I was a seminarian at the Beda Pontifical College, the English seminary for late vocations, under the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. When I would go to the refectory I would see this couple. They were staying together in the Beda seminary, which is situated opposite the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
The wife was a very friendly person and would move among the different tables at breakfast and dinner, meeting the faculty and seminarians. But I avoided her. There was a feeling of revulsion.
I would see her husband along with about five or six English priests, faculty members at the Beda, celebrate Holy Mass together.
An African seminarian, now a priest, sitting at the side of me, asked a Carmelite priest during a lecture, if he thought Catholic priests would get married. He answered yes. He said it was not a doctrine but a discipline. The same priest also said that he did not believe Jesus feels in the Eucharist, even though the saints say so.
In this atmosphere one could assume that the presence of that Anglican-convert priest with his wife at the Beda, was part of the formation for English seminarians who expected the church to change rules on priestly celibacy.
There were two seminarians whose wife had died and they had grown up children. They are now priests.
So now I think of the thousands of Anglican married priests who will concelebrate Holy Mass with Catholic celibate priests.
The Catholic priests who were celebrating Holy Mass had put aside the Church’s teaching on salvation, especially the dogma outside the church there is no salvation(extra ecclesiam nulla salus).Seminarians could also bring their lady friends who could stay for a few days as their guest in the Beda Guest rooms within the seminary premises. On one floor lived Franciscan Sisters and the next the priests.
The Anglican- convert priest was celebrating Holy Mass with Fr. Jim Brand, who taught that only hatred of God is a mortal sin, Mons. Roderick Strange, the Rector,mailto:r.strange@bedacollege.com, who would say salvation, is open to all people and so they do not have to enter the Catholic Church for salvation and Fr. Andrew Faley,Vice Rector, who had similar views.
This October is seven years since I was enrolled there.It must be a disappointment for many that Catholic priests still cannot marry.
It is sad that priests are allowed to marry. This was not so originally with the Orthodox Church. There was a rule that a married Orthodox priest should stay away from his wife for 24 hours before the celebrating of Mass.Now I do not know if even this change in their married rule has been further changed for the Orthdox priests.
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