The rules aren't changing, they're being applied.
Although secular news reports are, as usual, muddled, it appears that a priest in Jacksonville FL (Diocese of St. Augustine) has been excommunicated for something related to agitating for married clergy. What caught my eye in the story, though, was the priest's line "...I love the woman that I am going [to] marry so much that I'm willing to give up everything for her." My emphasis.
Just so we're all clear, a man upon ordination to the diaconate (which comes before priesthood, of course) incurs the "impediment of holy orders" (1983 CIC 1087) meaning that this priest cannot marry his intended in the eyes of the Church; not ought not, but cannot.....
continue reading Ed Peters....
