From the University of St. Thomas:

When seminarians from the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity of the University of St. Thomas gather for their annual group photo at the start of the school year on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 7, it will be the largest such gathering since 1980.

The seminary is welcoming 30 new graduate-level seminarians this fall, bringing the total number of men studying for the priesthood to 100. They come from 19 dioceses and institutes of consecrated life in the United States, Ghana, Uganda and Peru. Forty-three of the men are preparing to serve as priests of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The aftermath has been about what I expected it to be: many people took the news in a spirit of curiosity and openness, and joined me in petitioning that the Holy Spirit will enlighten the proper authorities in the Church as they consider what is to be done.

Others immediately rejected the possibility that all clerics in the Latin Rite are bound to observe continence, and instead have responded by attributing a multitude of shady motivations to me and my father for raising the question in the first place (well, to be precise, my father raising the question with competence and me helping to raise its visibility).

In the hopes of keeping this conversation constructive, let’s focus first on what my father proposes may be done, if it is indeed the case that Church law requires married priests and deacons to abstain from sex. My father writes that there are ultimately only four paths forward:

1. Deacons and priests, even if married, must observe perfect and perpetual continence.

2. Canon law requires priests, but not deacons, to observe perfect and perpetual continence.

3. Canon law requires priests (and perhaps deacons, mutatis mutandis) to observe only periodic or temporary continence in regard to the celebration of the Eucharist.

4. Neither deacons nor priests, if married, need observe any sort of continence.

If you notice, No. 1-No. 4 follow a spectrum from most regulated to least regulated when it comes to married clerics and continence. My father has suggested that No. 1 is how the law of the Church currently reads. No. 4, however, is what the majority of married clerics currently practice. No. 3, surprisingly enough (as I explain below) is how many of the Eastern Churches treat married clerics. I think there may be strong reasons in sacramental theology to suggest No. 1 or No. 2 is the best approach.

My father expands on each of these options at-length here. My father also concludes with this:

I think it ironic, to say the least, that Western married deacons and priests, despite belonging to the Church that has unquestionably held with nearly absolute consistency for a celibate (and, even if married, a completely continent) clergy, have —doubtless for lack of direction— adopted an approach to continence that, not only has no support in Western law or tradition, but fails to satisfy even the mitigated continence expectations of various Eastern Churches.

Some people are not struck by the fact that, with no express approbation or endorsement by ecclesiastical authority, such a dramatic abandonment of Western expectations regarding an important area of clerical life has occurred in so short a time.

In other words, the fact that the current lived experience of married deacons and priests in the West, contrary to our long tradition in the Latin Rite of having a celibate (and indeed, continent) clerical state, is now even less restrictive than the mitigated requirements of some Eastern Churches for their married-ordained men, should at the very least give us pause. Maybe we need to take a deep breath and try to understand this issue with more clarity, instead of simply continuing as if there is no question here.

What I have just written above is the most important part of this post, and I would urge you to familiarize yourself with my father’s original argument that Church law requires married priests and deacons to abstain from sex with their wives, and also this page where he explains the four possible canonical and pastoral situations for remedying this problematic situation.

For those who are interested in the next (but related) topic, I would enjoin your patience and good will for a moment. The one reaction I was surprised to see was those who claimed I had ulterior motives in drawing attention to my father’s argument.

I have noticed that, in the absence of me saying everything things explicitly, my critics and those who disagree with me will often attempt to fill in the ensuing void with their own interpretation of my motivates and goals.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to fill in some of those gaps.

First of all, it’s not true that I took any “joy” in informing 15,000+ deacons and married priests that a case is to be made that the Church believes their ordination to holy orders requires them to abstain from marital relations. I have nothing but respect for these men. I know and admire many married deacons, others who are in formation to become married deacons. I know and admire married priests (both in the Latin Rite and in Eastern Churches).

I also love the Church. For years I pursued graduate studies in theology, only pausing after I had earned an M.A. (in moral theology and biblical studies) and an S.T.B as well. I still may go back for more. Because I love the Church and love her teaching, and because I grew up in the house of a Canon Lawyer, I love the Church’s law, and I believe fidelity to the law of the Church and to the Church’s teachings are of paramount priority for a Catholic.

After almost six years of covering Catholic news, it does not surprise me that confusion over proper catholic practice sometimes arises. As a sinner, I know how often I have failed to live up to the love of Christ, and to live up to His laws as they are presented by the Church. It also doesn’t surprise me that Catholics are sometimes ignorant about their faith and about the practices of the Church. I know I’ll be learning about my faith until the day I die, and I try to never shy away from opportunities to learn more about my faith and the practices of the Church.

So why did I take so long to publish my agreement with my father’s assessment of Canon 277? For one thing, the text of my father’s argument was not available online until only recently, so I could only link to it recently. Before this article was available online, I was aware that confusion was growing over this topic. So only after my father posted his argument online did I have the chance to alert others to what the actual argument really was, instead of people hearing second (and third-hand) rumors.

Some have suggested that I timed my posting to undermine the progress of the Anglican ordinariate established by Pope Benedict, because I fear the prospect of more married priests in the Church. This is such a low blow it almost does not deserve an answer, especially considering how quickly and how often I have expressed my sincere joy over the Anglican ordinariate’s creation, and my dedication to defending the ordinariate against those who are worried those Anglicans who accept the offer will be too “orthodox.”

Let me dispel some other misleading claims: I never suggested that married priests and deacons should immediately stop having marital relations. In fact I carefully avoided any such suggestion because it is not at all clear to me that this is the proper course. As for those who have snapped back when they have seen this argument, “well, I’m not going to obey that stupid teaching” – that says more about their (lack of) formation and more about their relationship to the Church than it does about the validity of the point being raised.

A last comment I have seen made about my decision to raise the visibility of this issue is that it was motivated by my “politics.” Now I’ll just come out and admit I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean, except that the type of people who normally make this claim about my actions always tend to interpret my respect for being faithful to the Church’s teaching as a “political” move. Again, that says more about what some people think about the Church than about what (supposedly) motivates me.

To conclude, conversations about the requirement for continence applying to all those in the clerical state (including married clerics ) have been going on for some years and doubtless will continue. It is my prayer and hope that these conversations prompted by my father’s argument and my summaries will help us get closer to the right conclusion, and prepare our hearts to receive whatever clarification comes from Rome.

To all who have sincerely helped move this conversation in that direction, thank you.

Let’s start with Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing, MI – writing about vocations week:

We have a vocation crisis in America. This is not what you think. It is a vocation crisis in marriage. Many are no longer getting married – and too many do not see their marriage as a sacrament, a means of grace for themselves and their families. Yet marriage and family are the natural heart of our society and the spiritual core of our church. Pope John Paul II stated in St. Louis in January 1999: “As the family goes, so goes the nation!” [Continue reading]

Catholic News Service reports on what Pope Benedict said recently about marriage (I am still looking for the full text in English) – unequivocal words:

Describing the family as the “the primary cell of society, … founded on marriage between a man and a woman”, the Pope noted how “it is in the family that children learn the human and Christian values which enable constructive and peaceful coexistence. It is in the family that we learn solidarity between generations, respect for rules, forgiveness and acceptance of others”. In this context he also noted how “the family must, then, be supported by policies … which aim at its consolidation and development, accompanied by appropriate educational efforts”.

“The approval of forms of union which pervert the essence and goal of the family ends up penalising those people who, not without effort, seek to maintain stable emotional ties which are juridically guaranteed and publicly recognised. In this context, the Church looks with favour upon all initiatives which seek to educate young people to experience love as a giving of self, with an exalted and oblational view of sexuality. To this end the various components of society must agree on the objectives of education, in order for human love not to be reduced to an article of consumption, but to be seen and lived as a fundamental experience which gives existence meaning and a goal”.

The pope goes on to call for “giving concrete support for maternity” for not being indifferent to the many abortions that are happening, for the need to care for the elderly, especially those who have no one to care for them already, of the need to support families experiencing financial difficulty, and to address the crisis of unemployment among young people.

Clearly, the pope’s comments on the need to sustain the traditional definition of marriage (as between one man and one woman) exist within a broad framework of supporting these natural marriages in many, many other ways. To put it in a phrase, the pope desires that we create a culture and communities supportive of marriage, because marriage between a man and a women creates and serves communities and culture.

Back on our own shores, Cardinal George (former President of the USCCB) had this to say about legal efforts to redefine the meaning of marriage:

“The Catholic spiritual leader of Chicago visited Boston College recently, where a doctoral student pressed Cardinal Francis George about the Church’s recent opposition to civil-unions legislation recently passed by the Illinois General Assembly.

George told student John Falcone his “argument was not with Mother Church but with Mother Nature,” adding that anyone who advocates same-sex marriage or its equivalent “has lost touch with the common understanding of the human race.”

“No one has the right to change marriage,” George went on to say, neither “the Church” nor “the state.”

While it is one thing “creating laws so that people don’t feel persecuted,” the cardinal explained, “don’t create a law that says apples are oranges.” For a lawmaker to do so, George added, he “betrays his vocation to pass good law,” especially problematic for a “Catholic lawmaker.” [Continue reading]

Whether it is coming from your local pastor, the former head of our bishop-pastors in America, or from the pastor of the universal church, the call is the same: promote marriage!

I intend to personally heed this call. And to that end I have accepted a position with the National Organization for Marriage as their Cultural Director. As always, my writing at AmericanPapist and work in collaboration with CatholicVote will continue uninterrupted. I look for your continued prayers and support!