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 hisI 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. a step ahead, the Melkites have helped enes elected two rival patriarchs, one When Bishop Elya heard last year create a bridge to the East. pro-Constantinople, the other pro-Rome, that a Methodist minister, still further and two Churches came into being: The removed from the Catholic tradition, Ecumenical implications Antiochene Orthodox Church and the was in the priestly pipeline, he felt the The thirst for Christian unity and Melkite Catholic Church. absurdity of the situation. As he ex- universality is in the bones of Melkites. Last summer, the Melkite synod plains: "I said, 'Hey, if they could ordain Sometimes referred to as "Greek Catho- undertook a daring initiative. It called married men, why shouldn't we, in the lics," they trace their roots to early for the reunion of the churches of Eastern Church, who have the tradi- Christian communities that were among Antioch into one Church, in cornmu- tion? In my mind, the ban was non- the first to be "Hellenized," or influ- nion with both the Roman Pontiff and existent." enced by Greek culture. They became the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of known during the time of the Byzantine Constantinople. In this mission the Working toward unity emperor (or "melek") of Constantinople Melkites have received a green light While casting his motives as practical who appealed for unity amid the strife from Rome-or at least that is how most and pastoral, the bishop offered a more precipitated by the teachings of the observers see it-and a cold shoulder intriguing account of the Vatican's per- Council of Chalcedon in 451, which he from the Orthodox, who say any end to spective. In his mind, the Holy See actu- the little schism at Antioch will have to ally welcomes the ordination as a tangi- await the ending of the Great Schism of ble sign of the Latin Church's esteem for 1054. Eastern traditions. In this worldwide ecumenical picture, Such a message would certainly be the question of ordinations in the United welcomed by the Orthodox churches. States is barely visible. Observers note And if these Eastern churches were that the ban, if there is one, affects a rela- assured that Rome would respect their tively small number of Eastern Catholics, particular traditions, the result could be principally in North America. Nonethe- a boost toward reunion of the Eastern less, says Father Ronald Roberson, an churches with Rome, which is Pope ecumenical-affairs advisor to the US John Paul II's ecumenical dream. "I sup- Catholic bishops: "It could complicate pose they (in Rome) would agree to the dialogue. If the Vatican were still whatever we do to show we are authen- restricting [the practice], the Orthodox tic" as Eastern Christians, Bishop Elya might turn around and tell us, 'You say reasoned. He suggested that at the very you're going to respect our traditions, least, Latin Church leaders know that if and here in the United States, you don' t.' " they were to block ordinations in any Father Hal Stockert, a Ruthenian pas- Eastern Church, anywhere, the result tor and theologian in upstate New York, would be a setback in the ecumenical is more emphatic. "It [the ban] could dialogue. "The Orthodox would take a throw a wrench into the process," he dim view of it. It would not be received warns. "The balancing here is extremely well," he says. delicate. It wouldn't take much to toss it Naturally, the bishop and his col- off." He believes that the question of leagues in the Lebanese-based Melkite married clergy-while dormant in the Synod of Bishops have their own ecu- present dialogue-could erupt with menical agenda. And their vision coin- unpredictable force if Rome were to cides neatly with the Vatican's plan. For renew the so-called ban in the United several decades, Melkites have congre- States.

THE CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT, March 1997 39 So the ordination of one priest, in one priests "who wish to go to the United this second statement. "Thus one can small eparchy, or diocese, with only States of North America and stay there, well understand how a married clergy 25,000 members-a tiny portion of the must be celibates." permitted in those places where the Melkite Church, which counts roughly Father Basil Bishop, a theologian who Greek Ruthenian Rite originated and 1.5 million members worldwide--could drafted a recent background paper on constitutes a predominant element, have reverberations far beyond the married clergy for the Ukrainian could hardly be advisable in places American borders. Catholic Diocese of Stamford, Connecti- where the same Rite has been imported cut, says the 1929 ruling was essentially and finds an environment and mentali- What did Rome mean? about the distribution, not the ordina- ty altogether different." While ostensi- In a virtual instant after Bishop Elya tion, of priests. In other words, it gov- bly it was merely a repetition of the 1929 posted his Christmas Eve e-mail mes- erned the procedures by which the document, this new document added sage, news of the ordination flashed on Eastern church could share celibate that "the regulation in question does not the Internet through CINEAST, a priests with the Ruthenians of America. concern exclusively the Ruthenian cler- Catholic information network that dis- But he adds, "They read into it what they gy, but applies without exception to cusses Eastern Church affairs. Soon after wanted to read into it." Father Bishop is priests of all (Eastern) Rites." came the crucial question, posted on the speaking (in the past tense, significantly) Testing the ban In the bishop's mind, the Holy See actually Somehow, in the years and decades that followed, the rule came to be inter- welcomes the ordination as a tangible sign of the preted more narrowly-as applying Latin Church's esteem for Eastern traditions. only to ordinations in the United States, not the borrowing of married priests bulletin board in attention-grabbing of the nation's (overwhelmingly Latin- from the homelands. Over time, Eastern capital letters: "IS THE BAN DEAD?" rite) Catholic bishops-who, in the Church leaders have tested the ban, qui- Not surprisingly, opinions on this par- words of Father Roberson at the bishops' etly or openly in the States or abroad. ticular question ranged widely though conference, "felt that a married clergy Father Philip A. Khairallah has de- most contributors cheered the ordina- would scandalize the laity and weaken scribed how in the early 1970's, Melkite tion of Father St. Germain. the commitment to celibacy on the part Patriarch Maximos V decided to ordain William M. Klimon, a Latin Catholic of the Latin clergy." two married American men who trav- who is active in grass-roots dialogue in Whatever the original purpose of the eled to Syria, with the blessings of the Washington, DC area, said he wrote document, Ruthenian Catholics saw it Archbishop Joseph Tawil, Elya's prede- several years ago to the Eastern Congre- as an unwelcome message. By most esti- cessor as eparch of Newton. As Khair- gation in Rome, and heard back that the mates, more than half of them bolted the allah relates in an article published in ban was in "vigorous force." He added: Catholic Church for various Orthodox Eastern Churches Journal (Spring 1995), "But I have a feeling that this 'discipline' churches. Five years later, the Holy See Maximos told one of the men: "I have will slip into obsolescence, and that the weighed in again with a pastoral letter tried gentle evolution with Rome to true Eastern discipline will be restored that alluded to "grave agitations and bring back our traditions. This has not in the US." (According to the "true dis- deplorable rebellions" among the Ameri- worked. Now I want to try gentle revo- cipline," married men can be ordained, can Ruthenians. Trying to alleviate the lution." but priests cannot marry; bishops too concerns of US bishops, the Eastern The revolt, quietly staged from the must be celibate.) Congregation broadened the regulation American shores, was perhaps too gen- In and out of cyberspace, "the ban" beyond the Ruthenians, and built a firm tle, or subtle, to rouse the Vatican. There commonly refers to the 1929 decree, case against the presence of married were no repercussions, until Maximos Cum Data Fuerit. The document, howev- clergy. tried to do the same, this time in North er, only applied directly to the Ruthe- In the United States, the Ruthenian America. It was 1977, and the Patriarch nian rite in the United States, and did population "represents an immigrant had agreed to ordain another American not close the door on ordinations of element and a minority, and it could not, in Damascus, after a visit to the United married men in America. It merely said therefore, pretend to maintain there its States. that until the Ruthenian bishops could own customs and traditions which are Father Khairallah, a married Melkite educate and ordain sufficient numbers in contrast with those which are the from the Middle East, now serving a of priests to serve their faithful, they legitimate customs and traditions of parish in Cleveland, Ohio, recalls the would have to draw their clergy from Catholicism in the United States, and occasion: the home territories of Galicia (in north- much less to have there a clergy which However, it was brought to the west Spain), Hungary, and Yugoslavia. could be a source of painful perplexity Patriarch's attention that since he The sting of the Vatican document came or scandal to the majority of American was in the US, and the candidate was in the provision that all Ruthenian ' Catholics," the Vatican announced in in the US, it would be ridiculous that

40 THE CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT, March 1997 both wait a few weeks and have the America since the Ruthenian uprising work for $12,000 a year?" ordination in Damascus, Syria. Again, of 1929. "This was not an in-your-face In the aftermath of the ordination, the Patriarch agreed, and decided to kind of thing," Fr. St. Germain empha- canonists have offered conflicting judg- hold the ordination in Montreal, sized in the interview at the chancery. ments on whether the Eastern code Canada. "At first the bishop told me it couldn't supersedes the earlier decrees, as Bishop A few days after the rendezvous in be done here, that I would have to go to Elya and his advisors contend. For now, Montreal, Rome let it be known that nei- the Middle East. He was very prayerful however, the bishop appears to be get- ther this nor the other ordinations in about it." ting the benefit of the doubt. Most Syria had escaped the notice of the Holy Father St. Germain, 58, held secular telling, perhaps, has been Silverstrini's See. "It was thought that these reverend jobs before joining the bishop's staff remark about there being no need for "a gentleman would not be assigned to ser- nearly two years ago. He and his wife, third party" to intervene. If the Melkites vice in the Eparchy of Newton," said a Claire, have been Melkites since 1966. are the first party, and the Vatican is Vatican spokesman. "In so far as they His ordination is not likely to spark a declining to act as a third party, then were assigned to service in this Eparchy, trend. Bishop Elya admits the eparchy who is the second? their ordination was illicit." has just about all the priests its parishes The answer, historically, has been the In 1978, after a stream of letters from American Latin hierarchy. Yet as Father the East, Pope Paul VI wrote back to Roberson attests, the American bishops Patriarch Maximos. The Holy Father are unlikely to resume their antagonist explained that the presence of married role in this drama. Times have changed, priests in the United States "poses some he points out; the Latin bishops have delicate problems for the Latin-rite com- their own married priests, about seven- munity. This is why the Holy See, as ty of them, ordained from Protestant your Beatitude has been informed from communions. time to time, has decided, on this partic- And then, of course, there is the ecu- ular point, to suspend the application of menical dream of the Holy Father, his the general principle of the preservation vision of the Church once again breath- of the traditions proper to Eastern com- ing out of both lungs, East and West, as munities outside their patriarchal terri- it celebrates the new millennium. Latin tories." So the case was closed; the Church ecumenists such as Father priestly faculties of those illicitly or- Roberson, author of the widely ac- dained had been removed. claimed Eastern Christian Churches, cau- After that episode, the Melkites tions against exaggerating the ecumeni- moved more cautiously. A few married cal significance of the "ban," which he men found their way to Middle Eastern terms "a unique North American situa- capitals other than Damascus, for quick tion." Others such as Ruthenian layman and quiet ordinations. More recently, the David Brown, however, insist that the promulgation of the Eastern canon law taboo remains as a heavy symbol of has given Byzantine bishops in North 8 Father James Graham models the what they consider the Western Church's America the feeling of a fresh start. On vestments worn by Melkite priests. reluctance to match words with deeds in an October day in 1994, Ukrainian need, or can afford: about 50 scattered respect for Eastern Church traditions. Bishop Basil Filevich of Saskatchewan, across the geographical limits of the In the pews, where Brown sits, the Canada, laid his hand upon a married Newton eparchy, which coincide with watchword is "tradition" more than candidate, Ivan Nahachewsky. Rome those of the United States. ecumenism, as far as the two can be has forbidden ordinations of married Father Bishop of the Ukrainian dio- untangled in the Eastern churches. Eastern clergy in Canada since 1930, cese of Stamford says it would be thor- "We're not looking to change the West- according to Church leaders there. Yet oughly unrealistic to expect a revolt ern Church," says Brown, an Internet this ordination stirred no real action against the celibacy requirement among manager in Phoenix, Arizona, who con- from the Holy See, other than a disap- the other Eastern churches. "It's very verted from Protestantism and con- proving press comment at the time by difficult to support a married clergy," he tributes to the CINEAST forum. 'We're an official of the Oriental Congregation. points out. "Hospitalization (health looking to have our traditions honored insurance) alone for a family would here in the States. But we're not going to Hardly a trend drive us to the poor house. It just does be militant about it." As far as anyone knows, the ordina- not work in the modern world." The tion of Father St. Germain marks the same economic logic affects married William Bole is a freelance journalist in first time a married man has been men as well, he observes: "Nobody is Lowell, Massachusetts. ordained in the Eastern Church of lining up to be ordained. Who's going to

THE CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT, March 1997