Pope Celibacy Rule: Pope Francis May Consider Overturning Celibacy Rule For Clergy, According To 2012 Interview about 'Dazzling Girl'

The recently coronated Pope Francis may have some interesting rule changes in mind for the Catholic Church, particularly in the rules regarding celibacy among clergy.

According to the International Business Times, Pope Francis gave an intriguing interview on the subject back in 2012 for the book ""Sobre el Cielo y la Tierra" (On the Heavens and the Earth). In that interview he recounted the tale of how he was "dazzled by a girl I met at an uncle's wedding."

"I was surprised by her beauty, her intellectual brilliance ... and, well, I was bowled over for quite a while. I kept thinking and thinking about her. When I returned to the seminary after the wedding, I could not pray for over a week because when I tried to do so, the girl appeared in my head. I had to rethink what I was doing," he said.

This stands in stark contrast to the previous two Popes, who have made no bones about their commitment to continuing clerical celibacy.

Many critics have spoken out against the rules on celibacy. The Medical Daily reported that critics blame the monastic celibacy rule for enforcing an unrealistic purity, suggesting that priests and nuns inevitably suffer psychologically from trying to remain abstinent."

Frank Bruni of the New York Times spoke out against the rule, calling it "a bad idea with painful consequences." Bruni cited the shortage of priests in the modern Holy Roman Catholic Church as one example of the detriment of the ruling.

"When something like this happens to a seminarian, I help him go in peace to be a good Christian and not a bad priest," said Pope Francis. "In the Western Church to which I belong, priests cannot be married as in the Byzantine, Ukrainian, Russian or Greek Catholic Churches. In those Churches, the priests can be married, but the bishops have to be celibate. They are very good priests."