When asked if he felt women could ever be admitted to the clergy, his answer has always been no, but Pope Francis now looks to be considering another way to solve his shepherd shortage.
To combat the Roman Catholic Church's shortage of clergy, Pope Francis
has revealed that he would be open to letting married Catholic men becoming priests.
The Catholic Church already allows some married men to be ordained - Protestant priests who are married before converting to Catholicism can continue to be married and be a Roman Catholic priest – provided they have their wives' permission.
As well as this, Eastern Catholic churches that are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church can also maintain their tradition of married priests.
However, in an interview with German newspaper
Die Zeit, the 80-year-old revealed that the lack of Catholic priests was an "enormous problem" for the Church, and hinted he would be open to a change in the rules that state who can currently be eligibility for the priesthood.
"We need to consider if 'viri probati' could be a possibility," Pope Francis explained. "If so, we would need to determine what duties they could undertake, for example, in remote communities."
(Viri probati is the Latin term for "tested men" or "married men of outstanding faith and virtue.")
It is important to note that this option would apparently only be open to men who are already married, and that single men who are already priests would still not be allowed to marry.
The reason being that the Roman Catholic Church believes priests should not marry based on certain passages in the Bible, and because it also believes that the priest acts in the person of Christ and should therefore stay celibate.
