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4,000 Anglican priests to join Catholics
Conan Businge
OVER 4,000 Anglican priests all over the world, including married ones, are expected to join the Catholic Church, Bishop Matthias Ssekamanya announced on Friday.
Ssekamanya, who doubles as the chancellor of Uganda Martyrs University, said this does not mean that the Catholic Church is removing the requirement for priests to remain unmarried.
“We are not becoming soft on celibacy for Catholic priests. We shall also not tolerate homosexuals and polygamous marriages in the Catholic Church,” he added.
He was officiating at the 15th graduation ceremony of the Nkozi-based university.
Vatican officials announced that married Anglican priests would be allowed to remain in the priesthood on a case-by-case basis as they join the Roman Catholic fold.
The Vatican’s decision to allow Anglicans to keep some aspects of their liturgy had raised questions over whether the Catholic requirement for celibacy might change.
The Vatican this month released rules and guidelines, known as the Apostolic Constitution, as part of efforts to make it easier for disillusioned, traditionalist Anglicans to cross over to the Roman Catholic Church.
Under the Vatican’s initiative, Anglicans, turned off by their own church’s embrace of gay clerics, women priests and blessing of same-sex unions, can join new parishes, called ‘personal ordinariates’, that are headed by former Anglican prelates.
“There is no change in the Church’s discipline of clerical celibacy,” Bishop Ssekamanya re-affirmed. He praised celibacy as “a sign and a stimulus for pastoral charity”.
The ceremony had 236 students graduating with masters, 522 with bachelors, 13 with advanced diplomas, 212 with diplomas and 10 with certificates.
Published on: Saturday, 21st November, 2009
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