Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Pope Francis repeats support for celibacy after Benedict outburst

POPE  BENEDICT  AS CARDINAL RATZINGER OF GERMANY, HEAD OF THE INQUISITION,  COVERED  UP CHILD RAPE BY PRIESTS IN GERMANY LATER IN EUROPE IN GENERAL IN ORDER TO DEFEND THE BANKRUPT IDEOLOGY OF 
#CELIBACY THAT 'S WHAT ALL THE COVER UP IS ABOUT

Ella IDE, AFP•January 13, 2020


While Pope Francis supports celibacy in the priesthood, he has
 mooted the possible of being flexible in remote areas where
 there is 'a pastoral necessity' (AFP Photo/Handout)More

Rome (AFP) - Pope Francis on Monday repeated his support for celibacy after his predecessor pope Benedict XVI urged him not to open the Catholic priesthood up to married men, in a plea that stunned Vatican experts.

"The pope's position on celibacy is well known," the head of the Vatican's press centre, Matteo Bruni, told journalists at the Vatican on Monday, citing Francis on his return from a trip to Panama in January 2019.

"I remember something that Pope Paul VI said: 'I'd rather give my life than change the law on celibacy'," Bruni quoted the pope as having said.

The pope also said "Personally I think that celibacy is a gift to the Church. Secondly, I don't think optional celibacy should be allowed. No."

At the time, the pope nevertheless conceded "some possibilities for far flung places", such as Pacific islands or the Amazon where "there is a pastoral necessity".

The ex-pontiff Benedict, who retired in 2013, issued his defence of clerical celibacy in a book written with arch-conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah, extracts of which were published by France's Le Figaro.

"I cannot keep silent!" Benedict wrote in the book, which follows an extraordinary meeting of bishops from the Amazon at the Vatican last year that recommended the ordination of married men in certain circumstances.

The pope emeritus, 92, and Cardinal Sarah from Guinea weighed in on the controversial question of whether or not to allow "viri probati" -- married "men of proven virtue" -- to join the priesthood.

Francis is currently considering allowing it in remote locations, such as the Amazon, where communities seldom have Mass due to a lack of priests, and is expected to publish his decision in the coming weeks.

Benedict, who was the first pontiff to resign in almost 600 years, at first withdrew to a life of quiet contemplation in the Vatican, but has increasingly begun to speak out on key Catholic issues.

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Trial delayed for French priest accused of abusing 75 boys

NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY, Associated Press•January 13, 2020



France Predator Priest
Former French priest Bernard Preynat, center, arrives at the Lyon court house, central France, Monday Jan.13, 2020. Bernard Preynat, is accused of sexually abusing some 75 Boy Scouts went on trial Monday _ but the proceedings were delayed until Tuesday because of a strike by lawyers. Preynat admitted in the 1990s to abusing boys, but was only removed from the priesthood last year. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
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LYON, France (AP) — A former French priest accused of sexually abusing around 75 Boy Scouts went on trial Monday, but the proceedings were delayed for at least a day because of a strike by lawyers.

The case is France’s worst clergy abuse drama to reach court so far, and its repercussions reached all the way to the Vatican.

“I have heard the suffering of these people, which I'm guilty of causing. I hope that this trial can unfold as quickly as possible,” Bernard Preynat told the court after the judge announced the trial would be delayed until Tuesday.

Preynat admitted in the 1990s to abusing boys, but was only removed from the priesthood last year. The church defrocked him in July, after French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was convicted of covering up for Preynat’s actions.

Several other church officials were also accused of failing to alert police or prosecutors of his actions, including a senior Vatican official, Cardinal Luis Ladaria. The Vatican shielded Ladaria from trial, invoking his immunity as an official of a sovereign state.

Preynat, now 74, appeared in court Monday in Lyon on charges of sexual assault of 10 minors between 1986 and 1991. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He’s also accused of abusing dozens of others in the 1970s and 1980s, but those alleged incidents happened too long ago to prosecute.

The judge delayed the hearing because of a strike by lawyers angry over President Emmanuel Macron's planned overhaul of the French pension system.

Several of the victims' lawyers appeared in court despite the strike, and seemed confident that the trial would resume quickly. The French government is meeting legal sector representatives Monday for negotiations on the pension reform.

Preynat's trial comes amid new tensions in the Vatican, as retired Pope Benedict XVI insists in a new book on the “necessity" of priestly celibacy just as Pope Francis is weighing whether to ordain married men to address the Catholic priest shortage.
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Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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