Pope slams rebels over celibacy and women priests
VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI issued a rare condemnation of
disobedient priests on Thursday, saying those who questioned the Church
over celibacy and the ordination of women were being self-serving.
“Recently, a group of priests in a European country published an
appeal for disobedience, giving concrete examples of how to be
disobedient,” the pope told 1,600 cardinals, priests and bishops during
his homily on Holy Thursday.
The appeal was for women to be allowed to join the clergy, which was
rebuffed by Benedict, who said: “As Jean Paul II irrevocably said, the
Catholic Church did not receive authorisation (to ordain women) from the
Lord.”
His comments were a response to an “appeal to religious disobedience”
launched by a group of Austrian priests in 2011.
The priests, who launched the Pfaffer Initiative in 2006 to call for
reform in the Church, argue for an end to priest celibacy and the
acceptance of women into the clergy to fill positions left empty as
priest numbers dwindle.
Benedict said the priests were being self-serving by pushing divisive
ideas at a time when the Church finds itself “in an often dramatic
situation.”
He said the rebels were just making “a desperate push to do something
to change the Church,” without considering the wider consequences for
the faith.
“Is disobedience a way to renew the Church?” he said. AFP |