INTERVIEW: Ordaining married men a possibility due to global shortage of priests, says Pope Francis
The Tablet
09 March 2017 | by Christopher Lamb in RomeProponents for change argue ordaining married men would boost priest numbers and prevent church closures
Pope
Francis has said ordaining married men is a “possibility” as the Church
grapples with the “enormous problem” of a global shortage of priests, a
situation that is most acute in the Argentinian pontiff’s home
continent of Latin America.
In an interview with German newspaper Die Zeit Francis
said “we have to think about” whether to allow married men of proven
character, known as “viri probati”, to enter the ranks of the
priesthood, stressing that the Church must not be imprisoned by fear in
the face of challenges.
“We must also determine which tasks they can undertake, for example in remote communities,” the Pope said. A report of the interview was released yesterday.
But
Francis stressed “voluntary celibacy” is not the answer to the
vocations crisis and the first response must be prayer along with a
focus on “working with young people who are seeking orientation”.
Since the 12th century, the
Catholic Church has required priests to be celibate but in recent
decades has ordained clergy from other Christian denominations - such as
former Anglicans - many of who are married. Their numbers have swelled
the ranks of priests in England and Wales with research
suggesting that up to one in ten Catholic clerics were formerly
ordained in the Church of England. Meanwhile, the Eastern-rite Churches
allow for the ordination of men as priests but like the Latin-Rite
western Church do not allow men to marry once they are priests.
In 2014 The Tablet reported on
the Pope’s willingness to consider ordaining “viri probati” with
Francis reportedly telling a now retired bishop from Brazil who led a
priest-starved area of the Amazon rainforest that it was up to bishops
to take the initiative.
At the same time, he is also reported to have backed away from the idea while in an interview with French newspaper La Croix said the priest shortage should be solved by lay people taking a more prominent role.
In the Die Ziet interview the
newspaper reports that the Pope has been lobbied by “multiple voices”
from Germany on opening up the priesthood to married men, including the
the auxiliary bishop of Munster, Dieter Geerlings and Thomas Sternberg,
who runs the Central Committee of German Catholics, arguing that
compulsory priestly celibacy has “lost plausibility.”
Proponents for change argue
ordaining married men would boost priest numbers and help large parts of
the Church who are experiencing a sharp decline in priests, forcing
bishops to close churches and leaving parishes without access to the
sacraments. And it is dioceses in Latin and Central America where the
shortage is most serious.
Erwin Kräutler, the bishop who
discussed ordaining married men with Francis, has explained that in his
province of Xingu there were just 27 priests to serve 800 local
communities and 700,000 Catholics, while in Mexico there is one priest
for roughly every 6,500 Catholics. During a visit to Mexico last year
the Pope went to the diocese in Chiapas where hundreds of married
deacons from indigenous communities had been ordained in contrast to
just a handful of celibate priests.
The number of married permanent
deacons, who can perform all the functions of a priest apart from say
Mass and hear confessions, has been growing steadily over the last 40
years particularly in areas where there is a shortage of priests, such
as Europe and the United States.
In the Vatican there is a
growing awareness of the priest shortage problem with Cardinal Pietro
Parolin, a close adviser of Pope Francis, describing the situation as a
“sacramental emergency” in some areas.
In a speech last year at Rome’s
Pontifical Gregorian University, the Cardinal pointed out that celibacy
was not required by the “very nature of the priesthood” but had special
advantages such as the “freedom to serve” and the ability for priests
to “travel light.”
The possibility of ordaining
married men would not mean an end to the celibate priesthood while
bishops would remain unmarried, as is the practice of Eastern churches.
Elsewhere in the Die Zeit
interview, the Pope talks about the possibility of a visit to Egypt and
stressed that he does not view Cardinal Raymond Burke as an “adversary.”
The cardinal clashed with the Pope over a row involving the Knights of
Malta while Burke has threatened to issue a formal “act of correction”
against Francis for giving the green light for remarried divorcees to
receive communion.
In the interview
Francis says the cardinal is an “excellent lawyer” and was grateful to
him travelling to the Pacific Island of Guam to deal with the “terrible”
clerical sexual abuse that had taken place there.
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