Australian Catholic Church Divided Over Priestly Celibacy--Calls For End to Celibacy in USA, and Ordination of Woman Priests

Australia's Catholic Church is embroiled in a debate over whether the church should drop its insistence on celibacy for clergymen. A leading priests' association argues that doing away with the requirement could reverse a serious decline in numbers.

The National Council of Priests (NCP), an organization representing about half of Australia's 1,650 Catholic clergy, including more than 40 bishops, has written to the Vatican's Synod of Bishops, urging that marriage no longer prevent a priest from being ordained.

It also asked that the church reinstate ordained priests who had left the church to marry.

NCP chairman Fr. Hal Ranger wrote in the letter to the Vatican that many Anglican/Episcopal priests who had converted to Catholicism in recent years, and who were married at the time, were permitted by the church to serve as ordained priests despite being married.

Noting that the church welcomed such men and their families, Ranger asked that the Vatican synod "earnestly and seriously consider extending this opportunity to other married men."

In the U.S., a Cleveland, Ohio-based Catholic "reform" group called FutureChurch -- which is running a petition calling for an end to obligatory celibacy -- called the Australian move a "prophetic action" and predicted it would "certainly energize our base."

"God's people need both celibate and married vocations, both male and female deacons and priests if we are to minister well," said FutureChurch executive director Christine Schenk.

Thanks to www.abc.net.au. Gratefully reprinted for academic, research, and educational purposes.

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