Posted on 01/28/2011 9:05:07 AM PST by marshmallow
In 1970 Fr Joseph Ratzinger signed a petition that suggested the Church re-examine the obligation of priestly celibacy, according to a German newspaper
As a young priest, Pope Benedict put his name to a document calling for the Church to seriously investigate the obligation to priestly celibacy.
Joseph Ratzinger was one of the signatories of a 1970 document calling for an examination of priestly celibacy which was signed by nine theologians.
The memorandum was drawn up in the face of a shortage of priests and other signatories included Karl Rahner and the future cardinals Karl Lehmann and Walter Kasper.
The German newspaper Die Sueddeutsche reported about the document today.
The memorandum, which was sent to the German bishops reads: “Our considerations regard the necessity of a serious investigation and a differentiated inspection of the law of celibacy of the Latin Church for Germany and the whole of the universal Church.”
According to the Sueddeutsche, the document said if there were no such investigation, the bishops’ conference would “awaken the impression that it did not believe in the strength of the Gospel recommendation of a celibate life for the sake of heaven, but rather only in the power of a formal authority”.
If there weren’t enough priests, the document said, then the “Church quite simply has a responsibility to take up certain modifications”.
The signatories who had drawn up the document acted as consultors to the German bishops’ conference in a commission for questions of Faith and Morals.
The document’s release coincides with a renewed debate on priestly celibacy after prominent German politicians called for the Church to change the teaching on priestly celibacy in the face of a serious lack of priests.
Actually, I believe that Episcopal priests and Lutheran ministers who were baptized and confirmed as Catholics are not eligible for priestly ordination upon reversion.
Yes, indeed ... only someone with no brains would propose changing the current Latin Rite discipline of clerical celibacy.
The value of the discipline of celibacy is one of the very few issues where some conservative nonCatholic Christians and all liberal Catholic Christians will normally agree.
I bet there isn’t one wackadoo liberal Catholic pundit that digs abortion, birth control, priestesess, and ‘gay marriage’ and also thinks the discipline of celibacy is valuable.
Freegards
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