The Vatican on Thursday rejected calls for the Roman Catholic Church to allow priests to marry, reaffirming the "importance" of celibacy despite fears of a schism over the issue.
"The importance of the choice of celibacy for priests, according to the Catholic tradition was reaffirmed," the Vatican said in its statement after Pope Benedict XVI had met for three hours with the top leaders of the Holy See administration.
The pontiff met with 20 Vatican department heads to "analyze the situation" created by the "disobedience" of Zambian archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who was ex-communicated in September for ordaining four married men as bishops, a Vatican spokesman said earlier.
Milingo, founder of the "Married Priests Now!" movement, is gathering some 1,000 married priests at a meeting in New York early next month.
The Vatican statement said the pope and his deputies "received detailed information on requests for exemption from the obligation of celibacy and for readmission to priestly ministries" before reaching their conclusion through "communal reflection."
Milingo said in Washington following his ex-communication by the Vatican: "We have nearly 25,000 married priests in the United States and 150,000 in the world who are not called to serve in this medieval Church that requires celibacy."
The former archbishop of the Zambian capital Lusaka, who stunned the Church in 2001 by marrying a South Korean acupuncturist in a mass "Moonies"-style ceremony, wrote an open letter to the pope on Nov. 4 asking that married priests and bishops be "gradually reinstated into the fabric of our Church."
During a worldwide shortage of priests, he wrote, "there are 150,000 married priests who are ready and willing to serve."
Milingo has widespread support among US Catholics, 63 percent of whom favor allowing priests to marry, which could encourage more men to enter the priesthood, according to a Gallup poll.
Between 1975 and 2004, the number of priests shrank by 28 percent in the US, while the number of Catholics grew 33 percent, Gallup said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS