Cardinal Kasper says Pope Benedict, Cardinal Sarah blocked change on celibacy

May 22, 2025

Cardinal Walter Kasper has suggested that Pope Francis was prepared to ease the discipline of priestly celibacy, but decided against the move after a book published by Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah rallied opposition to the change.

"My assessment is that Francis wanted to change something, but the Emeritus Pope Benedict successfully intervened with Cardinal Robert Sarah at the time," said the German cardinal, In an interview with Cicero magazine.

Cardinal Kasper was referring to the publication of From the Depths of Our Hearts, a book containing essays by Cardinal Sarah and the late Pope Benedict, strongly defending clerical celibacy. The book was published in January 2020, as the Catholic world awaited the release of an apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis summarizing the work of the Amazon Synod. The Synod had proposed the ordination of married men as priests, arguing that the change was necessary to ensure that priests were available to serve remote areas.

The book’s publication caused an uproar at the Vatican. Within the next year, Pope Francis had replaced Cardinal Sarah as prefect of what was then the Congregation for Divine Worship, and dismissed Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the personal secretary to Pope-emeritus Benedict, from his regular duties as prefect of the pontifical household.

In the same Cicero interview, Cardinal Kasper—an influential theologian, and former president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity—said that the role of women is now a “mega-theme” for discussion in the Church. He also renewed his criticism of the “Synodal Path” championed by the German bishops’ conference, saying that it “is not a synod, not a common interaction.”

 

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Further information:

• Frauenfrage "ein Megathema" (DOM Radio)