Hi Viviana,
Many thanks for your response to my post. I am as happy as you are with the
concept and reality of married RC priests. Thanks too for the reasons you
provided re the Vatican position.
What about my positive view of women as priests?
Cornel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Viviana" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 5:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Goanet] The married priest (I'm married to one)
Hello Cornel -
I'm quite pleased to see this post - married Priesthood is near and dear
to my heart! I'm married to a priest and I've known for probably 15
years, thanks to an article in Time magazine, that there are HUNDREDS of
married RC priests in the US functioning with full Vatican approval.
These men came over to Rome from Canterbury for different reasons (mostly
they are against the ordination of women and practicing homosexuals) and
are in parishes all over the United States.
My married priest did the opposite - Ariosto went from Rome to the
Anglican Church. I remember when I first met Ariosto, while he was a
Salesian of Don Bosco, I casually mentioned to him (*wink*wink*) about
married RC priests and HE had never heard of it, yet he'd been ordained
for almost 20 years at the time. I'm not even sure he believed me but
then of course came to know it's true. His Parish Priest at the first
Anglican Parish where he served also made the switch to Rome a few years
ago and brought his wife and daughter with him to St. Catherine's Roman
Catholic Church in Burlingame, California, just down the road from us.
While there are some Goans who were supportive from the beginning of our
marriage (being an inter-racial couple was another "problem"), there was
some consternation among the Goan community here in the Bay Area and in
Goa, but now, all these many years later, most people have come to accept
us. Ariosto was recently asked to celebrate the Mass for the 21st
birthday of a young Goan man and many Goans did receive Holy Communion.
Goan women who had refused to speak to me or even look at me for more than
a decade were downright friendly - it was really a turning point for us,
and the young man's mother is a very courageous woman. Ariosto performs
about 30 marriages each year and it does come as a surprise to many people
that he's married. He enjoys being a married priest and always believed
that there was no reason why he couldn't be both.
WRT your original question (for those of you who are still awake) I do
believe that Rome keeps secret for a few reasons. The obvious one is
MONEY. It would cost a lot of money to support married priests and their
families, wouldn't it? Another view, held by David Rice in his book
Shattered Vows, Exodus from The Priesthood, is that the Church needs its
priests to be obedient, loyal and devoted to the Pope, not their wives and
children. A third, and this is MY opinion, is that it would be difficult
to explain to the fellows who have lived celibate and probably lonely
lives why the other guys can have families and they can't. I assure you
that not all RC priests know that some of their colleagues are married.
Viviana
cornel wrote:
Very recently, I attended, a Roman Catholic wedding ceremony in
London......
