Pope Francis has promised to shake up the Catholic Church, and his new
secretary of state did just that this week, saying that the tradition
of priestly celibacy should be open to debate.Italian Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s second-in-command,
told Venezuela’s El Universal newspaper that celibacy is not dogma,
meaning divine law, so it could theoretically be changed to “reflect
the democratic spirit of the times.” However, he cautioned, “One
cannot say simply that this belongs in the past.”
The remark ignited speculation that Pope Francis might be seriously
considering letting priests get married. As The Huffington Post puts
it, “Removing the celibacy requirement could possibly breathe new life
into a church that is already suffering a shortage of priests.” Their
ranks in the U.S. fell to 39,600 in 2013, from nearly 60,000 in 1965.
Thomas Groome, a professor of theology at Boston College, notes that
there are roughly 30,000 former priests in the U.S. who say they left
to pursue a relationship, and many Catholics are eager for reform. “I
think it would be an enormously welcome conversation,” Groome tells
NBC News.
Proponents of the change point out that romance wasn’t always
off-limits for Catholic priests. The first written chastity mandate
dates to the early fourth century, and the definitive ruling
forbidding priests from marrying didn’t come until the Second Lateran
Council of 1139. Groome points out that “all of the apostles were
married, with the possible exception of John.”
Pope Francis has already loosened up the papacy in his four months as
head of the Catholic Church, eschewing many of the formal trappings of
his office and saying he would not judge gay priests. Does that mean
he might really roll back centuries of tradition on priestly celibacy?
Not necessarily. Elliott Hannon at Slate notes that in 2012 Pope
Francis, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, said, “I am in favor of
maintaining celibacy, with all its pros and cons, because we have ten
centuries of good experiences rather than failures.” However, he also
conceded that celibacy “is a matter of discipline, not of faith. It
can change.”
Before pro-reform Catholics get their hopes up, it’s important to note
that Parolin’s comments aren’t necessarily groundbreaking. John L.
Allen Jr. at National Catholic Reporter says they are essentially
consistent with “what might be termed the standard moderate Catholic
line — priestly celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma, and can
therefore be revised.”
