Vatican assembly also calls for further study on ordaining women as deacons

By Francis X. Rocca, All Street Journal, October 26, 2019

VATICAN CITY—A gathering of bishops at the Vatican recommended on Saturday that Pope Francis loosen the celibacy requirement for priests in South America’s Amazon region—a step that would lead to the Roman Catholic Church ordaining married men on a routine basis for the first time in 1,000 years.

Responding to what they said was a grievous priest shortage in the sparsely populated Amazon that they said left some Catholic communities waiting “not just months but even several years” for a visit from a priest, the bishops asked the pope to establish criteria and procedures for the ordination as priests of “suitable and esteemed men of the community … having a legitimately constituted and stable family.”

The proposals on celibacy and women deacons were the least popular with the assembly of the 120 recommendations presented to the pope, including many on the Amazon’s environmental problems and the challenges of ministering there. But both proposals passed the voting threshold of two-thirds of the 181 members eligible to vote. One hundred and twenty eight members voted for married priests, with 41 opposed. One hundred and thirty seven voted for the study of women deacons, with 30 opposed.

The final decision on the proposal lies with the pope, who told bishops on Saturday evening that he hoped to respond to the synod’s reactions in a papal teaching document by the end of the year. He didn’t specifically refer to the proposal for married priests. In the past, he has said that he is open to the possibility in areas such as the Amazon or remote Pacific islands.

The bishops also recommended that the pope study further the possibility of ordaining women as deacons, clergy who can officiate at baptisms, marriages and funerals but not celebrate Mass or hear confessions.

The ordination of women as clergy has been a major goal of those who seek a more prominent role for women in the church.

Pope Francis has said that the “door is closed” to women priests, but in 2016 he established a commission to study the historical basis for women deacons. He announced earlier this year that the commission had been unable to agree on a conclusion and that further study was needed. In his closing speech to the bishops on Saturday evening, the pope said he would ask the commission to resume its work with new members, in coordination with the Vatican’s doctrinal office.

The question of married priests was the most controversial on the agenda of the three-week synod. Critics of the proposal argued that it would undermine the distinctive character of the priesthood and that such a large change shouldn’t be decided at an assembly for a single region, since it would potentially affect the whole church. Bishops in Germany are already planning to discuss celibacy at a series of meetings with lay Catholics beginning in January.

The proposals on celibacy and women deacons were the least popular with the assembly of the 120 recommendations presented to the pope, including many on the Amazon’s environmental problems and the challenges of ministering there. But both proposals passed the voting threshold of two-thirds of the 181 members eligible to vote. One hundred and twenty eight members voted for married priests, with 41 opposed. One hundred and thirty seven voted for the study of women deacons, with 30 opposed.

Much of the excitement outside the synod hall focused on the presence at several events of wood statues portraying a naked pregnant woman.

Vatican spokesmen said the statues were Amazonian symbols of fertility, but some conservative Catholics characterized them as “pagan idols” out of place in Catholic settings. Earlier this week, protesters stole several of the statues from a church near the Vatican and threw them into the Tiber river, publicizing their action on a YouTube video.

On Friday, the pope apologized for the theft and told the bishops that they had been recovered by Italian authorities. He also raised the possibility that the statues, which he identified as Pachamama, the name of an Andean fertility goddess, would appear in St. Peter’s Basilica at Mass on Sunday.

Article first appeared HERE