Sunday, July 17, 2022

The Catholic Church should scrap the requirement for priestly celibacy

 

July 17, 2022

The Catholic Church should scrap the requirement for priestly celibacy

VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
The Economist [London, UK]

July 14, 2022

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Let priests wed

The Pope is not in the habit of taking advice from newspapers. After all, the Roman Catholic Church takes instruction from the creator of the universe. Nonetheless, Pope Francis has opened up a process whereby all 1.4bn Catholics can have a say about the future of the faith. If they want to reduce the scourge of sexual abuse by priests, they should demand an end to the rule requiring priestly celibacy.

Were this just a theological question, The Economist would take no view. But it is not. In parish after parish, school after school, diocese after diocese, Catholic priests have abused children. America, Australia, France, Germany and Ireland, among others, have undertaken reckonings. The number of victims in France alone was estimated at 216,000 in the 70 years to 2020. Now countries such as Poland, Portugal and Spain are investigating, too. Catholic sex abuse involves not only bad apples, but…

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