(LifeSiteNews) — The Archbishop of Malta, who serves as Adjunct Secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), recently argued for permitting married priests in the Roman Catholic Church.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna told the Times of Malta in a recent interview that while the decision is ultimately not up to him, he believes the Roman Catholic Church should reject the mandatory celibacy of priests.
“If it were up to me, I would revise the requirement that priests have to be celibate,” said Archbishop Scicluna, who has already openly dissented from Church teaching on homosexuality.
He suggested that the Roman Church should “learn” from Eastern Catholic churches, many of which allow the ordination of married men to the priesthood, although not to the episcopacy.
“We’ve lost many great priests because they chose marriage. Why should I lose a priest to marriage?” said Archbishop Scicluna.
While the archbishop admitted to speaking about his position “openly” at the Vatican, he shared that this was “probably the first time I’m saying it publicly,” adding that “it will sound heretical to some people.”
He specifically advocated for “optional” celibacy, incorrectly claiming that such celibacy was not mandatory during the “first millennium of the Church.”
While proponents of married priests often hearken back to the early days of the Catholic Church — when married priests were permitted — to support their position, such advocates rarely mention that even during that period priests were expected to remain sexually continent while married, as Father Christian Cochini has pointed out in his book The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy.
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Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder of Ignatius Press, explained the Roman Catholic perspective on clerical celibacy in an e-mail to LifeSiteNews.
“The frequently heard statement that priestly celibacy is “not doctrinal but only disciplinary” is not only misleading, it is false. False because there is no Cartesian bright line between doctrine and discipline,” Fr. Fessio wrote.
He noted that there is a “very variegated spectrum” between questions of pure “doctrine” and of pure “discipline,” and that “clerical celibacy is much closer to doctrine than to discipline on this spectrum.”
“The fundamental reason is Christological. A priest has expropriated himself to be united in a unique way to Christ the High Priest. The priesthood is not merely a function. It is a sacramental, ontological, mysterious union with Jesus Christ … Christ did not marry an individual woman because he is also the Bridegroom who is totally surrendered to his Bride the Church in a fruitful union that brings forth his Body the Church,” Fessio continued.
“And if I may douse with some very chill water on some of the overheated enthusiasms of those clamoring for a return to “primitive tradition,” I remind that all those “married priests” in the early Church had to have the agreement of their wives and make a vow of continence before they could be ordained.”
It remains uncertain whether the Vatican will lift the requirement of celibacy for priests. The Synod on Synodality’s Instrumentum Laboris (IL), or working document, issued in June, explicitly posed the possibility of married priests, raising the question, “As some continents propose, could a reflection be opened concerning the discipline on access to the Priesthood for married men, at least in some areas?”
October Synod proceedings likewise involved discussions of the possibility of married priests, although the synthesis report concluding the month-long meeting did not hint at a consensus, only noting that “Different opinions have been expressed about priestly celibacy.”
The Times of Malta reported that Archbishop Scicluna had affirmed Pope Francis’ assertion that the Roman Catholic Church should not change its priestly celibacy norms merely in order to attract men to the priesthood.
In an August interview with The Australian, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, former president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC), declared that it is “highly likely” Rome will end the requirement of celibacy for indigenous priests.
Archbishop Coleridge and a slew of other bishops across the world, including the president of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, have called for an end to mandatory priestly celibacy, often simultaneously calling for woman “priests” and other heterodox Church practices.