The Vocation as a Married Catholic Priest

The last thing a priest who has left the convent would like to hear is to exercise his ministry again! Like all other priests in transition, I felt really angry at the people of the church. Yet from day 1 I never wanted to vent my anger towards God. I wanted to continue celebrating mass every Sunday.

Consequently I realised that I was going to be a priest forever. Being married and having children does not diminish one's identity, contrary to some belief. Once a priest always a priest is theological and doctrinal correct statement! But another series of events helped me understand the vocation of married priesthood.

One was the webpage of rentapriest. It clearly showed the signs of the Holy Spirit today. Another sign was that some of the people who really knew my enthusiasm about the church continued to seek my spiritual support. Some of them asked me for the celebration of sacraments. The trust showed by some people helped me to instill in me the confidence to be proud as a married priest.

Another thing was my thinking about the church. It's very easy just to retreat from the battle and remain on the sidelines. What about the church. Shall I abandon the people? It's very easy and comfortable to be in one's comfort zone and stay there. In fact many many priests who left active priesthood do so. Well without judging them, I felt the urge to take a very uncommon road and start something new in Catholic Malta. As usual new religious ideas take time to be accepted, but in this case I met many people who see married priesthood as the next big step in the church in order to remain in touch with today's life. In fact in my first job outside the church, many people asked me if it's possible to see a new breath of fresh air in the church by allowing married priesthood. The time was ripe for married priesthood.