According to a number of reports, including LifeSiteNews and France’s Tribune Chrétienne, Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp is preparing married men for ordination to the priesthood by 2028.
Bonny acknowledges that such an act is contrary to the discipline of the Western Rite and requires approval from Rome, but he seems to be a disciple of the do-it-now-get-Rome’s-approval-later model currently in vogue among so many heterodox synodal prelates.
Married candidates who meet a number of conditions — are at least 35 years old, in stable marriages, and have no young children — are allegedly set to be undergoing theological and pastoral formation under Bonny’s purview similar to what is received by seminarians.
As is usually the case for subversive initiatives, Bonny points to a crisis to justify his actions. According to him, Antwerp is experiencing an unprecedented shortage of priests, making this so-called solution necessary. His diocese currently has fewer than 70 priests under the age of 70, and most of them come from abroad. In March, Bonny said 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.”
What raises questions is Bonny’s claim that in June he discussed his plans with Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, as well as Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops. While it is being reported that the two cardinals intended to raise the matter with Leo, no papal authorization for Bonny’s proposed ordinations has been publicly announced.
This only serves to drive home the point that no rogue action is out of bounds or punishable in the Conciliar Church, so long as it does not involve remaining faithful to Catholic tradition.
Theological implications at stake
While priestly celibacy in the Latin Church is an ecclesiastical discipline and not immutable, it has always been strongly emphasized that the married and priestly state, the latter of which is superior, are hard to reconcile. From the earliest times, the Church has repeatedly defended priestly celibacy as the ideal.
The Dispatch
The reason why is because the priest participates in the priesthood of Christ the High Priest through Holy Orders, and because Christ was celibate, the priest’s celibacy makes this participation more complete. The priest is also seen as spiritually “married” to the Church because he sacramentally represents Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church. For the priest to be a father to his flock, he needs to lead an undivided life of sacrifice, something which would be seriously compromised by the obligations and entanglements of married affairs.
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But there is another, more immediate problem with Bonny’s proposal. In an attempt to solve his “staffing shortages,” the Belgian bishop wants to weaken the celibate character of the priesthood while avoiding the real question: Why has the Belgian church ceased producing vocations?
The answer can inevitably be traced back to the destruction wrought by Vatican II and, more recently, to the new Synodal religion, which has reduced priests to effeminate administrators and below-average social workers. It is hardly an attractive prospect for any young man in whose heart zeal for the Catholic faith still burns. The universality of “altar girls” only exacerbates the problem, further driving young men away from participating in the ecclesiastical patriarchy of the Church.
Only the latest controversy
Do not think for one moment that Bonny is merely a desperate shepherd doing his best to resolve a crisis in his diocese. As might be expected, he has a track record of leaving controversy behind him, and the pattern makes clear that he is yet another wolf intent on destroying what remains of the Catholic inheritance.
He has advocated ecclesiastical recognition of homosexual relationships since at least 2014, and in 2022 joined the Flemish bishops in approving a prayer and blessing for committed sodomitical couples, including a proposed ceremony involving prayers and a benediction. This occurred even before Jorge Bergolio approved and issued Fiducia Supplicans in 2023.
In 2023, Bonny provoked further controversy when he questioned the Catholic teaching that euthanasia is intrinsically evil, describing that judgment as “too simple an answer that leaves no room for discernment.”
More recently, Bonny criticized arguments against admitting women to ordained ministry as “theologically weak and anthropologically outdated.” It is therefore not difficult to discern the pattern running through his episcopacy.
Catholicism in Europe is facing extinction after 60 years of Revolution. Experiments of this kind will not save it, but only snuff out what little life remains.
