Allowing Married Priests Is Not a New Idea

Last Friday a German synod of Roman Catholics doubled down on a list of progressive demands for reform in the Church. In Church tradition, synods are usually a group of bishops and laypeople who discuss Church teachings and leadership. The Wall Street Journal reported: Meeting in Frankfurt, the German synod voted 159 to 26, with seven abstentions, to adopt a draft statement calling on the pope to allow Catholic bishops around the world to ordain married men and to give already ordained priests permission to marry without having to leave the priesthood. It later voted 163 to 42, with six abstentions, to ask for permission for bishops to ordain women as deacons, a lower rank of clergy who are able to preach and officiate at baptisms, weddings and funerals, as an intermediate step toward making women bishops and priests.