists.
You have done a lot of family history research.
Bingo, you got that right!
[[[Cardinal Woolsey has a lot of descendants in America, including me. ]]]]
And James.
Would not be surprised if PDJT is a descendent of either Cardinal Woolsey or King James.
You forgot the most important thing: it ensured that the wealth those priests back then amassed (and any student of church history knows they amassed a lot of wealth) was passed on to the church and not their bastard children. The priests still had mistresses and bastards. However, the vow of celibacy ensured the widows and kids couldn’t inherit their fortunes and that it passed to the church. Silly me-you would think someone taking a vow of celibacy would actually stay pure and holy rather than do everything a married man would do without the committing the sin of doing it outside marriage.
Richelieu was, of course, famous for multiple mistresses. I am not aware that he actually recognized any offspring, though he was rumored to have fathered many. So, yes, it would be a stretch to say that he was married.
It would be no stretch to point out that neither Wolsey nor Richelieu was celibate.
But Paul also said (as did Jesus) that only certain people had that gifting and it was better to be married than to burn. He wishes all were like him but it was not a command of the Lord and it’s better to have a wife and be a minister (1 Corinthians 7; 1 Timothy 3; Titus 1) than to burn with lust. That’s what a whole bunch of ministers do-married ministers and those who are forced to remain celibate. If you can’t control your sexual urges-you shouldn’t be in the ministry or you should be married.
What a ridiculous statement. The number of good priests, as well as the many celibate saints, disproves it. This push for married priests is just a part of the campaign to say that sexual self-control is impossible. The Latin church has been well served by celibate priests for centuries. At this time of over-sexualization, the witness of celibacy is needed more than ever; not something to get rid of.
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