.jpg)
The German missionary bishop Reinhold Nann has publicly acknowledged marrying a Peruvian woman in a civil ceremony despite remaining ordained.
In a statement given to the German Catholic news agency KNA, Bishop Nann, aged 65 and formerly serving in the Archdiocese of Freiburg, admitted the civil marriage and blamed institutional failures for his decision.
“The higher I climbed, the clearer the extent of the abysses, tragedies, abuse, mediocrity and lies became to me. I saw too much, and it horrified and depressed me,” he said. “I was becoming increasingly lonely and superficial.”
Bishop Nann’s clerical career took him from working as a priest in Peru between 2002 and 2017 to his appointment in 2017 as Bishop of the Territorial Prelature of Caravelí. He resigned the office in December 2024, notifying the Vatican and his home archdiocese, citing depression, stress, and high blood pressure — health issues he now says were intertwined with his developing relationship.
“Depression was the reason; love was the cause,” he told KNA. He added that following the Covid-19 pandemic he “fell in love” with his partner, now publicly living with him, and described the Church’s insistence on celibacy as “desperate clinging” that he believes does “far more harm than good.”
While the Vatican accepted his resignation from the prelature in 2024, Bishop Nann has now admitted the true reason was his personal relationship rather than the health grounds he initially gave publicly. Although he had informed his superiors of his intention to leave the priesthood, he did not seek laicisation before entering the civil marriage.
The revelations also raise further questions about his episcopal governance in Caravelí. During his tenure, he served as president of Caritas Peru and as a member of the Episcopal Commission for the Protection of Minors.
In 2020, his administration accepted into ministry a priest under investigation for civil allegations of sexual abuse; the priest was said to have been cleared by a Vatican process but remained under civil investigation at the time.
Also in 2020, Bishop Nann drew public attention for permitting telephone confessions — a move later reversed after Vatican intervention — and for issuing harsh public criticism of his fellow prelate Archbishop Georg Gänswein, a former seminary classmate.
The issue of clerical celibacy has long loomed large in the Latin-rite Church, especially in German-speaking dioceses where debates over married clergy and optional celibacy have resurfaced repeatedly.
Historically, the Roman discipline of celibacy has been upheld for centuries as a sign of undivided service to Christ and the Church, yet recent years have seen increasing tensions in dioceses affected by clergy shortages, secularisation, and the legacy of abuse scandals.
His actions serve as a cautionary tale about the risks of clerical loneliness, human frailty, and systemic failure within Church structures.
Photo credit: KNA/Volker Hasenauer
