Commission to consider married priests

A Bishop says he wants to set up an episcopal commission to explore the ordination of married men and female deacons.

The suggestion by Bishop Leo O’Reilly of Kilmore, a sprawling, rural diocese, comes out of a pastoral plan that calls for “a Church that honours the place of the priest (married and celibate) but is not clerical”.

The diocesan plan states that the Bishop of Kilmore will liaise with the Irish bishops’ conference “to explore the establishment of a commission ... to study the possibility of ordaining married men to the priesthood as well as appointing women deacons”.

Of Kilmore Diocese’s 77 priests, 52 are aged 60 or older.

Bishop O’Reilly told Shannonside Radio this week that having married priests was the practice in the Western Church “for a very long period”. He also said he had invited two Nigerian priests to serve in the diocese.