Retired Pope Benedict XVI has broken his silence to reaffirm the "necessity" of priestly celibacy, co-authoring a bombshell book when Pope Francis is weighing whether to
Benedict wrote the book, "From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church," along with his fellow conservative, Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican's liturgy office and has been a quiet critic of Francis.
Benedict's intervention is extraordinary, given he had promised to remain "hidden from the world" when he retired in 2013 and pledged his obedience to the new pope.
His reaffirmation of priestly celibacy gets to the heart of a fraught policy issue that Francis is expected to weigh in on in the coming weeks, and could be considered a public attempt by the former pope to sway the thinking of the current one.
The implications for such an intervention are grave, given the current opposition to Francis by conservatives and traditionalists nostalgic for Benedict's orthodoxy, some of whom even consider his resignation illegitimate.
Pope Francis, left, and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Source: Pool L'Osservatore Romano
It is likely to fuel renewed anxiety about the wisdom of Benedict's decision to remain an "emeritus pope," rather than merely a retired bishop, and the unprecedented situation he created by having two popes, one retired and one reigning, living side by side in the Vatican gardens.
The authors stressed in their joint introduction that they were penning it "in a spirit of filial obedience, to Pope Francis." But they also said that the current "crisis" in the church required them to not remain silent.
Francis has said he would write a document based on the outcome of the October 2019 synod of bishops on the Amazon. A majority of bishops at the meeting called for the ordination of married men to address the priest shortage in the Amazon, where the faithful can go months without having a Mass.
During a visit to Ireland, the Pope vowed to end the exploitation of children by Catholic clergy. Source: AAP
While Francis has long reaffirmed the gift of a celibate priesthood in the Latin rite church, he has stressed that celibacy is a tradition, not doctrine, and therefore can change and that there could be pastoral reasons to allow for an exception in a particular place.
Benedict addresses the issue head-on in his chapter in the brief book. Benedict's chapter is dense with biblical references and he explains in scholarly terms what he says is the "necessary" foundation for the celibate priesthood that dates from the times of the apostles.
Pope Francis stressed that celibacy is a tradition, not doctrine. Source: AAP
"The priesthood of Jesus Christ causes us to enter into a life that consists of becoming one with him and renouncing all that belongs only to us," he writes.
"For priests, this is the foundation of the necessity of celibacy but also of liturgical prayer, meditation on the Word of God and the renunciation of material goods."
Marriage, he writes, requires man to give himself totally to his family.
"Since serving the Lord likewise requires the total gift of a man, it does not seem possible to carry on the two vocations simultaneously. Thus, the ability to renounce marriage so as to place oneself totally at the Lord's disposition became a criterion for priestly ministry."
with AAP...
