"I reaffirm the beauty and importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God," reads the apostolic exhortation, the first of Benedict's papacy and second in importance only to an encyclical.

"I therefore confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition," the pope wrote in the document reflecting the conclusions of an October 2005 synod of bishops. ...