Priests' meeting focuses on celibacy

What began last year as groups of priests writing letters to the U.S. bishops asking for a discussion on optional celibacy has now developed into the "Priests' Forum for Eucharist," a nationwide network of priests from 11 dioceses organized to further their cause.

The Albany Diocese was one of ten dioceses represented at a meeting last week in downstate New York, where the group was officially formed and their goals discussed.

Rev. Andrew Connolly of the Rockville Centre Diocese was selected to coordinate the forum.

Background

Last November, 87 priests from the Albany Diocese signed a letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urging that optional celibacy be considered.

At the time, clergy from the Milwaukee Archdiocese and the Diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota, had already written similar letters; later, clergy from several other U.S. dioceses followed suit.

Rev. Dominic Ingemie, chair of the Albany Diocese's Priestly Life and Ministry Council, oversaw the Albany letter's creation. He and Rev. John Kirwin, pastor of St. John/St. Ann's parish in Albany, attended last week's meeting.

Also in attendance were priests from the Milwaukee, New York, Chicago and St. Paul/Minneapolis Archdioceses; and the Dioceses of Brooklyn; Pittsburgh; Rockville Centre; Paterson, New Jersey; and Belleville, Illinois. (Priests from the Boston Archdiocese did not attend but expressed interest in joining the forum.)

Meeting's content

Father Ingemie, who is also pastor of St. James parish in Albany, told The Evangelist that the meeting focused on two problems: the difficulty of ensuring that the Eucharist is available to all Catholics in light of the decreasing number of priests and the increasing workload on priests.

During two days of discussions, each of the 18 priests at the meeting talked about the ministries in which he's involved and how the shortage of priests is affecting his diocese.

"One of the major things that came up was priests being pastors of two and three parishes," Father Ingemie said. Because many priests have to cover several parishes in a large geographic area, "priests are not part of the community they're presiding at Eucharist for. They're coming in and going to many places."

Other issues discussed included the struggle to find priests to fill in at parishes when pastors go on vacation, and the fact that "importing" priests from other countries to serve U.S. parishes sometimes leads to cultural and language barriers.

Gifts

The priests in the forum believe that celibacy and a vocation to the priesthood are two different gifts, and just because someone doesn't have the gift of celibacy doesn't mean he wouldn't be a good priest.

"We're not talking about a question of doctrine. We're talking about a discipline in the Church -- about something that already has a history in the Church," Father Ingemie stated.

Eastern-rite Catholics allow priests to marry, he noted; and married ministers from other denominations who become Catholic priests have been allowed to remain married.

Eucharistic slant

Catholics have both a right and a duty to talk about optional celibacy, according to the Priests' Forum, because the Eucharist is central to the Roman Catholic faith, and anything that threatens its availability must be addressed.

The forum's initial goal is to boost its membership. Father Ingemie said he'll focus on involving priests from the other dioceses in New York State (including Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Ogdensburg).

Eventually, the group would like to see more national and international discussions on opening up the priesthood to married men.

Spirit at work

"We're not naive [and assuming] that this can happen tomorrow," Father Ingemie cautioned. "Let's let the Spirit work."

However, he said, it was "wonderful" to meet priests from other dioceses who have the same goal, and to represent the scores of priests from the Albany Diocese who signed the letter asking for optional celibacy.

"To be involved [in the Priests' Forum] is very important to me, because we feel this is very important for the Church," he noted. Getting together and creating the forum "is a real sign of hope."

(4/29/04) [[In-content Ad]]