Monday, July 04, 2011

Associação Rumos - Married Priests in Brazil

We have added a new link to our directory of Married Priests Web sites. The Associação Rumos was founded on August 16, 1986, in Brasilia to gather Roman Catholic clergy in Brazil who have left the priesthood to get married.

It represents moe than 5,000 married priests in Brazil and their families that form the Movimento das Famílias dos Padres Casados (MFPC). The Associação Rumos was created to serve MFPC as a legal entity with a structure and defined objectives, according to the legal requirements of the country.

Thus, the goal of Associação Rumos is to provide legal and financial support to the Movimento das Famílias dos Padres Casados – MFPC, and to promote mutual aid among the members, contributing to their personal, family, professional and religious fulfillment, cultivating friendship between priests who have left the ministry and their families.

We seek dialogue with institutions, religious and social organizations, from an ecumenical perspective. We are not a protest group against the Catholic Church or any ecclesial authority.

We are fighting for the recognition of the ministry of married priests, optional celibacy in the Catholic Church, and appreciation of women's role in the Church.

We encourage pastoral practice in many new forms of ministry, respecting the various options taken by married priests in their new path to serve God and their brothers and sisters. The fact of having left the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church has not stopped many married priests from continuing to be active in many types of pastoral activities in the communities in which they live. Some of these married priests have even chosen full priestly ministry in other Christian churches.

Associação Rumos and the Movimento das Famílias dos Padres Casados – MFPC – promote, every two years in different cities in Brazil, national meetings to elect their board and establish new guidelines, as well as have a joyful fraternal gathering of our families. We also publish a bimonthly Jornal Rumos.

There you have it. Portuguese speaking viewers can go to the web site and check out these fellow warriors in the fight for optional celibacy.

1 comment:

Chirp said...

Celibacy is such a gift for our priests! A married man has to have different priorities than a single one serving God. A single man is more completely able to serve the congregation because they can come first to him after God, of course.