Pope Francis has shown willing to “review” celibacy within the Catholic Church, since it is a “temporary prescription” of the Western Church.

“There is no no contradiction for a priest to get married. Celibacy in the Western Church is a temporary prescription: I don’t know if it is resolved one way or another, but it is provisional in this sense,” Francis said from his residence in Santa Marta, in Vatican City, in statements to the Argentine portal Infobae on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his papacy.

Asked if this question of celibacy “could be reviewed”, the Supreme Pontiff replied “yes, yes”, to add that all members of the Eastern Church, or those who want to, “are married”. “In the Catholic Church there are married priests: the entire Eastern rite is married. Everything. Here in the Curia we have one – today I came across him – who has his wife, his son”, the highest authority of Catholicism has asserted.

Likewise, the Pope has recognized that “sometimes celibacy can lead you to machismo” and has stressed the need to appoint more women to positions of responsibility in the Vatican.

“The Council of the Economy is made up of six cardinals and six laymen. The laymen are all men, of course. It had to be renewed and I put a man and five women (…). Instead of putting a lieutenant governor, I put a lieutenant governor, and he ( the governor, Fernando Berges) feels much more helped because women resolve and resolve well”, the Supreme Pontiff pointed out. “They have another methodology, women. They have a sense of time, of waiting, of patience, different from men. This does not diminish men, they are different. And they have to complement each other,” he added.

discussion in church

These statements are made in a context of growing debate within the churchespecially after the irruption, three years ago, of the synodal process in Germany, a dialogue forum that seeks formulas to overcome the crisis that the Catholic Church is experiencing, shaken by scandals of sexual abuse of minors.

During the last months, proposals have been advanced such as the end of compulsory celibacy or also that women have access to the priesthood or questions about homosexuality, which is causing bad tempers in the Vatican and fears of a schism in the German church.

The Vatican has considered in the past that “it would not be licit to initiate in the dioceses, before an agreed agreement at the level of the universal Church, new official structures or doctrines, which would represent a wound to ecclesial communion and a threat to the unity of church”.