Tom Gallagher of NCRToday wonders if Father Cutié, the priest that recently defected from the Catholic Church (and who is most likely ipso facto excommunicated because of the defection) could come back to the Catholic Church as a married priest:
The interesting question now becomes whether Fr. Cutie actually joins the Episcopal church, gets married, then some time later asks to become a Roman Catholic priest again, which Pope John Paul II allowed as a legitimate pathway. Now that would be rounding the bases, so to say.
The situation he describes, though, is not possible canonically, because Father Cutié cannot validly marry anyone right now (at least in the Church's eyes). He cannot validly marry because he is still bound by canon law and because, as a cleric, he is impeded from the valid celebration of marriage.
Canon law still applies to Father Cutie despite his defection from the Church because he was baptized a Catholic. Once a person is baptized a Catholic or received into the Catholic Church after non-Catholic (but valid) baptism, the person remains subject to Catholic canon law. See CIC Canon 11. Excommunication does not create an exception to this rule. Canon 1331 (the canon listing the effects of excommunication) gives severe consequences to those who are excommunicated, but exemption from the Church's law is not one of those consequences. Other situations create exceptions, but the exceptions only create a partial exemption from the law, and anyway they do not apply to clerical celibacy.
Because canon law still applies to Father Cutié, the diriment impediment of orders applies to him. Canon 1087. Diriment impediments render a person incapable of validly marrying in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Canon 1073. Thus, if Father Cutie were to become an Episcopal priest and marry in an Episcopal or civil ceremony (the order doesn’t matter) and then "swim back," the Church would treat him as unmarried, his invalid attempts notwithstanding. Even if he were to formally defect (which would exempt him from having to be married in front of a cleric and two witnesses for the sake of validity, Canon 1117), the formal defection would not save him from the impediment of orders.
EDIT: I forgot to mention two things:
- I posted a lot of this already as a comment to Paul Moses' post on Father Cutié's situation at dotCommonweal.
- Father Cutié could come back married if he asked for a dispensation from the impediment of orders, which only the Pope can grant, and married before returning. It would be interesting if the Holy See would grant such a dispensation while the petitioner remains a schismatic and probable excommunicate.
