Celibacy, Priest-Sharing Program, Scandals, Return of Former Priests

Crescenzio Cardinal Sepe

Function: Archbishop of Napoli, Italy

Title: Cardinal Deacon of Dio Padre misericordioso

Birthdate: Jun 02, 1943	Country: Italy

Elevated: Feb 21, 2001	More information: www.catholic-hierarchy.org

Send a text about this cardinal »

View all articles about this cardinal »

Celibacy, Priest-Sharing Program, Scandals, Return of Former Priests
Sept 15, 2004

(CNS) In 1992, Fr. Crescenzio Sepe was named secretary of the Congregation for Clergy and was made an archbishop. While at the congregation, Cardinal Sepe made frequent appearances before the press, commenting on a wide range of church issues:

In 1997 he said a relaxing of the celibacy rule for Latin-rite priests would not ease the vocations crisis and would have no theological or pastoral foundation.

In 1995 he helped implement a priest-sharing program among dioceses worldwide to help redress the geographical imbalance in vocations.

He criticized the media in 1995 for focusing too much on scandals involving priests and ignoring much of the good work done by the vast majority of clergy.

He said in 1995 that the Vatican was facilitating the return of hundreds of priests who had left the active ministry and married in civil ceremonies, but who were now divorced or widowed and were “sincerely sorry” for having strayed from their vocation.

22 READERS ONLINE

INDEX

back to the first page

printer-friendly

CARDINALS

in alphabetical order

ARTICLES