Anglican conversions and priestly celibacy

[Michie]

It seems any time the Church is in the news, the secular media find a way to ask, "Is this the end of priestly celibacy?" -- whether the story at hand has anything to do with celibacy or not.

But in the case of theVatican's announcement on Tuesday that it will be "building a bridge over the Tiber" for groups of Anglicans wishing to convert, that question does have a place (h/t Terry Mattingly):

Married priests are permitted in the eastern Catholic rites, and one of Benedict’s central goals is full communion with the Orthodox — and they, too, allow priests to marry. Anglican priests, married or not, are already permitted to become Catholic priests, but on a case-by-case basis. The new dispensation would for the first time allow in groups of married priests.

“Now we’re opening up a whole structure within the Latin rite, within the Western rite, which will allow married priests to function,” said Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Seminary at Georgetown University and a liberal Catholic commentator.

Father Reese raised a series of intriguing hypothetical questions: Would unmarried Anglican priests who want to become Catholic priests have to take a vow of chastity? (The answer is presumably yes.) Could a Catholic man convert to Anglicanism, be ordained as an Anglican priest, then rejoin the Catholic Church under the new Anglican rite? (The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, dismissed that idea as “a trick.”)
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The article gets a few things wrong, of course: The question of priestly celibacy (not "chastity"!) is not really a liberal-versus-conservative debate. Well-intentioned Catholics on all sides can legitimately disagree with the Church's tradition here.

Continued- http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Anglican-conversions-and-priestly-celibacy.html&Itemid=127

 

[WarriorAngel]

The reason priests were made to be celibate were abuses.
IF the Pope ok's married priests then it is up to him.

It's a discipline, not a doctrine.

 

[MariaRegina]

One of the abuses stemmed from the wife and her children claiming the church house as their own upon the priest's death.

If married priests can have joint title to their own private homes (non-church property), then there should be no problem. Of course, then the rectory would not be next to the Church. However, in several Eastern Catholic parishes I visited, the parish priest did not live in the rectory, but it was converted into classrooms for CCD.