Survey finds support for gay clerics and wedded priests
-11/04/05
More than 40 per cent of Scottish Catholic priests believe the Church should relax its rules on celibacy and allow them to marry, a new poll claims.
The news comes as cardinals prepare to elect a new pope in a weekís time.
Pope John Paul II continued the churches’ opposed to married priests, but the findings of the new survey hint at the pressure his successor could face to alter the Vaticanís stand.
In a poll of 80 priests, 41 per cent said the next pope should allow priests to wed, while 26 per cent supported the ordination of openly gay men.
However, Father Aldo Angelosanto, the chairman of the National Conference of Priests and Deacons in Scotland, said: “I think you will find there is a silent majority in the Church that respects celibacy and wouldnít see that loosening of celibacy will solve the Churchís problems.”
Nearly a quarter of the priests said the Church should ease its ban on contraception, and one in five backed the ordination of women. None, however, wanted any change in the opposition to abortion.
A catholic organisation has also established an “open conclave” in cyberspace so that the entire community of faith can make its make views known about who should be the next pope.
‘Women-Church Convergence’ envisions a church that ‘treats women as partners and equals in all areas of church life’.