The most senior Roman Catholic clergyman in Britain has urged the next Pope to allow priests to marry.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Church in Scotland, insisted that the centuries-old ban on a priests marrying was “obviously not” the teaching of Christ.
He said the insistence on celibacy had left many priests struggling to “cope” in their ministry without the support of marriage.
The Cardinal, the only mainland British cleric with a vote on Benedict XVI’s successor, said it would also be open to the new Pope to reconsider issues such as the ordination of women as priests.
Pope Benedict, who steps down next week, has repeatedly resisted suggestions that priests should be allowed to marry and publicly criticised Austrian clerics who questioned Church teaching on the issue.
Although unafraid of controversy, Cardinal O’Brien is viewed as an unlikely radical.
He was perhaps the most outspoken of all church leaders in his criticisms of gay marriage, which he condemned as a “grotesque subversion”.
His comments on celrical celibacy took fellow bishops by surprise but were hailed as a brave intervention by some.
They come as a debate over the future of the 1.2 billion-strong Catholic church begins in earnest in the days leading up to the Conclave to elect the next Pope.
Although himself considered an outside choice for the role, Cardinal O’Brien’s remarks attracted attention among Vatican watchers.
It came as the Vatican attempted to dampen down claims that the Pope’s decision to resign could be linked to an explosive secret report on the Vatileaks scandal said to contain allegations of blackmail attempts against gay clergy.
Officials were also forced onto the defensive over the surprise announcement that Monsignor Ettore Balestrero, a senior Vatican foreign affairs official, was being dispatched to Colombia as Papal Nuncio, dismissing suggestions it could be linked to the scandal.
Cardinal O’Brien, the Archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews, had been planning to retire as he approaches his 75th birthday and said he had been left in shock by the Pope’s decision to step down.
But next month he will be among 116 Cardinals taking part in the Conclave to choose the new Pope, something he said was a huge responsibility.
He is the only mainland British church leader with a vote. The former leader of the Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor does not have a vote after he turned 80 last year.
Speaking to BBC Scotland, Cardinal O’Brien said it would be “within the scope” of the new Pope to reconsider a range of controversial teachings.
Some of them were issues which had “come down from the teaching of Jesus Christ himself”, he said, but not all.
“For example the celibacy of the clergy – whether priests should marry, Jesus didn't say that,” he said.
“There was a time when priests got married, and of course we know at the present time in some branches of the church – in some branches of the Catholic church – priests can get married, so that is obviously not of divine of origin and it could get discussed again.”
He said he did not personally feel the need to marry but added: “I would like others to have the choice.
“In my time there was no choice and you didn't really consider it too much, it was part of being a priest.
"When I was a young boy, the priest didn't get married and that was it and when you were a student for the priesthood it was really part of the package, as it were, and you didn’t really consider it all that much you just took your vows of celibacy just as somebody else would take their vows of marriage."
He added: “I would be very happy if others had the opportunity of considering whether or not they could or should be married.
"It is a free world and I realise that many priests have found it very difficult to cope with celibacy as they lived out their priesthood and felt the need of a companion, of a woman, to whom they could get married and raise a family of their own.”
The Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Philip Egan said celibacy was a “debatable” subject and that many in the Church would welcome the Cardinal’s intervention.
But he said celibacy was a principle worth preserving.
"There are times, particularly now when I see my brothers’ children growing up and I think it would be wonderful to be part of a family but I could not do the things that I do as a priest, let alone as a bishop, if I was married," he said.
“You wouldn’t have the time or the energy."
He said the arrival of married former Anglican priests into the Roman Catholic church had posed practical and logistical problems and alowing priests to marry coudl also pose a financial challenge.
“It could be changed or there could be more exceptions made, and maybe that is the way to go, but I’m not convinced we should let go of the tradition of celibacy," he said.
“It is such a beautiful gift to the Lord and when it works it is a wonderful thing.”
Although there are references to priestly celibacy as far back as the Council of Nicea in 325, it did not become a requirement in the western Church until the 12th century.
But former Anglican priests who converted to Catholicism have been allowed to be ordained as priests while married.
And the Eastern Rite strand of the Catholic Church also allows married men to become priests.
Cardinal O'Brien also said his fellow Cardinals should give serious thought to electing a Pope from the developing world to bring a new dynamism to the Church at a time when Europe was facing growing “godlessness”.
“The Christian faith in general isn’t as vibrant as it once was in our countries in Europe and we are not leading the way,” he said.