” “” “Please find below the unabridged text of the release sent today by the Newsroom of the Holy See.
” “As to the comments caused by my words, as told by the paper “Estado de Sâo Paulo”, I wish to make myself clearer.
” “Within the Church, it has always been clear that the requirement of priests’ celibacy is not a dogma, but a disciplinary regulation. So much so that it applies to the Latin Church but not to the Eastern confessions, where even in the communities bonded to the Catholic Church married priests are the norm.
” “However it is also clear that the requirement of celibacy for the priests of the Latin Church is very ancient and rests on an established tradition and on powerful motivations of a theological-spiritual and practical-pastoral nature, that are also confirmed by the Popes.” “Even in the latest Episcopal Synod about priests, the most common opinion of the fathers was that the extension of the rule of celibacy would not be a solution even to the problem of the scarcity of vocations, which is due instead to other causes, for instance the modern laicised culture, as proven by the experience of the other Christian confessions where married priests or pastors are the norm.” “Such issue therefore is not currently on the agenda of the church authorities, as recently reasserted after the latest meeting between the Heads of the Ministries and the Holy Father.” “
