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Comment by Boogie_Man | Hacker News Reader

I am not Catholic and priests should be permitted to marry.

The zeitgeist is inaccurate. Sexual abuse and subsequent cover ups were a massive problem that has largely been addressed, but the numbers of offenders are proportionally lower than those in public schools. From wikipedia:

"Hofstra University researcher Charol Shakeshaft, the author of a 2002 report on sexual offenses in schools, said sexual violence is much more prevalent in schools than in the Church.[315] Ernie Allen, former president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, stated: "we don't see the Catholic Church as a hotbed of this [sexual abuse and pedophilia] or as a place that has a bigger problem [with this issue] than anyone else."[316]"

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> I am not Catholic and priests should be permitted to marry

Doesn't seem likely since none of the Churches that existed prior to the Protestant Reformation allow it.

All of the ancient churches, including the Catholic Church, do allow men who are already married to become priests. The rules are more strict for Catholics than the others.

> All of the ancient churches, including the Catholic Church, do allow men who are already married to become priests.

Certainly not in general. You either have to be Eastern or Greek Catholic, Anglican/Episcopal convert etc. Overwhelming majority don't have that option.

Wait what am I missing? Catholic priests who were married before becoming priests is a thing.

Our local priest is married with kids and grandkids.

I believe you're still expected to be celibate once taking your vows.

No, married priests are not expected to be celibate (a term that in Catholic contexts specifically means “unmarried”) after taking their vows, they remain married.

Nor are they expected to refrain from sex within marriage, which may be what you mean.

What is the standard path for a married man to become a Roman Rite Catholic priest (besides being a married Anglican priest who decided to convert)?

Being a married Anglican priest is basically the only conventional way to do that. The discipline of celibacy is otherwise strictly observed.

Of course, if a married Eastern Catholic priest decided to join the Latin Church with the rest of his family, this could happen too.

But generally, a married man will want to discern the diaconate, as the priesthood will simply be out of the question, except in these exceptional circumstances.

> Wait what am I missing? Catholic priests who were married before becoming priests is a thing.

Since, IIRC, the 1200s (may be off by a couple centuries), there has been a practice (not a doctrine) prohibiting ordination of married men in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church.

Because this is a prohibition but not a doctrinal invalidity, it does not invalidate otherwise-valid ordinations (i.e., by Bishops holding valid apostolic succession), and the prohibition was never applied to the Eastern Churches that were at the time (Inthink the Maronite Church was) or later came into union with Rome. There is also now a special exception allowing (with individual permission, not automatically) married Anglican priests who convert to Catholicism and are otherwise eligible for ordination as Catholic priests to be ordained in the Latin Rite despite being married. So it is possible to encounter married priests in the Latin Rite (Western) Catholic Church, but the door is not generally open to married men becoming priests.

Are you perhaps Eastern or Greek Catholic? Because that's certainly not the case for "normal"(Roman Rite) Catholics

Which is why I said

> The rules are more strict for Catholics than the others.

You can be a married Catholic man and become a Catholic priest.

This is an overgeneralization. By the fourth century it became standard to forbid marriage because was believed that previously permitted marriage was only for individuals who remained celibate within the marriage.

I find this to be unlikely.

This position also ignores the East, as we tend to do, although I will admit they understood themselves to be changing convention when permitting it.

> By the fourth century it became standard to forbid marriage because was believed that previously permitted marriage was only for individuals who remained celibate within the marriage.

On the other hand, de-facto marriages (say, a live-in servant woman the priest treated like a wife, including having sex with her) were overlooked by the catholic church on continental Europe well into the high middle ages.

If by "the high middle ages" you mean "2025", then you are right. Priests in de-facto marriages are still super common.

Those are not real marriages according to the Church. Any sexual relation in that situation would be fornication and as such a single.

I am talking about men who are already priests cannot marry. I think you are talking about men who are married becoming priests which is allowed in the Catholic Church and well as the East.

None of the Eastern churches allow priests to marry.

The Eastern Churches do allow their priests to have sexual relations with their wives after ordination.

So do Catholics including Latin rite priests?

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