Vatican City - In an interview with the Argentinean media Infobae, Pope Francis revealed that celibacy in the Western Church, “is a temporary prescription... It is not eternal like priestly ordination... Celibacy, on the other hand, is a discipline”. He also clarified that
Ahead of the tenth anniversary of his election, Pope Francis gave a new, wide-ranging interview to a Spanish-language paper in which he touched on several key topics, including homosexuality and priestly celibacy, as well as politics in Latin America.
However, popular media has taken the words of the Holy Father out of context as usual and is propagating that Pope Francis has called for an end to celibacy of priests.
Pope Francis was asked in the interview, conducted by journalist Daniel Hadad and published Friday, 13th March, in Spanish-language newspaper infobae, “if celibacy was not mandatory —not that celibacy disappears but if it were not mandatory— do you suppose that the possibility of priests with the faculty to be married, as is the case in other churches, might help to encourage more people to join the priesthood?”
“I do not think so.” Pope Francis responded. “In fact there are married priests in the Catholic church, the eastern ritual has marriage...Here in the Curia we have one —just today I came across him— who has his wife, his son, [and he] comes [here]. In the western church, celibacy is a temporary prescription, I do not know if it is settled in one way or another, but it is temporary in this sense, it is not perpetual like priestly ordination, which is forever, whether you like it or not. Whether you leave [the church] or not is a different matter, but it is forever. Celibacy, on the other hand, is a discipline...”
Daniel - “In other words, it could be reconsidered.”
Pope Francis – “Yes. Yes. In fact,” priests “in the eastern church is married. Or those who want to. They make a choice. Before being ordained, they opt to marry or to be celibate.”
“Celibacy in the western church is a temporary prescription: I don’t know if it will be resolved in one way or another, but it is provisional in this sense, it is not eternal like priestly ordination, which is forever, whether you like it or not,” he said, saying a man must discern before his ordination whether he wants to marry or remain celibate.
The history of celibacy in the Christian community does indeed stretch back to Jesus, St Paul, the early monks and many other Christians who forsook marriage in order to be more fully and completely dedicated to the Lord and His Bride, the Church. It is a prophetic vocation which is cherished in the Church for good reason.
In the 11th century, Pope Gregory VII issued a decree requiring all priests to be celibate and he expected his bishops to enforce it.
"In 1322 Pope John XXII insisted that no one bound in marriage — even if unconsummated — could be ordained unless there was full knowledge of the requirements of Church law. If the free consent of the wife had not been obtained, the husband, even if already ordained, was to be reunited with his wife, exercise of his ministry being barred.
In the Eastern catholic Church, like the Orthodox Church, married men can be considered for ordination to the diaconate and to the priesthood. The decision to marry must be made before the first ordination, to the Diaconate, and cannot be changed. Bishops are chosen only from the celibate ranks."
-Priestly celibacy in patristics and in the history of the Church
Celibacy is a beautiful response to a calling from the Lord.
There are monks, nuns, religious and members of ecclesial movements who choose that vocation and live it as a vow, witnessing to the whole Church, as a sign of the kingdom of God.