Published: November 5, 2009

On Oct. 20, Pope Benedict XVI announced that the Catholic Church would begin to invite Anglican priests who are uncomfortable with the allowance of female priests and openly gay bishops in their church to join a new Anglican rite within the Catholic Church. The move has sparked controversy within the Catholic community for various reasons, one of which is the fact that married Anglican priests will now be allowed to enter the Catholic Church.

“There are two issues here,” said Rev. Michael V. Tueth, S.J., associate chair of communication and media studies at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC). He said that the “bad news” is that the people who the Catholic Church is inviting to join are those who do not like the fact that women and openly gay men can be active parts of the clergy as priests and bishops, respectively.

“The Catholic Church is basically saying [to these people], ‘Neither do we! Come on in!’ This is a terrible basis for attracting people to Catholicism,” Tueth said.

Astrid O’Brien, associate professor of philosophy and associate director of peace and justice studies, said that the disciples recorded Jesus’ prayer that all his followers would be “united in mind and heart,” and therefore all Christians should desire a unification of all denominations. “But it does not seem to me that [the entrance of some Anglicans into the Catholic Church] is a true reunion. It appears rather that a split over controversial issues about which scripture of not unequivocally explicit has led one group to transfer its allegiance from its original denomination to another,” she said.

“I don’t think we find unity of mind and heart by formulating a we/them mentality,” O’Brien said. She said that she believes the best way to react to controversial issues over which there is strong disagreement is instead to “engage in respectful dialogue and prayer.” She called it “regrettable” that the move can be seen as joining together against another group.

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture, pointed out in article for the Washington Post that while the exact nature of this merger is still unclear, “As ordinary Catholics and Episcopalians contemplate the recent Vatican decision… they may see more clearly than church officials the quandaries this juxtaposition will create.”

She said that once the full details are known, we may find that “as last year with the renegade Lefeverists, the Vatican has not performed due diligence on its surprising and unexpected decision.” Steinfels was referring to the Pope’s controversial decision to revoke the excommunication of four bishops from the Society of St. Pius X, one of whom was a Holocaust denier.

According to a recent New York Times article on this issue, this move created “global outrage” and caused some priests from the Pope’s home country of Germany to leave the Catholic Church. Like Steinfels, the article compared the two decisions, stating that both adhere to a “central theme” in Pope Benedict’s papacy, which is to “bring in traditional believers at all costs to help Catholicism become a ‘creative minority’ in an increasingly secular Europe.”

Tueth said that the “good news” of this development is that the acceptance of some married Anglican clergy to the Catholic Church will put focus on the issue of celibacy and question the reasoning behind Catholic notion that priests cannot be married. “I think marriage should be an option for Catholic priests,” he said. He cited the fact that there are already some married priests who have entered the Catholic Church from other rites such as the Lutheran Church, who are already practicing and are “doing just fine.” “Their parishioners like them,” Tueth said, “they have no problem with them being married.”

Tueth said that marriage used to be an option for Catholic priests back in the 12th Century. He said that the people at the time admired the behavior of monks, who were better educated and more disciplined than priests, who “weren’t always great examples of moral behavior.” One way to achieve this was to require celibacy of the priests—something that was already required of monks. What Tueth said is ironic is that now the voice of the people is calling for priests to be allowed to marry, but “Now, the Church isn’t listening to them.”

According to the New York Times article, marriage is still permitted for priests in the eastern Catholic rites, and that one of the Pope’s goals is full communion with these Orthodox rites.

Tueth said that the entrance of these married Anglican priests will create a change in the perception of what it takes to be a good priest. “You can be a good priest and be married.”