WIESBADEN, GERMANY - Some 80 Catholic former priests ended a four-day meeting in Germany Monday by issuing an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI calling for an end to Rome's nine-century-old policy that forbids priests to marry.
"We want the practice of the married priest in the Eastern Church to be implemented in the Western Catholic Church," said conference spokesman Heinz-Juergen Vogels.
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The International Federation of Married Catholic Priests, which met in the central German city of Wiesbaden, claim there are signs of flexibility from Rome.
The federation draws its optimism from a rumoured account of remarks by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in summer 2004, well before his election as pope, when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
He reportedly asked a delegation of U.S. bishops, "What would your people think about a re-introduction of the tradition of married priests?" The Americans were supposed to have been speechless for a moment with surprise.
According to the federation, this means that Benedict recognizes that priests were often married in the early church. A council of the church imposed the rule of celibacy in 1139, along with the requirement that clergy who marry abandon their priesthood.
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If this is true, then it brings good news for the priests who want to end this rule and for the ordinary Catholics like myself who appreciate the work done by good Catholic priests and don't mind the married ones.
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