The Armenian Catholic Church in the United States recently ordained its second married priest as Asadur Minasian of St. Mark’s Church in Wynnewood has now joined the ranks of the priesthood, writes Paul Vartan Sookiasian for The Armenian Weekly.

One of the most well-known disciplines of the Roman Catholic Church is its clerical celibacy, which says that priests are to remain unmarried. However, because this practice is a discipline and not a doctrine, it is not universal.

Within the global Catholic Church, there are the Eastern Rite Churches, which exist in full communion with the Pope in Rome but they follow some of their own traditions.

The Armenian Catholic Rite allows for its priests to be married. But it wasn’t until recently that Eastern Catholics outside of each rite’s “traditional territories” could follow certain practices of the rite – specifically the married priesthood.

This has allowed Minasian to finally pursue what he has felt is a lifelong calling to the priesthood.

“When you hear the phrase ‘God works in mysterious ways,’ believe it!” said Minasian.

Read more about Asadur Minasian and his ordination in The Armenian Weekly.