Friday, January 4, 2008

Married Priests not necessarily the solution

A Ukranian Bishop, where married clergy are common, said recently that admitting married men into the clerical state is not guaranteed to solve any vocations crisis, nor will it improve the quality of priests.
"Abolishing celibacy is not a solution in itself," he said. "The quality of the priest does not depend on whether or not he is married. This has been our experience, and I think people are wrong if they think the vocations problem can be resolved by ordaining married persons. It will not ensure a large number of vocations.
I come from a priestly family," he said.

"My grandfather was a priest, and other members of the family were priests; some were married, others were not.
If a person is good, he will be a good priest, and this does not depend on the fact that he is married," Cardinal Husar said.
(Full Article)
This is some wisdom that I wish more Catholics would realize. I'm still a bit undecided whether priestly ordination should be allowed to be conferred on married men in the Roman Rite. It might be beneficial in some ways, and it would be detrimental in some ways. But, there is no reason why it would solve all our priestly problems.

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