Pope Francis: married men could be ordained to ease priest shortages

Advertisement
Pope Francis gay people

Non-celibates could be permitted to work in remote communities lacking clerics, the pontiff says in an interview.

Pope Francis has said the Catholic church may consider ordaining married men who could potentially then work in remote areas faced with a shortage of priests.

“We must think about whether viri probati are a possibility,” Francis said, referring to older married men who are already involved in church business.

“Then we have to decide what tasks they can take on, for example in remote communities,” he added in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit.

They think that in addition to priests who take a vow of celibacy, older married men with a long commitment to the church could also be considered.

Pope Francis said in May 2014 that “there are married priests in the church” citing Anglican ministers who converted, Coptic Catholics and the priests of some eastern churches.

The church, and notably the current pope’s predecessor Benedict XVI, had previously said that celibacy was not a matter of inflexible church dogma unlike, for example, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

However, Francis said allowing priests in training to choose whether or not to be celibate was “not the solution”.- T

Source: The Guardian.

Advertisement

One Comment

  1. Why the shortages now, ? Its because of your dogma that church policy of celibacy and yet in the secrecy you open the bum bum of these nunies and other women. change the church police

Comments are closed.