From: Ouko joachim omolo
*The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images*
SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2013
Following my homily on Vocations Sunday, some of you have raised a very tough and challenging question on whether Pope Francis may denounce married Anglican becoming Catholic priests, and whether this will pave way for married priesthood.
My answers to these questions are so simple; first, I do not know whether the pope has the plan to do that, or whether it could pave way for married priesthood. Second, I am not in position to answer these questions since I am not the authority of the Church. I am just a simple priest in the village there serving the people of God.
However, according to the structure, the Vatican’s established: “Personal Ordinariates,” in which Anglicans, including married priests can practice Catholicism, in my own opinion it may not be an easy task for Pope Francis to change this structure.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI made availed this structure on Tuesday October 20, 2009, a new structure to welcome some married Anglican priests into the Roman Catholic fold. This is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church established in accordance with the apostolic constitution *Anglicanorum Coetibus* of 4 November 2009. Click here to read full text- *Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus* providing *for* Perso
This canonical structure enables Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Pope, while maintaining some degree of corporate identity and autonomy with regard to the geographical dioceses for other Catholics of the Latin Church, and preserving elements of their distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical heritage.
In December 2009 Cardinal Levada responded to each of the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion who signed the October 2007 petition for corporate union with the Catholic Church, stating that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had completed its long and detailed study with the aim of making available a suitable and viable model of organic unity for their group “and other such groups”.
The Traditional Anglican Communion then undertook discussions with those other groups and with representatives of the Catholic episcopal conferences and planned to give a formal response after a meeting of their bishops in Eastertide 2010. A number of Anglican groups soon petitioned the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for acceptance into ordinariates.
In Kenya the Anglicans reacted angrily upon learning that Pope Benedict had allowed married Anglican priests to join the priesthood in the Catholic Church. ACK Archbishop Eliud Wabukala rejected the papal offer arguing it was ill-timed-Row over Pope’s move to court *married Anglican priests* – Daily Nation
http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CF0QFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nation.co.ke%2FNews%2F-%2F1056%2F676610%2F-%2Fuo33jf%2F-%2Findex.html&ei=RZdyUdbOHc6IrAfBs4CIDA&usg=AFQjCNEfA4SstFQRlgXkRX0rkbzW4pfUVA&bvm=bv.45512109,d.bmk
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The news came at the time the Catholic Church had been battling with rebel priests who have broken away to form splinter groups against the principle of celibacy. Fr Daniel Kasomo, a leading member of Married Priests Now! splinter group who openly admitted to having a family for 20 years. Other splinter groups include Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ and Reformed Catholic Church.
While ordination of married men to the episcopacy is excluded in the Catholic tradition, the Apostolic Constitution’s Complementary Norms include provisions which take into account the position of married former Anglican bishops.
Recently Britain’s most senior Catholic suggested Catholic priests should be able to marry and have children, saying the demand for celibacy was not of “divine origin”.
In one of the most significant breaks with Catholic orthodoxy, Cardinal Keith O’Brien said many priests found it “very difficult to cope” with the celibate life and suggested lifting that ban could soon happen in the wider church-*Marriage* ban for *priests* should be reviewed by next *pope*
In an interview with the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21552628
, he said there were some elements of Catholic teaching which were “basic dogmatic belief” – such as opposition to abortion and euthanasia. But the proscription against priest’s marrying was not one of them.
While there are people who believe that as Pope Benedict XVI resigned as leader of the Catholic Church, the future of the ordinariate he established regarding marriage in the priesthood is now uncertain, some people believe that by accepting married Anglican priests in Catholic fold it will pave way for married priesthood in the Catholic Church-*Married* Catholic *priest * is a sign of changing times – Features
http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CHIQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ubspectrum.com%2Ffeatures%2Fmarried-catholic-priest-is-a-sign-of-changing-times-1.2992343&ei=IWRyUanKIaHm7Aam_4C4BQ&usg=AFQjCNHmyp9MhkTTz9V0d5ik2GvJ86_k7g
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It is at the same time Archbishop John Hepworth, the twice-married Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, who led negotiations with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, said he was “profoundly moved” by the Pope’s decision and would immediately seek the approval of the group’s 400,000 members worldwide to join.
In a similarly case, Father Ian Hellyer a Roman Catholic priest expressed the desire of making it a come back to the Catholic fold- click here for further readings-The *Catholic priest* with nine children | Life and style | The Guardian
http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CE4QFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Flifeandstyle%2F2011%2Fdec%2F17%2Ffather-hellyer-catholic-priest-nine-children&ei=RZdyUdbOHc6IrAfBs4CIDA&usg=AFQjCNErj6tCm-Y1hZdEx8s5R-4tQQQ9Fw&bvm=bv.45512109,d.bmk
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*Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ*
*Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578*
*E-mail **omolo.ouko@gmail.com***
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*Twitter-@8000accomole*
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*Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.*
*-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002*
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