CV NEWS FEED // A senior Vatican official and Archbishop has made a major case for married priests according to clips from an exclusive interview just released by the Times of Malta.
In a recent article Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta called for the Church to seriously discuss allowing priests the option to be married in light of a world-wide lack of priests.
“This is probably the first time I’m saying it publicly, and it will sound heretical to some people,” said the Archbishop and Adjunct Secretary to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith.
Addressing the current vocations crisis, Scicluna decried the loss of potential priests over the Church’s celibacy requirement: “Why should we lose a young man who would have made a fine priest, just because he wanted to get married?”
“And we did lose good priests just because they chose marriage,” he added.
The Latin rite of the Catholic Church has required its priests to remain celibate since the 12th century. However, the bishop pointed out that priests in the early Church had the option to marry, and said that “it should become optional again.”
The Archbishop discussed cases of priests who “cope” with their position by carrying out “sentimental relationships” in secret.
“This is a global reality,” he said, continuing: “it doesn’t just happen in Malta. We know there are priests around the world who also have children and I think there are ones in Malta who may have too,”
As an Adjunct Secretary for the DDF, Scicluna heads the department which deals specifically with clerical sexual abuse cases, and has also conducted investigations into sex abuse cases on behalf of the Holy See since 2012.
Scinluna’s comments on married priests are excerpts from a full interview which will be released by the Times of Malta soon.
