The John-Henry Westen Show - There is a legitimate way forward for married priests： Celibacy

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show coming to you today from Rome

00:00:04.880 where the Amazon Synod is going on and we are very pleased to have with us Father Tony Pallari

00:00:10.640 who's going to speak to us about celibacy while the Amazon Synod is underway. Stay tuned.

00:00:30.000 Welcome Father. Thank you John Henry. It's great to be here. It's been a fantastic week in Rome and

00:00:45.840 delighted to be able to speak with you. Praise God. Let's tell everybody a little bit about

00:00:49.140 yourself. So you're a priest. You offer the traditional rite. You live in England. Yes.

00:00:55.260 I'm in the the land of saints and martyrs in southwest England in Cornwall living where

00:00:59.560 St. Cuthbert, Maine himself offered the Holy Mass before being hung, drawn, and quartered.

00:01:05.260 I'm a canon lawyer, chaplain of the extraordinary form, and love being a priest in God's church.

00:01:13.120 Beautiful. Beautiful. So let's if we can talk first a little bit about your own priestly life,

00:01:19.020 how you got to the priesthood, and why you chose it. I think that would be fascinating to start with.

00:01:24.260 Sure. So when I was 17 years old, I began to feel a tug on my heart towards the priesthood,

00:01:30.800 but I was afraid to tell anyone. So I went into an old good holy priest and knocked on his door and

00:01:36.500 said, Father, can I talk with you? I think maybe God's calling to be a priest for these different

00:01:39.820 reasons, but there's one problem. I really, really like girls. And he broke out laughing. He said,

00:01:45.020 that's great. There would be a real problem if you don't like girls. This is excellent. And then in

00:01:50.680 the following years, it really was true devotion to Mary through St. Louis to Mumford. A friend gave

00:01:54.720 me that book. At the time, I was dating a wonderful, great Catholic girl, a fantastic young woman,

00:02:01.500 a very devout woman. But as I made the consecration to Our Lady, began feeling more and more a tug on my

00:02:06.820 soul to be totally, be free to just give myself completely to the Lord. And it's been the greatest

00:02:12.440 gift I've ever received in my life, the most wonderful, joyful gift I could imagine.

00:02:16.380 Amazing. Amazing. Now, the Synod is going on, and there have been a lot of proposals,

00:02:22.100 both before the Synod and from even the Holy Father himself, to do away with celibacy, to

00:02:28.720 have celibacy as an option, yes, and maybe an ideal or something, but not a requirement for the

00:02:35.260 priesthood, not a requirement for holy orders. I want to go into this about the priesthood, first of all,

00:02:40.160 but then also to address all holy orders, bishop, obviously, priest, but also deacon.

00:02:46.580 It's a very serious question, John Henry. To be honest, we're, the Church is facing a very serious risk

00:02:52.960 of very serious damage being done to the Church. I want to quote for you the words of Cardinal

00:02:58.720 Afon Stickler from a few years ago. He wrote,

00:03:01.620 It's only through faith that is constantly and consciously sustained that the supernatural reasons

00:03:08.000 underlying the commitment to celibacy can be truly understood. When this faith grows weak,

00:03:14.700 the determination to persevere in celibacy fades. When faith dies, so does continence.

00:03:21.980 And he goes on to talk about historically the tremendous damage to the faith that's taken place

00:03:27.600 when celibacy was done away with. He says,

00:03:31.060 A constant proof of this truth is to be found in the various heretical and schismatic movements

00:03:35.760 that have arisen in the Church. One of the first institutions to be attacked is clerical continence.

00:03:42.740 Therefore, we should not be surprised that one of the first things that was rejected by heretical 1.00

00:03:47.240 movements that broke away from the unity of the Catholic Church in the 16th century,

00:03:52.220 Lutherans, Calvinists, Zwinglians, Anglicans, was in fact clerical celibacy.

00:04:00.480 Essentially, the faith rises or falls with celibacy. There's a very intimate link,

00:04:06.520 and we would be putting ourselves in an extremely dangerous position of damage to the faith

00:04:12.800 if there was a decision made to essentially do away with the obligation of clerical celibacy.

00:04:19.120 And not only that, not only is it historically proven, there's a very serious connection between faith

00:04:25.280 and continence, but this comes to us from the apostles themselves. This is something that was

00:04:30.700 handed down to us from the apostles. There are great scholarly works. I highly recommend one by

00:04:37.220 Father Christian Coccini from a few decades ago, but that's the authoritative statement. He's a Jesuit

00:04:43.540 priest, very good scholar. But there's a number of books out there which show that this comes from the

00:04:48.640 apostles themselves. In the first centuries of the Church under persecution, we don't have very

00:04:54.300 many written documents, but you do find indications here and there from the fathers of the Church.

00:04:58.700 And Coccini goes through every single one of them from the first seven centuries of the Church.

00:05:03.140 When in the fourth century the Church is able to come out of persecution and hiding and have

00:05:08.220 councils and documents begin to emerge, she was above all preoccupied with the great Aryan heresy, 0.96

00:05:14.740 many major dogmas in that area. But you do find also statements simply reaffirming what was the

00:05:22.240 practice that had been handed on from the apostles. To give you an example, this is from the Council of

00:05:27.080 Carthage, which took place in 390, which declared in its official documents,

00:05:32.960 those who are in the service of the divine sacraments, that is both deacons, priests, and bishops,

00:05:40.020 those who are in the service of the divine sacraments, observe perfect continence, so that they may

00:05:45.820 obtain in all simplicity what they are asking from God. What the apostles taught and what antiquity

00:05:52.900 itself observed, let us also endeavor to keep. And those statements you find universal testimony to,

00:06:02.960 essentially, if you look at the different councils, they're all saying not this is a new practice we're

00:06:06.960 coming up with, this is something new, we have to make the sacrifice. No, they're saying this is the

00:06:11.220 practice that's been handed on to us from the apostles in antiquity. And this is not something

00:06:16.900 that could have remained hidden in the early centuries of the Church. We know that St. Peter himself was

00:06:21.440 married. We hear of his mother-in-law. We know that some of the early bishops and priests, a fair number of

00:06:26.580 them, were married. But from the moment that they were ordained, they observed perfect, perpetual

00:06:33.980 continence. That is, they, that means concretely, they could never more get married, and they could

00:06:40.720 never more make use of their marital rights. They could no longer father children. And that was the

00:06:46.420 standard practice, which would have been very noticeable. You would have known in the community

00:06:49.540 very obviously, and certainly anyone being ordained, that's the reason why the practice still throughout the

00:06:55.200 centuries of the Church was you had to ask, obtain in a serious way the wife's permission if a married 0.53

00:07:01.240 man was being ordained, because she was also going to accept voluntarily this practice. And you, that's

00:07:07.160 why you have in the Scriptures the, the passage where St. Peter says to the Lord, what about us?

00:07:14.720 We've left all we had to follow you. The Lord replied, I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left

00:07:22.280 house, wife, brothers, parents, or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not be given

00:07:30.420 repayment many times over in this present time, and in the world to come, eternal life. And many people

00:07:38.360 are unaware, so he's speaking there of leaving wife and children, and many of the, there were of course

00:07:43.140 many men who had never married who were ordained, but men who were married who were ordained, some of

00:07:48.240 them would literally leave to become missionaries, or live apart from their wives, others would live

00:07:52.320 as brother and sisters under the same roof in the early Church. With time, the Church fostered more

00:07:57.320 and more perpetual celibacy throughout their life, where men would, would enter and never marry, but

00:08:03.700 still you find up through the Middle Ages, married men being ordained, but observing very clearly

00:08:10.020 perpetual continence. And this was taken so seriously, that if a man fathered children after being

00:08:16.300 ordained, he was normally immediately excluded from the practice of his priesthood, or diaconate,

00:08:23.940 or bishop, because there's only one sacrament in three degrees. We only have seven sacraments,

00:08:29.820 and one of them is the sacrament of holy orders, which applies to deacons, priests, and bishops in

00:08:34.660 different degrees, but it's one sacrament. So this was the principle. Really, you have statements in the

00:08:39.620 early Church, this was considered equivalent to, really to a sin of adultery, if you fathered children

00:08:45.660 after ordination at the time. Now, let's unpack. There's so much there. First of all, we have

00:08:51.900 our Lord. So all of the priest is in persona Christi, and Christ came, never got married,

00:08:58.900 was celibate his whole life. So that's the ideal we're aiming for. You mentioned, though, that even

00:09:05.280 with the choice of the first pope, Peter, one of the very first apostles, he was already a married man,

00:09:12.460 but lived in perfect continents thereafter, therefore had no more sexual relations with

00:09:18.360 his own wife. So a huge sacrifice, and you alluded to his saying to our Lord, yeah, but what about us

00:09:25.640 who've given up wife and children and so on, which is just amazing. But that actually opens up the

00:09:32.520 possibility. You were talking about how in the early and even to the middle centuries, the priesthood was

00:09:39.840 actually sort of foremarried when in a way too, as long as their wives agreed, and therefore they

00:09:45.320 could practice this perfect continents, therefore give up sexual relations. That's fascinating,

00:09:52.440 because I think that might be a sort of way forward, an orthodox way forward. So we're not getting into

00:09:58.460 some kind of different church, or as you said, leaving celibacy leads to a leaving of the faith,

00:10:05.160 faith, and it's a danger for the faith. There's a possibility here of a sort of new opening in the

00:10:10.700 priesthood, if you will, to married men with the understanding that they would be, with the 0.79

00:10:15.880 permission of their wives, living in continents from then on. Yes, that practice would be in harmony 0.86

00:10:22.380 with the tradition of the church, and very much in harmony with the key principle as to why

00:10:26.860 perpetual perfect continents was considered absolutely necessary. The reason in the early documents

00:10:33.300 was the link between the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the mass, any involvement in that

00:10:40.020 as a deacon, as a priest, or as a bishop, and perfect continents. St. Paul, well, let me cite for

00:10:46.440 you St. Paul's own words. He tells us,

00:10:51.680 The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord, but the married man 1.00

00:10:57.100 is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. For a season that

00:11:03.020 you may devote yourselves to prayer. Sorry, he speaks about married couples practicing continents 1.00

00:11:08.700 in another passage saying,

00:11:10.500 don't be apart except for a season to devote yourselves to prayer. So St. Paul makes the link

00:11:17.060 that was universally recognized in the early church that there is something extremely helpful for your

00:11:22.620 prayer in observing continents. And that's why it was seen as essential if you're going to be

00:11:28.660 actively playing a very active role in the holy sacrifice of the mass in the most important prayer

00:11:36.280 we have on the earth. You needed to observe this total consecration to God in this way so that your

00:11:44.340 body and even more your soul could be more fully dedicated to the prayer that you're being offered.

00:11:49.700 And yes, it is a possibility. Certainly there are very significant advantages, and the church should

00:11:56.100 always foster young men entering and giving their lives entirely to the Lord in perfect continents.

00:12:03.800 But it is a possibility that could be done today of ordaining married men who are willing,

00:12:10.780 and I think there would be married men who would be willing to take this step of observing henceforth

00:12:14.280 perpetual continents.

00:12:15.920 I mean, I think this is an amazing thing because they're pointing to the Amazon. As I've said before

00:12:21.600 on previous shows, it's an abuse of the people in the Amazon. You know, they're taking this small

00:12:26.100 population there of the indigenous in the Amazon saying they have no priests and nobody and they

00:12:29.920 need to come, and the church needs to therefore change the church and give married, not only married

00:12:34.240 clergy, but also women, female priests, or at least deacons to start and so on. But that's an abuse.

00:12:41.440 They don't have the, what they really need is true Catholicism there because they've actually lost

00:12:46.300 a lot of it. There's boasting going on about never having baptized any, and it's like a zoo.

00:12:52.820 But we are actually, with this neat possibility that you mentioned, able to actually do something

00:13:01.080 else.

00:13:01.280 Now, we have this sort of already, John Paul II opened up the possibility of married men entering

00:13:08.160 holy orders in the form of what he called the permanent diaconate. But in there, it seemed like

00:13:15.140 there wasn't a requirement for celibacy, or you could still father children. How did that work?

00:13:22.080 That, that's a point which is hotly debated still today. Some of our listeners may be familiar

00:13:28.980 with the canonist Edward Peters, who's often written on that in North America. It's something

00:13:34.540 completely unique in the history of the church, and I would argue a real mistake in the discipline

00:13:39.420 of the church that's taken place the last few decades, because never before in the Western

00:13:45.780 tradition did you have the standard policy of ordaining married men and allowing them to make

00:13:51.460 use of their marital rights afterwards. It was, it was so essential to, from that point

00:13:55.900 on, observe perfect continence. So when the new code, which you're referring to, came out

00:14:00.660 in 1983, and there's been arguments. In fact, most of the men who've been ordained as deacon

00:14:08.060 were told, were not told, you need to observe perfect continence. They were told by their superiors,

00:14:12.600 by the bishops and voices that this, you can continue to live in an ordinary way with your

00:14:19.060 wife. But in fact, when the code was being prepared, the first code of canon law after 1917,

00:14:26.060 so the major code prepared for years in 1983 was published. In 1977 and in 1980 and 1982,

00:14:33.780 the major drafts of that code all had in it language which explicitly said that married deacons

00:14:41.540 can continue to father children. But John Paul II made the deliberate choice to remove that

00:14:48.920 language. He did not allow that to enter into the code in 1983. Now, why would he have done that

00:14:53.720 if this was what was supposed to be done? And not only that, but the language in the code,

00:14:59.260 I'll read for you in canon 277 reads, clerics, so that refers to any deacon, priest, or bishop.

00:15:06.280 Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence. It's very explicitly stated. 0.99

00:15:13.920 And so there are voices, very high voices in the church. Cardinal Coco Palmario, for example,

00:15:21.700 whose role up until about a year ago was to interpret in an authoritative way legislative text.

00:15:29.940 He wrote a letter to the U.S. bishops, which was not clear. It doesn't seem this was not a binding

00:15:35.120 interpretation from what we can tell canonically. But he wrote a letter saying that, no, the right

00:15:40.280 way of understanding is men should be able to make use of their married rights. But there has never

00:15:43.720 been an official authoritative interpretation of the church. And when you look at the entire history

00:15:49.260 of how intimately this was related, and to speak frankly of the historical disasters that have taken

00:15:54.780 place when you remove this practice, it speaks very strongly in favor of maintaining it.

00:16:00.180 Absolutely. Now, so there's a push in the church not only to do it this way, but the other way as well.

00:16:09.740 What I mean by that is this. Back when Cardinal Bergoglio was in Buenos Aires, he was actually friends

00:16:17.740 with a woman whose husband was a bishop. He left the bishopric and lived at home with, he got married,

00:16:25.940 so-called, and then lived at home with his wife, would apparently can celebrate masses with his wife

00:16:31.800 or whatever. She became the head of the movement of married priests and their wives. And when he passed

00:16:40.960 away, Cardinal Bergoglio was very close friends with her. And he would call her up, I believe it was

00:16:49.560 every Sunday. So much so that when he got elected Pope, the media went to her to ask her what she

00:16:58.120 thought. And one of the first things she said was she thought the Pope would open the way for married

00:17:04.260 clergy and their wives. And so that's, that was very disturbing seeing that years ago, but it's coming 0.77

00:17:13.200 sort of to fruition now, or kind of prophecy, if you will. So this is very concerning indeed. And there is,

00:17:18.880 and there's been a lot of talk about this new change that's going to come now, being able to bring back

00:17:25.700 in a lot of the priests who just left the priests who decided to get married themselves.

00:17:31.840 That's a, that's a very serious, very serious issue that you raised there. And so I should,

00:17:38.100 the question of priests, because many, you may have heard yourself, John Henry, someone say, but what,

00:17:42.020 wasn't it the early practice in the East that men were allowed to be married and something the church 0.74

00:17:45.380 should approve from way back? Well, not if you study it closely, no. In the, in the East, universally in

00:17:51.800 the church, this was the early practice from the apostles. There are always men who sinned and abuses,

00:17:56.380 but this was the, this was always what was seen as essential. Well, in the, in the 690, there was a

00:18:04.440 council of Trullo under the Emperor Justinian II, very close to Constantinople. This council took place

00:18:10.920 in the East in the East, a local council, and those bishops gathered, made decrees, which the pope at the

00:18:15.820 time immediately rejected, and successive popes rejected. The canon's which offered, really, what was

00:18:25.520 a huge mistake, a change in the practice of clerical continence, not because of a shortage of priests.

00:18:30.820 Bishop Athanasius Schneider points this out in a recent article in Faithful Insight from September,

00:18:35.740 where he speaks. Let me just quote Bishop Schneider's words. He says, priestly marriage,

00:18:42.800 this practice was legalized in the Eastern Church in the 7th century, not because of a lack of priests.

00:18:49.300 At the time, there was an overabundance of priests, especially in Constantinople. It was rather done

00:18:54.220 out of a leniency toward human weakness, because those who in the Episcopal and priestly office

00:18:59.280 had deviated and departed from the apostolic rule of life. It was at the time a deviancy and

00:19:05.860 disloyalty toward the demanding imitation of Christ, which the apostles lived out in their complete

00:19:10.960 sexual continence from the moment of their being called unto death. And it's very interesting if you

00:19:16.280 look at how even them, when they were breaking with this tradition, how they tried to apply it.

00:19:22.020 They said, yes, absolutely. Any priest, there's this link between celebrating the sacred mysteries

00:19:27.740 of the altar and continence. So what we'll do, since at that time priests were often only celebrating

00:19:32.100 once a week, is they said, you can make use of your marital rites with your wife other times,

00:19:37.520 but before you celebrate the sacraments, you have to be abstinent for some period of time before.

00:19:42.740 So even there, when they were breaking with the tradition, they still sensed this important link

00:19:46.220 that was there. But that was rejected by the church. And then centuries later, after the very

00:19:52.680 sad break with the East, when the church was negotiating and trying to find a way for some

00:19:58.300 of them wanting reconciliation and union, the church made a decision in some centuries to permit

00:20:03.620 in exceptional circumstances men to keep using the married rites. The point of decision, you could

00:20:08.620 argue, was that really a wise decision or not? Because, and I really would like our readers to

00:20:13.360 understand, or listeners to understand the enormous difference that comes about from celibacy, from

00:20:19.340 perpetual continence. St. Paul speaks very strongly to this point about the unmarried man being free to

00:20:26.560 be given to the Lord. And if you consider from what, I know you yourself, John Henry, are married. If you

00:20:30.560 went home after this time in Rome and said to your wife, honey, I have great news. I don't want to concern

00:20:35.600 you, but a month from now, I'm going to also get married to Susie. I'll be married to her as well. And

00:20:40.000 don't worry, it's not going to change in the slightest. My wholehearted devotion to you, you're

00:20:43.980 going to have a hundred percent of my heart and attention and affection. It won't change a thing.

00:20:48.400 I think she would probably say, you are crazy. Probably worse than that. Probably worse than that. 1.00

00:20:53.660 Okay, well, good for your wife. Probably worse. But she would say, you're crazy. A man can only give

00:20:58.980 his heart to one spouse on this earth. And even has a hard time doing that, perhaps. But only to one spouse

00:21:04.960 can he give himself wholly. And so if that's true for any spouse, well, that's just the nature of a

00:21:10.240 man's heart. And so when a man makes the sacrifice to say, I'm giving up any earthly spouse to give

00:21:15.580 all that I could have given just to the Lord, we know in an earthly marriage, spouses have a major

00:21:21.660 impact on each other and influence in all kinds of ways who you become and who you are. Well, take that

00:21:26.460 with the Lord who promised us a hundredfold for whatever you've sacrificed for him. So when it's well

00:21:32.460 lived, celibacy produces a hundredfold effect for good in the priest's life. And the reason perhaps

00:21:38.840 many of our viewers, depending on where they are, may not have good examples of that. They may have

00:21:43.220 great examples of that. There's wonderful holy priests on the earth who I really admire. But

00:21:48.660 there have been many sad cases. Many priests, the formation has been very poor the last few decades,

00:21:54.760 to speak, frankly. Priests used to have a tremendous formation and training to be soldiers for the

00:22:01.080 spiritual battle. The training in this wholehearted, the gift of themselves to the Lord included

00:22:06.080 obviously the holy sacrifice of the mass offered every day, the divine office prayed reverently,

00:22:11.700 the daily rosary, practices of fasting and penance that were just common for every priest,

00:22:17.400 the annual silent retreat, well-lived intense retreat of five days a year, daily time of meditation

00:22:23.520 or holy hour, spiritual reading. They had all these things, dressing as a priest,

00:22:27.840 helping you in your consecration, all these helps. Many priests were never offered or not offered fully

00:22:34.080 in the formation for their priesthood. And so that's one reason they themselves have been robbed

00:22:39.960 in many cases of many of the graces that would be offered. So I mentioned I may have gotten off

00:22:45.000 track for the question you wanted me to answer. I think that's amazing because I think that is

00:22:50.120 an opportunity for those who are practicing, perhaps unknowingly, in a way they really shouldn't be

00:23:00.080 according to the will of God. You know, if you're already ordained a deacon or whatnot,

00:23:07.740 and you're able to embrace celibacy with the permission of your wife, it would be awesome to do.

00:23:13.160 And I think those helps that you just mentioned, that you just, I was going to ask you that,

00:23:18.100 like, how do you get there? Because you mentioned you like girls and you liked girls and the bishop

00:23:23.640 was like, yeah, you're supposed to. And, but those, if you don't mind running through them again,

00:23:29.700 that's so important. I think it's so key. And I think perhaps this could be an opening for deacons

00:23:35.220 who want to fully give themselves to the ministry to be able to do that. Yes, with permission of their

00:23:40.240 wives, because it should have been done beforehand, but wasn't. I think that would be incredible. But 0.82

00:23:44.500 it's also for those married men who might think of giving themselves to the priesthood with the

00:23:49.940 permission of their wives. One of the big questions would be, how do I do that? 0.99

00:23:56.480 Sure. And I should preface this by saying, I have tremendous esteem and respect for the priests who've

00:24:02.080 come into the church recently who are married. They're often very brave, courageous men who left very

00:24:07.300 difficult position, faced rejection by their family and friends to become Catholics, and who

00:24:11.940 often are very firmly convinced of the teaching of the church on the doctrine of the faith and

00:24:16.340 preach it courageously in many cases. And I should also say from a canonical perspective that they,

00:24:23.020 because they were, they and their wives were not, were not asked to make this commitment when they

00:24:27.860 were ordained, as Edward Peters argued as a canonist, they're in a situation where it doesn't seem we

00:24:34.240 could oblige them to take this step. But if what you're speaking of, if they were to freely do this,

00:24:38.760 which couples throughout history for different reasons have decided to do, yes, the tremendous

00:24:44.400 helps of the church. So to run through those again, for, and this used to be standard for any, any priest,

00:24:48.820 whatever, however busy you were, these were just part of being a priest you did every day.

00:24:52.440 Specifically, sort of geared to assisting to maintain celibacy.

00:24:57.500 Yeah, well, they were geared towards strengthening your soul with the grace of Christ to be an

00:25:01.500 alter Christus. The priest is called to, in the midst of his, his human frailty and personality,

00:25:07.500 through the grace of Christ, to let anyone who encounters him encounter the very person of Jesus

00:25:11.460 Christ, especially in the sacraments. But anytime, I mean, you'd be, I'll be walking down the street,

00:25:16.600 someone may get off the bus and say, Father, can you hear my confession? Or can you come to our

00:25:19.840 house? And what they're looking for is to encounter the person of Jesus Christ in his teachings,

00:25:25.000 in his charity, in his self-sacrifice, which I do poorly, but that's what they're looking to

00:25:29.560 encounter. And there's a very particular grace available. And so for that, all these different

00:25:34.520 helps are meant to increase the grace of Christ in your soul, so you can live out heroically,

00:25:39.480 one aspect of which was, was a perpetual continence. So those basic helps were essentially a very strong

00:25:46.080 prayer life and regular practices of sacrifice. And the, the fundamental ones would be offering the

00:25:52.640 holy sacrifice in a reverent way, especially the, the traditional liturgy does such a beautiful job

00:25:57.880 for the priest himself of strengthening your, your prayer life, taking time of Thanksgiving after

00:26:03.140 the mass to pray and meditate. The divine office, which up until a few decades ago was, was longer

00:26:08.980 than what it is for most priests now, and some priests still choose to pray it, had eight offices

00:26:13.220 during the day and very beautiful, helpful prayers. The daily rosary was a given. Going to confession at

00:26:20.640 least once every two weeks was just standard. Many priests chose to go once a week. I myself get together

00:26:26.540 with a great brother priest, and we hear each other's confessions every week, and it's, it's a

00:26:30.560 friend, great help for your priesthood. The, either a daily time, a daily time of meditation, whether

00:26:36.840 in the form of a holy hour, spiritual reading, there were different ways of doing that.

00:26:42.200 Annual retreat of, a serious retreat of five days with, surrounded by silence, daily regular

00:26:49.540 practices at least once a week of, of sacrifices, fasting, or other, other penances that were

00:26:54.980 available to any priest in a good, balanced way that were very helpful. Dressing as a

00:27:00.720 priest is a help, first of all, for yourself, a constant reminder of your vocation as, as

00:27:06.100 being consecrated to God. These and other helps were available, and they make such an enormous

00:27:12.140 difference. When I'm speaking to young men about a vocation to the priesthood, say men

00:27:15.900 who are in their 20s or teenagers, they say, look, both of us, if you're not married right

00:27:19.240 now, both of us at this state in our life, we're both supposed to live, um, incontinence.

00:27:24.420 You and I are supposed to live it. Who has the easier job? You, who's a teenager, in the

00:27:29.220 midst of all the stuff you encounter every day, or as a, as a young adult in your university

00:27:33.040 environment or workplace, and all you're dealing with, and with the limited time you maybe have

00:27:36.980 with your job for prayer, or myself, who has all of this time of prayer during the day,

00:27:40.980 I'm living in a consecrated environment of a rectory, I have a supportive brother priest.

00:27:45.200 I have a hundred times more helps, because young men are often afraid, well, it's not

00:27:50.880 easy to, to be celibate in their situation in today's world, which, no, it's not easy,

00:27:55.820 um, and it's always a sacrifice and challenge, but it is, uh, I would say much, much easier,

00:28:01.940 where you have tremendous, enormous helps for this as a priest, and so I would say to any

00:28:06.340 young man who might be listening to this, do not be afraid of taking that leap. You have

00:28:10.680 incredible helps that the church will offer you if you choose to put them into practice,

00:28:14.680 and if you choose a, a good place for formation as you're being formed as a priest.

00:28:18.720 Yeah. I, I'm, I'm so encouraged that there's actually a way forward, a sort of change, not

00:28:25.700 really a change, but harking back to the beginning of the church in a legitimate way, which allows

00:28:32.420 married men, if needed, the opportunity with the permission of their wives to practice continence,

00:28:39.200 therefore, if they're so chosen to enter the priesthood. That's great, and it's, it's a, it's

00:28:44.920 a way forward, I, a lot of people like to talk about compromise. Usually in, in the church,

00:28:50.920 you can't compromise with sin, but this is not sin, and this is a way, if you want something

00:28:56.120 new, sort of, so to speak, um, and God knows, maybe there will be people in the Amazon or wherever

00:29:02.800 who are married, who will, men who will give themselves up for this. God willing, let's

00:29:08.200 find out, but, uh, it was great talking to you, Father, about this. Thank you for being

00:29:11.900 with us on the John Henry Weston Show.

00:29:13.240 Thank you for being with you, John Henry. Thank you for all the great work that LifeSize

00:29:15.560 News is doing.

00:29:16.720 Praise God.

00:29:20.740 God bless you all, and we'll see you next time.

00:29:22.420 God bless you all, and we'll see you next time.

The John-Henry Westen Show - October 15, 2019

There is a legitimate way forward for married priests： Celibacy

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