First time — supposedly — since the First Council of the Lateran imposed the celibacy requirement.
Surely, there have been cases of the illegitimate sons of priests going on to the priesthood, but this is an example of an openly married Catholic priest. There's loophole, you know, for Anglican priests who go papist.
January 12, 2009
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17 comments:
Ah yes, the passive "it is thought to be the first time."
Did they do any research to support that? Widowers are also eligible to be priests, after all; it's hard to imagine there being exactly zero cases of this sort of thing for 900 years.
What about Pope Alexander VI and his son Cesare Cardinal Borgia (~AD 1490)? Or are popes and cardinals exempt from this calculus?
Father and son duo are first to serve in priesthood for 900 years.
Throw the deceased grandfather in there and you've got a trinity.
Does this mean Priests can now multiply? Without birth control there can be a Priest Dynasties. Good luck getting any in public all you Priest guys.
They were suspicious when the young priest admitted his "booty call to faith."
Along with widowers and ex-Anglicans, another possible source of father-son combos is the Eastern Rite (Uniate) of Catholicism. Their priests have always been able to marry.
The Orthodox Church yawns at these shenanigans.
If the Church did not frown so upon artificial reproduction and adoption by unmarried persons, there could be a lot more father-son duos in the priesthood - no celibacy loopholes needed!
The Catholic Church is made up of many different "rites," of which the Latin rite is dominant in Europe and the US. Married priests are common in the non-Latin rites of the Catholic Church, e.g. the Melkite (Greek Catholic) Church, the Maronite Church (there is a Maronite Catholic Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights that has a plaque commemorating a visit by Pope Paul VI on the front of the church), etc. All of those rites follow the Eastern orthodox tradition of married priests (but celibate bishops).
A modern pope can't even have "nieces" no more. "Nephews?" Up the kazoo.
Even for a Catholic father and son pair, there's a legitimate way for both to be in the Priesthood - the father is a widower.
Back when I was in a Catholic high school in the 1990s, my Religion class textbook specifically mentioned a widower-and-son pair of priests. So, no, this is not a first case in 900 years.
I suppose they mean it's the first in which the father was a priest when the (legitimate) son was born.
Can a divorced man join the priesthood if he'd been married in another church or civilly?
former law student - ... another possible source of father-son combos is the Eastern Rite (Uniate) of Catholicism. Their priests have always been able to marry.
Almost, but not quite. Married men can become Eastern Rite priests, but priests can't get married after they're ordained.
It turns out that the son is a Father, too.
Ha ha
priests can't get married after they're ordained.
An important distinction of which I was unaware. Thanks!
"There's loophole, you know, for Anglican priests who go papist."
Kind of snarky, Ann. And pejorative, even if unintended.
How about "One possible explanation is when Anglican priests return to the Roman Rite."
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