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Spain gets first married priest
By Danny Wood
BBC News, Madrid
A Roman Catholic bishop on the Spanish island of Tenerife has ordained a man as a Catholic priest despite the fact that he is married with two children.
The 64-year-old former Anglican pastor, David Gliwitzki, was ordained in La Laguna on the Canary Island.
The Bishop of Tenerife said the move was a unique exception within the Spanish Church.
According to Church rules, priests are supposed to be celibate. But the ordination was approved by the Pope.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4172162.stm |
Thought this was interesting. They say it isn't a step in that direction, but why else would they do it?
Your thoughts on Catholic Priests needing to be celibate and your thoughts on this article?
It actually happens in America.
The reason being is that the Anglican/Episcopalean Church is doctrinally almost identical to the Catholic Church. The only differences are that Episcopals/Anglicans don't recognize the Pope as the head of the Church and allow divorces.
In America there are a few married priests who are former anglican/episcaplean priests. Most of them left that Church because it began ordaining women... which is why I DON'T think this is necessarily a step in the right direction. My guess is it's that same thing just transplanted to Spain.
I doubt the Catholic Church is going to allow married priests in this Century (hell it took us two to admit that Gallileo was right and give a collective "our bad" to forcing him to recant.)
That being said I have no problem with married priests but at the same time think there's something intriguing about remaining celebate for God. I'll expound on that in a later post. What I believe will most likely happen is that they'll allow priests to marry, but only once, like Deacons. And then only dioscesan priests, priests who are part of orders, like Fransicians, Dominicans and Jesuits etc. will most likely remain celebate, but I feel the church hiearchy will eventually say regular (diosciesan) priests are allowed to be married but will let the orders of priests and religious decide individually whether to keep the vow of celibacy. BUT as I said I do not anticipate this change to come in this papacy, perhaps not even this century, but surely not this papacy.
But the thing is, isn't the Catholic Church the Church of Spain itself? And this fellow wasn't ordained as another faith, he was ordained as a Catholic, if I understand it correctly.
Originally the only reason priests had to be celibate was because priests did not have to pay taxes, neither did their spouse(s) or children. So the only reason that part of christian Dogma exists is because of cheap landlords.
Interesting opinion. Care to back it up with any facts?
