A priest cannot expect to fill his feeling of loneliness with another person, said Cardinal Víctor Fernández at the presentation of a Vatican paper on monogamy in the Vatican on Tuesday. This also leads to abuse.
"I have to solve my feeling of emptiness, loneliness and psychological problems in other ways," said the Argentinian curial cardinal. Celibates must look for other ways, not another person who can satisfy these needs.
The question of a link between compulsory celibacy and abuse in the Catholic Church is controversial. Some experts see celibacy as a risk factor, while others do not consider a connection to be proven. Fernández heads the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican institution responsible for investigating cases of abuse and punishing perpetrators from the clergy.
Same-sex partners and monogamy
Fernández made his comments in connection with the absence of same-sex partnerships in the latest monogamy paper from the dicastery. The magisterial note calls on partners in a Catholic marriage to be monogamous. Because the topic under discussion is a marriage according to the Catholic view, the document only discusses a partnership between a woman and a man, Fernández said.
However, this does not mean that there are no values in other contexts and that the content of the document cannot also apply to other forms of relationships, said the cardinal.
Virtues such as patience or respect also apply to a relationship between friends and in other forms of relationships. What is said about the respect of men towards women also applies to the unmarried.