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Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn has said that priestly celibacy should be considered in studying the causes of the sex abuse scandal sweeping the Church although he later insisted that he was not questioning the tradition of clerical celibacy.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, wrote in his archdiocese’s magazine this week that the Church must make an “unflinching examination” of the causes of the scandal, the Times Online reports.
He said that these included “the issue of priests’ training, as well as the question of what happened in the so-called sexual revolution of the generation of 1968″.
He added: “It also includes the question of priest celibacy and the question of personality development. It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of the Church and of society as a whole.”
His remarks came days after Father Hans Kung, the dissident Catholic theologian, blamed the Church’s “uptight” views on sex for child abuse scandals in Germany, Ireland and the US.
The cardinal’s spokesman, Erich Leitenberger, later issued a “clarification” claiming that the cardinal was not “in any way seeking to question the Catholic Church’s celibacy rule” after headlines in the German and Italian press such as “Schönborn says priestly abuse is the fault of celibacy” and “Celibacy must be reconsidered, Schönborn says”.
The cardinal’s office said that he had been misinterpreted. Some observers said that he had been obliged to issue his “clarification” under pressure from the Vatican.
SOURCE
Cardinal Schönborn says celibacy partly to blame for clerical sex abuse (Times Online)
LINK AND PHOTO
Christoph Schonborn (Wikipedia)
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