Vatican fights priest shortages in Amazon

istries” for women to play in the region.

The call was not a sugVATICAN CITY — The Vatigestion that women could can called Friday for coube ordained priests, which rageous proposals to cope Catholic doctrine forbids with a shortage of priests and Pope Francis has reaf- in the Amazon, and said it firmed. wouldn’t rule out debate But it leaves open the on whether married men door to making official some could step in to fill the “preministries that women in cariously-thin presence” of remote parts of Latin Amer- the Catholic Church in the ica already perform, includ- vast region. ing celebrating baptisms.

In a preparatory docund it calls for “new ment seeking input from ways” to increase access to South American bishops for the Eucharist in a part of the Vatican’s 2019 meeting the world where the church on the Amazon, organizers counts around one priest for also said the church must every 10,000 Catholics and identify new “official min- where remote communities

Acan go weeks or months at a time before a priest arrives to celebrate Mass.

The call for “courageous, daring and fearless” proposals suggests that the Vatican wants the region’s bishops to put forward concrete proposals on whether married men of proven virtue — so-called “viri probati” — could celebrate Mass in places where priests are in short supply. The “viri probati” proposal has been around for decades but has drawn fresh attention under history’s first Latin American pope thanks to his familiarity with the challenges facing the Amazon church.