Maronite Cardinal Warns Against Abolishing Celibacy

As Francis's 'magisterial' Amazon Synod ramps up to impose married Priests on the Latin Rite, here's a comment from an Easterner. And, yes, I know that Maronites are not Greek Catholics.

From The Eponymous Flower 

Edit: this Cardinal expressed these views in 2012. His comments only appeared on kreuz.net back before it got shut down by the secret police for criticizing sodomites and saying that a celebrated German comedian, a kind of Benny Hill, was boiling in rotten sewage for eternity. As far as we know, the webmaster, whose identity was discovered a few years ago after a nationwide manhunt, is still at liberty, but we haven’t heard.

Philippe Cardinal Barbarin

Of all things the Greek-Catholic Bishops, whose clergy is married,  have warned against abolishing celibacy.

(kreuz.net) On the 27th of Septemer Philippe Cardinal Barbarin of Lyon at the French magazine 'Paris Match' commented on the slow burning media issue of "celibacy".

"Don't squander this treasure"

The Cardinal recalled that Pope Benedict XVI had addressed this already in the first Bishops' Synod.

It was then that the former Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Cardinal Sfeir (92) spoke especially caustically about the abolishing of celibacy.

"Even with us, the Maronites, priests may marry"  -- explained the Cardinal:  "During the war in Lebanon, all of the married priests left with their wives and children."

No one blamed them for that: "Actually, the only ones remaining behind, were those who were married to their communities."

He continued: "Don't squander this gift".

"What do you want me to tell you?"

'Paris Match'  grasped desperately in the air, suggesting that supposedly twenty percent of the clergy live with a woman.

"A High statistic" -- cried Cardinal Barbarin:  "That is, as we would say, that thirty percent of husbands   betray their wives."

"What do you want me to tell you?" -- was the Cardinal's pugnacious reaction.

It would be natural to desire that people who are married are faithful:  "Even the Republic wants that."

Cardinal Barbarin recalled then that even civil servants officiating civil marriages in the mayor's office use the words "respect" and "faithfulness".

AMDG