Group for married priests disbands after 50 years: CORPUS officially closed at the end of December 2024.
Phil and Linda Marcin met five decades ago, but he still gets a twinkle in his eye when he describes the first time he saw the "beautiful blonde" who would eventually become his wife. The only problem: He was a Catholic priest at the time.After years of friendship and discernment on both of their parts, Phil eventually left ordained ministry, as did tens of thousands of priests worldwide in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, many to get married. The Marcins found support, community and an opportunity for a new ministry through CORPUS, originally founded as the "Corps of Reserved Priests United for Service."
Now, after 50 years, one of the oldest reform groups in the U.S. church is disbanding, citing the advanced age of its membership and lack of new members. CORPUS, which bills itself as the "national association for an inclusive priesthood," officially closed at the end of December 2024.
"It's heartbreaking," Phil Marcin, now 87, told the National Catholic Reporter, recalling "the friendships we made, the hope we had and the seeds we planted, even though they're not blossoming the way we hoped they would. I believe CORPUS was a great success, but in the Lord's way, not in the way we envisioned it."
After about a millennium of mandatory celibacy in the Latin rite, the church now allows some married clergy who have converted to Catholicism. The issue again received worldwide scrutiny in 2019, when a synod of bishops recommended that Pope Francis allow the ordination of married men as priests in the Amazon. He declined to answer their request.
CORPUS began in Chicago, where three couples gathered in 1974 in response to an auxiliary bishop's negative comments about priests who had left the priesthood to marry. Soon, other local groups began meeting and a national conference was organized. The late Anthony Padovano helped bring attention to the issue of an inclusive priesthood during his leadership of the organization which at its height, had more than 11,000 on its mailing list. By last year, it was down to 300.
Last year, the group's leadership made the decision to disband. Its website is still online and its e-newsletter will continue for now. CORPUS members have been asked to support other groups through the Catholic Organizations for Renewal. CORPUS'S remaining funds, about $150,000, were dispersed to several of those ministries, including Futurechurch, Dignity USA and the Women's Ordination Conference.
CORPUS estimates that some 35,000 men left the priesthood to marry in the second half of the 20th century, most of them in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. At that time, laicized priests were expected to "just disappear," said Linda Marcin, who is now 77.
From the beginning, CORPUS was not only for men who left priesthood, but their wives, too. Linda Pinto, a former Franciscan nun who married a former priest, led a workshop at one of CORPUS'S first conventions on married priests and their wives. "My message was that we were not baggage," she said. Pinto served on CORPUS'S board and eventually became co-president.
It's difficult to get an accurate count of how many priests resign and for what reasons, as the Vatican's official statistics only report the current number of priests and seminarians. Sociologists who have studied priesthood previously had estimated that approximately one in six priests resign for religious reasons, while studies of current priests note stressful workload and other issues affecting morale, separate from celibacy, according to Michele Dillon, a sociologist and co-author of Catholicism at a Crossroads.
Nick De Los Reyes of Long Beach, California, had been a priest in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate who left the priesthood to marry a nurse, Mary, whom he had met while working in a hospital
"History won't erase us," he said. "... The prophetic voice that we were for 50 years was heard and will continue to be heard throughout history."
{Heidi Schlumpf was NCR senior correspondent from 2023-25.)
by Heidi Schlumpf
On the web Read the full story at NCRon line.org/node/305321.
Caption: Phil Marcin is shown baptizing his grandson Declan, held by his mom, Maggie and alongside his dad, Phillip, in 2021. --Courtesy of Phil and Linda Marcin
Caption: Phil and Linda Marcin in 2016 after they officiated the wedding of their son Phillip and his wife, Maggie --Courtesy of Phil and Linda Marcin
Please Note: Illustration(s) are not available due to copyright restrictions.
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| Title Annotation: | News; Corps of Reserved Priests United for Service |
|---|---|
| Author: | Schlumpf, Heidi |
| Publication: | National Catholic Reporter |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Jul 18, 2025 |
| Words: | 733 |
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