Maintaining celibacy for Roman Catholic priests has been a part of the Church doctrine for centuries. According to religious leaders, the celibacy requirement underscores the commitment of priests to their vocation and is a model that was practiced by Jesus Christ.
However, with the recent election of Pope Francis, Catholic believers are questioning whether the church would reconsider this rule.
In an interview last year, Pope Francis suggested that the celibacy requirement for priests "can change" adding that he, too, was tempted by a woman as a young seminarian.
Then the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, the new pope recalled his experience with the women that made his question entering the priesthood.
"I was dazzled by a girl I met at an uncle's wedding," he said, according to Aleteia. "I was surprised by her beauty, her intellectual brilliance ... and, well, I was bowled over for quite a while.
"I kept thinking and thinking about her. When I returned to the seminary after the wedding, I could not pray for over a week because when I tried to do so, the girl appeared in my head. I had to rethink what I was doing," said Pope Francis,formerly known as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.
He continued explaining that he was forced to choose between the woman or the priesthood, adding that he can related to other seminarians who face this dilemma.
"When something like this happens to a seminarian, I help him go in peace to be a good Christian and not a bad priest," Bergoglio said.
He said that the married clergy of the Eastern churches are "very good priests" and those pushing for the same in Roman Catholicism do so "with a certain pragmatism."
For now, he says, "the discipline of celibacy stands firm," and priests should quit if they can't abstain from sex or if they get a woman pregnant.
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