Last Friday a German synod of Roman Catholics doubled down on a list of progressive demands for reform in the Church. In Church tradition, synods are usually a group of bishops and laypeople who discuss Church teachings and leadership. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Meeting in Frankfurt, the German synod voted 159 to 26, with seven abstentions, to adopt a draft statement calling on the pope to allow Catholic bishops around the world to ordain married men and to give already ordained priests permission to marry without having to leave the priesthood. It later voted 163 to 42, with six abstentions, to ask for permission for bishops to ordain women as deacons, a lower rank of clergy who are able to preach and officiate at baptisms, weddings and funerals, as an intermediate step toward making women bishops and priests.
While the marriage of priests is one point in the Synodal Way’s progressive agenda, the practice actually exists in a more conservative and ancient part of the Catholic Church: the Eastern Rite churches.
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Growing up, I went to a Roman Catholic school but attended Melkite (and sometimes Maronite) Masses on Sundays with my family. Most Lebanese Christian families, like mine, are Melkite, Maronite, Orthodox, or — more often than not — a mixture of all three. The Melkite and Maronite rites are part of the Eastern Rite Catholic churches, a collection of 23 rites that fall under the pope but retain some of their own cultural practices and traditions.
For instance, as a baby, I was baptized, given my First Communion, and confirmed all at the same time. In the Roman Catholic Church, while it’s common for baptism to occur during infancy, First Communion and Confirmation typically occur during childhood and adolescence, respectively.
The Melkite Mass is also markedly different, and in my experience, more conservative. Many parts of the Mass are said in Greek and Arabic, only incorporating English during readings and homilies to accommodate non-Arabic speakers. The Mass includes clergy processions and the (heavy) use of incense. Women are not allowed in the altar area and cannot be altar servers. It feels ancient, and with good reason: Melkites trace their roots to first-century Antioch, where Christianity was introduced by Saint Peter.
Perhaps the most striking difference from the Roman Catholic Church, however, is the presence of married priests.
While my Boston-based parish is not ministered to by married priests, many other Melkite churches in America have married clergymen. In the American diocese alone, 16 out of 50 ordained priests are married. My priest, Father Philip Raczka, shared that in the Middle East, where most Melkites live, closer to half the clergy are married.
The presence of married priests can be traced back to apostolic times. The First Epistle of Paul to Timothy, dating back to the first or second century, includes the following instructions on the “qualifications for overseers and deacons”:
1 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. (1 Timothy 3:1-7)
The Epistle of Paul to Titus, also dated to the same period, similarly reads:
6 An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7 Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless — not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8 Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. (Titus 1:6-9)
Father Raczka went on to share that men who are already ordained as priests or deacons cannot pursue marriage, but those married in good standing with the Church, as detailed above, are able to pursue the priesthood or diaconate.
Roman Catholic priests, on the other hand, must uphold total celibacy. Father Raczka explained that in the eleventh century, the Latin church eradicated the practice of married priests because of conflicts of interests when it came to passing on Church lands to family members. Another factor was the emphasis on monastic practices, which were rising in popularity and esteem.
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The Synodal Path hopes the proposed change in celibacy rules could stem the decline in those seeking a vocation and address the causes of the priest sex scandals.
The push for priestly marriage could indeed be a quick solution and does, indeed, have tangible roots in Church history. While I myself have yet to make up my mind on the issue, there are some immediate points of caution.
For one, while the practice of clergy marriage is successful in the Eastern Rite, it has been institutionalized and normalized over centuries in a set of churches that are culturally distinct from the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, the Synodal Path goes so far as to suggest that priests who have already undergone ordination can be married. That is not the case in the Eastern Rite, even if a married priest becomes a widower. Pursuing a partner during priesthood could distract from the vocation as a marriage to the Church Herself.
Moreover, the push for married priests comes as part of the Synodal Way’s radical proposal for a reorganization of Church hierarchy. Writing for NR back in June, Father Goran Jovicic, a Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Subotica, wrote that the Synodal Way is creating a risk of schism within the Church. Aside from its progressive demands, the group is pursuing a new form of hierarchy that replaces the ancient structure of the Magisterium — the bishops and the pope — with a “network of synods” that would function in a “quasi-democratic” manner, electing bishops and other church leaders.