Pope Francis hints at review of celibacy rule for priests

His remarks came in an interview to mark the 10th anniversary of his election to the papacy, which fell on Monday.

Pope Francis delivers the weekly Angelus prayer at the Vatican on Sunday. Picture: AFP

The Pope has opened the door to a review of the Catholic Church’s rules on priestly celibacy, describing the ban as “temporary”.

His remarks came in an interview with Argentine publication Infobae, one of a number of conversations with the media marking the 10th anniversary of his election to the papacy, which fell on Monday.

“There is no contradiction for a priest to marry. Celibacy in the Western church is a temporary prescription,” Francis, 86, told Argentine journalist Daniel Hadad.

“It is not eternal like priestly ­ordination, which is forever, whether you like it or not. Whether you leave or not is another matter, but it is forever. On the other hand, celibacy is a discipline.”

The practice of restricting ordination to the priesthood to unmarried men is believed to have emerged in the fourth century and John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Francis’s predecessors, vigorously defended the principle.

In 2019, even Francis, an Argentinian, said he viewed celibacy as a gift to the church and was ­opposed to it being optional.

A year later he rejected calls for mature married men to be ­ordained to tackle a severe shortage of priests in the Amazon region after heated debate within the church.

Francis told Infobae that Eastern Rite Catholicism allowed priests to marry. “We have one in the Curia (papal court) – I ran into him today – who has a wife and a son. There is no contradiction in a priest being married.”

He told Argentine newspaper La Nacion that women would be allowed to vote for the first time in future synods – church assemblies for discussions of doctrine and policy. He said the issue had come up at the synod on the Amazon. “The question was posed: Why can’t women vote? Are they perhaps second-class Christians?” he said. “Whoever participates in a synod has the right to vote, whether they are a man or a woman.”

The Times