Vatican: let married men in Amazon be priests
Pope understood to back celibacy rule being relaxed to ease shortage of clerics in remote jungle areas
THE Vatican is suggesting allowing married men to become priests in the Amazon, in an unprecedented move that could pave the way for similar reforms in other parts of the world.
There is a drastic shortage of Catholic priests in the jungles, swamps and townships of the Amazon Basin, which is home to around 30million people, millions of them indigenous.
It is a vast area that extends across the boundaries of nine countries, from Peru and Bolivia to Brazil and Suriname.
In an attempt to alleviate the shortfall in clerics, the Vatican released a document yesterday in which it said the Catholic Church should consider allowing married men to become priests in remote areas.
The men would ideally be older, respected members of the community and would not have to give up their families if they wanted to be ordained.
The move – which is believed to have the backing of Pope Francis – would compromise the Catholic Church’s insistence that priests must be celibate.
The proposal will be put to a synod, or meeting of bishops, specifically dedicated to debating pastoral and environmental issues in the Amazon, due to be held in Rome in October.
“While affirming that celibacy is a gift for the Church, there have been requests that, for the most remote areas of the region, [the Church] studies the possibility of conferring priestly ordination on elderly men, preferably indigenous, respected and accepted members of their communities,” the document said.
The Amazon is so vast that some communities of Catholic faithful barely see a priest from month to month, meaning they are deprived of such fundamentals as attending Mass or giving a confession.
Conservatives fear that the move, if adopted, would be the thin edge of the wedge, encouraging other parts of the world to ask for the same dispensation.
“What is unprecedented is that this is the first time that the Vatican has proposed, in a synod document, that married men should be ordained,” Austen Ivereigh, a Vatican expert, said. “If there is consensus at the synod, then it would be put to the Pope.”
Two years ago, in an interview with Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper, the Pope suggested that he was open to the idea of so-called “viri probati” – married men of deep faith who are already involved in the Church – being allowed to become priests. It could apply not only to the Amazon but also to some remote Pacific islands, according to Francis, the first Pope to hail from South America.
Missionaries have described to the Pope the difficulties of ministering to such a diffuse flock in the Amazon.
There are two pockets of the Catholic world in which married priests are already permitted – Anglican ministers, who already have wives, who defect to Rome and some priests in the Eastern rite Catholic Churches, which includes Armenians and Maronites.