VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI yesterday strongly defended celibacy for priests as a sign of faith in an increasingly secular world, insisting on a church tradition that has increasingly come under scrutiny amid the clerical sex-abuse scandal.
Benedict didn’t directly mention the crisis that has rocked the Catholic Church for months in his comments to some 15,000 priests who gathered in St Peter’s Square. But in an apparent reference to the crisis, he spoke about “secondary scandals” that showed “our own insufficiencies and sins”.
The Pope’s comments came during an evening vigil service to mark the end of the Vatican’s year of the priest – a year that has been marred by revelations of hundreds of new cases of clerical abuse, cover-up and Vatican inaction to dig out paedophile priests.
Speculation had grown that he would again refer to the scandal during the priestly gathering, after his recent comments en route to Portugal during which he acknowledged that it was born of the “sin within the church” and not from outside elements.
Previously, Vatican officials, Vatican publications and cardinals had blamed the scandal on the media, the Masons and anti-Catholic lobbies, among others.
Benedict responded to preselected questions from five priests and none asked for his thoughts about the scandal. One asked him to speak instead about what he called the “beauty of celibacy”, which he said was so often criticised in the secular world.
The Pope acknowledged that celibacy was “a great scandal” in a world where people have no need for God. But he called it “a great sign of faith, of the presence of God in the world”.
Against the so-called scandal of such faith “there are also secondary scandals, that of our own insufficiencies and sins that hide the true scandal”, he said.
The Vatican has long denied that its celibacy requirement was the main cause of priests who rape and sodomise children. But some top prelates have called for an honest examination of it.
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