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Britain's most senior Catholic has suggested Catholic priests should be able to marry and have children, saying the demand for celibacy was not of "divine origin".
The cardinal suggested that the next pope could review the marriage ban for priests. Marriage is allowed in some cases within the church already. The English Catholic church has accepted married former Anglican priests, under a policy introduced in 2011 by the present pope, Benedict XVI.
O'Brien, who has been the focus of bitter controversy over his staunch opposition to gay marriage and gay adoption, will be the only Catholic from the UK involved in the conclave in the Vatican next month to choose Benedict's successor.
Originally posted by angelchemuel
Don't you often find that accusers often do what they accuse others of doing? Just saying.
So 'just to play devils advocate' here, what if Keith O'Brien with his recent outspoken views about priests being allowed to marry was seen as a troublemaker, so what better way of getting rid f him but to accuse him of what the Roman Catholic Church has been accused of.
I will be interested to see the outcome of this....maybe he's being very clever...bit like a back bench MP where he can speak his mind. Maybe the ex-cardinal will be the very change catholicism needs?
Rainbows
Jane
Originally posted by Ramcheck
I am no great fan of the Catholic church and I was raised as Roman Catholic which unfortunately set me back a few years in my quest for actual knowledge, I digress - If this guy has had a fling with a young (but legal) priest or whatever, does it really matter? Does it matter to us? To anyone outside of the Vatican? I understand if it's in his contract or if it is stated in his employers rulebook that he is never, ever to have intimate relations with another human, then fair enough, his resignation is due, he broke the rules. But, Isn't that rather draconian?
(OP Post)
Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, is stepping down as the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
It follows allegations - which he contests - of inappropriate behaviour towards priests dating from the 1980s.