The celibacy of Catholic priests is debated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A document from the CENCO Episcopal Conference has leaked to the press. Signed by all the bishops of the country, it calls on Congolese priests who have had a child to renounce their religious functions.
CENCO demands priestly chastity from its priests. In the 19-page document entitled “At the school of Jesus Christ. For an authentic priestly life”, the Congolese bishops speak of a ” incompatibility between being a father and the priesthood. Therefore, any clergyman with a child is required to ” request a dispensation from his obligations to the pope “.
CENCO goes further. If the religious refuses, the bishop will be able to present the file to the Vatican and ask for the maximum penalty, that is to say his outright dismissal from the Church.
The phenomenon is not new, even if the Congolese Catholic authorities generally remain silent on this kind of affair. Some wonder if these new CENCO directives had not already begun to be applied. Indeed, in recent times, several cases of priests dismissed from their functions have come to light. A few days ago, three leaders of the diocese of Tshumbe, in the center of the country, had been excluded by decision of the Vatican. A firm decision since one of the three priests had declared that he had never been tried or heard.
Part of the CENCO document also concerns the children of these Catholic priests as well as their mothers. The episcopal conference says it wants ” break the silence in relation to their situation, recalling that they were generally ” stigmatized by society “. ” We have a moral obligation to recognize that these people exist and suffer in silence. “, estimates the CENCO.
We see that there is this desire to rehabilitate children who are born of a union between priests and women, who are stigmatized. In Congolese society, they are considered children who are born of sin…
Lucie Sarr, coordinator of La Croix Africa, the religious information site of the newspaper La Croix based in Africa