Church in the World

Cardinal backtracks on celibacy comments

Rome

Cardinal Cláudio Hummes OFM, who arrived in Rome on Monday to take up his new post as head of the Congregation for the Clergy, immediately stepped back from comments he made two days before leaving his native Brazil, and said mandatory celibacy for Latin-rite priests was not up for discussion.

The 72-year-old Franciscan cardinal - who was named head of the Vatican office in October - had told the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo on 1 December that, since clerical celibacy was "a discipline, not a dogma", the Church could re-examine its effectiveness. He said this was especially so in the light of the increasing shortage of ordained priests.

But two hours after the former Archbishop of São Paulo landed at Rome's Fiumicino Airport on 4 December, he released a statement via the Holy See press office contradicting the comments. "At the recent Synod of Bishops on priests, the most widely held opinion among the fathers was that a relaxation of the celibacy rule would not be a solution, not even for the priest shortage," the cardinal said, adding that the synod fathers saw "modern secularised culture" as the main reason for a lack of vocations to the ordained ministry.

In his statement - which, sources said, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, pressed him to make - Cardinal Hummes said: "Above all it is also clear that the norm of priestly celibacy in the Latin Church is very ancient and is based on longstanding tradition and strong reasons, both theological-spiritual and practical-pastoral." 

That was not what he told Folha de S. Paulo and then another Brazilian paper, Estado de São Paulo, the next day. "Certainly, the majority of the apostles were married," the cardinal said, adding, "The Church must observe these things [and] advance with history."

The rapid clarification indicates the desire of Pope Benedict to have Vatican officials speaking with one voice on such contentious topics. He has called three meetings of the Roman Curia office heads since he was elected, most recently on 16 November, where the issue of married priests was the sole item on the agenda. At the end of that three-hour session the Vatican said the Pope and his Curia had decided that celibacy would continue to be a requirement for Latin-rite priests.