THE Vatican denied that its celibacy requirement for priests was the root cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal convulsing the church in Europe and again defended the popes handling of the crisis.

According to a news report, German newspapers had in recent times blamed the Vatican’s celibacy rule for fueling abuse. Italian commentators had questioned the rule and blamed the rule for the deviant behavior of a few Catholic priests.

The furor in the public media was triggered after Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, considered to be one of the closest advisors of the pope, recently called for an ‘honest examination’ of issues like celibacy and priestly education to root out the origins of abusive priests.

Writing in his diocesan newsletter, he had said part of it is the question of celibacy, as well as the subject of character development. And part of it is a large portion of honesty, in the church but also in society.

Though his office stressed that Schoenborn wasn’t calling into question priestly celibacy, which just this week Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed for priests as an expression of the gift of oneself to God and others, the damage was already done with newspapers going hammer and tongs against the rule.

However, Schoenborn has in the past shown himself receptive to arguments that a celibate priesthood is increasingly problematic for the church, primarily because it limits the number of men who seek ordination.

Last June, Schoenborn personally presented the Vatican with a lay initiative signed by prominent Australian Catholics calling for the celibacy rule to be abolished and for married men to be allowed to become priests.