Pope Francis assured that “yes” the discipline of celibacy could be reviewed, considering the norm in the Western church as “a temporary prescription.”
“In the Catholic Church there are married priests: the entire Eastern rite is married. Everything. The entire Eastern rite. Here in the Curia we have one, today I came across him, who has his wife, his son,” the pontiff said in a interview with Infobae when asked about celibacy.
“All those of the Eastern Church are married. Or those who want to. There they make an option. Before the ordination the option to marry or to be celibate”
Although the Pope considered that “no” he believes that revising the norm can make more people join the priesthooddid maintain that “there is no contradiction for a priest to be able to get married.”
“Celibacy in the Western Church is a temporary prescription: I don’t know if it is resolved one way or another, but it is provisional in this sense; it is not eternal like priestly ordination, which is forever, whether you like it or not. Whether or not you leave is another matter, but it is forever,” Francisco added.
Thus, in a framework in which he asserted that “on the other hand, celibacy is a discipline”, he replied that “yes, yes” it could be reviewed.
“In fact, all those of the Eastern Church are married. Or those who want to. There they make an option. Before the ordination, the option to marry or to be celibate”argument.
In another passage of the interview, when condemning sexist attitudes, the Pope added that “sometimes celibacy can lead to machismo.”
In January 2019, in a press conference after returning from a trip to Panama, Bergoglio paraphrased a phrase from Saint Paul VI: “I prefer to give my life before changing that of celibacy”
In January 2019, in a press conference after returning from a trip to Panama, Bergoglio paraphrased a phrase from Saint Paul VI: “I prefer to give my life before changing that of celibacy.”
Anyway, Francisco did admit the possibility of some opening “in the most remote localities”, among which he included “the islands of the Pacific”.
The call for the revision of celibacy is spearheaded by the German Church, which at its Synod Assembly this week voted almost unanimously for the action text “Celibacy for priests – confirmation and openness”, including 44 of the 60 bishops who participated. of the so-called Synod of the German institution.
Francis compared the Nicaraguan government to the communist and Hitler “dictatorships”
The Pope compared the Government of Nicaragua with the communist “dictatorships” or the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler, while criticized the imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez in the Central American country and attributed it to the “imbalance” of President Daniel Ortega.
“With great respect, I have no choice but to think about an imbalance in the person who leads. There we have a bishop in prison, a very serious, very capable man. He wanted to give his testimony and did not accept exile,” the pontiff said at the interview published by Infobae about the prelate sentenced last month to 26 years in prison.
For the Pope, the situation in Nicaragua “is something that is outside of what we are experiencing, it is as if he were going to bring the communist dictatorship of 1917 or the Hitlerite dictatorship of 1935, bring the same here.”
“They are a type of rude dictatorships. Or, to use a nice distinction from Argentina, guarangas. Guarangas”, described Jorge Bergoglio, in the middle of the persecutions suffered by members and institutions of the Church and other political and social sectors by the Ortega government.
In February, Francisco had recalled that Álvarez had just been sentenced to 26 years in prison, and called for a “patient exercise of dialogue” in the Latin American country to achieve peace while asking the “political leaders” of the crisis for solutions.
“The news that comes from Nicaragua has saddened me not a little. And I cannot help but remember here with concern the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Roland Álvarez, whom I love so much, sentenced to 26 years in prison,” the pontiff said on that occasion after deliver the Sunday Angelus prayer in the Vatican.
Last month, Álvarez was sentenced in Nicaragua to 26 years and four months in prison indicted on charges of conspiracy, propagation of false news, aggravated obstruction of functions and contempt of authorities.
Álvarez had been detained by the authorities since August 19 under house arrest, and since February 9 in the La Modelo prison in Tipitapa, after refusing to board the plane along with other political prisoners who were deported to the United States.
In 2018Monsignor Rolando Álvarez had been part of the dialogue commission of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua that sought to mediate between the government and the opponents of the policies exercised in the Nation.
In 2022, the Nicaraguan government also expelled from the country the apostolic nuncio and 18 nuns from the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
In addition, it closed various Catholic media outlets. And on February 8, he removed the citizenship and exiled six priests, and two other priests are still imprisoned.
