PHL Catholic Church not yet discussing changing priest celibacy rule —CBCP

The Philippine clergy is not yet debating on whether or not to allow married men to become priests, said the spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Tuesday.

Father Jerome Secillano said the CBCP has no clear stand yet on the matter, even after Pope Francis had approved the debate for allowing priests to break the vow of celibacy in the Catholic Church in the Amazon region, where there is a dire shortage of priests.

“Dito sa simbahan natin sa Pilipinas, ay wala pa naman tayong pag-uusap tungkol diyan, kaya wala pa din naman talagang malinaw na stand diyan...” Secillano said in an interview on Unang Balita.

However, he still honored the centuries-old tradition of celibacy.

“Ngayon pa nga lang po, na wala pa tayo talagang kumbaga ay batas na nag-a-allow sa mga married priests...ay nagkakaroon na tayo agad ng issue tungkol sa corruption, issue tungkol sa mga pagnanakaw, issue na kinukuha kuno yung koleksyon o di kaya pondo ng simbahan. How much more kung meron ka na talagang sariling pamilya na sinusuportahan?”

Secillano claimed celibacy for priests has extensive, comprehensive, and even biblical bases, despite the rule being set in place only in the 12th century.

“We changed it because of the changing times. Nakikita natin dito na nakakaapekto rin ang pagkakaroon ng pamilya…” he said, adding that having a family may take a priest’s focus away from his duty of watching over the Catholic faithful.

On the other hand, he admitted the Catholic Church in the Philippines also has a great need for priests—the national average ratio of priests to Catholics is reportedly 1 to 8,000—but that men who may have wanted to enter the clergy could have been dissuaded by allegations of sexual misconduct and corruption among Catholic priests.

President Rodrigo Duterte himself had called out the Church for its “sins,” basing his allegations on a book by late journalist Aries Rufo. —Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/ALG, GMA News