Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna is once again making his case for married priests at the Vatican.
The Archbishop led several high-profile investigations into clerical sexual abuse, including one involving the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Marcial Maciel, and the lay-led Catholic movement Sodalitium of Christian Life.
And after those investigations, he seems to have come to the opinion that forcing men to be celibate in order to be priests isn't good for them or the church.
Scicluna said,
"If it were up to me, I would revise the requirement that priests have to be celibate.
"Experience has shown me this is something we need to seriously think about. But the decision doesn't depend on me."
Scicluna says the decision should not be motivated solely by the shortage of men signing up for the clergy. Becoming a priest should be a question of faith.
However, he went on to say,
"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.
"This is probably the first time I'm saying it publicly and it will sound heretical to some people," he added.
But in the first millennium, celibacy was not a requirement for priests.
In fact, marriage was allowed all the way into the 1100s, which isn't too far removed from the reformation and the reinstatement of married clergy.
But even though celibacy is required today, Scicluna points out that it's not necessarily practiced.
"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."
So it's his opinion that it would be better if celibacy were optional like it used to be (kinda like the Apostle Paul outlined in 1 Corinthians 7 when the Corinthians were arguing a Greek maxim that it's better/holier to be celibate).
Pope Francis has certainly been floating the idea of allowing marriage. In 2019, he hosted a summit of bishops that considered the proposal to allow married priests.
While technically, priestly celibacy is not considered official doctrine of the church, meaning a pope could overturn the rule, conservative catholics see the pope entertaining the idea as more proof of his progressive, anti-traditional leadership.
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