The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has started a new program to certify that priests hired by cruise lines are indeed priests in good standing with the Roman Catholic church. The organization has been receiving complaints from passengers who discovered that the priests ministering to them on some cruise ships are not really qualified. The confusion is that some former priests (such as those who have resigned their duties to marry) present themselves to the cruise lines as Catholic priests, and it both hasn't occurred to the cruise line to check them out nor has there been any mechanism for the line to really check. Since the church doesn't sanction the "bogus" priests to perform acts, the passengers haven't really been to mass, and that's really upsetting some passengers after they take time out of their cruise activities. The USCCB has now set up a database of approved priests in good standing, and Celebrity and Holland America are the first two cruise lines to sign on to use it in hiring priests.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has started a new program to certify that priests hired by cruise lines are indeed priests in good standing with the Roman Catholic church. The organization has been receiving complaints from passengers who discovered that the priests ministering to them on some cruise ships are not really qualified. The confusion is that some former priests (such as those who have resigned their duties to marry) present themselves to the cruise lines as Catholic priests, and it both hasn't occurred to the cruise line to check them out nor has there been any mechanism for the line to really check. Since the church doesn't sanction the "bogus" priests to perform acts, the passengers haven't really been to mass, and that's really upsetting some passengers after they take time out of their cruise activities. The USCCB has now set up a database of approved priests in good standing, and Celebrity and Holland America are the first two cruise lines to sign on to use it in hiring priests.
Linear Mode
