Brunswick, ME—CITI Ministries, Inc. (Celibacy Is the Issue) is a national lay organization that calls married Roman Catholic priests back into ministry. CITI is proclaiming October 15, 2009 as the beginning of a one-year prayerful celebration of Married Priests. The purpose will be to honor the 30,000+ U.S. priests who have left clerical priesthood since the end of the Vatican II Council in the late 1960s, especially those still exercising their ministry according to Canon Law (“once a priest, always a priest”).

October 15 is the Feast Day of St. Teresa of Avila who devoted her prayer life to the preservation of the Eucharist and preservation of the priesthood with emphasis on integrity in the priesthood. She believed that prayer was fulfilled in ministry with Christ as the center. Several books speak to her mission and charism.

The story of St. Teresa of Avila as it relates to married priests goes back to the founder of the international movement of married priests, the late Rev. Paolo Camellini of Italy, whose wife Carla was a charismatic. Theologians studied Carla’s case for ten years and thought her charism was similar to that of Teresa of Avila. This information is documented in “Shattered Vows,” a book by David Rice (1990).

In 1970, Carla announced to Paolo, a local priest, that a revelation told her they should be married and start the movement for a married priesthood. Paolo’s bishop immediately obtained a dispensation from the Vatican releasing Paolo from his clerical responsibilities. They subsequently founded the movement of married priests that today celebrates over 110,000 married priests worldwide.

The “baton” was turned over to by the Camellini’s to CITI Ministries in 1994 with a pronouncement that Teresa of Avila was the “patron saint of married priests.” CITI was founded in 1992 and promotes the availability of married priests to the general public through its website, www.rentapriest.com. These priests offer sacramental ministry to anyone who requests baptism, first communion, first and subsequent marriages, anointing of the sick, funerals and any other spiritual needs and life cycle events Catholics and others might have. Modern church scholars tell us that 21 Canon Laws support the sacramental ministries of married priests.

The early Christian church was served by a married priesthood. Priests, bishops and even popes were married. St. Peter, first church leader, was a married man. A recent news release from the Vice Director of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Carlo Di Cicco, stated that “priests who leave the Church and get married are not considered out of the Church, are in the Church, especially if (they) are married, following the practice laid down by canon law.”

Information about activities planned during CITI’s celebration of The Year of Married Priests includes members of the Society of Christ’s Priesthood, their wives and the people they serve. More information will be available at www.rentapriest.com.