LONDON — Archbishop Keith O’Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh (Scotland), named Sept. 28 by Pope John Paul II to be a cardinal, has called for a “full and open discussion” within the church of issues such as contraception and celibacy.
O’Brien, in an interview with The Herald, the Glasgow daily paper, said there is “a clear distinction between things that confront us in the church at the present time which we can say are God’s law, like murder, abortion. We can’t compromise on matters like that. “Other matters of church law, and celibacy by priests is one of those sorts of things, can be discussed.
In other branches of the Catholic Church throughout the world (e.g., the Eastern churches in communion with Rome) there are married priests, and in England there are a number of converts from Anglicanism who are married and who became Roman Catholic priests.
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