Cardinal Sarah has written a book that attempts to instruct Pope Francis on the question of allowing priests to marry. For reasons I don’t fully understand, Pope Emeritus Benedict has jumped into the fray by backing this book.
I expect there will be a lot of comment about all this as the days go forward.
From Vatican News:
A book on the priesthood that bears the signatures of Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, with a contribution from the Pope emeritus Benedict XVI (updated following a statement by the Prefect of the Papal Household, Archbishop Georg Ganswein), will be published in France on 15 January. The pre-publication material provided by Le Figaro indicates that, with their contributions, the authors enter into the debate on celibacy and the possibility of ordaining married men as priests. Ratzinger and Sarah — who describe themselves as two bishops “in filial obedience to Pope Francis” who “seek the truth” in “a spirit of love for the unity of the Church” — defend the discipline of celibacy and put forth the reasons that in their opinion would advise against changing it. The question of celibacy occupies 175 pages of the book, with two texts — one by the Pope emeritus and the other by the Cardinal — together with an introduction and a conclusion signed by both.
In his text, Cardinal Sarah recalls that “there is an ontological-sacramental link between priesthood and celibacy. Any weakening of this link would put into question the Magisterium of the [Second Vatican] Council and Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. I implore Pope Francis to protect us definitively from such a possibility by vetoing any weakening of the law of priestly celibacy, even if limited to one region or another”. Cardinal Sarah goes so far as to describe the possibility of ordaining married men as “a pastoral catastrophe, an ecclesiological confusion and an obscuring of the understanding of the priesthood”. Reflecting on the subject in his brief contribution, Benedict XVI goes back to the Jewish roots of Christianity, affirming that from the beginning of God’s “new covenant” with humanity, which was established by Jesus, priesthood and celibacy are united. He recalls that already “in the ancient Church”, that is, in the first millennium, “married men could receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders only if they committed themselves to sexual abstinence”.
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