Archbishop Eamon has ‘no objection’ to married priests

‘Celibacy is a huge gift to the Church’

Archbishop Eamon Martin has said he has “no objection” to the idea of priests being allowed to marry. “I personally have no objection to the idea that the Church may at some point decide to make it an option for priests to get married,” the Archbishop of Armagh said in an interview with Hot Press magazine.

“At the moment, that is not the position of the Church and I’m happy to support that. I think there are great graces within celibacy and it’s a huge gift to the Church for a young man to give his life totally to the Church.

“For me, I would like to think that celibacy would remain in the life of the Church. It’s really a question for the future. Certainly at the moment that is the discipline of the Church and I am happy to support it,” he said.

Archbishop Eamon also warned that he did not think allowing priests to marry should be a “quick fix” solution to the vocations crisis. 

Traditions

“If I look to some of our reformed traditions, who do have clergy able to marry, they’re also struggling for vocations.

“If, for example, celibacy at some point in the Church were to become optional, I would hate to think that it was as some quick fix to the vocation crisis. I don’t think that’s what it would be about,” the primate said.

Elsewhere in the interview, the archbishop revealed he’d dated a number of girlfriends before joining the seminary and thought he was in love a few times.

Even since becoming a priest, the archbishop said he has “met many women to whom I’m fairly sure I would be attracted and in another life might have considered, ‘Would I like to be married to this person? Have children with this person?’”

“But I’ve made a commitment that I have to try to be faithful to – and in that sense I’m no different to my friends from school who got married and struggle with fidelity and being committed for life. In my case, it’s a commitment to priesthood,” he said.