Photo ~ The Rev. Jeffrey Steenson at his ordination ceremony at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Rio Rancho, NM in 2009. Photo credit: Roberto E. Rosales

Catholic Priests, Celibacy, and the Marriage Loophole

Once again, the sex lives of Catholic clergy are seeing a flurry of media attention. During the first week of 2012, Los Angeles Bishop Gabino Zavala announced his resignation after acknowledging that he had fathered two children with the same woman.

Zavala’s announcement trailed just a few days behind the appointment, on January 1, of Jeffrey Steenson as the chief pastor of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

Steenson is a married Catholic priest. His new position as head of the Ordinariate confers upon him all of the duties of a Catholic bishop, with the exception of the power to ordain priests, a prerogative reserved only to the celibate.

“There will soon be even more married Catholic priests in America,” as Mark Oppenheimer of the New York Times reported, suggesting that “married priests raise provocative questions for the Catholic Church.”

In fact, it is only a loophole in Catholic teaching on priestly celibacy that has allowed Steenson and other married clergy to achieve Catholic ordination.

The growth in number of married Catholic priests in the U.S. stems from the increasing animosity of conservative Episcopalians who disagree primarily with the Anglican Communion’s ordination and promotion to the episcopacy of women and self-identifying, partnered gay people.

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