LESS than a week after his enthronement as head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that the ordination of married men to the priesthood has not been the major contributing factor to the numerous young vocations in his Eastern Catholic Church.
Archbishop Shevchuk also said his age is not really so shocking when one considers the fact that the average age of his priests is about 35.
“In our tradition, we do have a married clergy, but a married clergy is not the main reason we have so many young priests,” he said, noting that Religious Orders, which require a vow of consecrated chastity, also have numerous young vocations.
“The possibility of being a married priest is not the main cause of an increase or decrease in vocations to the priesthood because this vocation comes from God.”
The large number of priests in their 30s and 40s today is the result of young people looking for strong values when Communism fell apart 20 years ago and finding those values in the Church, the Archbishop said.