This article on the NCR site took me a little by surprise:
The reason I was surprised is that it usually isn't prominent members of the hierarchy who are advocating for a change in the celibacy rule. From the article:
"The Catholic Church should revise its celibacy requirement for Latin-rite priests, a senior official in the Vatican's doctrinal office said. "If it were up to me, I would revise the requirement that priest(s) have to be celibate," said Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in an interview with the Times of Malta released Jan. 7. "Experience has shown me this is something we need to seriously think about."
"The archbishop said that the phenomenon of Catholic priests engaging in hidden, long-term sentimental relationships -- something he said "happens everywhere" -- is a "symptom" of priests "having to cope with" their celibacy requirement. He acknowledged that some priests father children in Malta and elsewhere. "We're talking about priests around the world, so I think it happens in Malta as well," he said."
"A man who feels called to the priesthood, "may mature, enter in relationships, love a woman, love another person, and they have to make a choice," he said. "Right now, they have to make a choice."
"Scicluna said the Latin-rite church "should learn from the Catholic churches of the Oriental rite," which have a tradition of married priests. In many of the 23 Eastern Catholic churches, men are allowed to get married prior to being ordained but cannot become bishops."
"Celibacy, Scicluna said, "was optional for the first millennium of the church's existence, and it should become optional again."
"...While the archbishop said he speaks openly of his position on priestly celibacy around the Vatican, he added that "the decision doesn't depend on me." But he told the interviewer that it was the first time he was discussing his position on priestly celibacy publicly and he knew his comments would "sound heretical to some people."
"...Scicluna has led the archdiocese of Malta since 2015 and was appointed adjunct secretary of the Vatican's doctrinal office in 2018; he continues to hold both positions. He was promoter of justice at the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, handling accusations of clerical sex abuse from 2002 to 2012."
This is remarkable coming from a prominent archbishop who has held a position on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI. He was named by Benedict as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Malta in 2012. He was named archbishop of that diocese in 2015 by Pope Francis.
My prediction is that nothing will happen along these lines as long as Pope Francis is alive, because he is still dealing with the blowback from some of the hierarchy about allowing the blessing of same sex couples. Since some of them are next door to threatening schism over this minor change, he's not going to push this issue. But it's not going away.
I apparently wasn't paying attention when they changed the name of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. A news article at the time of his appointment in 2018 said: "The archbishop's appointment as adjunct secretary makes him joint second in command of the CDF with secretary Archbishop Giacomo Morandi under prefect Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer. Among the congregation's leaders is also under-secretary Fr. Matteo Visioli." The Vatican website has the current leadership as follows:
ReplyDeleteCurrent Composition of Superiors
Prefect: Card. Víctor Manuel Fernández
Secretary - Doctrinal Section: Rev.do Mons. Armando Matteo
Secretary - Disciplinary Section: Rev.do Mons. John Joseph Kennedy
Adjunct Secretary: S.E. Mons. Charles Jude Scicluna
Under-Secretary: Mons. Philippe Curbelié
Promotor of Justice: P. Robert Joseph Geisinger, S.I.
I agree it is a remarkable statement coming from someone so highly positioned.
Good to hear. Celibacy doesn't make people holy. Look at me.
ReplyDeleteThere should be no surprise that he has such views. Cases of priests being dismissed for sexual abuse are handled by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Disciplinary Section for which they have a Secretary as indicated above. Scicluna is really the adjunct secretary mainly for that section because of the great caseload, and his prior experience in that area.
ReplyDeleteSo obviously he has seen first-hand the problems that celibacy poses for priests. Francis has specifically told the new prefect to concentrate on Doctrine and not the Disciplinary section. It would be a big story if the Prefect or the Secretary for the Doctrine Section had such views. His willingness to go public may indicate that celibacy and ordination to the deaconate for women are being discussed by the doctrinal section. He would probably know that.
I think it is a mistake to connect celibacy with sexual abuse, if I understand your point here. Most sexual abuse is about power, domination, or humiliation. Chastity within a sacramental marriage, which is what I presume would be required of married priests, is incompatible with abuse. So how would easing the celibacy restriction somehow solve an abuser's problems?
DeleteI don't think it would solve problems with abusers. I do think it would broaden the pool of people who would consider the priesthood as a vocation. Not necessarily solving the clergy shortage, but perhaps easing it a bit. And maybe helping to establish some homegrown clergy in areas which don't have regular access to Mass and the sacraments.
DeleteYes, practically speaking, I agree that it might expand the ranks a bit. Perhaps it might also change the rarified air you hear about in some seminaries that foster a sense of entitlement and exclusivity among the young men there.
DeleteAack! We are snowed in, got over a foot of blowing snow yesterday and into the night. The irony is that I was supposed to be at work this week, filling in for the person who is in Hawaii on her honeymoon. She definitely picked the right week to be there!
ReplyDeleteI will trade you most of your snow for the semi-frozen slush here in Michigan. Stay safe out there!
DeleteGot a good ten inches of heavy snow over the weekend. That is now being washed away by 2.5 inches of rain. I don't ever expect to see my grandmother's weather again. It is gone.
DeleteIt may be that very holy people are drawn to celibacy. But do you have to be that holy to be a good priest? The vast majority of other Christian denominations say no. That doesn't necessarily make them correct, but I presume that it does mean that there are theological arguments that reject mandatory celibacy.
ReplyDeleteI think it's important that Archbishop Scicluna said this. The first step to bringing about change is for people to be able to imagine the change, and that requires that people with something to lose are willing to risk speaking about it in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't that long ago that nobody in Scicluna's orbit would have dared said such a thing, for fear of being marginalized (or worse). That's the institutional church that I don't want to go back to.