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PDF versionUgandan Catholics form new church with celibacy option for clergy
Jan. 22, 2010
KAMPALA, UGANDA -- Twenty renegade Catholic priests who are either married or want to marry have broken from the mainstream Roman Catholic church in Uganda and formed a new church where celibacy is not required.
After urging from the Kampala archdiocese, the Ugandan government said Jan. 8 that it was investigating the breakaway Catholic Apostolic National Church in Uganda and would ban it if found to be illegal. Vatican officials said the priests were now considered “outside” the Catholic church and would likely be excommunicated.
The creation of the splinter church underscored the increasingly vexing problem of enforcing celibacy for Roman Catholic priests in Africa, which has the world’s fastest-growing Catholic population but where there have been several cases of priests living openly with women and fathering children.
Earlier this year, the Vatican summoned African bishops to Rome for a three-week meeting on the church in Africa, and celibacy was a key topic of discussion. The Vatican, however, has remained firm that priests must not marry, although there are exceptions for priests of the Eastern rite and for converts from Anglicanism.
The breakaway Ugandan church has as its head a former Zambian Catholic priest, Fr. Luciano Anzanga Mbewe, who was excommunicated earlier this year for having founded what the Vatican called a schismatic church, the Catholic Apostolic National Church of Zambia, which allows for a married priesthood.
The Ugandan offshoot is located in the eastern town of Jinja. Mbewe is expected to visit soon to officially launch the church and ordain new priests, said Fr. Leonard Lubega, who says he has been appointed bishop-elect by Mbewe.
“We are Catholics but not Roman Catholics,” Lubega said, adding that the new church, while not under Pope Benedict XVI, recognizes him and prays for him.
Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga and Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala, the current and retired archbishops of Kampala, have denounced the new church.
Archdiocesan sources say Lubega was never ordained a Catholic priest and another priest in the new church, Fr. Matovu Seguya, has until recently been serving as an Orthodox priest in Mityana.
How can Papa Ratzi possibly
How can Papa Ratzi possibly stop those priests from marrying and uniting in holy intercourse? Shouldn't he have to excommunicate the whole lot of disobedient and misguided miscreants?
If they are indeed priests,
If they are indeed priests, they have excommunicated themselves automatically through their actions and the Holy Father need not take any public action. As for "holy intercourse"...I'll have to try that line on my wife sometime.
The real question is how has the clergy managed to get itself into such a sad state of affairs regarding matters of discipline, ethics, politics, adoption of socialist causes, etc.
Granted this particular matter is an internal issue to the clergy, but you have to wonder whether Roncalli XXIII hadn't slipped completely into dementia by the time he started the Church down this destructive path....
Pax
Have you ever considered that
Have you ever considered that perhaps this priests have had mistresses for decades, even centuries, and now what to regulate their circumstances by marrying them? Isn't that more natural than imposing unnatural celibacy on all priests and prelates and having a good number of them have out-of-wedlock sex with women and, much worse, engage in abusive sexual activity with boys and girls?
"The real question is how the clergy managed to get itself into such a sad state of affairs regarding" sexual repression, unethical behaviour, politics, adoption of fascist causes, etc.
"You have to wonder whether Joseph Ratzinger hadn't slipped completely into dementia by the time he started the Church down this destructive path ..."
Both Sirach and Yvon are
Both Sirach and Yvon are utterly rude! Neither POPE JOHN XXIII or POPE BENEDICT XVI (as they are to be referred to) were demented. To say that is sneering and nasty. Pope John XXIII was certainly not like many of NCR's writers (believing the Church had to be subject to secular cultural controls) are anything of the sort. Nor is Pope Benedict insane. He knows what he is doing.
I am not sure if breaking a
I am not sure if breaking a promise of celibacy is an excommunicable offense. It is grounds for suspension and/or laicization, but I am not sure of excommunication is a peanalty. However, schism is an excommunicatable offense, so they have that over their heads. However, it is likely that the Pope wants to do what he can to reconcile the rift before he resorts to the last medicinal peanalty the Church uses. After all, excommunication is not about vengeance or manipulation, but is meant to be a shocking wakeup call that ones actions have separated him from the Church. While they may still be a member of the body of Christ by baptism, excommunication is meant to make them aware that they are a severed finger or a chipped tooth, part of the body yet broken off from it.
After all, excommunication is
After all, excommunication is not about vengeance or manipulation, but is meant to be a shocking wakeup call that ones actions have separated him from the Church.
Do you not think that these priests were not fully aware that their joining a group in schism with Rome would result in their excommunication?
As such, how can it be a "shocking wakeup call?"
It would appear to me that they, like so many before them since before and during the time of the Reformation, are fully "awake" and fully cognizant of the consequences of their choice.
On the other hand, they are probably awake and cognizant of the results of going on as they have been.
If they had been asleep, it was likely the numbness of thought brought on by their seminary formation, which probably held that mandatory sacerdotal celibacy is a good idea. After some years or decades under its yoke, they have awakened, and determined to throw the yoke off, while not deserting their ministry.
They are to be commended for their clarity and for their willingness to let go of what is not necessary while reaching for the sort of fulfillment and happiness towards which all men and women are entitled to reach.
May they find ongoing joy in their ministries and new joy in their wives and their children.
For 30 years the folks in the
For 30 years the folks in the Vatican have refused any serious dialogue with disaffected Catholics in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, etc., their argument being that the loss of a few million in the so-called First World would be more than made up by the new hundreds of millions in Latin America and Africa, seen as the obedient future of the Church. NCR Vatican reporter Allen has often propagated this thesis per his Vatican sources. But Latin America has long been becoming evangelical Protestant by the millions, a fate I now see for Haiti now that 400 years of Rman Catholic infrastructure has been destroyed. The evangelicals, lay and married clery led, and with millions of dollars, will mobilize fast. The RC Church, ponderous and ossified, and totally dependent on celibate priests with years of theological indoctrination and acculturation, will no way be able to compete. And, as the above article shows, Africa may fast be moving the same way. But the folks in Rome don't get it, the hapless Benedict XVI perhaps least of all.
St Peter was MARRIED. The
St Peter was MARRIED. The Ugandans have got it right: allow married priests.
Ex-Anglicans as priests can be married, so why does the pope disallow our own always Catholic priests to be married? So they must convert over to Anglican, then convert back, is that how to be married Catholic priest?
Is the pope Catholic? Is pope C-R-A-Z-Y? Pope's a giant hypocrite.
Let RC priests be married, and not just ex-Anglican ones. The Ugandans who are married are OK, are doing what Jesus and Peter did. Jesus chose many married Apostles, both male and female. Married OK by Jesus amd God!
Peter had a wife and a son.
Peter had a wife and a son. Son called Mark. Marriage is a Holy Sacrament. So why is PBXVI so anti-marriage? That defies Jesus and God to be anti-marriage. Be fruitful and multiply. Not good to be alone. Jesus and God do not hate sex or marriage.
Jonathan, your statement
Jonathan, your statement deserves an answer, " So why is PBXVI so anti-marriage?" Simple, it has always been a good real estate deal for the Church. No wife or family to make claim to possessions! It is about things and the fear of the loss of things. There are two types of Religion, the fearful vindictive type that loves so much its worldly possessions and the hopeful and loving type. What type of Religion is the door to Spirituality and the way of Jesus? Deep down humans know the answer but many are too fearful of loss of control to attempt Christ like existences. How much a Christian is PBXVI? That is the real question.
May we gain grace and love through peace and understanding!
R. Dennis Porch, MD
The Pope would do well to
The Pope would do well to LISTEN to the advice of this post-synodal assembly of African bishops as he prepares his Apostolic Exhortation on Africa:
Special Council for Africa prepares suggestions for Pope Benedict
Vatican City, January 25 (CNA) .- The Vatican Press Office has released the details of the latest meeting of African bishops since the closing of their Special Assembly in October. A meeting of the Special Council for Africa was held on Jan. 19 - 20 at the Vatican to discuss continuing issues in the African Church.
The secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, hosted the council's second meeting in which all members, representing 12 African nations, were present.
As he introduced the agenda items for the meeting, Archbishop Eterovic reflected on the major themes addressed in October's assembly, which focused on achieving justice, peace and reconciliation in Africa. Finding reconciliation, the archbishop stated, must happen through the Sacrament of Penance and the ability to forgive. He also touched on the importance of avoiding the transformation of theology into politics and the protection of creation.
Each of the members reported on the positive effects of the Special Assembly and the current social and ecclesial climates in their countries and dioceses.
According to the press office statement, discussion was primarily dedicated to the fact that Churches in Africa often find themselves playing a role in defending the people from injustices. "The lack of peace leads the Church to a strong commitment to mediation and reception of those who suffer the consequences of internal wars," the bishops said.
The communique from the council also observed that "reconciliation continues to be a challenge for the Church in Africa, which must be reconciled in herself to become credible in her preaching and her social action."
The members of the special council also spoke of their wish to "establish relations of mutual understanding and collaboration" with other religions on the continent. They underscored that, above all, they must seek dialogue with the Islamic community, of whom they expressed their thought that "fundamentalist groups are always more repudiated and marginalized by official representatives of Islam."
The group wrapped up its meeting by organizing the proposals from October's Synod into a workable outline for the creation of a Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation. Pope Benedict will craft the Apostolic Exhortation.
The council members hope the document will take "into account not only the real and concrete difficulties, but also many positive and promising situations of the African continent." "In any case," they said, "the final text should maintain a fair equilibrium between a theological-spiritual perspective and an adaptation to the pastoral and social reality."
The special council will meet again from April 27 - 28.
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