The Sunday Mail
Desire Ncube
ZIMBABWE Catholic Bishops Conference secretary general Father Fredrick Chiromba says Pope Francis’ consideration of ordaining married priests reflected the need for strategic thinking at the universal level to relieve the acute shortage of clergyman as fewer young people take vows.
In a recent interview published by German newspaper Die Zeit, the head of the Roman Catholic Church was asked if he was open to accepting married priests, or allowing candidates for the priesthood to marry.
“We have to study whether viri probati (ordaining married men of proven virtue) are a possibility. We then also need to determine which tasks they could take on, such as in remote communities, for example,” Pope Francis said.
The pope said the shortage of priests was an “enormous problem” for the church, and indicated he would be open to a change in the rules governing eligibility for the priesthood.
Clerical celibacy is a discipline – not a doctrine – of the Catholic Church in which only unmarried men are ordained.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail Religion last week, Fr Chiromba said the pope’s willingness to consider the matter followed explorations of the topic in two meetings of the Synod of Bishops under Pope Benedict XVI and St John Paul II.
“In the past we would be helped by missionaries but today missionary countries are sending social workers in the main.
“Traditionally, missions were located in strategic places to serve local communities, but with the recent growth of cities and new resettlement areas, the church in Zimbabwe needs to re-strategise.
“I see the holy father’s comments as a challenge to new strategic thinking at the universal level and the debate is open to the floor,” said Fr Chiromba.
“This is an ongoing conversation within the church and has so far been largely confined to the classroom and boardrooms only, where the pros and cons of any such possible developments in the church are discussed.
“The church is always the same, but it is also always renewing itself. However, what is new in this case is to have this debate in the public domain and have the pope speak on it.”
Fr Chiromba went on: “The new development may signal a new era and the beginning of another official conversation . . . since various religious institutes exist within the Catholic Church, the vows priests must take vary depending upon their affiliations.
“Not all priests must take the same vows. Most institutes require that priests take vows of chastity – the state or practice of refraining from extramarital, or especially from all, sexual intercourse – and obedience to the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. However, some institutes such as the Eastern Rite Catholics do not require priests to remain celibate.
“The early church had married priests who did not take the vows of celibacy and we also have married Catholic priests today who have converted from, say, the Anglican to the Catholic Church. Some institutes also require the vow of poverty while others do not.”
He said the outcome of the deliberations would thus not result in anything substantially new and “any consequences will be mainly administrative”.
“However, the effect on the spread and outreach of the Church would be something to be seen.
“We already have some churches with married priests but they too have their own challenges. We can already deduce that allowing for married priests does not necessarily translate into an increased number of vocations to the priesthood,” he said.
