LA VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – The Archbishop of the Maltese Diocese, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, a well-respected among the Catholic Church’s highest echelon declared that the Church should look into revising its rules to allow Catholic priests the option to get married. However, he acknowledged it is only the Pope who gets a final say on these matters.
Archbishop Scicluna confirmed that he has already openly spoken about it at the Vatican, while adding that this is the right time to “discuss the issue seriously”. In a interview with The Times of Malta, the respected Vatican official, added celibacy still has and will continue to have a place in the Church, but said he learnt from experience that priests should also be given the option to marry, just like in Catholic Churches of the Oriental rite. “It was optional for the first millennium of the Church’s existence and it should become optional again,” he said.
He acknowledged “a man may mature, engage in relationships, love a woman. As it stands, he must choose between her and priesthood, and some priests cope with that by secretly engaging in sentimental relationships”. He added, “This is a global reality; it doesn’t just happen in Malta. We know there are priests around the world who also have children and I think there are ones in Malta who may have too,” he said. The 64-year-old archbishop and lawyer, apart from leading the Church in Malta, he also serves as Adjunct Secretary of the Holy Seès Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. He is often summoned by Pope Francis to launch investigations into some of the most high-profile, international abuse cases in the Church. In 2019, the Synod of Bishops overwhelmingly voted to allow married men in the Amazon region to become priests to help meet the needs of the Church there. However, Pope Francis did not go ahead with the change at all.
Maltàs archbishop said, however, that the Pope is right in insisting such a change should not be about mitigating the vocation crisis. Vocation has everything to do with faith and a person’s relationship with God, and the rules should not be changed to merely attract more men to priesthood or to fill in the gaps.
(ITALPRESS).
– Photo credit: Archdiocese of Malta –
