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Pope Francis has described celibacy for priests as ‘a temporary prescription, not eternal’ in an interview with an Argentinian news outlet.
Pope Francis says priest celibacy ‘can be revised’
Pope Francis can in principle imagine abolishing celibacy for priests, the Vatican head said in an interview.
Speaking to the Argentinian news website Infobae, Pope Francis recalled that in the Eastern Catholic Church, married men are allowed to be priests.
“There is no contradiction in the fact that a priest can marry,” said the pope, who for years has been repeatedly asked by various quarters to lift or relax celibacy requirements for priests.
Only on Friday, the delegates of the German Synodal Assembly for the Reform of the Catholic Church adopted a text in which an opening of celibacy is sought. The pope is to be asked to examine the future of compulsory celibacy.
