Married clergy will be a temporary aberration within the Anglican Ordinariate, the Vatican’s Secretary of State declared, according to extracts published last week from his forthcoming book, “A Great Heart: Homage to John Paul II.”
Extracts published by the L’Osservatore Romano from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s book addressed a cross section of issues from the Ordinariate to Castro’s Cuba, according to a report the C of E Newspaper.
Cardinal Bertone reported the Cuban strongman Fidel Castro admired the late Pope John Paul II. Although the Cuban communist regime has persecuted Christians since taking power in 1959, “Fidel Castro showed a sincere affection for the pope,” Cardinal Bertone reported.
In preparation for the Pope’s 1998 visit to the island, the Cuban leader studied the pope’s writings and poetry, the cardinal said, adding, “John Paul II told me that perhaps no other head of state had prepared for his visit in such a precise manner.”
In the book, a compilation of interviews, Cardinal Bertone said there was a continuity of affection between John Paul II and Benedict XVI in “welcoming into the Catholic Church former married Anglican pastors, allowing them to live in matrimony.”
The Cardinal added this “welcome that still continues today and that the recent Apostolic Constitution extends to entire groups of people and parishes, albeit standing firm on the issue of celibacy for priests, asking that in the future married priests should not become the norm in these Orders.”