Vatican considers ordaining older married men in remote parts of Amazon
from BBC News:
The Vatican has raised the idea of ordaining older married men as priests in the Amazon’s remote areas where there is a shortage of clergy, in what could be a historic shift, the BBC’s religion editor Martin Bashir reports.
The issue was raised in detail in Pope Francis’ landmark Encyclical on the Environment – Laudato Si – published in 2015.
He wrote that the region was confronting such challenges that it “requires structural and personal changes by all human beings, by nations and by the Church”.
The document outlines areas for discussion at the forthcoming Amazon Synod which will focus on the region in October; bishops and indigenous people from Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana are due to attend the event in Rome.
These nations comprise 33 million people and are the source of one-fifth of the world’s fresh water, one-fourth of all oxygen and more than one-third of global forest reserves.
The Vatican says the region represents a pastoral and environmental challenge – but it is the scarcity of priests that the Church can directly address.
And so this 45-page document, drafted after input from bishops conferences and local communities, suggests that the Synod in October should consider the possibility of ordaining elderly married men, who are respected in their communities.
It refers to “proven men of character” to deal with the shortage of priests – and says they should be outstanding members of the local Catholic community, with grown-up families.
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