Hi, Evan —

Thanks for your question.

There is no dispensation in the Roman Rite for someone already in the Roman Rite to become a married priest. Yes, there are married Roman Rite priests who are married but they are former Protestant ministers who were already married ministers before they came into the Church. For the most part, this is done with Anglicans and Episcopalians and to a lesser degree with Lutherans and Methodists.

I don't really know what the process is for switching Rites. I'll let others speak to that issue, but I can tell you that they don't allow men to switch Rites for the purpose of getting around the celibacy requirement. Additionally, while the Eastern Rites do ordain married men, they don't in the Western Rite (This is an agreement made with the Vatican). So you wouldn't be able to do it and remain in the Western Rite even if they allowed you to switch Rites in order to become a married priest.

John

Dear Evan,

My colleague John wrote:
Additionally, while the Eastern Rites do ordain married men, they don't in the Western Rite (This is an agreement made with the Vatican). So you wouldn't be able to do it and remain in the Western Rite even if they allowed you to switch Rites in order to become a married priest.

While this is normally true, there are various ways around this. Typically the priest is ordained and incardinated in the old country, and then loaned indefinitely to the U.S. In fact, I've known some married men ordained in the U.S. by U.S. Eastern bishops. I also know several formerly Roman married men who became Byzantine Catholic priests in the U.S.

One of them is Fr. Thomas Steinmetz at Our Lady of the Cedars Melkite Greek-Catholic Church in Manchester, New Hampshire. Another is Fr. Immanuel McCarthy, father of the girl whose miraculous healing was the requisite miracle for the canonization of St. Edith Stein.

To transfer from one Rite to another requires a rescript from Rome. It can only be done once. They interview you and ask you to explain your reasons. I think it would behoove you if you want to do this to develop a genuine interest in Byzantine spirituality. After all, you'd be ministering to Byzantine Catholics if you ever got ordained.

I think they tend to prefer people whose families are mature. As you cannot marry once you are ordained, they would not want a situation where the mother died and there are young children to take care of.

Finally, consider the divorce rate among married Protestant pastors and how much of a burden on their families their ministry is. There are good reasons for clerical celibacy. Read what Fr. Ray Ryland, a married Roman Catholic priest (and convert from Episcopalianism), has to say on the topic.

Eric

Hi, Evan —

I just wanted to clarify my previous comments:

Anyone attempting to change Rites should be honest about their motives. Hence, if that person was doing so in the hopes of becoming a married priest, he would have to disclose it, at which point, he would run into a problem.

John