Priest celibacy in Spain

This week the news that 41% Brazilian Catholic priests admit to having had a sexual relationship has led to various articles being published to discuss once again the theme of celibacy in the Catholic Church. This El Mundo article discusses the case of Eastern European priests in Spain, sent by their national Catholic Churches (in Ukrania and Rumania in the case of the two priests interviewed in the article) to serve the growing community of Eastern European catholic immigrants. Both priests interviewed in the article are married and have children. According to the author of the article, the Spanish Catholic Church is trying to hush-up the presence of married Catholic priests in Spain in order to avoid opening up once again a debate which Spanish Catholic Church leaders consider to be closed. Spanish priests are expected to lead a celibate life and are certainly not allowed to contemplate marriage.

Euroresidentes has opened a debate on this issue here, and visitors are encouraged to express their opinion. When we receive enough opinions, we will publish a new page with the results. Many of othe users of our Spanish sections visit us from Catholic-prone Latin American countries, so it will be interesting to see what they think.