Earlier this year, In a rare public intervention, the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI  issued a stout defence of priestly celibacy – just as Pope Francis was considering lifting the restriction on married priests in some circumstances, in particular, the ordination of married men in the Amazon region, where there is a severe shortage.

Francis, who has previously suggested he is open to such exceptions, is due to announce a decision in the coming months. But a new book has a chapter by Benedict defending priestly celibacy, which warns Catholics not to listen to the “special pleading, the theatrics, the diabolical lies, the fashionable errors that would devalue it”. Later, Benedict’s co-authorship credit was removed from the cover of the book, amid a furious row over whether or not the 92-year-old was manipulated into taking a public stance.  (Vatican City, January 2029, a carried in The Week, 18 January 2020)

My take:  Friendly message to the ex- Pope:

You’ve had your day, your opportunity.  You resigned voluntarily, leaving a celibate clergy mired in sexual scandal.

For what it’s worth (from a supporter of Epicurus, whose take on life and death is so very different to yours, and, I think more humane):  Benedict, go home and stop interfering.  You are doing the Catholic Church more harm than good.  

P.S: message from an historian:  the policy of celibacy had nothing to do with Jesus, or the Bible.  The church was concerned about having to look after numerous widows and their offspring in an age of short male lifespans.  Moreover, Italian law said that the property of married priests was heritable by wives and offspring, depriving the church of land, and therefore power.  No wives or kids was the answer to an institution coining it nicely, in the Middle Ages, anyway.