A senior Vatican official argued in an interview published this Sunday that the Roman Catholic Church should "think seriously" about allowing priests to marry.

"This is probably the first time I've said it publicly and it's going to sound heretical to some people," Archbishop of Malta Charles Scicluna said in an interview with The Times of Malta, as quoted by Reuters.

The archbishop, who is also assistant secretary of the Vatican's doctrinal office, said: "If it were up to me, I would review the requirement that priests have to be celibate."
"Experience has shown me that this is something we have to think about seriously," said the 64-year-old archbishop.

According to Scicluna, the Church has already lost "great priests because they chose marriage". Pope Francis' advisor noted that "there is a place" for celibacy in the Church, but that it should also be taken into account that a priest can fall in love.

"Some priests deal with this by secretly engaging in sentimental relationships," he said.

The Vatican has yet to comment on these statements. As Reuters notes, Pope Francis has already ruled out any possibility of changing this Catholic rule, however, this is not a formal doctrine of the Church and can be changed by a future Pope.