The Vatican has denied speculation that there will be any “relaxation of church rules to allow former priests to play greater roles in parish life”. I am less interested in the denial, than I am in the simple fact that the Vatican feels any need to issue one – especially as the statement continues with “Even if those changes do eventually take place, the official cautioned, they would not indicate any broader movement toward a reconsideration of priestly celibacy”. This is a discussion that is way overdue. Catholic teaching is clear – once a priest, always a priest. There are many thousands of laicized priests, some of whom continue to exercise some form of limited, independent ministry. As married Anglican priests are welcomed into the Ordinariate, these cradle – Catholic priests will be justified in asking why the Anglicans are permitted to minister in Catholic parishes, while they are not.
The full report, and the Vatican denial, are at National Catholic Reporter. I post here just the background, of the original speculation.
Speculation about possible revisions in the rules concerning former priests who have been laicized, generally in order to get married, was triggered in late September by publication of a letter from Indian Cardinal Ivan Dias, former prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. In it, Dias expressed optimism that laicized priests would soon be able to play a greater role in the life of local parishes.
Writing to an Australian missionary society, Dias suggested that rules restricting the ability of laicized priests to teach in Catholic schools, to administer communion as a lay person and to be active in the life of a parish might be relaxed at the discretion of a local bishop. Other restrictions that apply to all lay people, such as a prohibition against celebrating the sacraments or delivering homilies, would presumably remain in force.
Dias, 75, resigned in May as head of the Vatican’s missionary department. The letter about laicized priests was dated in February, while he was still in office. Extracts from the letter were published in late September by the Catholic Herald in the United Kingdom.
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