http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standi...things-remember-married-catholic-priests.html This is a good article, written by a married priest. He points out that men who are already priests would not be allowed to get married. It sounds like only older married men with grown children would be allowed to be ordained.
I will tell you way I am "anxious" to make the distinction. We belong to a Church that is in disarray. Much of this disarray comes, because so very very few understand the difference between doctrine, which can never change (ie., Adultery) and Church discipline (like celibacy in the priesthood) that can. If we cannot clearly define the truth then everything is subjective, just like the world makes everything out to be. Church doctrine has nothing to do with opinion and we had better get this straight, because it is, and has been the Churches long standing opinion (not doctrine) that celibacy within the priesthood is in the best interest of the Church. This may make you madder then hell, but if you think it is doctrine, you are in error yourself. We can't have it both way's as you want it to be. We have both unchanging doctrine and changeable customs within our Church. Our Church is made up of both the divine and the human law. There is a temptation to overlook one or the other. Those favoring communion to adulterer's are overlooking the divine. I don't expect you or anyone else for that matter to take what I have said on my word. Ask any priest or theologian and they will tell you the same thing. When we realize that the Church involves both the human and divine, we can understand better why some elements in the Church can change and others cannot. It is what comes from Christ, the divine teaching, that cannot change. Finally, because I recognize celibacy as a church discipline, it does not conclude I want married priests. To the contrary, I am against priests marrying. However, married priests are already within the Catholic church. Many came in from the Anglican church within the past couple decades. If priestly celibacy were doctrine, this could not have taken place.
These married ex-Anglicans came in as a result of a dispensaton of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed by Cardinal Ratzinger. It was, I think, meant to be temporary - not sure about that. We have several such priests in parishes near me. I have a feeling their main reason, if not only one, for becoming Catholic was that they were against the ordination of women in the C of E. However, their first loyalty is to their wives. If the wife is ill and needs them, they cannot fulfil the work of a priest. Thus, recently, when our parish priest was away on a well-earned holiday, we had no weekday Mass at all, because his "locum" had to look after his very ill wife. Priests are married to the Church. They cannot have two Sacraments - Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony. I'm sure my beloved Pope Benedict XVI had good reasons for allowing these married priests to come in, but it should stop now. There is a shortage of priests, but it is not caused by the fact they aren't allowed to marry......it is caused by a lack of willingness to answer the vocation which is coming from God. Reasons for this? I hope someone with a finer mind than mine, in the Vatican, is trying to work this out.
