Cardinal Walter Kasper said that Pope Francis wanted to “change” priestly celibacy, but Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah “successfully intervened” to stop it.
In an interview with the German Cicero magazine, Kasper addressed the possible “relaxation of celibacy and access to the priesthood,” stating that “My assessment is that Francis definitely wanted to change something, but Pope Emeritus Benedict successfully intervened at the time together with Cardinal Robert Sarah.”
Kasper was likely referring to the book defending priestly celibacy authored by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Cardinal Sarah and published in January 2020. The book is titled From the Depths of Our Hearts (De profoundeur de nos cœurs), and was published shortly after the heterodox Amazon Synod, where the idea of ordaining married men was pushed. This would break with centuries of tradition of mandatory celibacy for priests in the Latin Church, a practice that is based on the life of Jesus Christ Himself.
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