BERLIN – Several prominent Roman Catholic politicians have urged German bishops to lobby their countryman Pope Benedict for a change in Church policy to ordain married men in response to a worsening shortage of priests.
The group, including the speaker of parliament and a cabinet member, backed up its call by quoting a 1970 essay by the present pope where he predicts the Church “will know new forms of ministry and ordain upstanding (lay) Christians as priests.”
The German bishops estimate that two-thirds of all Catholic parishes in the country will not have their own priest by 2020. As in other countries, bishops have been merging parishes to have the dwindling clergy minister to ever larger areas.
Pope Benedict has firmly ruled out any reform of priestly celibacy, despite calls from some bishops to consider a change.
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