In an interview that was released on Sunday, a senior Vatican official and adviser to Pope Francis stated that the Roman Catholic Church ought to “seriously consider” permitting priests to get married.
The Times of Malta was informed by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, who is also an adjunct secretary in the Vatican’s doctrinal office, “this is probably the first time I’m saying it publicly and it will sound heretical to some people.”
In 2019, Pope Francis ruled out the possibility of changing the Roman Catholic law mandating celibacy for priests. However, since it is not a canonical teaching of the Church, a subsequent pope may alter it. Speaking about the celibacy rule once more, Francis stated in a 2023 interview with a Latin American news outlet that “it is not eternal, like priestly ordination,” but rather a “discipline” that could be changed.
Scicluna, who is arguably best known for his studies into crimes involving sexual abuse, pointed out that priests were permitted to get married in the first millennium of the Church’s existence and that the Catholic Church still permits marriages under its Eastern rite.
The Church has “lost many great priests because they chose marriage,” according to Scicluna, 64.”There is a place” for celibacy in the Church, he said, but it also needed to account for the fact that priests can fall in love.
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