CORPUS, a US-based group of former Catholic priests who left ministry to marry, officially shut down at the end of December 2024 after five decades of activity.
The “Corps of Reserved Priests United for Service” cited its aging membership and lack of new participants as reasons for disbanding, National Catholic Register reported.
The group was formed in 1974 by married former priests, “who had fallen in love [and] chose to follow their conscience over church policy,” according to their website. Their goal was to signal a continued commitment to priestly ministry and express a willingness to return to active service if the Church were ever to allow married priests.
Over the years, CORPUS grew to include several hundred former priests and described itself as a movement promoting an “inclusive priesthood.” Its members had all voluntarily left ordained ministry, often after forming romantic relationships and choosing marriage — actions which, under current Church discipline, are incompatible with priestly service in the Latin Rite.
According to CORPUS, many of their members joined during the post-Vatican II era, a time when some hoped the Church might revise teachings on clerical celibacy, as well as on other core teachings.
“There was great hope that the close of Vatican Council II would open new ways and invigorating ways of being church,” CORPUS’ website states, later adding, “Two of the most anticipated reforms were the acceptance of birth control and the welcoming of a married priesthood.”
Those anticipated changes did not materialize. Pope Paul VI reaffirmed both the discipline of priestly celibacy and the Church’s moral teaching on birth control in the years immediately following the Council.
“Falling in love did not necessarily mean falling out of love with priestly service,” CORPUS stated. “Unfortunately, the church would not allow requests by priests to marry and remain active in a parish.”
Announcing its disbanding after 50 years, CORPUS reflected on what it described as a legacy of conscience and resistance. In its final statement, the group compared its efforts to global movements for justice, referencing figures like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and the 1989 protester at Tiananmen Square.
Marking its anniversary on Christmas Eve 2024, CORPUS described its history as a gathering of “Catholic priests who chose love over law” and continued to see its mission as a call to “gospel compassion, inclusivity, service and justice.”
The group acknowledged that its appeals to Church leadership had “fallen on deaf ears,” but concluded by urging members not to “relinquish our heritage.”
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Author: Rachel Quackenbush
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