Prefect of Congregation for Clergy Reacts to Media Reports
"This question is not … on the order of the day for ecclesial authorities," said Cardinal Clбudio Hummes, in a statement today. The Brazilian cardinal was clarifying interpretations of an interview that he had given to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. "The Church might discuss celibacy for priests," was the headline that some international agencies highlighted from the Brazilian cardinal's statements. In his clarification, issued by the Vatican press office, the cardinal states: "In the Church it has always been clear that priests' obligation to celibacy is not a dogma but a disciplinary norm." "Indeed, it is valid for the Latin Church but not for the Oriental rites where, even in communities united to the Catholic Church, it is normal for there to be married priests," he clarifies. However, the note continues, "it is also clear that the norm prescribing celibacy for priests in the Latin Church is very ancient and is founded upon consolidated tradition and upon strong motivations, both theological-spiritual and practical-pastoral, as reiterated also by Popes." Cardinal Hummes, 72, explains that "during the recent Synod on priests, the most widespread opinion among the fathers was that a relaxation of the rule of celibacy would not be a solution even to the problem of the lack of vocations, which is, rather, to be linked to other causes, in the first place the modern culture of secularization. This is clear also from the experience of other Christian confessions that have married priests and pastors."
He concluded saying that "This question is not, then, currently on the order of the day for ecclesial authorities, as was recently reiterated following the latest meeting of heads of dicastery with the Holy Father."
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