THE POPE said yesterday that there would be no change to the rule of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests, after summoning advisers to the Vatican to consider the actions of a rebel excommunicated archbishop.

After Pope Benedict XVI met prelates for a three-hour “reflection” on the issue, the Vatican said: “The value of the choice of priestly celibacy, according to Catholic tradition, has been reaffirmed.”

No change on the celibacy rule was expected from the meeting, prompted by the latest “disobedience” of the Archbishop of Zambia, Emmanuel Milingo, who was automatically excommunicated in September when he ordained four married American men as bishops.

In 2001 he took a South Korean woman as his wife in a Unification Church wedding.

Next month up to 1,000 married Catholic priests from his new movement, Married Priests Now, will meet in New York City to continue their campaign for change.

The Vatican said: “The participants at the reunion were carefully briefed on the requests to receive dispensation from the obligation of celibacy that have been made in recent years and on the possibility of being readmitted to the exercise of the ministry of priests who now meet the conditions required by the church.”

The Vatican’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that these conditions could include the situation of a widowed married priest who wanted to be readmitted.

The meeting’s conclusions “were not a change in how the present rules are applied,” Father Lombardi said. The summit yielded “no change” in the current discipline of the Church. There are estimated to be at least 100,000 married priests worldwide, with about 25,000 in the United States.

Father Lombardi said the individual requests that were covered in Thursday’s summit are now likely to be examined by the relevant Vatican offices.

The debate came on the eve of a visit to Rome by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who admitted yesterday that the only reason he did not become a Roman Catholic is because he does not believe the Pope is infallible.

In an interview with The Church Times, Dr Williams said: “I have visions of saying to Pope Benedict, ‘I don’t believe you’re infallible’. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

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