A Belgian bishop known for his longstanding promotion of heterodox views has said that if the Vatican does not approve legislation for his proposal of married priests, by the deadline he has set, then it would be a “fatal blow” to the synodal method.
Bishop Johan Bonny of the Diocese of Antwerp has once more publicly defended his plan of ordaining married priests by the year 2028. The initiative was one he announced in March, citing declining clergy figures as the basis for doing so.
“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,” Bonny wrote at the time. Both the venture and the date were decided upon by Bonny.
