Patriarch Lubomyr Husar: Married priesthood won't solve vocation crisis

From Catholic News Service, some advice and wisdom from the East:

Ordaining married men is not a guaranteed way to solve a vocations crisis, and it will not automatically improve the quality of priests, said Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Kiev-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

"The quality of the priest does not depend on whether or not he is married," the cardinal said in a Jan. 4 interview with the Vatican newspaper.

The cardinal, whose Eastern-rite church ordains married men, spoke to L'Osservatore Romano about the Ukrainian bishops' decision to proclaim 2008 "The Year of the Christian Vocation."

The Vatican newspaper asked Cardinal Husar how he would respond to Latin-rite Catholics who think ordaining married men would solve the vocations crisis.

"Abolishing celibacy is not a solution in itself," he said. "The quality of the priest does not depend on whether or not he is married. This has been our experience, and I think people are wrong if they think the vocations problem can be resolved by ordaining married persons. It will not ensure a large number of vocations.

Read the entire article. (HT: M. Lichens)

Related Ignatius Insight articles:

• Priestly Vocations in America: A Look At the Numbers | Jeff Ziegler
• The Real Reason for the Vocation Crisis | Rev. Michael P. Orsi
• Pray the Harvest Master Sends Laborors | Rev. Anthony Zimmerman

Comments

[John]

The problem is a culture-wide problem of people not *responding* to vocation. People who are called to chaste marriage and chaste single life are not answering this call either; just take a look at our marriage, divorce, and promiscuity rates. If fewer people are also responding to the call to the priesthood, that is not a surprise, nor is it one that can be fixed by liberalizing Church practice. Thank God for those who do answer, and thank God also for the priests from other countries who come here to minister to American Catholics.