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Show T1 ' " MARRIED PPflESTS. This note of inquiry may interest a number of persons: Editor of Catholic Columbian: Dear Sir In you local column of week before last issue T noted the announcement that Mgr. Specht had recently officiated at the dedication of a church in Ohio which will be presided over by a married priest.. Will 3-ou kindly explain why the Church thus countenances a departure from its customary regulation of celibacy among the clergy ? And in so doing you will enlighten some of your readers who may have been scandalized by a bald statement of the facts. J. C. W. It is true that the law of the Catholic Church forbids men living in the married state to be ordained or-dained priests and forbids men in holy orders to marry. But while this general law enforces celibacy, there are some exceptions to it in the Church of lhe East, notably among the Kuthenians, who are descendants of converts from the Russian Church. There we have some bodies of Catholics who have a married clergy. In this thev only imitate the customs, of the Russian and Greek Churches, by whieh they are surrounded and influenced. In the Russian Orthodox Church the secular priests must be married and are mostly sons of priests. But the bishops are celibate and are therefore ehocon from the monks. In the Greek Church almost all the priests are married. But they must marry before thev are ordained or-dained deacons, or they cannot afterwards take a wife. Xor can a priest, whose wife dies, marry again. The bishops are unmarried and are usually selected from among the monks. . There are about a dozen married priests in this country, of whom half are in Pennsylvania. Thev are mostly Ruthenians, originally from Poland, and follow the Greek rite. Catholic Columbian. ; 4. |
