The Ordination of a Married Man Into the Priesthood of the Melkite
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United States The ordination of a married man into the priesthood of the Melkite Church in the United States has triggered some far-ranging discussions of Eastern traditions and ecumenical prospects. By WILLIAM BOLE t was Christmas eve. Bishop John Elya, spiritual leader of the Melkite Catholics in the United States, and a night owl, had just returned to Ihis residence in Newton, Massachusetts, after celebrating midnight Mass. Instead of turning in, the prelate turned on his computer and logged onto the Internet. "To all my friends in Cyber- space, those who wrote to me recently (as recently as tonight) and those who wrote to me in the past. Grace and peace be unto you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ whose Birthday we celebrate," announced Bishop Elya, a Syrian-born cleric with silver hair and a goatee. Typing out his greetings, and his wish that the Internet might offer a new tool of Melkite evangelization, the bish- op mentioned one other thing in the form of a postscript: The good news of the week is the ordination of Protodeacon Andre St. Germain to holy priesthood by the laying of my humble hand, on Father Andre St. Germain (with beard) acting in his role as a deacon several Saturday, December 21, at St. Basil years ago. Seminary, Methuen, Massachusetts. arrived in print media-that the bish- their own ways of worship, their own Father Andre St. Germain has com- op's humble hand had ordained a mar- forms of ecclesiastical governance. They pleted all the philosophical and theo- ried man to the Catholic priesthood. also have a hallowed tradition of calling logical studies required by canon married men to the priesthood, though law. He has been at it steadily during Looking the other way most of their clergy are celibate and few the [past] two years and a half. I am Married priests are hardly news in of the large urban pastorates go to fami- very happy for the great enrichment the native lands of Eastern Catholic ly men. which Father Andre brings to our churches such as the Melkites, who are Circumstances are different, howev- presbyterate. concentrated in the Middle East, and er, in the United States, where Eastern- The word might not have spread far have their own patriarch in Damascus, rite Catholics form only a tiny minority if this were merely the first time a bish- Syria. While in communion with Rome, among the country's Catholic popula- op of the Byzantine tradition had an- these Byzantine churches mirror the tra- tion. The transplanted churches have nounced an ordination in so un-byzan- ditions of Eastern Orthodoxy. They have been constrained by what is usually tine a manner: over the Internet. But one or more of Bishop Elya's e-mail friends The news finally arrived in the print media: that took the liberty of posting the message on an Internet bulletin board, where it the bishop's humble hand had ordained a married kicked around until the news finally man to the Catholic priesthood. THE CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT, March 1997 referred to as a "ban" on the ordination venience. The front-door ordination of of non-celibate men. The understanding Father St. Germain raises some signifi- goes back seven decades or more, to cantly wider questions, involving the when American bishops of the Western future of the Eastern churches world- or "Latin" Church pleaded to Rome that wide and the prospects of Christian the presence of married clergy in this unity as the Church enters her third mil- country would confuse the immigrant lennium. Church and demoralize her priests. For help in ministering to their own Why ask for permission? ethnic congregations, Byzantine bishops Over little cups of Middle Eastern- in the United States have often received style coffee in the visitor's room of the foreign-born clergy-including some Eparchy of Newton, the Melkite diocese married men, educated and ordained in that covers the country, Bishop Elya the old countries. This is perfectly licit, offered a simple rationale for the ordina- done with the blessing of the Holy See. tion. "I need a priest, and here we have At times the bishops have also wiggled someone who is very qualified," he said, around the so-called ban by sending motioning toward Father St. Germain. married priestly candidates and their The newest Melkite priest-who has families abroad for a fast ordination, served at the chancery near Boston, and and then "borrowing" them back from will continue to do-is now also avail- the mother-country hierarchies. This able to handle parish duties for priests practice has been an open secret in the Archbishop Joseph Tawil ordaining who are ill, vacationing, or otherwise Eastern communion if not the Western. a new member of the diaconate. unavailable; until his ordination, the ep- In the Melkite Church, for example, the the course would be cleared for ordina- archy had real difficulty coping with legal fiction accounts for a handful of tions of married American Catholic men priestly absences, since few ati in-riie married clergy in this country with such in churches of the Eastern tradition. priests are trained in the Byzantine liw- doubtfully Middle Eastern-sounding Interestingly, however, the Melkite gy. The bishop maintained, further, that names as McCarthy and Russo. action does not seem to have arisen from any barrier to ordaining a married mn / In laying his hand upon Father St. any particular movement for married has been knocked down by the 199'0 Germain, born and raised in a French- priests in the Eastern churches of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. Canadian parish in Manchester, New United States. There appears to be no The code, for the first time, lays out the Hampshire, Bishop Elya has blown the serious number of married men lining law for all these churches. It affirms the whistle and ushered a married priest in up for ordination--or more to the point, tradition of married clergy, but makes through the front door. It is a step that has no rush among Byzantine bishops to lay no clear mention of contrary practices in led to severe shocks in the past, begin- a hand upon them. While he has chal- countries outside the traditional ecclesi- ning in the late 1920s, when the Vatican lenged the status quo, Bishop Elya him- astical territories. thwarted the ordination of married men self says he had no intention of ordain- The bishop did not seek the Holy in this country, triggering a huge exodus ing another married Melkite for at least See's blessing. "You don't ask for per- of Ruthenian-rite Catholics to Orthodox a year. mission when you think you're autho- churches; and as recently as the 1970s, Clearly, this story involves not just rized," he explained, adding that he also when Pope Paul VI clamped down on Bishop Elya's need for an extra priest, or saw no reason to pull a few thousand Melkite ordinations with less disastrous the Vatican's regard for his pastoral con- dollars from the Melkite coffers to fly results. another family (St. Germain and his History, however, does not appear to The bishop wife have two grown sons and two be repeating itself. The Vatican has nei- grandchildren) to Cairo, Jerusalem, or ther blessed nor cursed the latest ordi- maintained that Beirut, for a quiet laying of the hand. nation. The only hint of Rome's thinking "We used to beat behind the bush, but has come from Cardinal Achille Sil- any bameerto ordaining then I figured, there is no bush to beat vestrini, prefect of the Congregation for a mawied man has been behind," Bishop Elya said during an Oriental Churches, who, in declining inte~ewin late January. comment to Catholic News Service, knocked down by The bush that he and others in the remarked, "It is not good that a third United States have beat around is really party intervene." the 1990 Code of a thicket of recommendations, edicts, That "no comment" response struck Canons of the Eastern and interpretations issued by Rome many observers as a signal that the Holy over the past century. Most often cited, See might stay out of the matter. If so, Churches. and perhaps misinterpreted, is a 1929 38 THE CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT, March 1997 document titled Cum Data Fuerit, which gated at the forefront of what is some- embraced. (The Council rejected Mono- sparked the Ruthenian rebellion. In the times referred to as "de-Latinization." physitism, which denied the humanity decades since that document appeared, This is a process of renewal, or restora- of Christ by claiming he had only a the only licit ordinations of married men tion, of the spiritual, liturgical, and theo- divine nature.) Those who followed the have taken place in none other than the logical traditions shared by the Byzan- melek, and the Council, were referred to Latin Church, which holds to no tradi- tine Churches, both Catholic and Ortho- as Melkites. tion of married priests. That irony has dox. The Melkite Church as it is known not been lost on Eastern Church leaders, Since the Second Vatican Council, the today was created in 1724, after a schism who have seen disaffected Anglican/ Latin Church has encouraged Eastern in the Antiochene Church, nearly 700 Episcopalian priests fitted in Roman col- Catholics on this path, with an eye years after the Great Schism of Eastern lars while their own deacons have been toward overall Christian unity. Staying and Western Christianity. The Antioch- left standing at the altar.