01/07/2024 7:00 pm (current 01/07/2024 7:00 pm)
The Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, has called for an end to the strict rule of celibacy in the Catholic Church. The 64-year-old, who is also one of Pope Francis' advisers, argued in the Times of Malta newspaper (Sunday) that priests should be allowed to marry.
“If it were up to me, I would change the rules that state that a priest must be celibate,” Scicluna said. “Why should we lose a young man who would have been a good priest just because he wants to get married?”
Scicluna is president of the Episcopal Conference of the Mediterranean island of Malta and, since 2018, also assistant secretary of the Vatican Office for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the most important authorities in the Papal States. There he deals with the scandal of sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests in various regions of the world.
In the interview, the archbishop highlighted that priests could marry in the Catholic Church until the 12th century. But even under Pope Francis, the Vatican insists that priests and nuns live strictly celibate lives. This means celibacy and sexual abstinence.
But Francis has already made it clear that he can fundamentally imagine the abolition of celibacy. Last year, he highlighted in an interview that married men can be priests in the Eastern Catholic Church. “There is no contradiction in the fact that a priest can get married,” said the Argentine. Especially in Europe, there are reform movements within the Church that consider celibacy to be outdated.