Belgian primate says married priests would ‘enrich’ the Church

Attending the General Synod in York, Archbishop Terlinden said that ‘Roman Catholics can learn a lot’ from the ‘long-standing traditions of synodality’ in the Anglican Communion.

Archbishop Luc Terlinden of Mechelen-Brussels said that married clergy would be “an enrichment for the Church” after attending the General Synod of the Church of England.

He told the Christian daily Nederlands Dagblad that Belgium’s bishops had informed the Vatican in 2023 that they were “open to a discussion regarding the possibility of ordaining married men”.

In March, Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp said he would begin ordaining viri probati in 2028 because he does not have enough priests to perform the tasks specified in documents from the Synod on Synodality.

“In that context, we also call for a certain degree of decentralisation,” said Terlinden, who is the president of the Belgian bishops’ conference. 

A Greek Catholic bishop told him that 90 percent of their priests are married. “In the West, we do not always have enough respect for that Eastern tradition, which is also Catholic,” he said.

Terlinden said on 10 July when he attended the General Synod in York that “Roman Catholics can learn a lot” from the “long-standing traditions of synodality” in the Anglican Communion. Several Anglicans told him they could also learn from Catholics. 

He told Nederlands Dagblad that synodality in the Church of England “really functions like a parliament. That is also part of the long English tradition.” 

Terlinden observed that the Anglican understanding of synodality differs from the Catholic version. “I felt that there was sometimes a lack of theological and philosophical depth,” he said. “Moreover, such a system perhaps does not leave sufficient room for what we in the Catholic Church call ‘discernment in the Spirit’.” 

Asked how synodality was developing in the Catholic Church, Terlinden said: “We ask ourselves the question of how synodality – the participation of all believers – relates to the collegiality of the bishops. As a bishop, I am convinced that a balance must be struck between these two matters. 

“With us, the bishop or the Pope always has the final word. That makes sense. But at the same time, I identify very well with the words Pope Leo XIV recently spoke to the cardinals: ‘I must listen before I lead, learn before I teach’.”

Terlinden was invited to General Synod by the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell. He delivered a speech to the gathering on the Malines Conversations  (1921-1927), one of the first Catholic-Anglican dialogues of the twentieth century. 

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