De Souza: Missionary Failure?

http://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/married-priests-and-missionary-failure

Focusing on the failure of missionary efforts in the Amazon, Fr. de Sousa wrote:

"What’s new in the viri probati proposal is that married men, always Catholics of the Latin rite, could be ordained not only deacons, but priests. It would be a substantial change and a novelty, but not a complete novelty.

It is a novelty as a response to the lack of clergy in a large mission territory. Those familiar with the history of the Church in the United States and Canada would recognize the situation of the Amazon as similar to the early years of the Church in North America, where the few missionary clergy from France and Spain had immense territories to cover. Those historical accounts can be read in the Jesuit Relations or in the letters of the Spanish missions or the first bishops of Quebec. Willa Cather’s acclaimed novel Death Comes for the Archbishop gives that same history dramatic treatment in the setting of New Mexico.

The problem of pastoral care of the Amazon is, therefore, not a new problem. The viri probati solution is new. It argues that the local population is, for whatever reason, unable to provide priestly vocations and that missionary vocations are not to be had. By default, therefore, a relaxation of priestly celibacy is in order.

The viri probati proposal, therefore, is not advanced as a good in itself, but, rather, as a concession to a sustained missionary failure. This constitutes two failures, actually: a failure of evangelization, in that the local Catholic population seems incapable of producing priestly vocations, and a failure of the surrounding countries to provide missionary priests to serve the people.

The latter problem is acute. Latin America, even 500 years after the arrival of the early missionaries, still does not produce priestly vocations in the numbers that have been seen in Europe and North America. Hence, it has few missionary priests to send even in its own lands, to say nothing of going abroad. The Church in Brazil, for example, most proximate to the Amazon, has nothing compared to the clerical strength of numbers that permitted Irish, French and Spanish missionary priests to come to the New World, or even current priests from India and Nigeria who serve abroad.

Modifications of priestly celibacy in the Latin rite have come largely in response to the desire for Christian unity and out of respect for the Eastern tradition of married deacons and priests. A modification in response to pastoral failure within the Latin rite would be a new step."

Conservative Lay British Catholics Favor Married Priests

Source: https://catholicherald.co.uk/issues/november-17th-2017/the-unlikely-champions-of-married-priests

The retired Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe is no one’s idea of a liberation theologian. But she supports married priests. “In this country, hundreds of Anglican priests have crossed over to Rome and stayed married, whereas a Catholic priest must choose between marrying and his vocation,” she told me. “But I don’t think we should lift the celibacy rule wholesale. That would cause a lot of division. What the Pope should do, rather, is leave it to the archbishops and let it be decided on a case-by-case basis.”

Damian Thompson, editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald, agrees. “A vocation to celibacy isn’t the same thing as a vocation to the priesthood,” he observes. “We already recognise that by ordaining married men who belong to Eastern Rite churches or were previously Anglican clergy.”

He hopes that married priests would solve more problems than just the vocations crisis.

“This is a delicate point,” Thompson says, “but I think the ban on marriage lies behind the dramatic over-representation of gay priests in parts of the West. Although most of these men lead faithful celibate lives, and I’m horrified by attempts to exclude gay men from seminaries, shouldn’t we address this imbalance?”

Then there are pastoral concerns.

“This is my main point,” says Thompson. “I know married Catholic men who would make outstanding priests. Ending compulsory celibacy would be a radical step but ultimately a far safer one than allowing women deacons, which would inevitably lead to schism.”

Lord Alton of Liverpool, one of Britain’s foremost Catholic laymen, also cites the Eastern Churches, most of which have never required their priests to remain celibate. “I have travelled in many jurisdictions where, for centuries, Greek Catholic and other Rites, in full communion with Rome, have married priests who faithfully serve their communities,” says the leading pro-life champion. “So, Pope Francis is acting in accordance with precedent and current practice in suggesting that diocesan bishops may base their decision on pastoral needs.”

Clement of Alexandria; Stromata

Clement of Alexandria

Or do they (the 'false' Gnostics) also scorn the apostles? Peter and Philip had children, and Philip gave his daughters in marriage. Even Paul did not hesitate in one letter to address his 'consort'. The only reason why he did not take her about with him was that it would have been an inconvenience for his ministry. Accordingly he says in a letter: "Have we not a right to take about with us a wife that is a sister like the other apostles?" (1 Corinthians 9:5) But the latter, in accordance with their particular ministry, devoted themselves to preaching without any distraction, and took their wives with them not as women with whom they had marriage relations, but as 'sisters', that they might be their fellow-ministers in dealing with housewives. It was through them that the Lord's teaching penetrated also the women's quarters without any scandal being aroused. We also know the directions about women deacons which are given by the noble Paul in his second letter to Timothy. Furthermore, the selfsame man cried aloud that "the kingdom of God does not consist in food and drink," not indeed in abstinence from wine and meat, "but in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:17) Which of them goes about like Elijah clad in a sheepskin and a leather girdle? Which of them goes about like Isaiah, naked except for a piece of sacking and without shoes? Or clothed merely in a linen loincloth like Jeremiah? Which of them will imitate John's gnostic way of life? The blessed prophets also lived in this manner and were thankful to the Creator.

Stromata, Book III, 6

They say, accordingly, that the blessed Peter, on seeing his wife led to death, rejoiced on account of her call and conveyance home, and called very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name, "Remember the Lord." Such was the marriage of the blessed and their perfect disposition towards those dearest to them. 
Thus also the Apostle says, "that he who marries should be as though he married not," (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:29) and deem his marriage free of inordinate affection, and inseparable from love to the Lord; to which the true husband exhorted his wife to cling on her departure out of this life to the Lord.

Was not then faith in the hope after death conspicuous in the case of those who gave thanks to God even in the very extremities of their punishments? For firm, in my opinion, was the faith they possessed, which was followed by works of faith.

Stromata, Book VII, 11