Antwerp bishop begins training married men for ordination as priests in 2028

Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp has started a formation program for married men with a view to ordaining them priests in 2028. He announced the plan publicly in March. The program responds to a vocations crisis in his Belgian diocese, where fewer than 70 priests are now under the age of 70, two-thirds of them from abroad.

Bonny has defended the move, saying "necessity compels me" to seek extraordinary solutions. The candidates' formation is "transparent but discreet," away from media attention, and follows a program similar to that of conventional seminarians.

The selection criteria are the same as those for permanent deacons: a minimum age of 35, the wife's consent, a stable family life and no young children. In June, Bonny traveled to Rome to meet Cardinals Lazarus You Heung-sik and Mario Grech and set out the situation in his diocese.

In a pastoral letter dated March 20, Bonny wrote that "the question is no longer whether the Church can ordain married men as priests, but when it will do so and who will do it." He said the shortage of clergy has left whole areas of diocesan life without an assigned priest, including hospitals, schools and youth groups.

Bonny has also spoken about the abuse scandal, saying the "clerical subculture" has come to an end and that the sexual abuse crisis weighs on the Church's credibility. His proposal goes beyond celibacy: he has said he wants the priesthood opened to women, a position that contradicts Catholic doctrine.

The Catholic Church has historically required celibacy for the priesthood in the Latin Church, while the Eastern Catholic Churches allow the ordination of married men. The Code of Canon Law binds clerics to celibacy, which it describes as a "special gift of God" that makes a fuller union with Christ possible.

The formation has already begun, and Rome has yet to respond.

Only one of the five prisons in the province of Antwerp has a permanent chaplain, which Bonny called "regrettably insufficient." That comes on top of the shortage of priests in hospitals, schools and youth movements. The president of the Belgian bishops, Archbishop Luc Terlinden of Mechelen-Brussels, said in July that married priests would be "an enrichment for the Church," but left the initiative in Bonny's hands. The Belgian bishops had already raised the matter with the late Pope Francis during their last ad limina visit.

Bonny made his remarks in an interview published September 14 by the newspaper La Libre Belgique. In it he said he had explained "with figures" to You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, and Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, that Flanders had exhausted its reserves.