Friday, March 19, 2010

Romanian Orthodox Church Begins New Policy; Will Now Defrock Priests Who Get a Divorce

The International Orthodox Christian News website reports today (March 19, 2010) that the Romanian Orthodox Church has decided to strip clergymen who divorce, of their priestly duties.

Church spokesman Constantin Stoica said the decision to defrock priests who divorce will apply to all. He also said that those priests whose marriages break up because their wives committed adultery will find other employment within the church.

Stoica said today that the decision was triggered after the number of divorced Romanian Orthodox priests reached 500 out of a total of 16,000.

Priests who are already divorced or remarried will not be defrocked. However, they will not be promoted to high positions and they will not be able to teach at theological schools and universities.

No comments:

Post a Comment