MADRID: Spain’s conservative Roman Catholic hierarchy has ordained the country’s first married priest, a former Anglican minister from Zimbabwe with two grown children. Evans David Gliwitzki, 64, kissed his wife after the ceremony on Sunday in Tenerife, where he will hold his first mass today in English for the island’s many British tourists and African immigrants.

In a press statement, the diocese of Tenerife denied that Fr Gliwitzki’s ordination, approved by the Vatican, was a step toward the abolition of Catholic celibacy.

“It is a very unique exception that takes into account the unusual circumstance that he comes from the Anglican church, which allows its ministers to marry.”

Before converting in 1992, Fr Gliwitzki was active in strengthening ties between the Anglican and Catholic faiths, often travelling to the Vatican, where he met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. Some in Spain, however, hope this unusual ordination will open the door to reforms in an institution under increasing pressure from civil society to abandon orthodox doctrines.

“It’s a shame that the ordainment is posed as an exception to the rule,” said Lluis Costa Bofill, one of more than 60 Catholic priests in the northern Spanish province of Girona who recently called for widespread reform. The Girona priests are part of a growing chorus of criticism of the church for its stance against contraception which could prevent the spread of HIV/Aids and its cover-up of paedophilia scandals in the US.

Catholicism still permeates Spanish culture — it is in the street names, daily expressions and Holy Week festivals — but only 25% of adult Spaniards consider themselves practising Catholics, according to Juan Diez Nicolas, a sociology professor at Complutense University in Madrid.

Even those believers do not adhere to church doctrine. They generally use contraception and approve of abortion under most circumstances, Prof Diez Nicolas said. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service