Pope Francis has said that the issue of married men working as priests in the Latin-rite Catholic Church is “in my diary”. Speaking to priests of the diocese of Rome on February 19, the Pope responded to questions on the issue, according to a report in the Italian bishops’ paper L’Avvenire. At the meeting, a Read more
The largest Roman Catholic geographical district in Brazil, located deep in the Amazon along the Xingu River, has more than 800 Catholic congregations but only 27 priests. Bishop Erwin Krautler, prelate of Xingu (pronounced Shin-goo), has argued that the situation calls for drastic measures. In April, he took his case to the Vatican, where he Read more
The Vatican has lifted the ban on the ordination of married men to priesthood in Eastern Catholic churches outside their traditional territories. The lifting of the ban allows married men in Eastern Catholic churches to be ordained in the likes of the US, Canada and Australia. Lifting the ban also does away with the provision that Read more
Three England and Wales bishops have backed suggestions that permission to ordain married men to the priesthood be widened. This followed reports that Pope Francis would like bishops’ conferences to achieve consensus and put forward reform ideas to Rome. The Pope reportedly made this suggestion to a bishop from a remote diocese in Brazil. During Read more
Pope Francis has discussed the possibility of ordaining proven married men as priests, a South American bishop says. Bishop Erwin Krautler, whose diocese of Xingu is in the Brazilian rainforest, spoke with Pope Francis on April 4 in a rare private interview. The desperate shortage of priests in the bishop’s huge diocese was one of Read more
At the American Catholic Council an estimated 2,000 reform-minded Catholics stood en masse to endorse a 10-point Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities that asserts primacy of conscience and the right of every Catholic to have a voice in the way the church is run, as well as an obligation to advance the proclamation of Read more