Priest Having a Child - 1860s

[Tanner]

Hi all,

I'm hoping to get a more precise transaltion and perhaps some cultural context. Here I have a birth act of a cousin, Giuseppe Giovanni Michele Cirillo. The father is listed as Michele Cirillo, son of Onofrio, who would be my 6x great uncle. Michele is listed as "sacerdote." I understand this to mean priest, so I am confused as to how a priest (in his fifties) would have a child with a woman, Maddalena DeMichele, who is 22 at the time.

This woman is named but she actually isn't called "sua moglie legittima" like most of the other births.

Would it not have been impossible for a Catholic priest to be married and have children legitimately?

Here is the document:
http://dl.antenati.san.beniculturali.it ... ewsIndex=0

[Tessa78]

Michele Cirillo is not the father. He is declaring the birth of a male child born to Maddalena de Michele [ daughter of deceased Don Giovanni], and to Don Onofrio Cirillo, her husband. They are both age 22.

T.