Pope Francis provokes "an insane hope" he says. Hope of reform. Hope that may remain unfulfilled.

"I am one of those people who - as Pope Francis says - live in the Amazon, suffer with it and love it passionately."

He and the other Amazon bishops worked together at the Synod to make sure the situation for the Church in the Amazon is clear and to offer solutions to its immense problems.

The 85-year old Kräutler says at the synod many Amazon bishops expressly called for proven men and women from remote church communities to be ordained as priests.

They voted on the issue of ordaining lay men and women who met the proposed criteria and the outcome showed 80 percent had voted in favour of viri probati (people of proven faith) and the diaconate for women.

"And Pope Francis did not accept it."

Kräutler says the Pope's response was frustrating and disappointing as he "had previously told us bishops: Make bold proposals to me".

Amazon bishops ignored

Kräutler says it is inconceivable that Francis did not mention the Amazon bishops' proposal at all in his final document of the synod.

He feels pessimistic about the universal Church's synodal process. He says "Nothing will come of it - nothing was achieved but expenses".

He does not believe this October's universal church synod will discuss "pressing reform issues" at all.

Reform inevitable

Yet Kräutler predicts that Church reform in the Amazon region is inevitable.

He says as a young "itinerant bishop" in remote areas he was often asked his wife's whereabouts. Celibacy isn't a concept that fits into the Amazonian reality. His response that he was unmarried resulted in strange looks.

Eventually he escaped the strange looks by lying. He told enquirers that "my wife is far, far away".

The villagers regretted this loneliness "but at least there were no more strange reactions".

Married priests are among the reforms he sees coming.

"Married priests will come first, then the diaconate for women. Women priests will be the next stage."

In Kräutler's view, the reasons Francis won't ordain women - to protect them from clericalism - is "a joke".

He says "the unordained men in the Amazon region are much more clerical than the women who lead parishes".

Furthermore he knows "no woman who lives clericalism - not one. We need women - also in ministries.

"It cannot be that ancient men design a theology of women."

Next steps

Kräutler hopes the next pope will bring back a "springtime for the Church" - similar to the one he experienced as a young man at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

Francis has set the reform process in motion and the Church could not go back on the approaches he initiated, Kräutler says.

Source

• katholisch.de

This week, in a CBS TV interview, he explained that ordaining women has never been on his agenda, but non-ordained female deacons could be.

Female diaconate supported

In February, one of Francis' theological advisers, Sr Linda Pocher, said while the Church wasn't considering women's priestly ordination, Francis actively supports the idea of female deacons.

She said discussions about the role of women in the Church were an integral part of the ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality, scheduled to end this October.

Francis confirmed this point in the TV interview.

He told the interviewer that he wouldn't consider female deacons with Holy Orders.

"But women have always had, I would say, the function of deaconesses without being deacons, right?"

"Women are of great service as women, not as ministers, as ministers in this regard, within the Holy Orders."

They are "the ones who move changes forward, all sorts of changes."

"...making space in the Church for women does not mean giving them a ministry, no. The Church is a mother, and women in the Church are the ones who help foster that motherliness," he continued.

"Don't forget that the ones who never abandoned Jesus were the women," he pointed out. "The men all fled."

Surprise reversal

The pope's response surprised some who believed he was open to the possibility of ordaining female deacons.

During his pontificate, he has created two commissions to study the question of female deacons.

The first, tasked with examining the role of female deacons in church history, came back with inconclusive results.

The second commission, which focused more on the ministry of the diaconate, met in September 2021 and July 2022. The results of that work have not been made public.

The October 2023 Synod on Synodality where the subject was further discussed concluded the topic required further study.

In its final document, the synod assembly asked that the embargoed reports from the first study commission be given to the synod assembly this October to help guide their recommendations.

In the period between the two meetings, ten study groups organised by the Vatican's synod office and others will look into the topics the synod said merited further discussion.

One asked "theological and canonical questions about specific ministerial forms" which include "the question of women's possible access to the diaconate".

Discussion vs discernment

Francis has changed his mind in the past about matters he'd previously seemed to favour.

In 2017, he seemed to open the door to ordaining married men capable of ministering to the many remote communities in the Amazon.

However soon after the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon closed, Francis said it was not possible to ordain married men since the Amazon Synod was merely a discussion.

"There was a discussion … a rich discussion … a well-founded discussion, but no discernment, which is something different from just arriving at a good and justified consensus or at a relative majority" Francis said.

A synod is a "spiritual exercise," a period for discernment of how the Holy Spirit is speaking, and for self-examination regarding the motive beyond positions.

"Walking together means dedicating time to honest listening, capable of making us reveal and unmask (or at least to be sincere) the apparent purity of our positions and to help us discern the wheat that - up to the Parousia [the second coming] - always grows among the weeds."

Source

• CathNews
• CathNews
• CathNews
• NCR Online
• Catholic News Agency
• America Magazine

German bishops' conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing (pictured) and Archbishop Ludwig Schick have added their support to Cardinal Reinhard Marx who spoke strongly in favour of voluntary celibacy at the beginning of February.

Schick is advocating ordaining ‘viri probati' - "men who are tried and tested in marriage" while also giving increased support to priests who choose to remain celibate.

He wrote in the German daily Fuldaer Zeitung that a good mixture of married and celibate priests could prevent clericalism and abuse of power.

The requirement that most priests in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church be celibate has theological and spiritual foundations and not only practical motivations, an international conference on priesthood was told on Monday.

Canon lawyer Gianfranco Ghirlanda SJ said the church has never claimed that celibacy is 'intrinsic' to the priesthood.

He noted the Eastern catholic churches have maintained the discipline of having both celibate and married clergy, and the Latin church has welcomed married priests coming from other denominations.

Celibacy "is not a divine law, because otherwise the discipline of the Eastern churches would not be possible, and it would not have been possible to have married priests in the early church, even if they were called to continence" he said.

A married priesthood "is not a second-class priesthood," because married priests also proclaim the Gospel, lead the Christian people and celebrate the sacraments, Ghirlanda explained.

Celibacy or marriage "does not touch the priesthood in itself".

In the Code of Canon Law for the Latin church, celibacy is seen as a gift from God that enables priests "to adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart and dedicate themselves more easily to the service of God and his people" he said.

Catholic theology, spirituality and church law on priesthood aim to promote a 'self-giving love'.

In this, celibacy is not lived "in a repressive way as mortification and denial" but as an expression of the biblical call to a "purity of heart".

Another speaker, Father Emilio Justo who is a professor of theology, agrees with Ghirlanda.

In the first millennium, married priests were common, he said.

He believes however, there were "predominant tendencies" favouring celibacy and requiring married priests to forgo sexual relations with their wives.

The requirement to live marriage in this 'abnormal way' was primarily theological, he said, and was based on a priest's role as mediator between God and the faithful, a role that required 'purity'.

This is not a ritual purity, 'but it is related to holiness' and conformity to Christ, who offered his whole self to God for the salvation of the world, he said.

It is a call to communion: "The church is the space where the ordained minister loves and is loved".

Source

• NCR Online
• The Tablet
• Image:National Catholic Reporter

The question of addressing a priest shortage in the Amazon by ordaining older, mature and married men (viri probati) from local communities was one of the issues raised at the 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

The Synod's primary purpose was to discuss pastoral strategies for evangelization, catechesis, and pastoral care in the region, which spans several South American countries, and is beset by social, economic, and environmental challenges.

Notes from the pope that were included in an article published last week reveal his thinking about married priests.

"There was a discussion ... a rich discussion ... a well-founded discussion, but no discernment, which is something different than just arriving at a good and justified consensus or at a relative majority," Francis said.

Francis said prayerful discernment became impossible because debate became a parliamentary-style battle between different sides.

Synods of bishops should be opportunities for prayerful reflection, not parliamentary lobbying, he said.

A synod is a "spiritual exercise," a period for discernment of how the Holy Spirit is speaking, and for self-examination regarding the motive beyond positions.

"Walking together means dedicating time to honest listening, capable of making us reveal and unmask (or at least to be sincere) the apparent purity of our positions and to help us discern the wheat that - up to the Parousia - always grows among the weeds."

"Whoever has not realized this evangelical vision of reality exposes themselves to useless bitterness. Sincere and prayerful listening shows us the 'hidden agendas' called to conversion."

After the synod, Francis published his response, in the form of an apostolic exhortation titled Querida Amazonia.

In this, he avoided any reference to married priests. However, he called for missionary clergy to be sent to the Amazon, and for bishops to promote prayers for priestly vocations.

He endorsed the bishops' final document where 128 voted in favour of ordaining married deacons in remote regions, and 41 voted against. It meant that while married priests are off the table in the short term, it remains a live possibility.

"I like to think that, in a certain sense, the synod is not over. This time of welcoming the whole process that we have lived challenges us to continue walking together and to put this experience into practice."

These and other comments suggest the door is not closed on future reforms.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• The Tablet
• Image: TerryIvy.com

But after some discussion, a solidly based argument (not based on dubious notions of ritual purity) is presented: how could these married men learn all that a presbyter needs to know in a short time?

Then it is decided that, no, the problem is too big to be overcome and so it is best to shelve that whole idea. TINA rules - There Is No Alternative to the status quo!

Even those bishops who are prepared to grant that it would be pastorally beneficial to change the Latin Church's discipline of mandatory celibacy and ordain "up-right married men" (viri probati), seem stunned into silence by "the insuperable problem" of training such men.

Ordaining viri probati might solve a practical shortage, but could they be trained?

The Catholic priest, so the argument goes, is a highly trained professional - and well-matched to the laity's needs. So, first of all, how could one get the equivalent without taking the vir probatus away from his family and work for six or seven years of training in a seminary?

Secondly, it is argued that prior to the Tridentine seminary we had a poorly educated clergy and this led to abuses, and, eventually, the Reformation. So, by contrast, a long "formation" ensures avoiding abuses, ecclesial contentment and orthodoxy.

And, thirdly, the re-emergence of permanent deacons has often been unsuccessful, and this is usually seen as resulting from poor training: presbyters would pose even greater problems.

Reality Check

One assumption in these arguments is that the 6-7 year seminary model is not only fit for purpose, but is a measure for all other ministerial training.

Does our experience bear this out?

First, the fact that dioceses struggle to provide on-going formation to priests is an admission that the seminary is not the be-all-and-end-all. There is also a growing awareness that the demands of preaching and presiding call for skills never imagined in a world of "getting Mass" and "Father knows best".

Any group of Catholics will bear this out: the role of preacher/teacher is seen as one where many clergy fail. Coupled with this is the demand to provide ministry in complex situations that cannot be foreseen in seminary: thus, learning new skills is an on-going and necessary process.

Second, in any practical situation the amount of training that can be given before actual engagement is very limited. You only know what you need to know after you are on the job.

Seminaries seek to address this with pastoral experiences, but many priests only find out that they should have studied more Old Testament, for instance, when it comes home to them that people hear these readings, ask questions, and they have not "bothered" with what then seemed irrelevant.

This is exacerbated when seminarians are mainly ordination-focused and view their training (particularly the "academic" part) merely as the obstacle course prior to the bishop laying his hands on their heads. As I have often heard: "When you have a stole on you, none of this will matter!"

Thirdly, while there has been some re-thinking about seminaries since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the traditional length of training was determined simply by the need to keep young men in college until ordination age.

While the years of "philosophy" used to be seen as offering a broad intellectual training (it included natural philosophy: i.e. science), they now focus on philosophy as an adjunct to theology.

The seminary, moreover, emerged within the Renaissance model of the mind as an empty vessel to be filled: control the inputs, and one might produce the perfect actor. It is an idea seen in the very name seminarium (L. seed plot). But reality, as we continue to learn painfully, is a little more complex than that!

Lastly, given that entry to a seminary involves willingness to become a celibate presbyter, there is a limited pool of candidates.

If they would take on "the demands of the priesthood", then intellectual curiosity, the ability to learn and willingness to engage in professional training often took second place.

Seminaries are not ideal. They are just one solution, in one situation. And they produce very mixed results.

An educated clergy

Seminaries are excellent for forming a group with a clear corporate sense and esprit de corps: a clergy.

It has often been noted that while universities speak of "education" (focusing on developing the individual's talent), seminaries - along with military academies - speak of "formation": learning to think with the group, act together and become familiar with the group's standard procedures and goals.

There is a direct link between seminaries and clericalism - and, as such, we have been badly served by the current system. Indeed, seminaries allow students to imagine that serving the group to which they belong - the clergy - is equivalent to serving the Church.

Faced with constant references to "seminary experience" or "deep formation" that one hears as objections to the viri probati solution, one wonders if there is not some deep-seated fear that such non-seminary training might undermine the "club experience" of the clerical world.

There is often a refusal to admit that the much-vaunted seminary system has left so many clergy poorly formed and professionally under-skilled. One wonders if it is a smokescreen from a deeper, perhaps unconscious, attachment to 'the corps' that pushes the notion of the minister (one who is there to serve his sisters and brothers) into the background.

Experiential learning

One of the quiet educational revolutions of the past fifty years has been our growing understanding of how adults learn: andragogy as distinct from pedagogy.

With this has come a range of teaching techniques that are appropriate for those who have learned how to learn, who learn within the context of their lives and learn because they know why they want to learn.

To engage in a learning experience with adults, aged 30 and over, is very different from lecturing young people whose brains (up to roughly age 25) are still developing and for whom "life" is still a future adventure. The volunteer adult learner knows how he or she learns, owns the learning and is aware that learning does not stop when the course is completed.

Because teaching adults is a distinct activity, we have evolved the knowhow to do this without long periods of institutional residence. Just observe the success of variations of the Open University around the world. Adults may not absorb "formation", but that may result simply in being less recognizable as clergy rather than deficient as ministers.

"I am among you as one who serves" (Lk 22, 27). This needs to be our guide, rather than the idea of the sacerdotal professional who possesses sacral powers.

If an aspect of the probatio of these married men is that they have learned to learn, and know that learning is a life-long challenge, then the biggest hurdle in their training is already overcome. Such men may be less docile as clerics within Church structures but may be more flexible as focal points among the People of God as we make our pilgrim way to unknown futures.

We do not know if the Catholic Church will finally grasp this problem. In the aftermath of this coronavirus crisis, many new pastoral strategies will have to be explored.

But we do know that following the Amazon Synod there was a retreat from the obvious - that is, opting for viri probati.

However, we already have the knowhow to skill such men for service.

• Thomas O'Loughlin is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and professor of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK). His latest book is Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking Up Pope Francis's Call to Theologians (Liturgical Press, 2019).

Although Pope Francis's exhortation on the Amazon bypasses making decisions about women deacons and married priests, there is still room to move, say number of the pope's close advisors.

In the post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia (Beloved Amazon), Pope Francis released last week , Francis appears to leave the question of married priests open-ended. He didn't give a clear yes or no on the issue.

Instead, he suggests there be a better distribution of priests in the Amazon.

He wants to encourage missionary priests to work in the region and to go to more rural areas.

At the same time, he says there is a need for a priestly formation which better understands and appreciates local cultural traditions.

Francis's exhortation on the Amazon also avoided making decisions about women deacons.

Rather, it warned against the temptation to "clericalise" women rather than empowering them through leading community roles which better "reflects their womanhood."

Cardinal Michael Czerny said the best way of looking at the pope's approach to married priests in the document is that it is "part of a journey."

"We are at a very important point in the synodal process."

"There are long roads ahead, as well as roads already traveled," he said

He also pointed out that on the question of married priests, Francis "has not resolved them in any way beyond what he has said in the exhortation."

Czerny stressed that the exhortation "is a magisterial document".

This means it is binding, whereas the final synod document, which includes supportive proposals for married priests and women deacons which the pope must approve, does not bear the same weight.

Czerny said without a firm 'no' from the pope on these issues, they will continue "to be debated, discussed, discerned, prayed over and, when mature, presented to the appropriate authority for a decision."

These decisions, he said, can be made at a diocesan, national and universal level.

Czerny said the proposal for ordaining women deacons is still "being studied". He said this is probably awaiting a conclusion on the topic from a commission Francis formed in 2016 to study it.

Source

• Crux
• Image: Jesuits.org

But those new paths do not include the ordination of married men to the priesthood in the region.

The document, called "Querida Amazonia" (Beloved Amazon), is born from the discussions of over 180 bishops from all over the world who gathered at the Vatican last fall (Oct. 6-27) to address the social, environmental and spiritual needs of the indigenous people of the Amazon and their habitat.

During their meeting, bishops had suggested in their final document that the pope consider the ordination of tested married men to minister to the remote areas of the Amazon forest sprawled over nine Latin American countries.

Bishops had also voted to further discussions on female deacons, which would allow women to preach, distribute the Eucharist and officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals.

Pope Francis' document doesn't make any mention of the ordination of married men nor of women, which is consistent with the efforts made by the Vatican to downplay expectations ahead of its publication.

In January, former Pope Benedict XVI published a book with Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican department for liturgy, making a case for the importance of celibacy in the priesthood.

"Querida Amazonia" is divided into four chapters, each corresponding to a "dream" of the pope on the social, cultural, ecological and ecclesial aspects of the Amazon. It includes numerous poems by indigenous people detailing the beauty — and destruction — of the Amazon.

The papal document encourages Catholics and all people of goodwill to protect the environment, accompany the diaspora of indigenous peoples and stand up against injustice and reckless exploitation.

During colonization, the people of the Amazon forest "were considered more an obstacle needing to be eliminated than as human beings with the same dignity as others and possessed of their own acquired rights," Francis wrote.

"The businesses, national or international, which harm the Amazon and fail to respect the right of the original peoples," he wrote, "should be called for what they are: injustice and crime."

"Colonization has left tremendous wounds in the Amazon, the pope said, but colonization continues today even though it is "changed, disguised."

"The interest of a few powerful industries should not be considered more important than the good of the Amazon region or humanity as a whole," he warned.

Francis admitted that while missionaries were among the few who stood up to defend the rights of the Amazon and its peoples, the Catholic Church also bears its responsibility and its members were "part of a network of corruption."

"I express my shame and once more I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offences of the Church herself, but for the crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America as well as for the terrible crimes that followed throughout the history of the Amazon region," he said.

In a section addressing forms of ministry, the pope called for "a specific and courageous response" to the shortage of priests in the Amazon.

Though ordaining married men is out of the question, at least in this document, the pope encouraged bishops to take matters into their own hands.

"This urgent need leads me to urge all bishops, especially those in Latin America, not only to promote prayer for priestly vocations, but also to be more generous in encouraging those who display a missionary vocation to opt for the Amazon region," he wrote, putting an emphasis on the need to overhaul priestly formation.

A large role is played and continues to be played by "mature and lay leaders," who must be promoted and encouraged by the Catholic clergy, Francis wrote. Women especially, he said, "have kept the Church alive in those places through their remarkable devotion and deep faith."

But ordaining women as deacons, he said, could be harmful.

"It would lead us to clericalize women, diminish the great value of what they have already accomplished, and subtly make their indispensable contribution less effective," he said.

Instead, he said that women should have positions of authority within the church "that do not entail Holy Orders and that can better signify the role that is theirs."

As a starting point, Francis referred to Mary as a source of inspiration for furthering the role of women.

"Perhaps it is time to review the lay ministries already existing in the Church, return to their foundations and update them by reading them in the light of current reality and the inspiration of the Spirit, and at the same time to create other new stable ministries with public recognition and a commission from the bishop," Cardinal Michael Czerny said in an interview published by the Vatican alongside the papal document. Czerny was a special secretary to the synod of bishops on the Amazon.

Francis called for a fruitful dialogue between the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and the Catholic Church in order to give the church "new faces with Amazonian features."

The culture, traditions and history of the tribes living in the Amazon must be protected and respected, without "unfair generalizations, simplistic arguments and conclusions drawn only from the basis of our own mindset and experiences," he said.

Indigenous people should not be insulated from a respectful dialogue, Francis wrote, just as the Catholic Church should allow the gospel to be permeated by the customs and culture of the peoples living in the Amazon.

"The Pope asks that the voice of the elderly be heard and that the values present in the original communities be recognized," Czerny said. "Indigenous peoples teach us to be sober, content with little, and to sense the need to be immersed in a communal way of living our lives."

The bishops had asked the pope to consider the possibility of an Amazonian Rite, which in the Catholic tradition would have its own bishops and specific liturgies while still being in communion with the Catholic Church.

Francis encouraged "native forms of expression in song, rituals, gestures and symbols" but made no mention of a specific rite or a commission created to consider it.

Francis also seemed to passingly address the Pachamama debacle, when vandals broke into a church in Rome at the height of the synod, dumped a wooden carving of an Amazonian fertility goddess into the Tiber River and posted it on YouTube.

The vandals justified their actions at the time, stating that they were angered by a ceremony in the Vatican gardens where indigenous people knelt before the statues before the pontiff.

"It is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry," the pope wrote. "A myth charged with spiritual meaning can be used to advantage and not always considered a pagan error."

The pope's final words amid highly divisive times within and beyond the Catholic Church are to promote dialogue "at a higher level, where each group can join the other in a new reality, while remaining faithful to itself."

• Claire Giangrave is Vatican Correspondent for Religion News Service.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.
• Image YouTube

Doyle, whose father was a priest, is a member of Coping International, an organisation that campaigns for the rights of priests' children.

Although the guidelines are not new, they have been secret until now.

Last year the secrecy around them changed when the Congregation for the Clergy said it was happy to send them to any Bishop's conference that requested them.

This development followed a meeting between Mgr Andrea Ripa, Undersecretary for the Congregation, and Doyle.

Coping International and the Congregation for the Clergy then cooperated over their release.

Doyle says he is "delighted" with the release.

He says it represents represent an important step towards transparency on the part of the Vatican and adds weight to the prioritisation of the natural rights of the child to know his or her parents.

Previously, Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, who was prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy between 2006 and 2010, emphasised the obligation to equal treatment on the part of the children of the ordained had to outweigh any other interests.

Hummes said this was also the opinion of Pope Benedict XVI during his time in office.

Ripa indicated during discussions with Doyle that it would be possible for a priest to remain in ministry, having fathered a child.

He said whether this would occur would be subject to two other considerations.

One is the priest's suitability for ministry and the other concentrates on the good of the child. This represents a significant change in the attitude of the Vatican regarding such situations.

Given Ripa's comments that it would not be "impossible" for priests to continue in their ministry after fathering a child, Doyle pointed to the recent suggestion of the ordination of "viri probati" as priests could provide a "remedy" for "procreative breaches in celibacy".

If this were the case, it would remove the clash of vocations that has previously led to children being raised without knowledge of their father, or in secret.

Source

• The Tablet UK
• Image: The Irish Times

Two-thirds of the 180 bishops at the synod approved all the 140-paragraph document's findings, which they voted on paragraph by paragraph.

One of the document's main focuses further including laity and women in the Church's ministry in the Amazon region.

The most contested sections of the document concerned the:

• Roles of the female diaconate (30 votes against)
• Viri probati — a discussion of ordaining married "men of proven virtue" to the priesthood — (41 votes against)
• Creating an Amazonian rite (29 votes against).

The bishops said they wished to "share their experience and reflections" with the Commission for the Study of the Female Diaconate that Francis created in 2016.

That study was tasked with providing further study and historical context for the role of women in the early church.

Although the final document does not have any real decision-making power, Pope Francis will consider all the bishops' recommendations

Francis says after considering the document, he will prepare and release an apostolic exhortation on the Amazon.

Although Francis praised the spirit of the discussions among the bishops, he says the final document falls short on recognizing the role of women in the church.

"We haven't yet comprehended what women mean for the church and we stay in the functional side" he said.

He also pointed out "the role of women in the church goes much further than functionality."

Francis said he interprets the document as calling for the creation of a second commission to look into the historic role and diaconate of women in the church.

Although the first commission did not reach a comprehensive conclusion, Francis said he will submit it to a new commission.

With the help of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Church, the commission will ensure women seeking further inclusion will "be heard."

The lack of priests to minister to the numerous indigenous peoples in the Amazon region, is one of the main problems bishops grappled with at the synod.

If women deacons were permitted, they would be able to preach, distribute the Eucharist and officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals. Deacons may not hear confessions or consecrate the Eucharist.

Another way to address the shortage of priests, amid growing competition from Pentecostal denominations, will be to encourage the ordination of tested married men to the priesthood, the final synod document says.

While they acknowledged "celibacy as a gift of God," they also said "the legitimate diversity does not harm the communion and unity of the Church, but expresses and serves it."

They also note that creating an "Amazonian rite," through a liturgy that would better reflect the Amazonian region is not unprecedented.

The Church already recognizes over two dozen liturgical rites, which usually have their own bishops and specific liturgies.

Source

• Religion News Service
• Image: Pan-Amazon Synod Watch

German Bishop Fritz Lobinger, a 90-year-old retired missionary bishop in South Africa, has suddenly become the talk of Rome.

Lobinger's idea of ordained elders in order to provide local communities regular access to the sacraments has been the root of discussions about "married priests" that have dominated headlines about the Synod on the Amazon, the three-week summit of bishops which began this week at the Vatican.

This is a pressing issue in the region - some areas have only one priest per 15,000 Catholics, with priests forced to travel by canoe to reach isolated communities.

Some people might not see a priest for a year, leaving lay catechists to conduct Sunday scripture services, as well as to preside over baptisms and marriages.

At the same time, there has been strong resistance to the idea of abandoning the rule of celibacy for priests in the Latin Rite.

Lobinger's revolutionary idea is an attempt to square the circle on the issue.

The bishop - who also faced a lack of priests in his remote diocese - has for decades advocated ordaining married men, or "elders" to the priesthood, but with a twist: They would not be clerics in the ordinary sense.

The "elders," although technically ordained, would not even be called priests and would work under a series of limitations: They would only be allowed to serve in their local community, would not receive a seminary education, would not wear clerical dress.

In other words, these "elders" would be married men with jobs, taking weekend courses for a couple of years before being ordained.

These "elders" would be guided by the seminary-educated, celibate priests.

Lobinger's idea is a bit of a departure from the traditional idea of viri probati - Latin for "tested men" - where some select older men might be allowed to be ordained to the priesthood without going through the same extensive formation as other priests.

This proposition predates the current married priest debate, and was originally proposed for older, celibate men in mission territories who were too old to have gone through a formation process that regularly began when a man was in their early teens.

Nowadays, it is used exclusively to refer to married candidates.

The viri probati might labor under certain restrictions - perhaps not allowed to serve as a pastor or even be allowed to preach a homily - but they would still be priests.

In many ways, the viri probati are conceptually similar to the "simplex priest" of religious houses before Vatican II, who could celebrate Mass but not hear confessions or preach sermons.

Lobinger instead says there should be two different forms of priesthood, as distinct as possible.

And herein lies the real revolution being proposed. Continue reading

• Image: AP News

A general summary of the topics discussed during the closed-door session has been published.

Some of the discussions focused on ordaining married men. It was described as a "legitimate need" but one which "cannot affect a substantial rethinking of the nature of the priesthood and its relationship with celibacy" in the Latin rite.

Instead, vocational programmes for young indigenous men to promote evangelization in remote areas could be considered.

This way there would not be "first-class Catholics" who have easy access to the Eucharist and "second-class Catholics" who go without the sacrament, sometimes even for two years at a time.

Another topic focused on the need to avoid the "colonialism" that characterised early missionary efforts. Rather, cultural identities in the Amazon should be preserved.

This is important, as every culture makes its contribution to the "catholicity" of the church, which is built on respect and complementarity.

Some bishops said the church is like a complex ecosystem with "wonderful spiritual biodiversity" expressed in so many different communities, cultures, forms of religious life and ministries.

Others focused on indigenous practices.

When they are not tied to superstitious beliefs, these practices are looked upon with "benevolence" so long as they may become in tune with "the true liturgical spirit," the speakers said.

Collecting and sharing the different "inculturated celebrations" indigenous communities use with the sacraments of baptism, marriage and priestly ordination is an option one speaker proffered.

Others built on this idea. One bishop suggested there might be a way to establish on an experimental basis — and after appropriate theological, liturgical and pastoral study — an Amazonian Catholic rite for living and celebrating faith in Christ.

Protecting groundwater from chemical contaminants coming from multinational companies and the effect mining in the region is having on the environment were also topics of concern.

Other speakers focused on the serious consequences abusive practices are having on local peoples and urged respect for human and environmental rights.

Climate change, ending the use of fossil fuels, especially in industrialized nations which produce the most pollutants, are similar concerns.

The way many young people are taking the lead in promoting "integral ecology" was noted.

It is important to reach out to young people on issues dealing with safeguarding creation and to promote young people's efforts, many bishops agreed.

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Speaking in the indigenous Ticuna language, he leads a recital of the Lord's Prayer, reads a passage from the Gospel of Matthew and delivers a sermon on accepting Jesus into one's heart, as cicadas chirp loudly in the jungle that lies just beyond the recently built Catholic church.

Pereira, 61, has been a part-time missionary for the past 15 years, volunteering his time on weekends to visit indigenous communities that rarely see a priest.

He leads prayer services called Celebrations of the Word but cannot celebrate Mass or hear confessions in the isolated places he visits, because he is married and has nine children, and cannot become a priest.

But that could change if a proposal to ordain married men in remote parts of the Amazon gains traction at a gathering of bishops that opens at the Vatican on Sunday.

More than 100 bishops from South America will convene at the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region.

The meeting will discuss social and environmental problems faced by the inhabitants of the Amazon, including the increasing rate of deforestation in the region.

But bishops are also looking at ways to introduce changes to official ministries to better serve Catholics in this part of the world.

One item on the synod's agenda is a proposal to study the possibility of priestly ordination for older men who have good standing in their communities and are preferably of indigenous origin, "even if they have an established and stable family."

While the synod proposal would be novel for the Latin Rite church, there are already married priests in Eastern Rite Catholic churches and in cases where married Anglican priests have converted.

Nevertheless, the proposal has set off a firestorm of criticism against Pope Francis, with opponents accusing synod organizers of heresy for even introducing debate on the centuries-old tradition of a celibate priesthood in the Latin Rite church.

For these critics, the Amazon synod is just the latest instance of Francis using the synod process to introduce progressive changes to the church by obtaining the blessing of a carefully chosen group of voting bishops.

On the ground, however, the agenda and focus on the needs of the indigenous have been welcomed.

"It's a possibility that I haven't quite processed in my head yet," said Pereira, who is a member of the Ticuna tribe and would be a clear candidate for ordination if Pope Francis decides to pursue the reform.

"But if I am asked to become a priest I will accept. I will accept," said the devout Catholic, who dreamed of becoming a priest as a youngster. Continue reading

The synod's purpose will be to discuss the future of the Church in the Amazon. These discussions will include the possibility of married priests.

Most of the 260 participants at the synod are bishops from the Amazon region.

Francis reminded them that while Catholic prelates are called to be prudent, they are also called to be open to the possibility of new things.

"Prudence is not indecision; it is not a defensive attitude," he said to the bishops gathered in St. Peter's Basilica.

"It is the virtue of the pastor who, in order to serve with wisdom, is able to discern, to be receptive to the newness of the Spirit.

"Rekindling our gift in the fire of the Spirit is the opposite of letting things take their course without doing anything,.

He asked God to give the prelates a "daring prudence … to renew the paths of the church."

One of the most contentious topics of the synod, is whether to allow older married "proven men" - to be ordained.

These men - also called "viri probati" - would have families and a strong standing in local communities in the Amazon.

This option has been offered as one of the means of coping with the present shortage of priests and is backed by many South American bishops.

If adopted, viri probati would allow Catholics in isolated areas to attend Mass and receive the sacraments regularly.

Eighty-five percent of those living in villages in the Amazon region (which spans eight countries and the French territory of Guiana) cannot celebrate Mass every week.

Some see a priest only once a year.

Although the synod members will not make decisions, participants will vote on a final document with the synod's recommendations.

The pope will then decide which recommendations to integrate into his future rulings.

Other issues on the synod's discussion list that are likely to be contentious include:

• Creating are some sort of recognition for women's ministry
• Finding ways for Catholic communities in the nine-nation region to speak more vocally against rampant ecological destruction taking place in the region
• Environmental protection
• Climate change
• Deforestation
• Indigenous people and their right to keep their land and traditions.

Source

• NCR Online
• Image: Morning Star

Ouellet says a deepened understanding of celibacy is preferable to grabbing at quick solutions to resolve the current lack of priests.

He makes the claim in his newly published book "Friends of the Bridegroom: For a Renewed Vision of Priestly Celibacy."

Ouellet says he is "skeptical" of the proposed idea in the Amazon of ordaining to the priesthood "viri probati" - older, married men.

Without naming names, he says he also knows some in higher positions "in the Roman Curia" who have similar doubts.

"I am not against the fact that there is a debate, but I think at this time of history and of the Church there is a need of reflection…" he says.

"And so, my intervention is to substantiate the debate, to give something substantial to aid discernment.

"I remain skeptical out of convictions and knowledge of the Catholic tradition in the Latin rite, so I think this has to be very much taken care of in the debate".

Ouellet says he remains open to what will happen during the synod.

Ouellet also says he knows Francis has mentioned having no intention to change Church practice on priestly celibacy in the Latin rite.

He has not excluded the possibility of an exception, however.

Ouellet has given Francis two copies of his new book and that Francis is happy he is joining in on the viri probati debate.

He says in writing it, he thought it was a good time to contribute his years of "knowledge, wisdom, and experience" to the Church's discussion of priestly celibacy, and in the particular context of this month's Amazon synod, to the debate on "viri probati."

"I think that priestly celibacy, but also religious consecration, is a powerful witness to the divinity of Jesus Christ and to his call to follow him and to leave everything to be with him, and to do what he asks us to do.

The close link between celibacy and the priesthood "is the fact that the priest is in charge of ... proclaiming and giving the definitive and ultimate Word of God to the world," he says.

"The link between celibacy and the priesthood in the Latin Church comes from the apostles and it has been kept through the centuries despite times of decadence, of difficulties, of refusal...

"It's been always difficult, but it remains an extraordinary witness to the divinity of Christ and to the presence of the Risen Lord among us so that we give him an answer, because he is there, calling us to communion."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: America Magazine

It is the most direct mention ever by the Vatican of the possibility of married priests.

The proposal, released around 10 pm Monday, NZ time, comes in a working document prepared for the Synod of Bishops in the Pan-Amazon.

In trying to formulate a new pastoral vision for the Church in the Amazon, the document urges a "return to the early Church" in creating appropriate ministries.

Viri Probati

The recommendation mentions ordaining older married men, "viri probati", (Latin for 'men of proven character'), in remote areas of the Amazon.

These older men will preferably be "indigenous, respected and accepted by their communities, even if they have stable families", the document said.

The document also affirms celibacy as a gift for the Church and, according to The Tablet, the Synod will also look at whether the priesthood must always be linked to the exercise of power jurisdiction in the Church, raising the question as to whether priests can be ordained to administer the sacraments, rather than govern.

Some say it could pave the way for married priests in other areas.

Earlier in the year when asked about viri probati, Francis said they "could only be a possibility in these far, far away places—I think about the islands in the Pacific".

Pope Francis made the "Pacific" comment in February during an in-flight interview on the way back from World Youth Day.

Transplanting Europe

Relator General of the Amazon Synod, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, recently hinted at the possibility of married clergy.

"So often we worry about managing to transplant the European models of priesthood onto the indigenous priests.

"But someone rightly has noted that too much concern is given to the profile of the ordained ministry putting it before the community that receives it.

"It should be the other way around: the community is not there for its minister, but the minister is there for the community," Hummes told La Civilta Cattolica.

Opponents say relaxing the rule for the Amazon will certainly fuel calls for it to be relaxed elsewhere.

Already, married men who convert from Protestant churches can be ordained Catholic priests.

Married men in the Eastern Rite Catholic Church can also be ordained.

Women leaders

The document also calls for an "official ministry" including leadership roles for women.

It does not name nor identify the role.

The official title of the document is, ""Amazonia: New paths for the church and for an integral ecology."

The Synod is scheduled for October this year.

At the end of the Amazon Synod of Bishops, conference participants will vote on the final articles which will be sent to the pope, who will decide whether or not to make the recommendations official.

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Independent
• CathNews
• La Civilta Cattolica
• Image: Tampa Times

Kasper, who is considered one of Francis's close theological advisers, says such a change could be made during this year's Synod of Bishops on the Amazon set for this October, if the prelates were to ask Francis about it.

The ordination of women, even to the diaconate, is out of the question, however.

Kasper says this is because it would undermine a "millennia-old tradition".

At the same time, Kasper notes, the Catholic Church would "collapse" without women.

"If the bishops agreed through mutual consent to ordained married men - those called viri probati - it's my judgement that the pope would accept it," he says.

"Celibacy isn't a dogma, it's not an unalterable practice."

Kasper says he would prefer to see celibacy continuing to be an "obligatory way of life with a commitment to the cause of Jesus Christ".

However, he points out, "this doesn't exclude that a married man can carry a priestly service in special situations".

Kasper's views seem at odds with those of Francis, who in January addressed the issue of possibly ordaining married men, during the in-flight press conference on the way back to Rome from Panama.

"I would rather give my life than to change the law on celibacy," Francis said at the time.

"I'm not in agreement with allowing optional celibacy. No," he said.

He added, however, that he believes theologians should study the possibility of "older married men" being ordained, in "far, faraway places," such as the islands in the Pacific.

Even then, he said, they should be ordained only to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and anoint the sick.

At the time, Francis also said the question of married priests is a matter to be "prayed on" and discussed by theologians, and is one he personally hasn't meditated on enough.

"It's not for me to decide. My decision is, optional celibacy before the diaconate, no," referring to the fact that future priests typically are first ordained as deacons.

"I will not do this. I don't feel like standing in front of God with this decision," Francis said.

Source

• Crux
• Image: Crux Now

Scheuer told Francis with regards to the Eucharist as the font, center, and summit of the life of the church, three changes are called for. Read more:

The synod will be called "Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology."

At a press conference about the synod's preparatory document, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri said:

"We don't want to preclude anything" although "the Church is currently in its classical position" concerning women's and married men's ordination.

Baldisseri is the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops.

While the document makes no direct mention of the viri probati, meaning married priests, it focuses on the need for a "Church with an Amazonian face".

The Church must discover new ways to provide the Eucharist and pastoral support to the people of the Amazon, especially indigenous people threatened by forced displacement and exploitation, the document says.

It goes on to say a priority will be to propose "new ministries and services for the different pastoral agents, ones which correspond to activities and responsibilities within the community.

"Along these lines, it is necessary to identify the type of official ministry that can be conferred on women, taking into account the central role which women play today in the Amazonian Church".

Baldisseri explained: "The emphasis on women — that they should have a space in the church — doesn't come from" the preparatory document.

"We can listen to the pope who said that there must be space for women in the church at all levels".

In the context of married priests, Baldisseri said that the scope should not be limited to viri probati, which he said can be interpreted in many ways, and "there can also be other ministries" that could be created ad hoc.

"The Church is not static ... there is possibility of movement", he added.

But he urged patience and caution. "Let's leave the time necessary for reflection about everything that is in here".

The document ends with a 30-point questionnaire.

Members of the Church in the Amazon have been invited to give their opinion of the main challenges facing the area.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic Philly
• Reuters
• Crux Now
• Image: National Catholic Register

The context of the discussion will focus on the Church in the Amazon basin.

His comments came in response to a question on the matter from Cardinal Claudio Hummes.

Hummes is the president of the Episcopal Commission for the Amazon, according to the newspaper Il Messaggero.

The newspaper says Hummes asked Francis to consider ordaining viri probati, married men of great faith.

These men would be considered capable of ministering spiritually to the many remote communities in the Amazon.

There is a shortage of priests in the Amazon, and evangelical Christians and pagan sects are displacing Catholicism.

This does not mean Francis is considering opening the door for all Catholic priests to marry.

Dr. Kurt Martens, a canon lawyer and professor at The Catholic University of America, says the Pope's comments don't mean the door will open to the married priesthood throughout the Church.

He says the pope's response was specifically about whether "viri probati" or "proven men" of virtue and prudence could be ordained to the priesthood.

Some people think ordaining these men may resolve the shortage of priestly vocations in Brazil.

"Even if the synod would recommend or ask for the ordination of viri probati in the Pan-Amazon area, it is important to note that the Pope still would have to accept the request and make it into law, and it would most likely be limited to that area," Martens says.

"So we are not talking about changing the law on celibacy for the whole Church: it would be the ordination of viri probati for only that region."

In the Amazon region the ratio of Catholics to priests is 10,000 to one.

This is about three times the worldwide ratio of Catholics to priests throughout the world.

Monsignor Erwin Krautler, the secretary of the Episcopal Commission supports Hummes's request.

He has also suggested the bishops attending next year's synod on the Amazon should consider ordaining women deacons as priests.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• The Telegraph
• Bella Naija
• Image: petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang

In his first ever interview with a German newspaper yesterday, Francis discussed his attitude to the consecration of married men.

He said the shortage of priests around the world is an "enormous problem" that must be resolved.

At the same time though, he said "Voluntary celibacy is not the answer" to resolving the lack of clergy.

Instead, he stressed the importance of prayer to overcome the vocations crisis.

If the current regulation of celibacy for priests were changed and married men were considered, Francis said those selected would need to be viri probati, married men proven in faith and virtue.

The tasks these men would undertake would also need to be decided, he said.

The Church already allows some married non-Catholic clergymen who become Catholics to be ordained priests.

Furthermore, in some places - like Mexico - married deacons, selected by their bishops, are filling the roles of priests in areas where there are none.

Source

• National Catholic Register
• Katholische.de
• Image: fatherkapaun.org