Heinz-Jürgen Vogels

Excerpts from my book:

Catholics and Their Right to Married Priests

(Authorhouse.com 2011)

Heinz-Jürgen Vogels

Alone against the Vatican

Location of the act: Campo Santo in Rome. - Time: October 12, 1974. - In the world-capital of the Roman Catholic Church two men meet for a conversation. The one is a priest, the other is his superior.

The topic that the two discuss is somewhat tricky. It is celibacy. Or better: the obligation to celibacy, which the church imposes on its priests.

A priest fights for his right in matrimony

The priest is of the opinion—like numerous other Catholics—that the celibacy-law, in force since centuries, finally should be altered and that the church should leave it to the priests themselves to judge, whether they would like to live celibate or not. Even more so: the priest is definitely convinced that the church has no right at all to legally require the celibate way of life from its priests, but that priests—just the opposite—have a right to live in wedlock.

For, in the Bible, there is explicit evidence that Christian preachers have the right to be married. “Do we not have the right”, the apostle Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “to take along a sister in faith as wife, just like the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and like Kephas?” (1 Cor 9:5). To this Bible-verse, the priest in his argument refers again and again.

The priest’s superior, however, sees the things a bit different. In his function as General Vicar—that is as representative for the priest of the responsible bishop, in this case the Cologne archbishop Cardinal Höffner—he pleads for the point of view of the official church. And this point of view is quite clear and unequivocal: Priests cannot marry.

The priest however is not only convinced, that priests can marry, but he has already drawn consequences from his conviction. He has married. More exactly: the priest has contracted a sacramental marriage with a woman that he loves dearly. This marriage has taken place, according to his conviction, totally in agreement with current church law. On legal grounds, the priest finds, this marriage should therefore be acknowledged as a valid marriage also by the church. But, to do exactly this, the church has refused until now. Therefore, the priest has urged for this conversation in the Campo Santo.

“What do you actually want?” asks the General Vicar.

“Have not you read my letters to the Cardinal?” replies the priest.

“Yes, I have read them”, the representative of the Cardinal answers.

“Then you will know,” the priest says, “that I can neither live in the priesthood alone, nor in marriage alone, but that I eventually have arrived at the conclusion that I have the calling to priesthood and marriage.”

“You have, before your ordination, completely voluntarily and after mature consideration accepted the condition required by the Latin Church to remain celibate, and you have even asked for the ordination”, the General Vicar replies, “this follows from the records...”

The conversation between the priest of the archdiocese Cologne and his superior in the Campo Santo in Rome lasts nearly forty-five minutes. It begins at 14.30, and ends at 15.15. Eleven years later - also in the neighbourhood of the capital of the Roman Catholic Church—an event takes place, which deals with the same problems.

In August 1985, the so-called “General Synod of Married Catholic Priests and their Wives” meets in Ariccia near Rome. On this internationally frequented forum, the question is discussed whether the sacrament of ordination and the sacrament of marriage are compatible. As one could expect, the answer is a clear yes. In a unanimous declaration, the compatibility of the sacraments of priesthood and marriage is stated and underpinned with theological arguments.

“The married Catholic priests represented in this synod and their wives”—thus the wording in the declaration –on the basis of the church’s decisions on faith, give unanimous testimony of the authorization of the apostles and all preachers of the gospel, attested in the first Letter to the Corinthians, “to take along a sister in faith as wife into the communities” (1 Cor 9:5), an authorization which belongs to the invariable divine right, that cannot be abrogated by the church legislator and is moreover a fundamental human right.

This declaration, printed in full wording in the appendix to this book, is signed by Giustino Zampini, president of the synod, by the co-president, Argentinian bishop Jerónimo Podestà, by Paolo Camellini, the secretary of the Synod, and by me—Heinz-Jürgen Vogels, the coordinator of the meeting.

This “General Synod of Married Catholic Priests and their Wives” was an important phase in the decades of fight on which I will report in the following autobiographic records.

The priest just mentioned, who on that autumn day in October of the year 1974 in the Campo Santo in Rome had a discussion with the then General Vicar of Cologne, Peter Nettekoven, and tried to convince him with his arguments, was also myself. In 1974, I had contracted, as a priest in office, a sacramental marriage with Renate Schwarz before two witnesses, that is, without assistance of a priest and without having received dispensation from Rome for this marriage.

Church law provides such a form of an emergency marriage for mission-countries, where a priest, who can bless the marriages, can visit only once every six month. Yet an emergency is also given, if not only an exterior, so-called physical impossibility exists to call a priest, but also, if a moral impossibility is given to have oneself married through a priest. It is the couple itself, which according to Catholic teaching mutually gives the sacrament, not the priest, who merely “assists” at the marriage.

Calling in a priest would have been morally impossible for us in 1974, because every priest knows, that the celibacy-law still exists, which prohibits marriage to any priest and even makes marriage legally impossible for him. We, my wife and I, however, had the long time proven conviction that the biblical “right of the apostles to take along a wife.” invoked by Paul in 1 Cor 9:5, as a ius divinum is stronger than the church’s prohibition to enter marriage. Just like in the German legal system, constitutional law precedes and breaks federal law and the law of the federal states, the divine right of the Sacred Scripture precedes and breaks the merely ecclesiastical law, according to Catholic teaching. Therefore we appealed to the emergency rite of marriage for ourselves and got married before two witnesses.

It was already a victory that, at that time, I was not immediately suspended from my office and from the priesthood, but was allowed to five more years function as a priest, despite my sacramental marriage—that is, as Catholic priest of the Western Church, without having been dispensed from the celibacy-law.

My wife and I had promised not to live our marriage, as long as no decision had been taken on the validity of our marriage. Such a decision was however taken only after long years—admittedly in indirect form, but nevertheless through church law itself. The Vatican, whom I, in due form and through all church-court instances, had asked for a decision on our sacramental marriage, finally made known to me that he “doesn't want to judge”, because he didn't want to decide on the underlying Bible-verse 1 Cor 9:5. By this very statement, however, I believe our marriage - a Catholic priest-wedding -, has been declared valid, because the Codex Iuris Canonici – the Code, in which the law valid in the Roman Catholic church is established – contains the following regulation regarding marriage: “The marriage enjoys the protection of the law (gaudet favore iuris), therefore in case of doubt one must stand for the validity of the marriage, until the opposite is proven.” (Codex Iuris Canonici, edition of 1983, can. 1060). The Vatican did not want to prove the opposite. Since the Vatican undoubtedly knows this canon, he was without doubt aware of the consequences of his unwillingness to decide: Our marriage is to be regarded valid.

So it seems I have contracted a valid marriage as Catholic priest on the basis of the biblical right of priests to marry, according to 1 Cor 9:5, which the Vatican didn't want to declare null and void – or could not declare so. If not even the Vatican, the highest authority in the Catholic church, wanted to bring an action against the validity of our marriage—which he must do according to the law—then nobody can apparently “prove the opposite” of the validity, hence our marriage is valid according to the current ecclesiastical law.

Consequently, for everyone who wants to see, it is plain to be seen: There is an apostolic right of priests to live in marriage, but the Vatican “doesn't want” to acknowledge that right.

Heinz-Juergen Vogels was born in Berlin in 1933. Ordained a priest

in Cologne in 1959, Vogels has dedicated his entire life to his clerical

duties. He has held numerous positions within the Catholic Church,

including editor of the works of Albert the Great, Head of the Preparatory

Commission for the General Synod of Married Priests and their Wives,

and assistant professor for New Testament studies in Koblenz/Rhine.

Vogels is the author of over a dozen religious texts written in both English

and German, among which is "Celibacy - Gift or Law?" (1993).

For more information, visit www.hjvogels.de

Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Vogels

Buschhovener Str. 30, D-53347 Alfter,

Tel.0228/64 54 66

email H-J.Vogels@t-online.de

Web: www.hjvogels.de