New priest can keep his wife

A LUTHERAN convert has been ordained as a Catholic priest in Germany and is being allowed to stay married to his wife - who has already become a nun.

Pope Benedict XVI gave Harm Klueting, 61, special permission to remain wed to Edeltraut Klueting, who became a Catholic Carmelite nun in 2004. Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi said the exception was rare but there had been similar cases.

The Kluetings married in 1977 and both served as Lutheran clerics before converting to Catholicism several years ago. They have two grown-up children.