Pope Francis could open the door to married Catholic priests

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The head of the Catholic Church tells the Vatican’s assembly of bishops that they must not be “choked by the ashes of fear and concern to defend the status quo”.

Pope Francis created shock and surprise among the assembly of bishops at a synod in Rome this weekend where he floated the idea of ​​married priests.

Speaking at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican, Francis also denounced past and present forms of colonialism and said some of the fires that devastated Brazil’s forests were started on purpose.

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Francis was addressing the synod, a gathering of council of the Catholic Church, called to decide a question of doctrine, administration or application.

During his sermon, Francis warned that some Catholic Church leaders risk becoming “bureaucrats, not shepherds.” He urged them to have the courage to rekindle what he called the fire of God’s gift by being open to change.

Catholic priests to marry?

There were many married priests in the early years of the Catholic Church and no official doctrine forbade this. However, it has been effectively banned since the 11th century.

Proponents see it as a complete revitalization of a scandal-ruined church, but many conservatives have proclaimed it to be heresy.

With priestly vocations plummeting and little time to waste before the situation worsens, Pope Francis clearly believes that time cannot stand still.

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In a thinly veiled warning about complacency, the Pontiff said: “If all goes on as before, if we spend our days contenting ourselves with ‘this is the way things have always been done’, then the gift faints, suffocated by the ashes of fear and the concern to defend the status quo.

Francis made it clear that the immediate need is the Amazon where priests live solitary lives, hundreds of miles apart. Reuters reports that in at least 85% of Amazon Catholics cannot celebrate Mass every week and that some members of congregations only see a Catholic priest once a year.

However, conservatives within the Catholic Church believe that allowing priests to marry in the Amazon would be something of a doctrinal Trojan horse and it would spread to the entire Church in the Western world.

What do you think? Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry? Let us know your views in the comments section below.

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