http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02020mp
Earlier this month, 26 women wrote to Pope Francis, asking him to make priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church optional. When the Pope was asked about the issue earlier this week, he said that while he sees celibacy as “a gift to the church”, he feels that “the door is always open” to change. According to Advent, the support group for men and women and their partners who have left the active ministry, in the last 50 years some 10,000 men in England and Wales have left the priesthood in order to marry. So could celibacy ever be optional in the Catholic Church? Jenni is joined by Alex Walker, who left the priesthood to marry 25 years ago and now runs Advent, and Madeleine Teahan, Associate Editor of the Catholic Herald.