He’s given a go-ahead in some priest-short areas and has lifted the ban on ordination of the married among Eastern Riters.

There’s been a lot of speculation the past several months that Pope Francis is willing to expand possibilities for ordaining married men to the Catholic priesthood. Austrian-born Bishop Erwin Kräutler, head of a diocese in the Brazilian rainforest, said last April that Francis told him he’d be open to married priests for particular regions or nations if there were consensus among the bishops of the area. [italics added]

Bishops’ consensus, good.

A small stream of married clergymen from other Christian churches have been allowed to be ordained Catholic priests over the past few decades, especially with the establishment of the Anglican Ordinariate.

The nearest such Anglican-Roman Catholic parish, or community, is in Indianapolis, by the way:

St. Joseph of Arimathea [St. Joseph of Arimathea Anglican Use Society]

Phone: (765) 475-4970
E-mail: stjosephofa
Website: http://stjoearimatheasociety.org/
Location:

520 Stevens Street
Indianapolis, IN 46203

Mass Times
Sunday
8:00 AM
Holy Rosary Parish, Indianapolis

Here you find a traditionalist’s delight. The style seems more Roman than the usual Roman Catholic church in the U.S. or at least in the Midwest.

This [Anglican dispensation, as it were] has always angered Byzantine Catholics in places like the United States, Canada, and in other places considered the “diaspora” (outside their original Eastern Rite territories), because the Vatican has forbidden them from following their unbroken tradition of ordaining married men. It was thought be a scandal in places where celibate, Latin Rite priests were the majority.

Envy, scandal-taking, shock . . .

Not anymore. Pope Francis has lifted the ban. The only provision is that the ordaining Eastern bishop must consult with his Latin Rite counterpart. [Again, good] Why did the Holy See impose it in the first place? The U.S. archbishops asked for it back in 1893. “It is the solemn judgment of the Archbishops of the United States” – says the minutes of their Fourth Annual Conference – “that the presence of married priests of the Greek rite in our midst is a constant menace to the chastity of our unmarried clergy, a source of scandal to the laity and therefore the sooner this point of discipline is abolished before these evils obtain large proportions, the better for religion, because the possible loss of a few souls for the Greek rite, bears no proportion to the blessings from uniformity of discipline.” The conference vote for uniformity, under the leadership of Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore, was unanimous. [Again, italics added]

“Plus ça change?” asks Robert Mickens in Commonweal.

This married-priest issue has lain dormant for decades, as women priests have taken the forefront.

One major difference, of course, is that the first has been done, is done, and can be expanded.

Wouldn’t you pew-sitters like to hear God and heaven etc. discussed by husbands and fathers now and then from the pulpit?