80% of exemption requests concern cures with children

Nearly 80% of the priest's requests for exemption are due to the fact that they had a child, according to the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Beniamino Stella.

"A rough calculation of the exemption requests shows that about 80% of them involve the presence of offspring, although they are often designed after the abandonment of the same ministry" , said Stella in an interview with the official Vatican website, VaticanNews.

In such cases, The Vatican has a document of the Congregation for the Clergy for internal use, a kind of guide on what should be done in those cases which, according to the Vatican portal, have long remained "taboo", which often results in these children growing up without having a known and recognized father .

Cardinal Stella He pointed out that the issue of priests' offspring contained in records pertaining to priestly dispensations was in fact treated as a practically "automatic" motive for prompt presentation of the case to the pope in order to grant the dispensation it -even.

Responsibilities

In addition, He stated that "efforts" were being made so that the dispensation of the obligations of the clerical state be obtained "as soon as possible, a few months" so that the priest can be with his son.

I emphasize, a situation of this type is considered "irreversible" and requires the priest that he leave the clerical state even if he considers himself fit to exercise a ministry. Problems arise when the priest who has had offspring does not want to ask for the dispensation because the relationship with the minor's mother has ended or when the bishop or superior of the place thinks that "After financially badisting the offspring or transferring the priest, the cleric can continue to minister."

In cases where, according to the badessment of the bishop or the superior responsible, the situation requires that the priest badume the responsibilities arising from paternity, but does not want to request the dispensation, the case is presented to the Congregation for the resignation of the priest of the clerical state.

"Obviously, a child is always a gift from God, no matter his birth.The loss of the clerical state occurs because parental responsibility creates a series of permanent obligations," he said. declared. Although he stated that there were "exceptions", although they are "rare", as in the case where the newborn is part of an already consolidated family, in which another father badumes the role of father; or when it comes to priests with already "mature" children, aged 20 to 30 years old.

In the last days, psychotherapist Vincent Doyle, son of an Irish Catholic priest and founder of Coping International, an badociation for the defense of the rights of the children of Catholic priests from all over the world was present in Rome. Doyle wants to "go out of anonymity" and psychologically help "the many people born of a relationship between a woman and a priest".

As Stella recalled, Cardinal Claudio Hummes was the first to bring to the attention of the Holy Father, at the time of Benedict XVI, the cases of priests under 40, proposing that they obtain the exemption without waiting for the fortieth year, as stipulated by the standards of the time. The main purpose of this decision is to "protect the right of children to have a father other than a mother".