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Pope John Paul II allowed some ordinations of ex-Protestant U.S. clergy in 1980. (L'Osservatore Romano)
If there were a Top 10 list of Catholic cultural touchstones, surely “Catholic priests can't get married” would be listed somewhere in the top five (if not No. 1). But did you know that it isn't always true?
Among the newest priests in the Diocese of Grand Island, which covers much of western and north-central Nebraska, is the Rev. Sidney Bruggeman. He was an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) until 1995, when he, his wife and their four children all joined the Catholic Church. With his ordination on June 5, Father Bruggeman became Nebraska's only married priest in the Catholic Church's dominant Roman Rite.
Why, then, didn't that Catholic priest in Florida (the Rev. Alberto Cutie) stay in the priesthood despite his relationship with a girlfriend? Indeed, why should ordination be denied to any married Catholic layman? (A discussion of women's ordination will have to wait for a future essay.)
The answer begins in the New Testament: “And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever” (Matthew 8:14).
Yes, the apostle whom Catholics consider the first pope was married! In fact, the Catholic Church has included married clergy, in some of the various churches under the jurisdiction of the pope, from Peter's day to now. Thus, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told Peter Seewald in their 1997 interview book Salt of the Earth that celibacy “is not a dogma. It is a form of life that has grown up in the Church."
But that form of life, typified by Jesus Himself, looks to St. Paul's admonition that while marriage is good, celibacy – for a consecrated, full-time church worker – is better.
"I would like you to be free from concern," Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:32-34. "An unmarried man is concerned with the Lord's affairs – how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world -- how he can please his wife – and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs. Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of the world – how she can please her husband."
Even married priests in the early Church were expected to be continent – that is, to abstain from sexual relations with their wives (reflecting Jewish practice dating to Moses' time). As the ideal of monasticism spread, lifelong priestly celibacy became a practical requirement in the Western Church by the 11th century and an explicit one at the Council of Trent in 1563.
"All the ordained ministers of the Latin Church, with the exception of permanent deacons, are normally chosen from among men of faith who live a celibate life and who intend to remain celibate 'for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,'" says the Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 1579). "Called to consecrate themselves with undivided heart for the Lord and to 'the affairs of the Lord,' they give themselves entirely to God and to men. Celibacy is a sign of this new life to the service of which the Church's minister is consecrated; accepted with a joyous heart celibacy radiantly proclaims the reign of God." Obviously some priests fail to keep that vow – though few are as public about it as Father Cutie.
The priestly ranks in “Eastern-rite” Catholic churches, like their counterparts in Eastern Orthodox churches, have always included married clergy. But not without limits. Such priests must have been married before they receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders. They cannot be bishops. And if their wives die, they may not marry again.
Like Eastern-rite priests – and permanent deacons – Father Bruggeman cannot marry again if he is widowed. A U.S. priest ordained with such special permission may not be a senior pastor of a parish, because he retains duties to his wife and family as well as to his flock. He is not expected to abstain from sexual relations with his wife – though such “temporary continence” remains highly encouraged.
The first modern ordination of a married ex-Protestant minister in the Roman Rite was approved by Pope Pius XII in 1951, for a one-time Lutheran pastor in Germany. Pope John Paul II issued a “Pastoral Provision” in 1980 permitting some married Anglican priests who had joined the Catholic Church to be ordained. Former U.S. Lutheran pastors, and a few of other Protestant denominations, have been approved for ordination as well. But Rome considers every case on its own merits – and it has approved only about 100 such ordinations in America.
When a married ex-Protestant minister is approved for ordination, it means Rome has judged that he had a divine call to the ministry, one that he had answered in his former church body as best he understood it. His call now has been ratified – but, even so, as Paul says, “his interests are divided.” And both must be tended to.
God is always calling certain unmarried -- or widowed -- Catholic men to consider the priesthood, even if not all choose to answer it. Openness to such a call remains the best answer to the shortage of priests. Meanwhile, Catholics in the small towns of St. Libory and Greeley, Nebraska, are welcoming a fellow laborer in the Lord's harvest field to preach the Word and administer the sacraments. No matter the path that Sidney Brueggman took to ordination, he is most welcome in the fields of the Grand Island Diocese.
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