Vatican open to discussion about priest celibacy rule

The Vatican is ready to open a discussion about whether Catholic priests should be required to remain celibate,the Vatican's newly appointedsecretary of statesaid in an interview with a Venezuelan newspaper.

"Celibacy is not an institution but look, it is also true that you can discuss [it] because as you say this is not a dogma, a dogma of the church," Archbishop Pietro Parolin said duringan interview withEl Universal.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the ancient policy mandating celibacy isa firmly established tradition in the Catholic Church.

"The efforts that the church made to keep ecclesiastical celibacy, to impose ecclesiastical celibacy, have to be taken into consideration," Parolin said. "One cannot say simply that this belongs in the past."

For many centuries, Catholic priests have faced the requirement to be celibate a policy that some have blamed for contributing to the major decline in the number of young men entering the priesthood.

Until Archbishop Parolin's comments, any discussion about changing the priest celibacy rule was largely considered to be out-of-bounds. Assecretary of state, he is considered the top aide to Pope Francis.

Parolin's remarks could be seen as a further signthat Pope Francis is open to the idea of reforming some of the Catholic Church'smost entrenched policies.