German Roman Catholic bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann In an interview for the German Catholic Press Agency (KNA), which was published on Friday, He called to alleviate the demand of celibacy for priests. TASR took over the report from DPA.
“I call for the abolition of the celibacy requirement as the conditions of the priestly profession,” Wiesemann told Kna. Although celibacy remains an important spiritual way of life of priests and members of the religious orders, according to Bishop, “there are other ways to express and experience this complete devotion to Christ and his church”.
On Monday before the plenary autumn meeting of German Catholic bishops in Fulda, he said that “this is also possible in the marriage”. The Vatican continues to insist that priests and nuns should live in celibacy, avoid marriage and delay any sexual contactresembles DPA.
Wiesemann continued that this way does not have to take the Catholic Church around the world and the change may only concern Germany. As the justification of his proposal noted that The Church loses many good people who do not want or cannot observe celibacy, and that this requirement discourages many of thinking about the profession of a priest.
The German bishop suggested that there could be a kind of temporary celibacy for priests before the promise of eternal celibacy. According to Wiesemann, temporary celibacy would remove the taboo and facilitate the final decision, which would increase celibacy. “However, the prerequisite for this is that the performance of the priestly profession is not bound to the definitive decision on celibacy,” added the bishop.
