Pope's Secretary of State: Celibacy Not a Dogma

Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's new Secretary of State, told a Venezuelan newspaper that the Catholic practice of enforced celibacy is a tradition rather than a dogma and can therefore "be discussed" and can be the subject of "modification" ("New Secretary of State Parolin on Celibacy," National Catholic Reporter, Sept. 11, 2013). The Second Lateran Council of 1139 ruled that priests are forbidden to marry. In a 2012 interview, Pope Francis (then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio) said that celibacy "is a matter of discipline, not of faith; it can change" ("Is Pope Francis Open to Optional Celibacy?"National Catholic Reporter, Mar. 19, 2013). He added, "For the moment, I am in favor of maintaining celibacy." The Catholic Church has been loosening up on required "celibacy" for decades. It has done this by allowing non-priests to do some things once done only by priests, and it has done this by allowing married Anglican priests to convert to Romanism and retain their position as priests. Rome's "celibacy" has always been a scandal. Many books have documented the moral filth that has been part and parcel of the Catholic priesthood. In recent decades the Catholic Church in America has paid over a billion dollars to settle lawsuits brought as a result of child-molesting priests.

(Friday Church News Notes, September 20, 2013, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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