VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, a papal ally and an influential prelate at the Vatican, said in an interview published Sunday (Jan. 7) that the Catholic Church should reconsider its ban on married priests .
“If it were up to me, I would revise the requirement that priests have to be celibate,” Scicluna told the Times of Malta.
“Experience has shown me this is something we need to seriously think about,” he added, stating that he has “spoken openly” on the subject at the Vatican. “But the decision doesn’t depend on me,” he said.
Scicluna occupies an influential role at the Vatican as adjunct secretary of the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Under the leadership of the newly appointed prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the Vatican’s doctrinal department has allowed for trans people to be baptized and act as godparents and recently greenlit the blessing of gay and “irregular” couples if performed in a way that cannot be confused with marriage.
The question of allowing married priests, or viri probati in Latin, was a central part of the discussions on the Amazonian region during the 2019 summit of bishops at the Vatican. At the time, the argument supported ordaining married men to administer to the remote and secluded areas of the Amazon. Despite the general support for a married priesthood among the bishops at the time, Pope Francis has so far not made a decision on the issue.
Priestly celibacy is not considered official doctrine of the church, meaning a pope could overturn the rule.
Cardinal Robert Sarah in 2015. Photo by François-Régis Salefran/Creative Commons
During the synod on the Amazon, influential conservative prelates, including Cardinal Robert Sarah, spoke firmly against allowing priests to marry. In 2020, Sarah co-published a book with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI called “From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church,” which sought to underline the importance of celibacy.
According to Scicluna, the decision on married priests should not be motivated solely by the vocation crisis plaguing the Catholic Church in some areas. Becoming a priest should be a question of faith, he said in the interview, and rules should not be changed just to try to solve a lack of priests. But he insisted that those wanting to become priests should not have to make a choice between marriage and the church.
“Why should we lose a young man who would have made a fine priest, just because he wanted to get married? And we did lose good priests just because they chose marriage,” he said.
“This is probably the first time I’m saying it publicly and it will sound heretical to some people,” he added.
Scicluna noted that in the first millennium of the church’s history, celibacy was not a requirement, and he said the Catholic institution should learn from the Eastern Rite churches, where married priests are allowed. While celibacy continues to have an important role in the church, the archbishop said, it should once again become optional for those who wish to live their faith that way.
Since the Catholic Church prohibits priests from getting married, some do so in secret and even have children in secret, Scicluna said. “This is a global reality; it doesn’t just happen in Malta,” he said. “We know there are priests around the world who also have children and I think there are ones in Malta who may have too.”
The archbishop’s claim to fame is that of being a determined agent for accountability and transparency in the church in the fight against clerical sexual abuse. He investigated high-profile cases of abuse, including ones involving the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Marcial Maciel, and the lay-led Catholic movement Sodalitium of Christian Life.
