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Pope Reported to Have Placed Married Priests on Amazonian Synod Agenda

John Phillips of The Telegraph (UK) reported this morning that Pope Francis has now “placed a request for Roman Catholic priests to be allowed to marry in Brazil on the agenda of a forthcoming synod on the Amazon region”. Phillips, citing Vatican sources in the Italian paper Il Messaggero, says that the decision to put “a partial lifting of priestly celibacy up for discussion and a possible vote” comes at the request of Cardinal Claudio Hummes, who heads up the commission of Amazonian bishops. The Synod on the Amazon will convene in 2019.

Last week, we reported that a proposal to this end written by the Austrian-born Amazonian bishop Erwin Kräutler was on the pope’s desk and under review. Kräutler had previously claimed that the pope had encouraged the bishops to “be courageous” in their proposals to deal with the challenges they face. Among those, for bishops in the Amazon, is a devastating priest shortage, with only some 18,000 priests serving a nation that is home to 140 million Catholics. Last December, liberation theologian and papal consultant Leonardo Boff said that he knew the pope had received an “explicit request” from “his friend” Cardinal Hummes, to consider allowing a relaxation of celibacy for priests in the Amazon region. “I have heard,” said Boff, in an interview with the German regional newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, “that the pope wants to meet this request – for now and for a certain experimental period in Brazil.”

Bishop Kräutler also recently said that John Paul II’s prohibition on the ordination of women in 1994 “certainly has a lasting effect, but it is not a dogma”. Elsewhere, he expressed hope that “Perhaps even Bishop Fritz Lobinger’s suggestion will be taken up”. Lobinger’s proposal, taken from his book, Like His Brothers and Sisters: Ordaining Community Leaders, has been described as

an experimental project whereby parish communities would be led by “teams of elders” selected from among their number and based on the earliest days of Christianity. These elders would not be clerics, though they would be sacramentally ordained priests. A celibate priest-animator would oversee these various ministry teams.

In a 2010 article in the National Catholic Reporter (cited here), Lobinger said that “ordaining proven local leaders could thus be the starting point for a solution” to overcoming the priest shortage. “Because the majority of proven local leaders are women,” he said, “it is unavoidable that the question of their inclusion among ordained elders will arise,” though he conceded that “present church law does not permit it.”

For now, it appears that the only consideration that has moved to the Amazonian synod agenda is that of married priests, though with the Vatican’s examination of the question of female deacons now well into its second year, and reported to also be suggested in Krautler’s proposal, it may yet wind up on the table in 2019.

42 thoughts on “Pope Reported to Have Placed Married Priests on Amazonian Synod Agenda”

  1. When will this nonsense end?

    The shortage of priests has most probably been caused by the deceptive teachings that have infiltrated the seminaries and anyone with an ounce of the true Catholic faith would have been discouraged to continue the process of becoming a priest, therefore, in essence, the shortage was man-made.

    Reply
    • The Synod is nothing more than a pretext; a Trojan Horse. It has nothing to do with the “Amazon”. The agenda, just like in the two phony, orchestrated “Synods” on the family is already determined as are the outcomes of these “discussions”.

      It wouldn’t surprise me if the final relatio is already written.

      Reply
  2. “The clergy are asked to return to their ancient lowliness and poverty,
    and in their ideas and action to be guided by the principles of
    Modernism; and there are some who, echoing the teaching of their
    Protestant masters, would like the suppression of ecclesiastical
    celibacy. What is there left in the Church which is not to be reformed
    according to their principles?”

    -St. Pius X

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  3. Wow……..who saw this coming??…………LOL!!

    Um…..how about everybody!

    These tactics are now so old and transparent that it’s ridiculous. We’ve seen it so many times. First, the camel puts its nose under the tent….just a smidgin, then it pushes it a little further……..then it puts its whole head in and finally it walks in pulling the tent down.

    The first and most obvious example is the Mass. Sacrosanctum concilium allows for expanded use of the vernacular in certain situations while Latin is, of course, to be retained as the liturgical language. Right. From this we move very rapidly to a situation where Latin is essentially prohibited and the vernacular is actually the liturgical language!

    Same thing happening here. First an end to celibacy will be …..*ahem*….”tested” in the Amazon. Very closely monitored, you understand……..then….well, is it really necessary to say what happens next? We’ve seen this horror movie numerous times by now, haven’t we? This tired old scoundrel of a pope just needs to retire to a commune for ageing hippies along with Marx, Kasper, Cocco and a few others who are light in the loafers.

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  4. Gee, you would think they could get some of their Lutheran friends to bridge the pastoral gap. After all, we be all one big happy family. And we don’t want the natives taking this ridged Catholic thing too seriously. It might disturb the ecological balance of Gaia.

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  5. Even if we assume that these proposals are being made out of good will to help the current state of the Church, these are clearly measures that treat just the symptoms and not the causes of the enormous faith crisis that is currently in Brazil and other parts of the World… these measures if implemented (God forbid) will probably only do more harm than good to the Church over the long run.

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  6. How is a man who reduced the numbers at his seminary from 200+ to 28 in the space of 12 years going to give any meaningful input on increasing priestly vocations? All they have to do is look at dioceses who are producing above-average levels of vocations and copy them. The only reason they don’t is because it would require bishops to teach the full orthodox Catholic Faith and most of them would rather ordain donkeys than do that.

    Assuming they do achieve their goals to begin the destruction of priestly celibacy, what married man in his right mind would put the fate and financial future of his wife and family in the hands of this Church at this time? Only a fool or a sycophant would be so reckless – not good material for priesthood.

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    • We are tired of paying for child abuse cases and all that filth already. Did they ask us if we want to support these foolish/sycophantic priestly families?

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    • Francis says he gets “worried” when he sees young, thriving religious orders with abundant vocations. Apparently, in his twisted world, this is a sign of sickness.

      Up is down, day is night and black is white. Welcome to the upside down world of a heretic in denial.

      Reply
    • A friend of mine who was a seminarian at FSSP in Kansas, once told me that even if you didn’t count the seminary, that their diocese has the highest number of vocations per capita of any American diocese. And it is the only one in the country that does not allow female altar boys. It is hard to avoid seeing a correlation between vocations and traditional practice. All they have to do is, like you said, copy the way of these dioceses.

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      • Exactly, it isn’t really rocket science, is it? Fidelity brings life and hence vocations. Infidelity brings barrenness and hence no vocations. People who don’t understand this have never understood the Bible.

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  7. The priest shortage is a manufactured shortage, like the Great Famine in Ireland was a manufactured famine: the country had plenty of food to feed the people besides the potatoes dying of the blight. but the English used their occupation army to escort the food to the ports. They they tried to produce soup, of all things, to feed people, and import American maize. Hell is surely a full place.

    As for this news, yet more straws on the camel’s back. At some point, snap! Revolutions are often foreseen but their actual explosive beginnings are rarely predicted with much accuracy. In the meantime, don’t be disheartened. Sing some of the hymn, “To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King, Who is the world’s Salvation”…it helps a lot.

    RC

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  8. The priest shortage has to be looked at from the sacramental priesthood by way of holy orders and the prophetic priesthood by way of our baptism. Our seraphic brother, St. Francis made it a point that his brothers would be only ordained in those numbers to provide for the lay brothers sacramental needs. After the split of the friars minor into the OFM, OFM.Cap, OFM.Conv. and the TOR separated from the Penitent / Secular Franciscans onto their own order by Pope Paul, IV in 1978, the picture became “cloudy” because the Bishops had a difficult time getting there hands around the Vactain II documents and the Lay faithful. In the absence of a priest, may it only be weekly or monthly or more, we have the Communion Service, the Eucharist meal and fellowship. And the Pernament Deaconate can stand up when invited by their bishops. Things are going very well. I am a professed lay Franciscan and very happy in my state of life! “The vineyard is abundant and the workers are few…”

    Reply
    • Sorry James. In the absence of a priest you got nothin’ Nothing else will substitute for an ordained priest. No priest, no sacrifice, no Body and Blood of Christ Jesus sacrificed to the Father. Stay away from anything else.

      BETTER to have NO MASS than to commit sacrilege by using the laity in place of a priest. Have we forgotten the decades when Catholics had NO MASS? The Nazis and Communists saw to it that Catholics could not fulfil their Sunday obligation. The sky did not fall, but the true faith was preserved. Obedience to God’s Laws is better than anything!

      Reply
  9. Just as the BSA did with their “progressive” membership policy changes – the latest being the full admittance of girls into the program – so goes the Catholic Church. The Church is taking small steps in a rapid fashion enabled (emboldened really) by the lack of clarity from the Vatican, therefore the “progressives” are marching out their interpretations without fear of rebuke. The cautious and concerned are pushed aside and ignored. A microcosm of the world today.

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  10. Well, I for one may start buying stock in firms that make ugly pantsuits on purpose. The sale of these awful garments will go through the roof when ‘wymin’ start getting the power they lust after. As for those poor neglected people in Brazil…maybe the Society of St. Pius X, and the Fraternity could start sending priests there? Like missionaries.

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  11. There is no problem with having married priests. The theological question is whether they should be perpetual continent. The early church had married priests. Presbyteros (elders/old) were selected by the bishop to lead the church and be ministers of the Divine Liturgy. Such old men, with the consent of their wives would not find the burden of perpetual continence to be too hard to bear. Eastern Rite churches and Orthodox have had married priests for centuries. IMHO this is a tempest in a tea pot for the Latin Rite.

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    • Sorry, you are COMPLETELY FAITHLESS IF YOU REALLY MEAN WHAT YOU SAID.
      We must avoid heretical “Francis” who is championing this evil—”Francis” who once said that if a priest under him falls in love he would “accompany him” to leave the priesthood and get married.

      As I wrote: “The Catholic Church has never allowed a priest to leave the priesthood and get married. This is a heretical invention promoted after Vatican II. Celibacy, in fact, has existed in one form or another throughout history and in virtually all the major religions of the world. It was common in the ancient world—when men were really religious and pious—to view sexual power as a rival to religious power, and the sexuality of the opposite sex as a polluting factor, especially in sacred or crisis situations. Even in the Old Testament times, there were prescribed periods of sexual abstinence in connection with rituals and sacrifices and the prosecution of holy wars. Hence we learn that King David—at a time when a war was going on between Israel and Rabba—after committing adultery with Urias’ wife, Bethsabee, and learning that she had become pregnant, sent for her husband, Urias, who was among those fighting the war, and tried different means of sending him to his house to sleep with his wife but in vain. “And Urias said to David: “The ark of God and Israel and Juda dwell in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord abide upon the face of the earth: and shall I go into my house, to eat and to drink, and to sleep with my wife? By thy welfare and by the welfare of thy soul I will not do this thing”. (2 Kings 11: 1-11). In post-Old Testament times, some members of the Essenes, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, rejected marriage, and the medieval Talmudic scholar Ben Azzai remained celibate. Our Lord Himself, speaking of celibacy, said, “…there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it”. (Matthew 19:12). The origin of priestly celibacy goes back to the first apostles of Christ who, for the sake of God’s kingdom, gave up marriage. As we read in the Gospel: “Then Peter answering, said to him: Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee: what therefore shall we have? And Jesus said to them: Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, OR WIFE, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possesses life everlasting”. (Matthew 19:27-29). St. Paul, who was celibate, writes: “…It is good for a man not to touch a woman…For I would that all men were even as myself: but every one hath his proper gift from God; one after this manner, and another after that.” (1 Corinthians 9:1&7).

      “A priest”, says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “may be defined as one who, as a mediator, performs the sacred function of communicating through rites the needs of the people to heaven and the sacred power and presence from heaven to the congregation. His function is objective. Its efficacy is assured if the priest conducts the proper rite and has the proper qualifications of ordination and, perhaps, of ritual purity, regardless of whether he is particularly moral or fervent. Celibacy serves as such an objective mark of special state and ritual purity.” The point to note here is that the main purpose of priestly celibacy is ritual purity required for sacerdotal rites—this is different from another type of celibacy associated with monasticism, the main purpose of which is moral and spiritual advancement. Today we are often given the false impression (by some perverts among the clergy who, like Martin Luther who renounced his vow of celibacy and married the former nun Katherina von Bora, are intoxicated with sex) that “Well, celibacy is not a dogma. Priests in the early centuries were married and priests today can still marry.” But the fact is that, even at the so-called “time when priests were married”, it was common for ordained men to give up sexual relations with their wives. In fact the reason why some of them had wives in the first place was because they had been married before they took the decision to become priests—so having become priests, some gave up their wives. (Matthew 19:12; 27-29). (Such actions are unthinkable today only because modern men and women have become extraordinarily canal—intoxicated with sex!). These perverts will never mention the regional Council of Elvira in Spain (c. AD 306) which decreed that all priests and bishops, married or not, should abstain from sexual relations—or the ecumenical Council of Nicaea (AD 325) which forbade priests to live with women other than their mothers, sisters, or aunts.

      “Note that all I’ve been describing took place between the apostolic times and the fourth century. Thus when Pope St. Gregory VII championed the compulsory clerical celibacy in the 11th century, it wasn’t really seen as something new. Celibacy, then, was only made a part of church law—at the first and second Lateran Councils (1123 and 1139) which abolished clerical marriage and thus established the official and still-existing position of the Roman Catholic Church.” http://traditionalcatholicisminnigeria.blogspot.com.ng/2017/01/nigerian-clergy-following-manifestly.html

      Reply

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