"Love Was The Cause" Former Bishop Secretly Marries
Peru/Germany — Former German bishop Reinhold Nann, 65, publicly acknowledged in October 2025 that he has married a Peruvian woman in a civil ceremony despite remaining an ordained bishop. Nann, who resigned in December 2024 as Bishop-Prelate of the Territorial Prelature of Caravelí, Peru, revealed to the German Catholic news agency KNA that he civilly married the unnamed woman and currently lives with her in Peru.
Nann explained his decision to the KNA: "Depression was the reason; love was the cause." He stated that following the COVID-19 pandemic he "fell in love" with his current partner and that his resignation came as a result of this relationship rather than the health reasons initially given publicly.
In his statement to KNA, Bishop Nann criticized the institutional Church, saying: "The higher I climbed, the clearer the extent of the abysses, tragedies, abuse, mediocrity and lies became to me. I saw too much, and it horrified and depressed me. I was becoming increasingly lonely and superficial."
Nann described the Church's stance on celibacy as "desperate clinging" that he believes does "far more harm than good." He added: "I fell in love a few times, but then quickly renewed my decision for celibacy. I felt almost like a hero, without noticing how I was becoming increasingly lonely and superficial."
The Vatican accepted Nann's resignation in July 2024. At the time, Nann stated publicly that he was suffering from stress and high blood pressure brought on by his multiple roles, including president of Caritas Peru and member of the Episcopal Commission for the Protection of Minors, as well as declining physical and mental health "since the time of Covid."
According to Catholic canon law, clerics are required...
"to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and therefore are bound to celibacy."
Since Nann has not petitioned for laicization and has not been dispensed from the obligation of celibacy, his civil marriage is not recognized as valid by the Catholic Church.
Nann informed the Vatican and the Archdiocese of Freiburg in December 2024 that he wished to relinquish the priesthood. However, the Vatican has not yet laicized him.
Regarding his future, Nann stated: "I wanted to try to live the Church more like an early church: as a community of faith, beginning with my marriage as a house church, where I continue to exercise the common priesthood of all believers." He correctly pointed out that
"there was no mandatory celibacy in the Church at its beginnings."
Nann acknowledged losing "my civil servant-like clerical status, my income, my civil service pension, my health insurance. My position in the Church, the respect and attention of many people. My faith in the institutional Church." In return, he said he gained "a partner who loved him, who was a perfect match for him, and whom he no longer had to hide."
Bishop Nann was born on August 25, 1960, in Breisach, Archdiocese of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. He served as bishop of Caravelí from 2017 to 2024 and had been working in Peru since 2002.
THE CRUSADER'S OPINION
Bishop Nann made the right decision. Scripture is unambiguous: mandatory celibacy for church leaders is nowhere commanded in God's Word. In fact, the opposite is true.
Saint Paul explicitly writes that "a bishop must be the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2) and gives identical direction for elders and deacons.
When St Paul discusses church leadership qualifications, he assumes marriage as the norm, mentioning how leaders "must manage his own family well, keeping his children submissive" (1 Timothy 3:4-5).
St Peter himself, whom Catholics claim as their first pope, was married (Matthew 8:14). Paul even defended the right of apostles to "take along a believing wife" (1 Corinthians 9:5).
Most damning of all, St Paul prophetically warns Timothy that "in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insinuations of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. They forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created" (1 Timothy 4:1-3).
Those are St Paul's words, not mine. He calls mandatory celibacy a "teaching of demons."
Rome transformed what Scripture presents as an optional gift into a mandatory requirement. The results? Centuries of abuse scandals, priests living double lives, and countless men forced into unbiblical constraints. Eastern Orthodox churches, maintaining apostolic tradition, allow married priests. Even Eastern Rite Catholics permit it. Only the Latin Rite clings to this man-made rule.
Nann speaks of loneliness, superficiality, and the toll celibacy took on his soul. How many thousands of faithful priests carry this same burden silently?
God declared in Genesis that "it is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18). St St Paul acknowledged that those without the gift of celibacy should marry "for it is better to marry than to burn with passion" (1 Corinthians 7:9).
The Catholic Church needs to return to Scripture.
Marriage is honorable (Hebrews 13:4). Celibacy is a gift for some, not a requirement for ministry. Bishop Nann chose biblical obedience over unbiblical tradition. That takes courage
