Mary McAleese, the former president of the Republic of Ireland, has backed calls for the Catholic Church to end priestly celibacy. Similar comments were recently made by an archbishop close to Pope Francis.
McAleese, currently chancellor of Trinity University, spoke to The Irish News after Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, who also serves as an adjunct secretary of the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, called for allowing married priests.
“I am delighted [Scicluna] came out and said it because he is regarded very, very highly by pretty much everybody in the Church,” McAleese told the Irish newspaper.
She noted that Scicluna was tasked in 2018 with investigating allegations of a sexual abuse cover-up in Chile.
“It established his credentials and integrity,” McAleese said. “When he speaks, people listen.”
She also noted that Pope Francis has agreed there is no formal Church doctrine on celibacy and marriage, and that he discussed how a future pontiff may change the rules, though he has decided not to do so.
McAleese told the newspaper she believes the most “interesting possibilities” for the next pope are from what she called the “excellent leadership” in Belgium and Germany.
McAleese served as president of Ireland – a largely ceremonial position – from 1997-2011. She has clashed with Church leaders in the past and was barred from attending a conference taking place at the Vatican in 2018.
A longtime critic of the Church’s position on human sexuality, the former president, who has long described herself as pro-life, admitted she voted to change Ireland’s constitutional prohibition on abortion in a 2018 referendum.
Speaking about the opposition to married priests in the global south, she compared the situation to Ireland 100 years ago, where she claimed young men, often surrounded by poverty, saw the Church as a route to education, a job, status and influence.
“And we know where that ends up,” McAleese said.
She also claimed that if the status quo on celibate priests is maintained, the Catholic Church will be “looking at the western world in 30 years where there will not be any priests” (though evidence in the US suggests it might not be that straightforward or preordained).