Removing the vow of celibacy won't dramatically reduce the incidence of child sex abuse, according to an Australian archbishop, who says the Catholic Church is unlikely to abandon the practice in the wake of the royal commission.
Australia's child abuse royal commission called on the church to consider voluntary celibacy for diocesan clergy, despite acknowledging it has been a major strand of the Catholic tradition from the earliest centuries.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Mark Coleridge says in theory voluntary celibacy is a possibility, but unlikely.
It would have to be decided by the Vatican, he said.
"It is not something that we the bishops of Australia can decide upon, it's something that would have to be decided at a universal level," Archbishop Coleridge told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
"That is a possibility, I wouldn't doubt. But will it happen soon? I doubt it."
Archbishop Coleridge pointed to the commission's finding that there was no causal connection between celibacy and child sex abuse, but then conceded it was a contributing factor.
"In other words, there is a dark side to celibacy. I am the first to admit it, especially when it is accompanied by poor formation."
Archbishop Coleridge said the Holy See, the central governing body of the church, was likely to act on some of the royal commission's recommendations, but not on others.
"I suspect that on that question of mandatory celibacy, given its implications for the church in every place around the world, that there won't be much movement on that particular issue," he said.
"But there are certain others that the people in Rome, in fact with whom I have met, would say that there is a possibility of some kind of movement."
He wouldn't elaborate on what specific measures were being considered.
"They recognise that some - much, perhaps - of what's going on in Australia has real and important applications for the Universal Church."
