Prominent cardinal shocks by saying priests should be allowed to marry

Asking people to spend a lifetime abstaining from intimacy is nearly impossible — something at least one prominent member of the Catholic church is willing to admit. Breaking with church doctrine, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Britain’s top Catholic clergyman, said that priests should be allowed to marry. O’Brien said it was clear that asking priests to remain celibate was difficult for many of them, and those who wished to marry should be allowed. We assume, since O’Brien is staunchly opposed to same-sex marriage, he means heterosexual marriages. O’Brien said the next pope should reconsider the church’s stance on issues that were not of divine origin, such as “the celibacy of the clergy.” [Source]

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