Creating quiet a stir across Germany, a group of top ranking retired Catholic priests have written an open letter, requesting to put an end to celibacy. These 11 priests who were annointed in 1967 in Cologne have tried to throw light on the isolation faced by many priests.
“We believe that requiring every man who becomes a priest to remain celibate is not acceptable. We think, every Catholic should be allowed to choose if they would rather be celibate or not, regardless of whether they want to work as priests just like in the evangelical Church or the Orthodox Church,” said Franz Decker, one of the retired priest to Deutsche Welle.
“In the letter, they list a number of suggestions on how the Catholic Church could modernise itself to combat the fact that “questions of God are no longer relevant to many people in this country”. Including other demands seen as progressive bordering on radical by many within the church, such as lifting the ban on women as priests,” Deutsche Welle wrote.
According to the discipline of the Catholic Church, only an unmarried man can attain priesthood. However, the Latin Church now admits married men of mature age to ordination as deacons. According to Wikipedia, Garry Wills in his book Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit, has argued that the imposition of celibacy among Catholic priests played a pivotal role in the cultivation of the Church as one of the most influential institutions in the world.
The Deutsche Welle also writes that the archbishop of Cologne, Rainer Maria Woelki, is among the defenders of celibacy and according to a spokesperson for the bishop, “even if the bible does not word-for-word demand celibacy, celibacy is a way of life that makes us available to God and his message.”
In general, the Eastern Catholic Churches ordinates only married men as priests. At the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the second largest particular church in the Catholic Church, the priests children often become priest and marry within their social group.
