Married Priests

[LinaSt.Cecilia2772]

I'm still confused on why some priests are married, and some even with families. I know they were "priests" or ministers in another denomination and converted to Catholicism, but why does the Church allow them to be Priests in the Catholic Church when technically they broke one of the vows?? Should they still be priests or no? I'm confused on the matter.

[CatherineM]

When a minister from certain denominations comes to a point where he has seen the truth of the Catholic Church, we don't want him to have to choose between his wife and his conversion. The Celibate priesthood is simply a discipline in the hierarchy of rules in the Church. That means that it isn't a dogma that is crucial to our foundations. Priests were married commonly for the first few centuries of the history of the Church. We recognize that celibacy is the ideal for a priest. Instead of worrying about helping Susie with her homework, he can spend his evenings teaching RCIA, etc, but married priests are common in the Eastern Catholic rites, and it does work out. There will be many more coming in soon as Anglicans come in. I go to school with a man who was an Anglican priest for 30 years and has now converted. He's bringing his wife along for the ride.

[cappie]

Don't forget the Eastern Rite priests can be married only their bishops must be celibate. In the Eastern Rites such as the Ukrainian, Maronite, etc men must marry before ordination, they cannot marry after their ordination. Similarly if an ordained minister/priest of another denomination by dispensation is allowed to go forward for ordination in the Roman Rite and his wife dies he is not permitted to marry again.