German Cardinal Says Catholic Priests Should Be Allowed To Marry: ‘it Would Be Better For Their Life’

 

 A prominent Roman Catholic Church leader in Germany has said that he believes priests should be allowed to get married, opposing centuries of mandated celibacy for clergy.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the archbishop of Munich and a reformist ally of Pope Francis, told the German publication Sueddeutsche Zeitung that he supported clerical marriage as part of reforms to battle sex abuse.

“For some priests, it would be better if they were married — not just for sexual reasons, but because it would be better for their life and they wouldn’t be lonely,” stated Marx, as reported by The Associated Press. “We must hold this discussion.”

While Marx stressed he is not totally opposed to celibacy, he said he believed that “it would be better for everyone to create the possibility of celibate and married priests.” He questioned “whether it should be taken as a basic precondition for every priest.”

Last month, the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl produced a 1,000-page report finding nearly 500 victims of abuse by church figures in the Munich archdiocese from 1945 to 2019.

The report garnered major attention in part because Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, then known as Joseph Ratzinger, served as archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982.

A point of outrage, according to the Catholic News Agency, was that Ratzinger was present for a meeting that sought to transfer a priest with several allegations of abuse to his diocese. The emeritus pope issued a “heartfelt request for forgiveness” in a statement issued through the Vatican this week but denied wrongdoing. 

German Bishop Stefan Oster defended Ratzinger, arguing that the meeting involved referring the priest to the diocese to receive mental treatment and that Ratzinger had “entrusted himself to collaborators who committed a capital error on a decisive point.”

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In 2018 Tanzania celebrated 150 years of the Catholic Faith

Thousands of Tanzanian Catholics joined by that country’s President, John Magufuli and other dignitaries, on Sunday celebrated 150 years of evangelisation at Bagamoyo, a coastal district, 51 kilometres from Dar-es-Salaam.

Paul Samasumo – Vatican City

Pope Francis’s official representative at the celebrations in Tanzania, John Cardinal Njue, the Archbishop of Nairobi led the faithful in the festivities. In his homily, the Cardinal called upon various sectors of Tanzanian society to honour their various responsibilities, duties and to uphold peace in the country.

Cardinal Njue calls on Tanzanians to reflect on their faith

“This is the time to question ourselves; whether the seeds of peace preached by the first missionaries in the early days of the Church have borne fruit and been protected,” Cardinal Njue told the congregation gathered in Bagamoyo.

Speaking earlier to Vatican News’ KiSwahili Service, the Archbishop Emeritus of Arusha, Josaphat Louis Lebulu said, the next phase of the Church in Tanzania should be dedicated to investing in sustainable pastoral strategies that would more profoundly deepen the faith of Christians.

Bagamoyo: From a Port for slaves to a symbol of redemption

Archbishop Lebulu said that Bagamoyo was a very significant site in the history of Catholicism in Tanzania because it was the first place where the Holy Ghost missionaries landed.

Archbishop Lebulu aso said Bagamoyo was chosen for the Jubilee Celebrations because it was previously a place of pain and torture with many African slaves sold and exported from the port. However, with the arrival of the missionaries, Bagamoyo transformed into a place of redemption.

“We celebrate the great work done by missionaries who came to Tanzania at Bagamoyo in 1868. They installed the Holy Cross (at Bagamoyo), a Symbol of redemption from slavery, a symbol of faith to us,” Archbishop Lebulu said.

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