Vatican Calls for Consideration of Married Priests in Remote Amazon

In a new document, the Vatican says the church should consider allowing women to perform ‘official ministry’

By Francis X. Rocca, Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2019

ROME—The Catholic Church should study the possibility of ordaining married men to serve as priests in remote parts of South America’s Amazon region, where many parishes have struggled to recruit clergy, the Vatican said in a document released on Monday.

The suggestions in Monday’s document were among several ideas put forwards by Catholics in the Amazon for inclusion in the agenda for October’s Synod of bishops in Rome.

The document, which sets the agenda for an assembly of bishops in October to discuss issues in the Amazon region from environmental problems to the plight of indigenous peoples, also suggests the church should consider allowing women to perform “official ministry,” leaving open what roles women would have.

The Amazon is one of the regions in the world where the Catholic Church has had the greatest problems finding priests to celebrate Mass and hear confessions among remote communities of believers. The difficulties have led the Vatican to consider extraordinary measures that could break with centuries of Catholic practice.

Catholic doctrine doesn’t require that priests be celibate, and married priests were common in early Christianity. But by the 16th century celibacy was the rule throughout the Roman Catholic Church. The relatively small Eastern Catholic Churches in Ukraine, Lebanon and elsewhere that follow the pope continue to allow married priests.

In recent decades, the Catholic Church has also ordained some married Protestant clergy, almost all of them Anglicans who converted to Catholicism.

Pope Francis has eased restrictions for married clergy among Eastern Catholics and former Anglicans. He has said the “door is always open” to the ordination of married men in remote areas such as the Amazon or Pacific islands, although he hasn’t approved the practice.

Monday’s report didn’t make clear which new functions in the church women might perform in the Amazon. The document could prompt further discussion of whether women should be ordained as deacons, a category of clergy who can play a role in liturgy, such as conducting marriages, but cannot celebrate Mass or hear confessions.

Pope Francis appointed a commission in 2016 to study whether the early Christian church ordained women as deacons, a historical precedent that could make it easier to justify women’s ordination today. Last month, however, the pope said the study had proved inconclusive.

Pope Francis appointed a commission in 2016 to study whether the early Christian church ordained women as deacons, a historical precedent that could make it easier to justify women’s ordination today. Last month, however, the pope said the study had proved inconclusive.

The ratio of Catholics to priests is especially high in South America at 7,200 to one, almost four times the ratio in North America, according to Vatican statistics for 2017. In some parts of the Amazon region, the ratio is more than 8,000 to one.

The suggestions in Monday’s document were among several ideas put forwards by Catholics in the Amazon for inclusion in the agenda for October’s Synod of bishops in Rome.

The document reaffirms the importance of priestly celibacy, calling it a “gift for the church.” But it asks the bishops to consider the ordination of “elders, preferably indigenous, respected and accepted by their community, even if they have a constituted and stable family, for the purpose of ensuring the sacraments which accompany and sustain the Christian life.”

Progressive Catholics hope, and conservatives fear, that a local exception could become a precedent for expanding the ordination of married men to other underserved areas, including parts of the U.S. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, 3,363 of the 17,007 parishes in the U.S. didn’t have a resident priest to lead them in 2018.

Article first appeared at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vatican-calls-for-consideration-of-married-priests-in-amazon-11560766860?mod=hp_listb_pos2