SPAIN
Gnomes
‘DOZENS’ of Catholic priests in Spain are married, but bishops turn a ‘blind eye’, according to the Church amid calls by women who have vicars as husbands to scrap the ‘celibacy rule’.
Although the Church will not revel the full figures, around 6,000 priests in Spain are married and, worldwide, some 100,000.
Bishops allegedly turn a blind eye to this in Spain provided the vicar in question does not appear in the media, does not attempt to ‘convert’ others to giving up celibacy and it does not compromise his faith.
The ‘celibacy law’ was passed in the year 1139, although it was rarely adhered to before the mid-16thcentury and even then amid great resistance, and was purely for financial reasons – unmarried priests with no children would leave all their worldly goods to the Church when they died.
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