Australian priests have written to the Vatican asking the Catholic Church to consider the contentious issues of lifting the ban on clergy marriage and making celibacy optional to counter a decline in priest numbers. The National Council of Priests of Australia’s call for the far-reaching reforms from a conservative Catholic leadership headed by Pope John Paul follows similar requests from priests in Switzerland and the United States.

The Australian priests said on Thursday that allowing priests to marry and ending compulsory celibacy would make the priesthood more attractive to Catholic men and make it easier to recruit priests to counter a shortage in Western nations. “There is a shortage of priests and one reason would be because the criteria is so seriously narrow – single, male, lifelong commitment to the priesthood and celibacy,” council secretary Peter Fitzgerald told Reuters.

“Something like two-thirds of the world’s Catholics do not have access to mass because there are not enough priests.” Fitzgerald said the ban on marriage was not religious doctrine but a Vatican order. The apostle Peter, regarded by Catholics as the church’s first Pope, was married. “Until 1,000 years ago priests could marry. This is church discipline not divine law. We want to make celibacy optional.”

Fitzgerald said he believed the request by Australian priests would be welcomed by other priests worldwide but doubted a favourable response from a conservative Catholic Church leadership when it meets in October for a special synod to discuss how priests celebrate the Eucharist or communion. “The church leadership is very conservative and we do not expect change. What we want is to get this thing on the agenda for discussion,” he said.