A Melkite Greek Catholic prelate says that the Latin Rite should
learn from the experience of Eastern Catholic Churches and consider
ordaining married men to the priesthood.
“We always propose this to the Latin church because you are Catholic and
we are Catholic, but we always feel a lot of reticence when we mention
this issue to the Roman Catholic Church,” said Archbishop Georges
Bacaouni of Tyr, Lebanon.
“I don’t know, but I think it could be helpful
to allow a married person to be a priest.”
His rite’s tradition, he added, is “to choose someone who has his own
work in the particular village, a good man, a faithful man, a Christian
man. He will study a little bit, some theology and philosophy, and he
will be ordained.”
In its Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, the Second Vatican
Council voiced respect for the Eastern tradition of ordaining married
men to the priesthood and strongly praised clerical celibacy.
Born in 1962, Archbishop Bacaouni was ordained a priest in 1995 and appointed archbishop in 2005.
SIC: CC/INT'L