The priest of Cork calls for a reform of the Church to allow them to marry

A CORK priest urges the Pope to consider the issue of married priests and women when he will go to Ireland next month

P. Gerry O. Connor, a Redemptorist priest of Mahon who is a member of the Catholic Priesthood Association, held regional meetings across the four provinces of Ireland, asking people what they were up to. would like to discuss with the pope while he is on Irish soil.

He said that it was becoming very clear that to ensure the next generation of priests, changes must be made, including allowing priests to marry.

"It becomes very clear, there is no new generation of priests, there is only a net of vocations."

"This means that you just have many priests are tired, demoralized and know that there is no generation to come.

" Every priest in the land would be able to identify someone in the community who would make a high priest, but who is already married or who was previously a priest, but who left to get married and who could be happy to come back and d & # 39; to be a priest.

"We believe that there is a potential workforce of priests, but that the rules of the church prevent this from occurring."

Father O. Connor said that they were collecting all the comments that people would like to say to Pope Francis and they will issue a public statement and communicate directly through the Apostolic Nuncio to the Pope.

"People want the church to be more of a church that listens, people are very educated now and they would have something to offer.The leadership of the church.

" many calls for women to become priests, let the church be more welcoming to the LGBT community, all these things emerge. "

Father O. Connor said that he would like if the Pope considered the idea of ​​allowing priests to marry in a form likely to ensure the next generation. "I hope that our bishops very clearly say to Pope Francis that he There is a crisis in Ireland, that there is no next generation of priests There are many people who would make excellent priests and would be very happy to be priests, but current church laws prohibit this.

The Redemptorist priest said that he would be happy to remain single, but felt that the laws needed to be changed so that the Irish Catholic faith could continue.