For years — unto ages of ages, amen — I have hit the same roadblock when reading mainstream news stories about the Catholic church and mandatory celibacy for priests. You know: We’re talking about statements that the Catholic church does not allow the ordination of married men to the priesthood.
It’s a classic, “Close, but no cigar” situation. The problem is that it is mostly true, but the statement simply is not accurate. Thus, news organizations should not publish or broadcast this kind of statement.
It is accurate to say that MOST Catholic priests are not married. It’s even better to say that MOST priests in Catholicism’s LATIN Rite are required to be celibate. You see, even in the Latin Rite there are some former Episcopal priests and a few Lutheran pastors who were allowed to make the transition to the Catholic priesthood — after they were married.
However, in terms of statistics, the main thing that reporters need to know is that married priests are the norm in the Eastern Rite bodies that are in communion with the Vatican. These churches exist in North America, but they are at the heart of Catholic life in the Middle East. Many readers, and apparently quite a few editors, get confused and assume that these churches are part of ancient Eastern Orthodox Christianity (where married priests are the norm, as well).
Every now and then, a news hook comes along that encourages journalists to remember that there are lots and lots married priests in the Christian East. That leads to helpful stories such as this think piece in The Washington Post: “Pope Francis won’t allow married priests in the Amazon. But in this part of the world, married priests are the norm.” Here is the rather standard-form overture:
ROME — After one-and-a-half years of feeling their bond deepen, after coffee meetups and French study sessions, Oleh Kindiy leaned in close to his girlfriend in a mostly quiet chapel and offered her a ring. She said yes. But asking for marriage was just his first question.
Because soon after, Kindiy sat down with her again. He told her, this time, that he was interested in becoming a priest in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. If he started down that path and enrolled at a seminary, he’d see her initially only on weekends. And that was just the first sacrifice they’d have to make together. Was that okay?
“I wanted to be honest with her,” said Kindiy, now 41.
Her agreement helped to launch, for Kindiy, the kind of life impossible in most parts of the Catholic world — that of a priest who is married, not celibate, and who divides attention between his family and his clerical duties.
There are a few tone-deaf glitches in the following lines, such as:
Catholic leaders have long resisted the idea of married clerics in the mainstream Latin Church, considering celibacy an essential element for devoted priests, and this week Pope Francis declined to approve the ordination of married men in the Amazon region.
Whoa. The “mainstream” Latin Church? So the ancient Eastern Rite churches are NOT mainstream? What is the opposite of “mainstream”? Strange? I’m not even sure that it is accurate to say they are “unusual,” since that is not an accurate statement in some parts of the world. What is “mainstream” in Palestine and Lebanon?
Maybe it is best to simply say that these Eastern Catholic flocks are SMALLER than the dominant Latin Rite.
Here is the section of the article that I think some reporters will want to read and ponder, as they consider local-angle stories on this topic. This is long, but essential:
“Right now, we are in a period of retrenchment,” said the Rev. Paul Sullins, a married former Episcopalian priest who converted to Catholicism in 1998. “I don’t think the Latin Rite Catholic Church or the vast majority of dioceses are anywhere near the place of accepting married priests on a regular basis.”
The prospect of married clergy presents additional complications, according to experts who have studied the issue. Married priests tend to cost the church more in terms of housing and health care. If they have young families, it can be harder for them to move between parishes midcareer.
And allowing for marriage may not be enough to attract young people to the priesthood. Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, told reporters last year that his rite, too, is dealing with shortages.
“It’s not like marriage is some automatic cure,” said Adam DeVille, an associate professor at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Ind., who has edited and contributed to a forthcoming book on the married Catholic priesthood. He said that the strains of the priesthood can also take a toll on families and marriages.
“I know that from seeing people really, really struggle,” DeVille said.
Then for additional information on some of these issues, let me point journalists and news consumers to the work of Father Dwight Longenecker, a Roman Catholic priest in South Carolina — a married priest who is also a former journalist. Also, click here for an “On Religion” column in which I asked Longenecker if he thinks that a move toward married priests is inevitable in the Latin Rite.