When it comes to news from the Pope’s in-flight press conference en route to Rome from Panama last week, his discussion of the “inflated expectations” for the upcoming child protection summit rightly garnered the lion’s share of attention. Those remarks were always going to grab the headlines, though they weren’t the only newsworthy things Pope Francis said during his exchange with reporters.
His remarks regarding current clerical discipline in the Latin Church also made news. Basically, Francis says he is personally opposed to a change to the discipline of priestly celibacy, but he is not sure whether “exceptions” could be justified. In short: reform of the discipline is on the table.
