Pope swoops in to defend celibacy
Pope Benedict XVI has defended celibacy among priests, saying it was a sign of “full devotion” to the Catholic Church.
He was speaking at a theological conference before meeting Germany’s top bishop for talks about a new crisis over the sexual abuse of children.
German Bishop Robert Zollitsch apologised again to victims of abuse by German priests.
The Archbishop of Vienna had suggested that the Church should examine celibacy and priests’ training.
‘Honesty needed’
Europe’s Catholic paedophile scandal now affects institutions in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany.
In Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn wrote in a diocesan magazine that “the issue of priest training, as well as the question of what happened in the so-called sexual revolution” needed to be addressed.
“It also includes the issue of priest celibacy and the issue of personality development. It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of the Church and of society as a whole,” he added.
But the Pope said on Friday that celibacy is “the sign of full devotion, the entire commitment to the Lord and to the ‘Lord’s business’, an expression of giving oneself to God and to others”.
He defended “the value of sacred celibacy, which in the Latin Church is… required for ordination and is held in great regard by Eastern Churches”.
