Optional Celibacy: So All Can Be At the Table Jesuits Call for Married Priests
A moving editorial in the Jesuit weekly America recently called for the “recruitment and training of married men” as priests, ordaining permanent deacons to the priesthood, and welcoming back married priests. Saying that, “Silence and fervent prayer for vocations are no longer adequate responses to the priest shortage in the United States,” the May fourth issue asked U.S. bishops to take greater leadership in openly discussing remedies to the priest shortage as the church prepares to observe the Year of the Priest.
In the midst of worldwide calls to change celibacy rules, FutureChurch is pleased to announce an important new initiative: Optional Celibacy: So All Can Be At the Table. This effort builds on our earlier work at the 2005 International Synod on the Eucharist where the priest shortage dominated the agenda and four of twelve bishop small groups asked for further study of married priests.
It is also one outcome of a survey conducted over the past year to help us determine next steps in our work to change church rules to include both married and celibate priests. Initial survey feedback indicated strong support for international, national and local networking for petitioning church leaders to discuss mandatory celibacy and women’s roles in the church. Other favored strategies included education about the priest shortage and the history of mandatory celibacy. Surprisingly there was significant support for encouraging priests themselves to speak up about the need to change celibacy rules. (Final survey results will be available in August.)
In light of the unprecedented success of our Synod on the Word postcards last fall, FutureChurch is launching an international electronic and paper postcard campaign asking Cardinal Hummes at the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome to open discussion of optional celibacy at the highest levels of the Church. Cardinal Hummes himself spoke in favor of discussing celibacy rules before he left Brazil. Also, it is likely that his office is already familiar with parishes closing because of the priest shortage since and the burgeoning number of appeals from devastated parishioners land on his desk.
We will also approach national bishops conferences, priest organizations and international reform groups for support in requesting discussion of changing celibacy rules to include both a married and celibate priesthood in the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church.
The new project is most timely since calls for changing celibacy rules are rapidly expanding, especially in the face of widespread parish closings. Consider the following:
- In March, 2009 New York’s Cardinal Egan said he believed optional celibacy would be coming up for discussion by the church’s hierarchy: “I think it is a perfectly legitimate discussion” (Catholic News Service)
- In Brazil and Austria, groups representing 18,300 priests are lobbying for changes in celibacy rules.
- A recent Irish poll found that two thirds of Irish Catholics believe priests should be allowed to marry, and thousands of British Catholics presented a statement asking for married priests and discussion of women priests to the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
- A recent Pew study found that four times as many U.S. Catholics leave the Church as join it, more than any other denomination.
In just the past three years, over 400 parishes across the United States have closed, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Sadly, this scenario is being repeated in Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe as the irreversibility of the priest shortage hits home. Likewise thousands of Catholics in the developing world have minimal access to Mass and the sacraments because of too few celibate priests.
FutureChurch has worked for nearly twenty years to raise awareness about the need to change celibacy rules. While we are saddened to see so many Catholics suffer from the failure of church leaders to address the priest shortage, we do not lose heart and we redouble our efforts on behalf of the People of God.
What you can do:
- Send a paper postcard to Claudio Cardinal Hummes and order paper postcards (for Cardinal Hummes and our own bishop) for your friends to send.
- Or visit www.futurechurch.org to send an electronic postcard and cc: your local bishop and officials at the U.S. Bishops’ conference. Email your friends to send a postcard too.
- Sponsor a special Optional Celibacy: So All Can Be at the Table educational program and prayer service on the priest shortage and best practices for preserving vibrant parishes (available June 30, 2009 at www.futurechurch.org).
- Educate yourself and your faith community by purchasing the Future of Priestly Ministry and Save our Parish Community resource packets.
