Faithwire
  • Watch
  • Go!
  • Podcasts
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • News
  • Politics
  • Coronavirus Updates
  • Faith
  • Opinion
  • Christmas
  • Set Free Course

Priest of America’s Largest Catholic Church: Let’s Make Celibacy Optional

Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Share Tweet
By Billy Hallowell
Editor

July 10, 2017

The pastor of America’s largest Catholic church believes the Vatican should reconsider its celibacy requirement, saying in a recent interview that there are many men who would make good priests, if not for that barrier.

Monsignor John McSweeney, 75, told The Charlotte Observer that he’s been around many married Protestant pastors who do “great work” and that he met many men in seminary who also would have been excellent priests had they been permitted to marry.

READ: ‘I Felt Peace’: Strangers Form Circle Around Homeless Woman Fatally Hit by a Car

“Many men I was in the [Catholic] seminary with would be great priests today except for one thing,” McSweeney said, noting their desire to wed.

The priest, who plans to retire next week and move to Jamaica or Haiti to serve the poor, made his comments after reports earlier this year that Pope Francis is open to lifting the celibacy requirement that priests currently serve under.

In an interview with German newspaper Die Zeit, the pontiff said it is worth exploring whether married men could be more readily admitted to the priesthood, though he said “voluntary celibacy” wouldn’t solve the Catholic Church’s worldwide priest shortage.

“We must also determine which tasks they can undertake, for example in remote communities,” Pope Francis said.

It should be noted that his comments didn’t appear to extend to allow unmarried priests to wed after they take their vows.

The history surrounding Catholic celibacy is quite complex, with some arguing that priests were able to be married for the first chunk of Christian history. In fact, Cornell University professor Kim Haines-Eitzen called the celibacy mandate a “late development in church practice.” Others, though, counter that the marital policies were actually more murky than that.

Read more about Haines-Eitzen”s perspective here.

Latest

  • News

    ‘I Could Not Be Silent About Christ’: Skillet’s John Cooper Was Told to ‘Stop Talking About Jesus’, He Got Even More Vocal

  • Faith

    ‘God Has…Shown Us the Way’: Mom’s Tragic Loss Sparks Powerful Ministry Honoring Babies, Helping Thousands of Families

  • culture

    ‘Un-Canceling the Canceled’: Rapper Diddy Says Cancel Culture ‘Needs to Stop’

  • Culture

    ‘The Devil Is Attacking’: Muslim Mob Reportedly Stones to Death, Burns Christian Woman’s Corpse Over False Blasphemy Claim

  • News

    Netflix Sends Clear Message to Woke Employees with Internal ‘Culture Memo’


Navigation

  • Watch
  • Go!
  • Podcasts
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Staff
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Sign up to get our newsletter your inbox every day.

Newsletter Signup

Do you want to read
more articles like this?