Catholic World News

German bishop admits to civil marriage

October 20, 2025

» Continue to this story on Catholic Herald

CWN Editor's Note: A German bishop has acknowledged that his resignation in 2004 was caused not by health concerns, as originally reporter, but by the fact that he had taken a wife in a civil marriage.

Bishop Reinhold Nann had been leading the territorial prelature of Caraveli, Peru, when he formed a relationship with a Peruvian woman, with whom he is still living. He said that in his service to the Church, “I saw too much, and it horrified and depressed me.” He planned to leave his ministry, but contracted a civil marriage before seeking laicization.

Bishop Nann said that the Church’s “desperate clinging” to the discipline of clerical celibacy does “far more harm than good.”

The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.

 


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