In interview, Pope Francis calls priestly celibacy 'not eternal'
(Photo: Getty/iStock)In an interview published Friday (March 10), Pope Francis called celibacy in the priesthood a gift from God but also a "provisional" discipline observed mostly in the Western Church that is not essential to ordination.
The pope's comment came as an interviewer with the Argentine news agency Infobae asked the pontiff whether lifting the celibacy obligation in the Catholic Church would increase the number of candidates to the priesthood.
"I don't think so," the pope said, adding that there already are married priests among the Eastern-rite Catholics. "Here in the (Roman) Curia we have one — just today I met him — who has his wife and his son" with him.
"Nevertheless, there is no contradiction for a priest to marry," Francis said. "Celibacy in the Western Church is a temporal prescription." Contrasting it with the status of priestly ordination, "which is forever, whether you like it or not," he called celibacy "not eternal."
"Whether you leave or not is another matter," he added. "On the other hand, celibacy is a discipline."
"So it could be revised?" asked Argentine journalist Daniel Hadad.
"Yes, yes," Francis replied. "In fact, everyone in the Eastern Church is married, or those who want to. There they make a choice. Before ordination, (they have) the choice to marry or to be celibate." CT.
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