The Roman Catholic Church should “seriously consider” allowing priests to marry, a senior Vatican official and adviser to Pope Francis said in an interview published on Sunday, Reuters reported.

“I guess it’s the first time I’m saying this in public and it will sound heretical to some people,” Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, who is also undersecretary of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, told the Times of Malta.

Pope Francis has ruled out any chance of changing the Roman Catholic rule that requires priests to be celibate. But this is not the official doctrine of the Church, so the future Pope can change it.

A Vatican spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Szykluna, best known for his investigations of sexual abuse crimes, noted that priests were allowed to marry in the first millennium of the Church’s history, and that marriage is allowed today in the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church.

“If it were up to me, I would revise the celibacy requirement for priests,” he said. “Experience has shown me that this is something we should seriously consider.”

Šikluna, 64, said the Church “lost many high priests because they chose marriage.”

He said that in the Church “there is a place” for celibacy, but it must also be taken into account that sometimes a priest falls in love. Then she has to choose “between her and the priesthood, and some priests cope with this by secretly entering into romantic relationships.”

The debate over whether Roman Catholic priests should be allowed to marry has been going on for centuries.

Priests are allowed to marry in the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church, as well as in the Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican churches.

Opponents of priestly marriage claim that celibacy allows the priest to devote himself completely to the Church.