Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, has urged those considering allowing priests in the Latin rite to marry in order to help solve a crippling shortage, to proceed with caution, saying marriage has not curbed shortages in his own rite.

With five blooming seminaries in Ukraine alone, “thanks be to God we do not lack vocations,” Shevchuk said, but noted that despite the fact that priests in his church – the largest of the 23 sui iuris eastern churches in full communion with Rome – have the ability to marry, the high numbers don’t appear for Greek Catholics in other countries.

“The same Church with the same way of living the priestly vocation in other countries around the world does not enjoy this quantity of vocations,” he said, noting that numbers in the United States and Canada, among others, are few.

So, the familial state does not favour the increase in vocations to the priesthood. This is our experience,” he said.

Source: The Irish Catholic

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