In 1970, Joseph Ratzinger signed note on celibacy review

Forty years ago, Pope Benedict signed a joint statement suggesting that the church consider modifying the laws on celibacy, reports the Irish Times.

In 1970, Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) and eight other leading theologians signed a memorandum proposing that, to address the shortage of priests, the Catholic Church "quite simply has a responsibility to take up certain modifications" on celibacy.

The document was revealed in the magazine Pipeline, which is critical of the Church. 

Extracts were reprinted by Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Other signatories include Walter Kasper and Karl Lehmann, now senior German cardinals, then acting in a consulting capacity to a commission for questions of faith and morals in the German Bishops' Conference.

The memorandum states "all its authors" are of the opinion the celibacy rule requires "examination at the highest levels" in the church.

"Our considerations regard the necessity of a serious investigation and a differentiated inspection of the law of celibacy of the Latin church for Germany and the whole of the universal church," it says.

While celibacy was at the core of the priesthood, the document warned that if the church did not investigate the celibacy issue it would "create the impression that it did not believe in the strength of the Gospel recommendation of a celibate life for the sake of heaven, but rather only in the power of a formal authority".

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