VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI has made it easier to dismiss Catholic priests who abandon their ministry, live with women, or cause scandal in other ways.
Under the new rules, which Benedict approved in January, dismissed priests can receive permission to marry even if they do not ask for it, Catholic News Service reported.
Before the change, church law did not adequately provide for the treatment of priests who had effectively left their ministry and married without bothering to request “laicization,” Cardinal Claudio Hummes, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, told CNS on Wednesday (June 3).
“If the one who left is not interested (in regularizing his situation), the good of the church and the good of the priest who left is that he be dispensed so that he would be in a correct situation, especially if he has children,” Hummes said.
The new rules also provide for the laicization of those who have abandoned their ministry for a “period of more than five consecutive years” or who have shown a “grave lack of discipline,” for example by pursuing a sexual relationship with a woman.
The procedures do not deal with priests guilty of sex abuse of children; such cases fall under the jurisdiction of another Vatican body, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican tightened standards for voluntary laicizations, and in recent years has reportedly denied numerous requests for dispensation from priestly obligations.