A
reader has posted a comment on our post, Comments
on the Vows of the Tonsure to the Great Schema. We tried to
reply with a comment but for some reason it doesn’t work. Here’s
our reply:
A
married man can become a monk but by becoming a monk he dissolves the
marriage in the eyes of the Church. However, the secular authorities
would probably not recognize his action as dissolving the marriage.
He would therefore at the least be liable for whatever actions and
penalties under the secular law someone who had abandoned his wife
and children would be liable to. However he himself would be bound
to celibacy for the rest of his life.
In
Greece in the 19th Century, the Government under the Bavarian King's
Protestant advisors attacked Greek Orthodox monasticism forcing many
monks and nuns to marry—but this was a persecution of the Church.
The
only instance of married monks is in Japan where in the 19th Century,
if we remember correctly, the Meiji Dynasty forced Buddhist monks to
be married by law. This of course is a contradiction in terms for a
Buddhist monk. There are even today married Buddhist monks, and even
married Buddhist Abbots, in Japan. We have no information on how
they live with their wives.
