The Vatican has released the ‘secret’ guidelines by which it deals with clerics who father children, and in which the expulsion from the priesthood is not automatic.
A Kenyan man believes he’s the son of Mario Lacchin, an 83-year-old Italian priest of the Consolata Missionaries.
An Irish son of a priest is calling on Pope Francis to let religious who father children remain in the ministry.
For many, it is no secret that the practice of celibacy lies at the root of clerical sexual crimes. However, few have come to realise that neither the early Fathers nor the later Church hierarchy invented the practice.
The French Episcopal Conference has decided to “open its archives and help children of priests know more about their fathers”, says Anne-Marie Mariani, founder of the association Enfants du Silence.