When the Vatican Congregation for Clergy developed guidelines a decade ago for handling cases of priests who father children, the first objective was to make it easier for those men to leave the priesthood to care for their children and be real dads, said the prefect of the congregation.
Cardinal Beniamino Stella, congregation prefect, said the guidelines were necessary because church law makes it very difficult for a priest under the age of 40 to obtain Vatican approval to leave the priesthood.
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