POPE OPEN TO MARRIED PRIESTHOOD
Francis says move must be studied
POPE Francis has opened up the possibility of letting married men become priests.
He says the Catholic Church must study whether it is possible to ordain married men in remote communities facing priest shortages.
The proposal to open the priesthood to “viri probati” – married men of proven faith – has been raised before.
But as the first Latin American pope, Francis has a particular appreciation of the recruitment challenges in places like Brazil – a huge Catholic country with an acute shortage of priests.
In an interview with Germany’s Die Zeit, the Pope stressed that removing the celibacy rule is not the answer to the Catholic Church’s priest shortage.
But he added: “We must consider if viri probati is a possibility. Then we must determine what tasks they can perform, for example, in remote communities.”
Brazilian cardinal Claudio Hummes, a long-time friend of the Pope, is reportedly pressing to allow viri probati in the Amazon region, where the Church have just one priest for every 10,000 Catholics.
The Argentinian Pope has shown openness to receiving concrete proposals for ordaining married men as well as pastoral concern for men who have left the priesthood to marry.
He maintained a friendship with the widow of a friend who left the priesthood to marry. And he spent one of his Friday mercy missions last year visiting men who had left ministry to start families.
He has also said that while he favours a celibate priesthood, celibacy technically can be up for discussion as it is a discipline of the church, not a dogma.
In the interview, he also repeated his warning of the dangers of rising populism in Western democracies.