Church: Married Men To Be Ordained Catholic Priests

NB: This post does not depict that  Catholic Priests are now allowed to marry.

STEREO NEWS reports that the age-long tradition of unmarried priest is about to end.

This report was made as the Church awaits the approval of the proposal which got 128 - 41 votes of Catholic Bishops.

The proposal known as "viri probati" is geared at allowing married men to be ordained as priests in the Amazon region where they are experiencing shortage of priests.

It will allow older Catholic men who have stable families, respected in their communities, and are already ordained as deacons in the church.

The region includes parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

Allowing married men to become priests is not the same thing as allowing priests to marry, so the change would not affect the rule of celibacy for Catholic priests, who are not allowed to marry.