{"id":4454,"date":"2019-10-01T19:34:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T18:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/?p=4454"},"modified":"2025-09-18T13:12:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T11:12:26","slug":"archbishop-celso-morga-advises-ordinating-priests-to-married-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/foco\/el-arzobispo-celso-morga-desaconseja-ordenar-sacerdotes-a-hombres-casados\/","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop Celso Morga advises against ordaining married men to the priesthood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Are there circumstances today for the Latin Church to return to the practice of ordaining married men, requiring continence from them?\"<\/em> And he responds: \"If it is thought that the Church has tried to reduce these ordinations because of their inconvenience, and to ordain only celibate men, it does not seem convenient to restore in the present circumstances a practice already obsolete.\" <\/em>Celso Morga, Archbishop of M\u00e9rida-Badajoz, writes in the magazine Palabra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   In his article, Msgr.\nCelso Morga admits that, in a historical perspective, \"nothing prevents the ordination of celibate or widowed elders, or even of married persons, if both spouses commit themselves to continence\".\nmarried persons, if both spouses commit themselves to maintain continence\".<\/em>,\nbut recalls that it is a long-abandoned practice, the restoration of which it does not consider opportune\nconsidered opportune; and that, taken as a precedent, it would limit the possibility of ordination to a commitment to continence, as in the first centuries.\nordination to a commitment to continence, as in the first centuries. \"It is clear that the current mentality today would not understand such continence, but this was not the way of thinking in the past.\nunderstand such continence, but this was not the way of thinking in the primitive Christian communities, much closer in time to\nChristian communities, much closer in time to the preaching of Jesus and the Apostles.\npreaching of Jesus and the Apostles\".<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Monsignor Celso Morga bases his arguments, among others, on Cardinal\narguments, among others, in Cardinal Alfonso M. Stickler and in Christian Cochini S.I., who\nCochini S.I., who \"have shown that\ncelibacy for holy orders in the Church of the first centuries is not to be understood only in the sense of a prohibition against\nshould not be understood only in the sense of a prohibition to marry, but also in that of a perfect continence for those ordained while already married.\nbut also in the sense of perfect continence for those ordained while already married,\nand that this was the norm\".<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   His article is framed in the context of the\ncontext of the debate that arose as a result of the working paper (Instrumentum laboris) <\/em>on the upcoming\nSynod of the Amazon, convoked by Pope Francis for next October in Rome.\nOctober in Rome. The document requests that the Synod study the possibility of ordaining priests to\nthe possibility of ordaining people to the priesthood who meet certain conditions. It is\nwould be \"Elderly people,\npreferably indigenous, respected and accepted by their community, even if they have already\nand stable family, with the purpose of assuring the Sacraments that accompany and sustain Christian life.\nSacraments that accompany and sustain the Christian life\".<\/em>thinking about \"the most remote areas of the region\".<\/em>,\nsays the document (n. 129), after pointing out that \"celibacy is a gift to the Church\".<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Until now, the Spanish bishops had not made any explicit pronouncements\nexplicitly pronounced on this point of the Synod's working document.\nSynod's working document. Archbishop Morga is the first one to do so, at least with a public relevance, perhaps because of his\npublic relevance, perhaps because of the background of having been Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy during the Synod.\nCongregation for the Clergy at the Holy See.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   In the April issue, Palabra's correspondent in Brazil, Joao Carlos Nara Jr.\ncorrespondent in Brazil, Joao Carlos Nara Jr. began a series of chronicles in the magazine on the Amazon, in which he\nmagazine's chronicles on the Amazon, in which he pointed out, among other aspects, that in order to \"r<\/em>oday, to establish a Church with an indigenous face\",<\/em> to which Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri\nCardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod, referred to, \"some sectors also advocate a more flexible\nLatin praxis on the ministerial priesthood, motivated by the shortage of clergy.\nby the shortage of clergy\".<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   For his part, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Ukraine also referred to this point proposed for the Synod.\nShevchuk of Ukraine also referred to this point proposed for the Synod.\nIn the experience of the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine, which admits the ordination of married men, he said\nordination of married men,\n\"the\nfamily status is not conducive to an increase in vocations to the priesthood\".<\/em>he says. He recommends that the issue be\napproached from \"the essential, which is the\nvocation to the priesthood\". <\/em>as a call from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Bishop Celso Morga also points out in his article that \"the history of the Church shows the profound union between the celibacy of sacred ministers and the language and spirit of the Gospel. Far from being a provision of purely ecclesiastical origin, human and subject to derogation, it appears as a practice originating in Jesus himself and in the Apostles, long before it was established by the laws\".<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u00bfSe dan hoy las circunstancias para que la Iglesia latina retorne a la pr\u00e1ctica de ordenar hombres casados, exigi\u00e9ndoles la continencia?\u201d. Y responde: \u201cSi se piensa que la Iglesia ha tratado de reducir esas ordenaciones por sus inconvenientes, y ordenar s\u00f3lo hombres c\u00e9libes, no parece conveniente restaurar en las circunstancias actuales una pr\u00e1ctica ya obsoleta\u201d. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[549,548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelizacion","category-foco","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.omnesmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}