Yesterday, Pope Francis expressed his willingness to review celibacy within the Catholic Church, as it is a “temporary recipe” of the Western Church.
“There is no contradiction that a priest can marry. Celibacy in the Western Church is a temporary prescription: I don't know if it's resolved one way or another, but it's provisional in that sense," said Pope Francis, in an interview from his residence in Vatican City, Italy, to the Argentine portal Infobae on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his pontificate.
Asked whether the issue of celibacy "could be reviewed", the head of the Catholic Church replied "yes, yes", adding that many of the members of the Eastern Church, those who wish to, "are married".
“In the Catholic Church there are married priests: the entire Eastern Rite is married. All. Here at the Curia we have one – today I came across him – who has his wife, his son”, Francis revealed.
In the interview, the Pope acknowledged that “sometimes celibacy can lead to machismo” and highlighted the need to appoint more women to positions of responsibility in the Vatican.
“The Economy Council is made up of six cardinals and six lay people. The laity [were] all men, of course. It had to be renewed and I put in a man and five women (…). Instead of appointing a vice-governor, I appointed a vice-governor, and he [the governor, Fernando Berges] feels much more helped because women resolve issues and resolve them well”, admitted the Pope.
“They have another methodology. They have a sense of time, of waiting, of patience, different from that of men. It doesn't diminish men, they are just different and have to complement each other,” she added.
These issues arise at a time of revelations of sexual abuse scandals within the Church around the world – recently in Portugal an independent commission identified hundreds of cases after an investigation – and in a growing debate about whether or not this problem is related to the mandatory of celibacy in the Catholic Church.
It also comes after the outbreak, about three years ago, of a synod process in Germany, a forum for dialogue that seeks formulas to overcome the crisis that the Catholic Church is experiencing, shaken by scandals of sexual abuse of minors.
In recent months, proposals have been advanced such as the end of compulsory celibacy or also that women have access to the priesthood, as well as questions about homosexuality, which is causing uneasiness in the Vatican and fears of a rupture in the German Church.
The Vatican has considered in the past that “it would not be licit to initiate the end of celibacy in the dioceses before an agreement at the level of the universal Church, of new structures or official doctrines, to avoid that they represent a wound to ecclesial communion and a threat to the unity of the Church. Church".
Pope Francis, 86 years old, will complete next Monday a decade at the helm of the Catholic Church, a period during which he has concentrated his efforts on reforming the Holy See, trying to make it more transparent and effective, despite the opposition of the most Vatican conservatives, writes Infobae.
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