Eastern Church in US to ordain married men

by Dennis Coday

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This morning The Tablet of London (scroll to bottom of page) and earlier the blog Orthocath reported that the head of one of the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome has said the Church will start ordaining married men as priests in the US.

"The Melkite Greek Catholic Bishop in the US, Nicholas Samra, said: "We are on a shoe-string of clergy to serve our Church as priests."

The American Melkite Eparchy has 35 parishes, around 27,000 members, and only "one priest to be ordained next year," he said in a speech reported in the Melkite journal Sophia.

Rome has previously ruled the ordination of married men as Melkite priests illicit.>/dd>