Of course, they feel threatened. Would a starving man feel threatened working with a chef?

I believe that the option of marriage for parish priests must come before the ordination of women in the Catholic Church.

I'll explain through question and answer, but first, an introduction to my own background.

My father was Scottish Presbyterian, my mother was Brethren. Jesus has always been a part of my life. I grew up in many churches, and found something in all of them, but ran out of space.

Catholic influence came through books and then through other people.

Eventually, I received instruction and entered the Catholic Church.

I had come home.

Five years later, my priest friend Terry Coles wanted to marry me.

Terry knew there were Anglican priests in my family, and he suggested we both become Anglicans.

I told Terry I had to remain Catholic.

We had support from Catholic clergy and Women Religious, but generally, laypeople seemed convinced we were going to hell.

Now I'd like to clear up some of the misinformation that is still out there.

Were the apostles celibate?

No. They were Jews, and marriage was important.

In 1 Corinthians 9:5, Paul writes: "Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?" (RSV)

In the Jerusalem Bible, "woman" is described as a "Christian wife."

Cephas was Peter, who was in Rome when Paul's letter was written. I doubt that you will find any reference to Mrs Peter in the Vatican.

Why were the apostles' wives not mentioned in the Gospels?

For the same reason that electricity is not mentioned in modern books.

Marriage was taken for granted.

We must also remember that Jesus did not leave writings, and neither did the apostles. It was the followers of the apostles who recorded the stories handed down to them.

Was Jesus married?

Probably not. But he loved and respected women.

Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus rebuke a woman for lack of faith.

We are told he had special friends in Martha and Mary and Mary of Magdala. When he was resurrected, he chose to appear first to Mary of Magdala.

Why would he say to her, "Do not touch me" if he wasn't accustomed to having her embrace him?

Women were not a part of Jesus' ministry

Really?

Let us read between the lines. Jesus' ministry began with his mother at the wedding in Cana. He thought he wasn't ready, but she knew he was ready.

Remember when Jesus believed that his ministry was to be to the lost children of Israel?

When he sent his disciples out, he told them not to go to Samaria or the Pagan Territories.

In Samaria, Jesus preached to Samaritans after his conversation with the woman at the well.

In the Pagan territories, he also preached to people after a woman challenged him to heal her daughter. We could say that both these women were instrumental in making his mission global.

In the Catholic tradition, priests have always been celibate

No. That is not true. Priests, bishops, and popes were married.

However, there came a time when Church property was being handed down to children. So the priesthood became celibate.

I suspect there is some truth in the saying, "The love of money is the root of all evil."

But priests need to be celibate to freely serve. They can't do this if they are looking after a family

My experience of other churches, especially the Anglican, tells me that the married priest has a spouse and family to help him or her in ministry. In Orthodox churches, celibacy is for the Religious. Parish priests must be married before they go into a parish.

Mistakes can happen, so one divorce is allowed, but not more than one. This seems to work.

But it costs money to raise a family. How would the Catholic Church cope with that?

How is the Catholic Church coping with payment for abuse cases?

If we walk away from nature, it will pursue us.

I know good men abused by priests when they were young, but they have not made this public because they love their Church. But what about those who have made claims? What has that cost the Church?

Do I think women will become priests?

Yes, I do.

Even in Biblical times, women were priests.

Miriam, sister of Moses, was made High Priest with Aaron.

St Paul mentions Phoebe, a woman who looked after several churches in Chencre. What do we call someone who looks after several churches? A bishop?

There will be women priests, but I think that marriage for parish priests must come first. My hope for this is with our compassionate and wise Pope Francis.

It is said that if a priest marries, the marriage will fail

That is political nonsense.

My husband Terry left his body six months ago. He was 92, and in 32 years of lovely marriage, I believe we have done more for our Church than we could have done separately.

Have I wanted to be a priest?

No.

My call is to the laity, and my heart lies with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I love the Catholic Church.

I love the beauty of our Faith, the messiness of our history, and that great mixture of the human and the Divine.

I am a year older than our Pope, and I will remain Catholic to the end of my last breath. But in the time left, I pray that I will see married priests.

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

The child they are expecting has been diagnosed with a serious heart condition.

Father Tomas Hlavaty (pictured) will now be formally removed from the priesthood and returned to the lay state, says Bishop Marco Brunetti of Alba, who praised Hlavaty's "great transparency and sense of responsibility".

Never choose abortion

Hlavaty says prenatal diagnoses have revealed the unborn child has a serious heart defect which will require a series of surgeries after birth.

Nevertheless, he and the child's mother are determined to give the baby the chance to "discover this marvellous world that's life" he says.

"Already at three, four months, the child moved, there's life there" he says.

"Please, never choose abortion."

Celibacy debate renews

Hlavaty's situation has renewed the debate over priestly celibacy.

Crux Now reports that the debate probably reflects Hlavaty's popularity with his parishioners who are publicly lamenting his departure from the six small towns he has served.

Mayor Piercarlo Biestro of Feisoglio, one of the six communities Hlavaty cared for, wishes him well while adding that he's also disappointed.

"Not for Father Tomas, whom we all wish well, but because he's always been appreciated by our communities, above all by the young people for whom he gave a lot."

Brunetti called on Catholics to support Hlavaty and his new family in prayer.

"We're called, in our prayers and in our feelings, to support those who find themselves in difficulty and to continue together to build a Church which, despite its human frailty, is ever more a sign of hope" he said.

A new life

Italian newspaper La Repubblica says Hlavaty has described the circumstances that led to his decision.

"I loved being a priest and I loved the people around me" Hlavaty said.

He told La Repubblica that during the 20 years since he arrived in Italy from his native Slovakia, he discerned his vocation and was eventually ordained a priest in 2015.

While being involved in several ministries, he met a woman and fell in love. Their child is due to be born in December.

La Repubblica says Hlavaty has been absent from his parish for the last two months, the explanation being that he was dealing with unspecified health issues.

He has since said he and the woman he loves plan to move out of the area, where he'll seek work to support his family.

"For the future, I hope to be a good father even if I have very limited experience" Hlavaty said. "But I'm sure of one thing: I'm madly in love with the person with whom I want to spent the rest of my life, and having a child is the most beautiful news a man can have. I'll give it my all."

Source

• Crux Now

Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, suggested fostering a true witness to the Faith could reverse the trend.

Cardinal You was visiting Knock for the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors.

The conference coincided with the Year for Vocations to the Diocesan Priesthood, a national initiative aimed at addressing the decline in priestly vocations in Ireland.

In an interview with The Irish Catholic, Cardinal You highlighted the necessity of promoting priesthood within families. He underscored that simply calling for an end to the ban on priests marrying does not effectively address the root causes of the vocations crisis.

As evidence, the cardinal pointed to the Orthodox Church where marriage is permitted yet vocations have also declined.

Vocations urged within families

Cardinal You urged lay faithful to actively encourage vocations within their families and communities, emphasising the importance of nurturing a culture that values religious life.

He noted a disparity between those vocalising support for married priests in public forums and their reluctance to encourage their own children to pursue a religious vocation.

"I don't want to cause any controversy obviously, but there are those who are shouting aloud. Their voices are quite loud in the public forum and they would not be stepping up to encourage their son or their daughter to pursue a religious life."

Reflecting on the synodal process and the evolving role of clergy in a changing Church, Cardinal You addressed the inclusive nature of the Church encompassing bishops, priests, religious and laity. He emphasised the collective responsibility of all Christians to live out the teachings of the Gospel, fostering a community grounded in love for God and neighbour.

The Cardinal's stance contrasts with recent calls from some Vatican figures to re-examine clerical celibacy.

For instance, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta earlier this year expressed support for making celibacy optional. "If it were up to me, I would revise the requirement that priest(s) have to be celibate" Scicluna told the Times of Malta.

However, as Cardinal Mario Grech confirmed, the issue of mandatory celibacy is not set down for discussion at the upcoming synodal meetings in October.

Sources

The Irish Catholic

CathNews New Zealand

Sadly, in many parts of the world there is a Eucharistic famine, precisely because there are no priests to celebrate the Eucharist. This problem has been going on for decades and is only getting worse.

Last year, the Vatican reported that while the number of Catholics worldwide increased by 16.2 million in 2021, the number of priests decreased by 2,347.

As a result, on average there were 3,373 Catholics for every priest in the world (including retired priests), a rise of 59 people per priest.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate reports that in 1965 there were 59,426 priests in the United States. In 2022, there were only 34,344 .

Over much the same period, the number of Catholics has increased to 72.5 million in 2022, from 54 million in 1970.

Priests are also getting older. In 2012, a CARA study found that the average age of priests rose to 63 in 2009, from 35 in 1970.

When a Jesuit provincial, the regional director of the order, told Jesuits at a retirement home not long ago that there was a waiting list to get in, a resident wag responded, "We are dying as fast as we can."

In many rural areas of the United States, priests no longer staff parishes but simply visit parishes once a month or less frequently. In 1965, there were only 530 parishes without priests. By 2022, there were 3,215 according to CARA.

All of these numbers are only going to get worse.

In the early 1980s, the archbishop of Portland came to a rural parish to tell them they would no longer have a priest and that most Sundays they would have a Scripture service, not a Mass.

A parishioner responded, "Before the Second Vatican Council, you told us that if we did not go to Mass on Sunday, we would go to hell.

After the Council, you told us that the Eucharist was central to the life of the Church. Now you are telling us that we will be just like every other Bible church in our valley."

Many American bishops have tried to deal with the shortage by importing foreign priests to staff parishes, but Vatican statistics show that the number of priests worldwide is also decreasing.

New U.S. immigration rules are also going to make it more difficult to employ foreign priests in the United States.

The Catholic hierarchy has simply ignored the obvious solution to this problem for decades.

Under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the discussion of married priests was forbidden. Leaders in the hierarchy tended to live in large cities where the shortage had less of an impact than in rural areas.

Even Pope Francis, who expressed his respect for married clergy in Eastern Catholic churches, did not respond positively when the bishops meeting at the Synod for the Pan-Amazon Region voted 128-41 to allow married deacons to become priests.

At the recent meeting of the Synod on Synodality, the issue of married priests was hardly mentioned.

The decline in the number of vocations has many explanations depending on whom you ask. Conservatives blame the reforms coming out of the Second Vatican Council.

Certainly, the council did emphasise the holiness of marriage and the vocation of the laity. Priests seemed less special after the council.

Prior to the council, only a priest could touch the consecrated host. Today, lay ministers of Communion do so at nearly every Mass.

However, sociologists note that vocations decline when families have fewer children and when children have greater educational and employment opportunities.

Thus, in a family with only one or two children, the parents prefer grandchildren to a son who is a priest.

And, in the past, priests were the most educated person in the community and therefore had great status. Today, parishes can have many lawyers, doctors and other professionals, and becoming a priest does not confer the status it used to.

Those who point to the continued increases in vocations in Africa and Asia need to listen to the sociologists.

Already, there are fewer vocations in urban areas of India where families have fewer children and more opportunities for education are available.

Africa and Asia are not the future of the church. They are simply slower in catching up with modernity.

Anti-clericalism has also impacted vocations, first in Europe and now in America. Priests are no longer universally respected. They are often treated with ridicule and contempt. Being a priest is counter-cultural.

Despite this, there are still many Catholics who are willing to take up this vocation. People are being called to priesthood, but the hierarchy is saying no because those who feel called are married, gay or women.

A 2006 survey by Dean Hoge found that nearly half of the young men involved in Catholic campus ministry had "seriously considered" ministry as a priest, but most also want to be married and raise a family.

Having a married clergy will not solve all the church's problems, as we can see in Protestant churches.

Married ministers are involved in sex abuse, have addictions and can have the same clerical affectations as any celibate priest. But every employer will tell you that if you increase the number of candidates for a job, the quality of the hire goes up.

Nor is allowing priests to marry simply about making them happier. For the Catholic Church it is a question of whether we are going to have the Eucharist or not.

At the Last Supper, Jesus said, "Do this in memory of me." He did not say, "Be celibate."

• First published by Religion News Service
• Thomas J. Reese is a Jesuit priest, is a Senior Analyst at Religion News Service. Previously he was a columnist at the National Catholic Reporter (2015-17) and an associate editor (1978-85) and editor in chief (1998-2005) at America magazine.

I personally hope the synod deals with these issues, but making these topics the principal focus of the synod would be a big mistake.

They certainly are not central to Pope Francis's mind, nor are they central to the "Instrumentum laboris," or working paper, that will guide the initial meetings of the synod.

For the "Instrumentum laboris" and Pope Francis, the priority issues are communion, participation and mission.

If the synod does not foster greater communion, participation and mission, then it will be a failure.

Pope Francis' hope is that the fruit of the next assembly will be that the Spirit inspires the church to walk together as the people of God in fidelity to the mission the Lord has entrusted to it.

Communion is central to who we are as church.

According to the "Instrumentum laboris," citing the Second Vatican Council, the church is a sign and instrument of union with God and the unity of all humanity. People should see this union with God and this human unity in the life of the church.

The church should be a preeminent way for people to attain this union. Fostering that communion is at the heart of what it means to be a synodal church.

If we forget that while we squabble over who can or cannot be a minister, then we miss the point.

Likewise, arguing over who can be a priest should not make us forget that we are all responsible for the church's mission in service of the gospel.

If we all accepted our responsibility for the church's mission, the clergy would be much less important to the church's life.

Our need for communion and our co-responsibility for the mission lead to questions about participation, governance and authority — where authority is service and decisions are made through discernment.

Participation and discernment are not simply for the synod; they are the lifeblood of every local church.

This is not to say the synod will ignore real problems in the world.

The "Intrumentum laboris" reports the particular situations experienced by the church in different parts of the world.

These include too many wars, the threat of climate change, as well as "exploitation, inequality and a throwaway culture, and the desire to resist the homogenizing pressure of cultural colonialism that crushes minorities." Added to this is "persecution to the point of martyrdom," as well as self-inflicted wounds of sexual abuse and the abuse of power, conscience and money in the church.

But these problems will not be solved by resolutions or documents, according to Francis, but through greater communion, co-responsibility in mission and increased participation in the life of the church.

In other words, even if I got what I wanted out of the synod — married priests and women priests — but the church became less a sign and instrument of union with God and the unity of all humanity, then the synod would not have achieved its goals.

If I got what I wanted, and the church remained clerical with a passive laity, then the synod would have been a failure.

If we continued as usual with just different people in charge, then we missed the revolution Pope Francis is calling for.

Progressives are thinking too small.

Through the synod, Francis is calling for a spiritual shake-up much greater than anyone can imagine.

He is not looking for a few thousand new clergy to keep the church going.

He wants a mass movement that makes the gospel alive in our time. On the other hand, conservative Catholics fear this movement will get out of control.

They want the Spirit to be under the thumb of hierarchy.

According to the "Instrumentum laboris," this revolution has already begun in the preparations for the synod:

"The first phase renewed our awareness that our identity and vocation is to become an increasingly synodal Church: walking together, that is, becoming synodal, is the way to truly become disciples and friends of that Master and Lord who said of himself: ‘I am the way' (Jn 14:6)."

The spiritual conversations that have occurred in parishes and dioceses around the world have already fostered communion and helped people become more aware of their responsibility for the mission of the church in service of the gospel.

The synodal church began growing at the grassroots and hopefully will bloom at the synod in Rome.

The hope is that the synod will "continue to animate the synodal process in the ordinary life of the church, identifying which pathways the Spirit invites us to walk along more decisively as one People of God," according to the "Instrumentum laboris."

Pope Francis is betting his papacy on the hope that these local ripples of synodality will combine into a tsunami that will transform the church so that it is truly a sign and instrument of communion with God and the unity of all humanity.

The church will become God's instrument for the transformation of the world.

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

The group notes that calls to rethink the celibacy requirement have circulated in various Catholic arenas of late, from the pope's own Synod for the Amazon to the recently concluded "synodal path" of the German Catholic Church.

Called the "Association of Married Priests," the group elected a new president March 20, a former priest from Naples named Natalino Mele.

"In view of the synod, we're preparing our proposal, which obviously won't be the only one," Mele said. "What's happening in Germany is reason for hope … it's an acceleration towards change."

In a recent interview with an Argentine news agency called Infobae, Pope Francis addressed the issue of priestly celibacy. He referred to it as a "provisional" discipline in the Latin church, which is not essential to the priesthood.

When asked whether the celibacy requirement could be changed, the pontiff responded positively.

"Yes, yes," he said. "In fact, everyone in the Eastern Church is married, or those who want to. There they make a choice. Before ordination, (they have) the choice to marry or to be celibate."

At the same time, Francis expressed skepticism that lifting the celibacy requirement would increase the number of candidates for the priesthood. Read More

Francis spoke with Argentine journalist Daniel Hadad.

"There is no contradiction for a priest to marry.

"Celibacy in the Western Church is a temporary prescription: I do not know if it is settled in one way or another, but it is temporary in this sense," Francis said.

"It is not eternal like priestly ordination, which is forever, whether you like it or not. Whether you leave or not is another matter, but it is forever.

"On the other hand, celibacy is a discipline."

When asked if celibacy "could be reviewed," Francis responded: "Yes, yes. In fact, everyone in the Eastern Church is married. Or those who want to. There they make a choice.

"Before ordination, there is the choice to marry or to be celibate."

It isn't likely making celibacy optional would lead more people to join the priesthood, Francis said.

He noted there are already married priests in the Catholic Church in the Eastern rites.

The also said earlier that day he had met with an Eastern Catholic priest who works in the Roman Curia who has a wife and a son.

Back in 2019, Francis's personal view on celibacy was that it is "a gift to the Church".

At that time he said, "I would say that I do not agree with allowing optional celibacy, no."

He also said he thought there was room to consider some exceptions for married clergy in the Latin rite "when there is a pastoral necessity" in remote locations due to a lack of priests, such as in the Pacific islands.

Francis also outlined his views on a number of issues of interest to the 21st century Church.

Homosexuality

Asked about homosexuality, and whether he would give communion to a gay person who complied with church teaching, Francis did not give a direct answer.

Instead he said:

"... if a person is gay but is honest and seeks God, "who am I to judge?"

Parents with gay children should not kick them out, but keep them at home and "accompany them".

Speaking against the criminalisation of homosexuality in certain countries he mentions inclusion.

"The great answer is given by Jesus: Everyone. All. Everyone is inside. When the exquisite ones didn't want to go to the banquet: go there to the crossroads and call everyone, good, bad, old, young: everyone," he said. The Church is made up of sinners.

Divorced and remarried Catholics

Francis has a suggestion for divorced and remarried Catholics. "I advise separated couples to go to their bishop, go and present their situation to him," and see what the bishop advises.

Women at the Vatican

More women working in and around the Vatican are necessary because "machismo is bad. And sometimes celibacy can lead to machismo," Francis says.

The economy

In the pope's opinion, both the social market economy and market capitalism are depersonalising. But a social market economy, as John Paul II defined it, "I think it is the one that is appropriate to the thought of the Church," Francis says.

Source

• CNA
• CruxNow

I want to emphasize the call to mission. This is indeed what the Lord asks for in the final lines of the Gospels, including that of Saint Matthew.

We suffer when we see that there are people in the Church who are obstacles to the encounter with God.

The urgency of a more faithful Church was received with such force that the synodal consultation began at the same time as France's Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) published its report was published.

As for the whole of society, the difficulty lies in the exercise of authority.

The Church is suspected of abuse, of not respecting minorities and even of covering up abuse, and Pope Francis has expressed this well by pointing out that the three types of abuse - abuse of power, as well as spiritual and sexual abuse - often feed off each other.

Many words, or writings, conclude that the cause of all this is the specificity of priests and bishops, meaning both their lifestyle, including celibacy, and the authority they exercise in the Church.

They say that changing both would be the remedy for the excesses that have produced so many offenses and crimes.

A possible path forward

I resist this causal link.

I might be told that the reasons for my resistance is that I am defending and justifying who I am: a celibate and an archbishop. I want to go beyond this argument that stops all reflection.

Both the CIASE report and the synodal syntheses question the systematic character of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church of the Latin Rite — it must be remembered that the Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite have preserved the tradition of a married or celibate clergy.

I have spoken about the possibility of the Latin Church ordaining married men to the priesthood.

This possibility would not be a solution to the number of priests, which is estimated to be low in Europe today, nor would it be a guarantee against possible deviances, especially sexual ones.

I have written the reasons why I believe this path is possible and undoubtedly desirable. But this would not call into question the possibility of a celibate clergy, nor would it lead current priests to be able to marry.

Indeed, the Gospel calls for fidelity to commitments, and the tradition of the Church commits those whom it ordains to remain in the state which they were when they were ordained.

A misunderstood choice

Many years ago, I did not want to consider the possibility of ordaining married men because I saw in it an argument that would be understood as denying all meaning given to celibacy.

I am aware, as are many priests that our choice of celibacy is often misunderstood, even mocked, or even suspected of not being faithfully lived out in private.

Without deluding myself about the falls and failures and without presuming to speak for others, I want to express everything about the meaning behind the celibacy that I strive to live.

Even if there were married priests, it would still make sense to me... how can one not find meaning in what one lives?

First of all, I want to affirm that I did not choose to be a priest, I was called to it.

Of course, none of this happened without my consent, nor even without my expressing a certain expectation and a certain desire, but it is through being called that I am a priest.

The Church, through men and women, has been the interpreter and the servant of God's call.

Excellent priests, but bad celibates

As for celibacy, I chose it. Others like me have discerned and verified their ability to be a priest in the Catholic Church in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but it was I, myself, who perceived that celibacy suited me.

Of course, this celibacy is the corollary of my availability to be a priest, but it must also correspond to a human and psychological state, allowing me to experience it as a path of humanization.

I have known several young people who had the desire to be priests, but they could not see themselves living without a wife or children. They would have made excellent priests, I am certain, but bad celibates.

The rule of mandatory celibacy thus deprives the Catholic Church of some excellent priests and some excellent pastors.

There is certainly no one way to live out priestly celibacy, as psychologies and cultures are different.

Of course, this life makes you feel the absence... of an emotional life, of a sexual life, of touching someone else's body. The absence of children, of intellectual intimacy... For each person, the absence will take on a different aspect.

Yet, what human life is not without some kind of absence? It is a lie to think that a person could experience everything that the human race knows.

Attitudes of seduction

Each one of us lacks something; it is the consumer society that seeks to make it unbearable, to immediately offer a remedy with an object which, for hard cash, will fill it.

However, one must learn to live with absences, to suffer from them, and to find ways of sublimation. It seems to me that this is the way to envisage a life of celibacy before finding spiritual or religious reasons for it.

These reasons certainly count, but if they are not anchored in the heart of the person, they run the risk of being nothing more than external justifications that will not nourish one's existence.

The consequence will be to seek gratification in the eyes of others, or even to beg for it, developing attitudes of seduction, including religious and spiritual ones, even to the point of taking control. The person who behaves in this way will never acquire true freedom for himself and will not allow others to grow in freedom.

Rather, it is a man who is called to be a priest, and a man who has been verified as being more or less balanced!

Attachment to Christ

I am increasingly convinced that the priestly celibacy, which has been understood and lived above all as a means of availability for mission, can and will only make sense - notwithstanding human capacities - for spiritual reasons, thus coming closer to the celibacy of religious and consecrated persons.

The conditions of Christian life in a secularized world have done away with the social and reputational rewards that priests previously received. This affects all Christians.

Therefore, without a life of attachment to the person of Christ, a life of prayer and of giving, all believers - including priests - can feel a loss of meaning in their lives.

We must always be aware that we live not by what we do, but by the gift of ourselves; without having the exclusive right to do so, celibacy is an expression of this.

• Pascal Wintzer is the Archbishop of Poitiers in Western France. He currently heads the Observatory on Faith and Culture within the French Bishops' Conference.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

But after some discussion, a solidly based argument (not based on dubious notions of ritual purity) is presented: how could these married men learn all that a presbyter needs to know in a short time?

Then it is decided that, no, the problem is too big to be overcome and so it is best to shelve that whole idea. TINA rules - There Is No Alternative to the status quo!

Even those bishops who are prepared to grant that it would be pastorally beneficial to change the Latin Church's discipline of mandatory celibacy and ordain "up-right married men" (viri probati), seem stunned into silence by "the insuperable problem" of training such men.

Ordaining viri probati might solve a practical shortage, but could they be trained?

The Catholic priest, so the argument goes, is a highly trained professional - and well-matched to the laity's needs. So, first of all, how could one get the equivalent without taking the vir probatus away from his family and work for six or seven years of training in a seminary?

Secondly, it is argued that prior to the Tridentine seminary we had a poorly educated clergy and this led to abuses, and, eventually, the Reformation. So, by contrast, a long "formation" ensures avoiding abuses, ecclesial contentment and orthodoxy.

And, thirdly, the re-emergence of permanent deacons has often been unsuccessful, and this is usually seen as resulting from poor training: presbyters would pose even greater problems.

Reality Check

One assumption in these arguments is that the 6-7 year seminary model is not only fit for purpose, but is a measure for all other ministerial training.

Does our experience bear this out?

First, the fact that dioceses struggle to provide on-going formation to priests is an admission that the seminary is not the be-all-and-end-all. There is also a growing awareness that the demands of preaching and presiding call for skills never imagined in a world of "getting Mass" and "Father knows best".

Any group of Catholics will bear this out: the role of preacher/teacher is seen as one where many clergy fail. Coupled with this is the demand to provide ministry in complex situations that cannot be foreseen in seminary: thus, learning new skills is an on-going and necessary process.

Second, in any practical situation the amount of training that can be given before actual engagement is very limited. You only know what you need to know after you are on the job.

Seminaries seek to address this with pastoral experiences, but many priests only find out that they should have studied more Old Testament, for instance, when it comes home to them that people hear these readings, ask questions, and they have not "bothered" with what then seemed irrelevant.

This is exacerbated when seminarians are mainly ordination-focused and view their training (particularly the "academic" part) merely as the obstacle course prior to the bishop laying his hands on their heads. As I have often heard: "When you have a stole on you, none of this will matter!"

Thirdly, while there has been some re-thinking about seminaries since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the traditional length of training was determined simply by the need to keep young men in college until ordination age.

While the years of "philosophy" used to be seen as offering a broad intellectual training (it included natural philosophy: i.e. science), they now focus on philosophy as an adjunct to theology.

The seminary, moreover, emerged within the Renaissance model of the mind as an empty vessel to be filled: control the inputs, and one might produce the perfect actor. It is an idea seen in the very name seminarium (L. seed plot). But reality, as we continue to learn painfully, is a little more complex than that!

Lastly, given that entry to a seminary involves willingness to become a celibate presbyter, there is a limited pool of candidates.

If they would take on "the demands of the priesthood", then intellectual curiosity, the ability to learn and willingness to engage in professional training often took second place.

Seminaries are not ideal. They are just one solution, in one situation. And they produce very mixed results.

An educated clergy

Seminaries are excellent for forming a group with a clear corporate sense and esprit de corps: a clergy.

It has often been noted that while universities speak of "education" (focusing on developing the individual's talent), seminaries - along with military academies - speak of "formation": learning to think with the group, act together and become familiar with the group's standard procedures and goals.

There is a direct link between seminaries and clericalism - and, as such, we have been badly served by the current system. Indeed, seminaries allow students to imagine that serving the group to which they belong - the clergy - is equivalent to serving the Church.

Faced with constant references to "seminary experience" or "deep formation" that one hears as objections to the viri probati solution, one wonders if there is not some deep-seated fear that such non-seminary training might undermine the "club experience" of the clerical world.

There is often a refusal to admit that the much-vaunted seminary system has left so many clergy poorly formed and professionally under-skilled. One wonders if it is a smokescreen from a deeper, perhaps unconscious, attachment to 'the corps' that pushes the notion of the minister (one who is there to serve his sisters and brothers) into the background.

Experiential learning

One of the quiet educational revolutions of the past fifty years has been our growing understanding of how adults learn: andragogy as distinct from pedagogy.

With this has come a range of teaching techniques that are appropriate for those who have learned how to learn, who learn within the context of their lives and learn because they know why they want to learn.

To engage in a learning experience with adults, aged 30 and over, is very different from lecturing young people whose brains (up to roughly age 25) are still developing and for whom "life" is still a future adventure. The volunteer adult learner knows how he or she learns, owns the learning and is aware that learning does not stop when the course is completed.

Because teaching adults is a distinct activity, we have evolved the knowhow to do this without long periods of institutional residence. Just observe the success of variations of the Open University around the world. Adults may not absorb "formation", but that may result simply in being less recognizable as clergy rather than deficient as ministers.

"I am among you as one who serves" (Lk 22, 27). This needs to be our guide, rather than the idea of the sacerdotal professional who possesses sacral powers.

If an aspect of the probatio of these married men is that they have learned to learn, and know that learning is a life-long challenge, then the biggest hurdle in their training is already overcome. Such men may be less docile as clerics within Church structures but may be more flexible as focal points among the People of God as we make our pilgrim way to unknown futures.

We do not know if the Catholic Church will finally grasp this problem. In the aftermath of this coronavirus crisis, many new pastoral strategies will have to be explored.

But we do know that following the Amazon Synod there was a retreat from the obvious - that is, opting for viri probati.

However, we already have the knowhow to skill such men for service.

• Thomas O'Loughlin is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and professor of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK). His latest book is Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking Up Pope Francis's Call to Theologians (Liturgical Press, 2019).

As church conservatives and progressives take to the internet and supposed neutral writers enter their own spins, everyone is forgetting about the forest and the trees.

It is about the Amazon Basin, not about married priests or women deacons.

Except it is.

There are several layers to this fine document, which teaches everything is interrelated.

God is present in the Amazon, in creation and in creatures. Angry forces seek to destroy both.

Rooted in power and greed, their tentacles strangle the peoples and the land.

The devil, indeed, is in the details: slavery, drugs, human trafficking, clear-cutting, water hoarding.

Rape of the Earth echoes in the lives of the peoples

The stories are not new.

Francis recalls the indigenous peoples of Venezuela, abused by rubber trade bosses nearly 50 years ago: "The ye'kuana women were raped and their breasts amputated, pregnant women had their children torn from the womb, men had their fingers or hands cut off ..."

Is this happening today?

Do we really know what is going on in the Amazon?

The people and their bishops came to Rome and spoke (or tried to speak) of what they wanted, what they needed. Francis said he heard them, and he has written his response.

What can save the Amazon?

What can salve its suffering? What can bring it health and life? For Francis, it is the Gospel and it is the Eucharist.

But how, you ask. How bring the Gospel and the Eucharist to peoples bereft of priests?

Francis suggests more deacons and lay ecclesial ministers recognized by their bishops to run parishes, as well as more priests from the Amazon and elsewhere.

At this, the right and left initiate their independent field days.

"No married priests! No women deacons!" the right proclaims triumphantly.

The left says pretty much the same, but in desultory, even angry, tones.

Hello? This is an apostolic exhortation, not a motu proprio, and it is certainly not an apostolic constitution nor is it an encyclical.

What's the difference?

Apostolic exhortations neither clarify doctrine nor make law.

That occurs, at various levels, with an apostolic constitution, a papal encyclical or a motu proprio.

The post-synodal apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia is Francis' response as bishop of Rome to the final document of the Amazon synod.

He presents both the exhortation and the final document from his diocesan cathedral, St. John Lateran, not from St. Peter's Basilica.

If the pope is going to do anything about married priests and women deacons, he will — actually, he must — use another type of document.

For example, if the bishops of the Amazon, together or individually, formally request married priests, they must write and ask permission for a derogation from the law.

Similarly, if they wish to recognize the diaconal ministry of women through ordination, they must ask formally.

Does the final document already ask for these?

It seems to, but it is not the formal request of a bishop or bishops' conference. Continue reading

The country's Catholic bishops recently launched a two-year summit aimed at "newly assessing" long-held Catholic beliefs on sexuality, love and priestly life, including how women are included or excluded by the Church.

The "synodal process" began with an assembly held Jan. 30 through Feb. 1 in Frankfurt, Germany, setting the agenda of the controversial topics they aim to discuss for the next two years, from married priests to the recognition of same-sex couples.

But in a country with a long tradition of outspoken theologians, one of the most persistent voices challenging the Catholic Church's current position will come from outside the synod.

"We need a kind of woman church within our church where women can discover and live their own strengths, abilities and charisms — in the sense of empowerment," said Agnes Wuckelt, vice president of the German Association of Catholic Women (referred to as KFD), in a recent interview with Religion News Service.

She noted that in the absence of representation, many women are leaving the Catholic Church.

Wuckelt's KFD has submitted a proposal to the German bishops' assembly to promote the appointment of women to leadership positions at all levels of the local Catholic Church, with the goal of paving the way to female ordination to the priesthood.

Pope Francis needs to include women in his frequent calls for broader recognition of the rights of disadvantaged and disenfranchised people.

Wuckelt described this process as "a transition to a gender-appropriate church."

Though German bishops have already voted to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions in their dioceses to 30%, the KFD has demanded that it be increased to 50%.

But this is only a small part of what the theologian sees as necessary to promote gender equality in the Catholic Church. Wuckelt argues for women to be allowed to join the ranks of the diaconate, which would allow them to preach, distribute the Eucharist and officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals — everything but hear confessions or consecrate the Eucharist.

"The biggest obstacle lies in the sacramental understanding of the diaconate," Wuckelt said, which the church views as an initial step toward becoming a priest, not as an independent ministry.

But ultimately, the theologian concedes, she hopes the effect of women deacons will be that "more and more bishops can imagine women as priests."

Four years ago, Pope Francis established a commission to study the female diaconate, but little apparent work has been done since, and the commission's discussions and conclusions have been kept private.

In "Querida Amazonia," a document released last week (Feb. 12) wrapping up last fall's Vatican synod on the Amazon region, Pope Francis made no mention of women deacons or married priests, even though these topics were strongly debated by bishops during the summit.

Francis' approach to women's issues has caused many Catholic feminists to regard Francis with ambivalence.

"On the one hand, he repeatedly emphasizes the high importance of women for the Church. He wants women to participate fully in all decisions in the Church," said Wuckelt.

"However, he rather represents a classic image of women, as it has been represented by Rome for decades."

Given the chance, Wuckelt said she would advise Pope Francis to include women in his frequent calls for broader recognition of the rights of disadvantaged and disenfranchised people.

This also means an "official and sacramental recognition," she said.

She would also encourage the pontiff to invite female and male theologians to counsel him on "finding a wise approach to the theological arguments for the priesthood of women."

Wuckelt quoted a reading by St. Paul, which states that "there are no more Jews and Greeks, not slaves and free people, not male and female; for all of you are one in Jesus Christ."

She said that while these words have "been forgotten time and again in the course of the Church's history," she believes that "it still challenges male and female Christians alike."

Wuckelt isn't the only one looking for more definitive signals from the pope.

A powerful lay group that is co-managing the German synodal process, the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZDK), said in a statement about "Querida Amazonia" that Francis showed a "lack of courage for real reforms."

But Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Münich, who recently announced his intention to not seek a second term as the head of the German episcopacy, took a more optimistic approach, saying that the papal document offers a "framework for reflection" and that the topics discussed during the synod are "by no means off the table."

Wuckelt agreed that "Querida Amazonia" is not "dismissive of the diaconate of women," adding that if the German bishops submit a very strong vote on the matter, the pontiff might "get involved."

The German bishops' deliberations have provoked mistrust among some Catholic conservatives.

Progressive bishops in Germany are viewed in some quarters of the Vatican as a sort of rogue episcopacy, threatening to send a theological and moral shockwave through the Catholic Church in the West.

Traditionalists are already working to minimize the impact of the German bishops' conclusions, arguing that, because Catholicism is a global reality, the bishops of all countries must reach a consensus on the issue of women before any decision is applied.

"In my opinion, this is just an excuse to protest against change and the sharing of power and a feeble means of self-defense," Wuckelt said.

Wuckelt argues that the future of the Catholic Church depends on expanding the role of women.

The German synod was born partly out of a reaction to a 2018 report showing thousands of cases of sexual abuse by clergy over the past six decades.

According to Wuckelt, appointing more women in decision-making positions might help tackle this epidemic and restore popular credibility to the Church.

"We need to discuss this issue from a gender perspective," she said, adding that studies must be made to discover whether female inclusivity could help prevent and detect abuse cases."

"In any case," she added, "it must be assumed that the just participation of women in all services and ministries will change the Church."

After two years of discussion, German bishops will vote on the hundreds of proposals, including the KFD's, and submit those that pass a majority vote to the Vatican and Pope Francis. While remaining hopeful, Wuckelt said that theological discussions are likely to "take a long time."

"Perhaps our great-granddaughters will achieve this goal," she said.

• Claire Giangravé - Vatican Correspondent RNS. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

Francis did not say yes to married priests, but neither did he really say no.

Discussion of the matter will continue, whereas previous papacies said no to even discussing the topic.

Priests are in such short supply in Amazonia that the Eucharist and other sacraments are not readily available to most Catholics. Many villages see a priest only once or twice a year.

The shortage has gone on for decades and the Amazonian bishops, who met in Rome in October, see no hope for a turnaround.

They also wanted to open the deaconate to women, who in many villages are already the religious leaders of their communities. Here the pope gave a definitive no.

Francis responded to the recommendations of the synod in a 20-page exhortation, "Querida Amazonia" or "Dear Amazon," which was released Wednesday (Feb. 12).

It is clear that Francis was upset with the media, who focused on the ordination of married men almost to the exclusion of the other topics of the synod, such as the devastation of the environment and exploitation of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.

He lamented that the indigenous peoples "were considered more an obstacle needing to be eliminated than as human beings with the same dignity as others and possessed of their own acquired rights."

He also insisted that concern for the environment must be linked to concern for indigenous peoples.

While I sympathise with the pope's desire to emphasise the issues facing the environment and indigenous peoples, I find it disappointing that he recycles the old recommendations of praying for vocations and enlarging the role of the laity.

Don't get me wrong.

I am all for these solutions, but we have been praying for vocations for more than a century, and we have been increasing the role of the laity since the Second Vatican Council ended in 1965.

True, more can be done, but are we going to be a Eucharistic community or not?

Clearly, Pope Francis does not want to be the pope who gets rid of mandatory celibacy, which he strongly values.

He may also fear that vocal opponents to ordaining married men would further divide the church if he allowed it, even though they are a small minority.

"Querida Amazonia" eloquently acknowledges the absence of the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation in so many places in the Amazon, but rather than ordaining married men, he urges the ordination of more male deacons.

By accident or by plan, this will create the cadre of candidates for priesthood if he ever allows for exceptions.

But Francis is not open to ordaining women to the diaconate.

His arguments against women deacons were disappointing and patriarchal.

He fears "clericalising" women — as if that is not a bigger problem for male deacons. He calls for more recognition of women's roles in the church — and I agree — but why not go all the way and ordain women?

Our disappointment with Francis' decisions on married priests and women deacons should not blind us to the many other excellent things in his exhortation.

What he says about the environment, global warming and indigenous peoples underscores the points made by the synod.

He also gives a full-throated endorsement to more inculturation in the church so that Catholicism is no longer simply a European import but rather reflects the indigenous wisdom, practices and cultures of the Amazon.

He wants a church that has "new faces with Amazonian features."

Francis especially notes the need for inculturation of the liturgy.

Liturgy inculturation will require replacing Cardinal Robert Sarah as head of the Congregation for Divine Worship with someone sympathetic to inculturation. Sarah, who is a vocal opponent of any exceptions to the rule of celibacy, must submit his resignation in June when he turns 75.

Francis' exhortation is itself a change to business as usual in the church.

While previous popes have written their own long documents that superseded anything done by a synod, Francis encourages people to read the Amazon synod's final document, which, he says, "profited from the participation of many people who know better than myself or the Roman Curia the problems and issues of the Amazon region, since they live there, they experience its suffering, and they love it passionately."

He does not want to replace that text but rather calls on everyone in the Amazon region to "apply it."

The pope has shown that in the synodal process he will listen, enthusiastically endorse most recommendations, say no to some and postpone others until more opportune times.

Not all will like this approach.

For some, it is too "popular" or "democratic."

For others, it is too slow and not democratic enough. But it is a long way from previous popes who said, "My way or the highway."

Pope Francis is not afraid of open discussion and even disagreement in the church.

In his new book, "St. John Paul the Great," published the day before his exhortation, he said, "What holds the church together isn't the fact that we all agree, but a word that many have forgotten: communion," where "different parts collaborate for the good."

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

But those new paths do not include the ordination of married men to the priesthood in the region.

The document, called "Querida Amazonia" (Beloved Amazon), is born from the discussions of over 180 bishops from all over the world who gathered at the Vatican last fall (Oct. 6-27) to address the social, environmental and spiritual needs of the indigenous people of the Amazon and their habitat.

During their meeting, bishops had suggested in their final document that the pope consider the ordination of tested married men to minister to the remote areas of the Amazon forest sprawled over nine Latin American countries.

Bishops had also voted to further discussions on female deacons, which would allow women to preach, distribute the Eucharist and officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals.

Pope Francis' document doesn't make any mention of the ordination of married men nor of women, which is consistent with the efforts made by the Vatican to downplay expectations ahead of its publication.

In January, former Pope Benedict XVI published a book with Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican department for liturgy, making a case for the importance of celibacy in the priesthood.

"Querida Amazonia" is divided into four chapters, each corresponding to a "dream" of the pope on the social, cultural, ecological and ecclesial aspects of the Amazon. It includes numerous poems by indigenous people detailing the beauty — and destruction — of the Amazon.

The papal document encourages Catholics and all people of goodwill to protect the environment, accompany the diaspora of indigenous peoples and stand up against injustice and reckless exploitation.

During colonization, the people of the Amazon forest "were considered more an obstacle needing to be eliminated than as human beings with the same dignity as others and possessed of their own acquired rights," Francis wrote.

"The businesses, national or international, which harm the Amazon and fail to respect the right of the original peoples," he wrote, "should be called for what they are: injustice and crime."

"Colonization has left tremendous wounds in the Amazon, the pope said, but colonization continues today even though it is "changed, disguised."

"The interest of a few powerful industries should not be considered more important than the good of the Amazon region or humanity as a whole," he warned.

Francis admitted that while missionaries were among the few who stood up to defend the rights of the Amazon and its peoples, the Catholic Church also bears its responsibility and its members were "part of a network of corruption."

"I express my shame and once more I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offences of the Church herself, but for the crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America as well as for the terrible crimes that followed throughout the history of the Amazon region," he said.

In a section addressing forms of ministry, the pope called for "a specific and courageous response" to the shortage of priests in the Amazon.

Though ordaining married men is out of the question, at least in this document, the pope encouraged bishops to take matters into their own hands.

"This urgent need leads me to urge all bishops, especially those in Latin America, not only to promote prayer for priestly vocations, but also to be more generous in encouraging those who display a missionary vocation to opt for the Amazon region," he wrote, putting an emphasis on the need to overhaul priestly formation.

A large role is played and continues to be played by "mature and lay leaders," who must be promoted and encouraged by the Catholic clergy, Francis wrote. Women especially, he said, "have kept the Church alive in those places through their remarkable devotion and deep faith."

But ordaining women as deacons, he said, could be harmful.

"It would lead us to clericalize women, diminish the great value of what they have already accomplished, and subtly make their indispensable contribution less effective," he said.

Instead, he said that women should have positions of authority within the church "that do not entail Holy Orders and that can better signify the role that is theirs."

As a starting point, Francis referred to Mary as a source of inspiration for furthering the role of women.

"Perhaps it is time to review the lay ministries already existing in the Church, return to their foundations and update them by reading them in the light of current reality and the inspiration of the Spirit, and at the same time to create other new stable ministries with public recognition and a commission from the bishop," Cardinal Michael Czerny said in an interview published by the Vatican alongside the papal document. Czerny was a special secretary to the synod of bishops on the Amazon.

Francis called for a fruitful dialogue between the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and the Catholic Church in order to give the church "new faces with Amazonian features."

The culture, traditions and history of the tribes living in the Amazon must be protected and respected, without "unfair generalizations, simplistic arguments and conclusions drawn only from the basis of our own mindset and experiences," he said.

Indigenous people should not be insulated from a respectful dialogue, Francis wrote, just as the Catholic Church should allow the gospel to be permeated by the customs and culture of the peoples living in the Amazon.

"The Pope asks that the voice of the elderly be heard and that the values present in the original communities be recognized," Czerny said. "Indigenous peoples teach us to be sober, content with little, and to sense the need to be immersed in a communal way of living our lives."

The bishops had asked the pope to consider the possibility of an Amazonian Rite, which in the Catholic tradition would have its own bishops and specific liturgies while still being in communion with the Catholic Church.

Francis encouraged "native forms of expression in song, rituals, gestures and symbols" but made no mention of a specific rite or a commission created to consider it.

Francis also seemed to passingly address the Pachamama debacle, when vandals broke into a church in Rome at the height of the synod, dumped a wooden carving of an Amazonian fertility goddess into the Tiber River and posted it on YouTube.

The vandals justified their actions at the time, stating that they were angered by a ceremony in the Vatican gardens where indigenous people knelt before the statues before the pontiff.

"It is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry," the pope wrote. "A myth charged with spiritual meaning can be used to advantage and not always considered a pagan error."

The pope's final words amid highly divisive times within and beyond the Catholic Church are to promote dialogue "at a higher level, where each group can join the other in a new reality, while remaining faithful to itself."

• Claire Giangrave is Vatican Correspondent for Religion News Service.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.
• Image YouTube

He argues that even married priests were supposed to abstain from sex after ordination.

This would have been news to 11 of the 12 Apostles, including Peter the first pope, who were married.

To say that one must be celibate to be a good priest contradicts reality and is insulting to married priests and ministers in Protestantism and the Eastern churches.

True, after the apostolic period, there were church rules requiring abstinence from sex before saying Mass, but this teaching certainly did not come from Jesus.

It was an imitation of the similar rules for Levitical priests who had to abstain from sex during their time of service in the temple.

This was not a major problem when Mass was only celebrated on Sundays, but when Mass became a daily event, it made marriage impossible.

What we really learn from this new book is the danger of having two popes in the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis is seriously considering a proposal to allow mature married men to be ordained, a proposal that came out of last October's Synod on the Amazon.

The book will make it much more difficult for Francis to do so.

The synod mostly made up of bishops from the Amazon region, argued that the church in that part of the world desperately needs priests, and not enough men are willing to give up marriage and family as the price for ordination.

They voted 128-41 in favour of allowing the ordination of mature married men.

We currently only know of the new book from advanced excerpts in the media.

When the book is published in mid-February, historians and theologians can more thoroughly examine its arguments.

This should be done with respect but also with recognition that Benedict's words no longer carry any papal authority.

From the announcement of his resignation almost seven years ago, people have been speculating about the danger of having two popes in the Catholic Church. Although technically, once he resigned, Benedict lost his papal authority, many people still revere and honour him as pope.

For the most part, Benedict has taken a low profile and not spoken or written much since he retired. However, whenever he has, he has made headlines and discussions of how his views differ from those of Francis have followed. This is problematic for a church that prizes unity in papal teaching.

Part of the problem is that Benedict was poorly advised on how the church should deal with retired popes.

The church clearly needs to rethink its rules for the situation.

We don't want to imprison them, as Pope Celestine's successor did to him, but the church needs to make clear that there is only one pope.

I would suggest five rules for dealing with retired popes to make it clear that there is only one ultimate authority in the Catholic Church.

First

The retired pope should no longer be called pope. Nor should he be called pope emeritus. Once he resigns, he should be referred to as a retired cardinal and the bishop emeritus of Rome. He would have the rank and status of the most senior retired cardinal.

Second

He should return to his original name; he should not be referred to by his papal name.

Obviously, anything he said or did while pope can have his papal name attached to it, but anything he does after retiring would be under his original name.

Thus, Benedict would be called retired Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, bishop emeritus of Rome.

The same would be true of Francis if he retires.

Some monarchies follow this pattern.

When Edward VIII resigned, he became the Duke of Windsor. He was not king emeritus. In the Netherlands, which had two queens resign because of age, they became princesses again after their resignations.

Third

The retired pope should put off the white cassock and return to the black or red robes of a cardinal.

In the Catholic Church, symbols are important. Symbols communicate, they teach.

If you are not the pope, you should not be wearing white.

Having two men wearing white sitting next to each other makes them look like equals when they are not.

Fourth

The fourth issue is where the retired pope should live.

Some felt that Benedict's staying in the Vatican was a mistake.

Some suggested Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence. Certainly, the town, which is about 15 miles from Rome, would like that since it has suffered from a decline in tourism because Francis does not visit.

Some suggested that Benedict return to Germany, but that raises questions about security.

No one wants an ex-pope murdered or kidnapped on their watch.

Would the Vatican or the German government have to provide protection?

There are also legal implications of leaving Vatican territory.

Since Benedict is no longer a sovereign, would he be subject to subpoenas, depositions or extradition in sex abuse cases?

There is also the danger that a location outside the Vatican might become a place of pilgrimage for opponents of the current pope. That would not be good.

Granted these complexities, it would be best to leave the retired pope's residence to be negotiated between the new pope and the retired pope. The new pope, as the retired pope's religious superior, would have the final word.

Fifth

The fifth issue is whether a retired pope can speak on church issues.

The current circumstances are somewhat ironic, since Cardinal Ratzinger, as head to the Vatican doctrine office, was infamous for silencing theologians with whom he disagreed.

It is also ironic to hear liberal academics, who prize freedom of expression, complaining when Benedict speaks or writes.

As a proponent of open and free discussion in the church, I cannot in principle say that retired popes must be silent. I think we must trust in their prudence and respect for the office of the papacy.

In reality, I don't think there is any way to silence a retired pope, especially one like Benedict who spent much of his life as a theologian and teacher.

If the first three suggestions I give above were followed, of course, whatever a retired pope said or wrote would be less threatening, because both legally and symbolically there would be only one pope in the Catholic Church.

• Thomas Reese SJ is is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

Many are saying that in Querida Amazonia ("Beloved Amazon") Pope Francis has failed to extend his prophetic voice about environmental injustice to injustices to the church. They are also outraged over its language of complementarity.

Married priests
Francis has declined the request made by many bishops at last year's synod to open priestly ordination to married men and the possibility of women deacons to help address the severe lack of ministers in the nine nations of the Amazon region.

After the testimony of women at the synod, the pope's response is "willful blindness," one woman says. "I can't imagine what the women in the Amazon feel."

"We are profoundly shocked and disappointed," a spokesperson for a church reform group that advocates for an inclusive priesthood.

"We were hopeful that this process would begin a Vatican II approach to governance and that leadership would listen to the needs of the people.

"One of our deep regrets is that this, like our culture, has devolved into an either/or, black or white, conservative or progressive fight, which loses the focus that this is about the needs of the people of God."

Women
The Women's Ordination Conference (WOC) criticised Francis's for "willfully turning his back on the calls of women for recognition of the sacramental ministries they offer the people of the Amazon and the global church,".

"This shows, yet again, that a synod without the equal voice and votes of women will never produce fruit that satisfies the urgent needs of the people of God," a WOC statement said.

Querida's use of the language of complementarity and warnings about a "functional approach" is not raising optimism about further discussion of women deacons.

Instead it criticises a "reductionism [that] would lead us to believe that women would be granted a greater status and participation in the Church only if they were admitted to Holy Orders."

"Women make their contribution to the Church ... by making present the tender strength of Mary, the Mother," Francis wrote.

Querida's use of "spousal" language in the section about women is also raising hackles, with one theologian saying it contains a "fundamental inequality," where "Men are to women as Christ is to the church.

"That is not equality ... When we transpose this to the human realm with men/women in the places of Christ/church, it's misogyny."

Access to the Eucharist

Although representatives from the Amazon at the synod reported that Catholics sometimes go months without the Eucharist because of a lack of clergy, especially in rural regions, Querida does not suggest married priests or women could fill the gap.

Instead it urges church leaders to pray: "not only to promote prayer for priestly vocations, but also to be more generous in encouraging those who display a missionary vocation to opt for the Amazon region."

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: CNN

The ACP, which represents over 1,000 Catholic priests in Ireland, says reform is urgently needed to prevent parishes from closing across the country.

"We're facing a catastrophic situation in the next 10 to 20 years because there are not enough male celibate vocations to keep our parishes alive," ACP spokesman Father Tim Hazelwood says.

"We're facing a situation where the sacraments could disappear in some parishes because our priests are all getting older and no one is coming through to replace them.

"In maybe 10, but definitely 20 years, priests in Ireland are going to be an endangered species unless things change. We're facing a really bleak future unless new measures are brought in."

The ACP has long called for radical church reform.

It has advocated relaxing strict celibacy rules, ordaining married men, inviting back clerics who left their parishes to get married, and ordaining women to the diaconate.

Hazelwood also says the current crisis is increasingly taking a toll on the health of older working priests.

Many are continuing to work beyond their retirement age because there is no one coming through the seminaries to replace them.

Speaking of his own parish, he says "The age profile of the priests gives food for thought ... one over 80, two over 70, nine over 60, 10 over 50, and two over 40."

"Fast forward 15 years and the very best you could hope for is 10 priests for all that area and, even if healthy, they will all be elderly men. That is the stark reality."

The crisis is evident in every diocese in Ireland.

Earlier this year Bishop Dermot Farrell urged his diocese to see the "signs of the times," warning that the number of priests under the age of 75 would halve over the next decade.

The warnings for the Catholic Church in Ireland come at a time when hopes have been raised for the future of the Church following the just-finished Amazon synod.

Last week, in a landmark vote by the Vatican, bishops recommended the Pope gives permission for married men in Brazil to become priests.

Source

• Irish Central
• Image: BBC

More recently, on 11 October, Müller told the Tagespost that "not even the Pope can abolish priestly celibacy".

In the final days of the Amazon Synod, quotations from a 1992 German text by Müller were circulated among the Synod participants in Rome.

Writing in 1992, when he was professor of dogmatics at Munich University and had not yet become a bishop, Müller looked back to a trip he made to the Andes in Peru in 1988. "On the Feast of the Assumption (in 1988), we experienced expressions of a deeply felt Indian religiosity which in our eyes could be understood as an expression of genuine faith and trust in God," he wrote.

In his "Reflections on a Seminar", held in 1988 on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the 1968 Medellin General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops, (CELAM) which were published in the Catholic Academy for Youth Issues - Akademie für Jugendfragen - Müller then advocated ordaining viri probati, that is, proven married men.

"Celibate priests are necessary for the priesthood. It must, however, be possible to ordain religiously proven and theologically educated family fathers, not only in remote areas but also in huge city parishes, so that basic pastoral and liturgical practices can continue to be celebrated," Müller emphasised.

He explained: "A new concept of this kind would not contradict the Church's tradition, as loyalty to tradition does not mean that the Church is only committed to past history but, on the contrary, far more to future history."

He then warned: "If the Church insists on holding on to obligatory celibacy under all circumstances, it must state the reasons as to why both the spiritual meaning and the assets of celibacy are of such importance to the Church that it is even prepared to hazard a decisive deformation of its constitution on account of the lack of priests."

These views on celibacy stand in strong contrast to views he expressed during the Amazon Synod.

Asked what he thought of ordaining viri probati by Paolo Rodari in an interview in La Repubblica on 10 October, Müller replied: "Ordaining viri probati is wrong. The celibacy rule is not just any rule that can be changed at will. It has deep roots in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The priest represents Christ and has a living spirituality that cannot be changed. ... No Pope and no majority of bishops can change dogma or Divine Law according to their taste".

And on 11 October, Müller told Bavarian Radio that the discussions on the possible introduction of viri probati at the synod looked like "European Catholics' wishes in an Amazonian wrapping".

"Celibacy as the normal priestly lifestyle in the Latin-rite Church cannot be called into question," he underlined. Continue reading

Two-thirds of the 180 bishops at the synod approved all the 140-paragraph document's findings, which they voted on paragraph by paragraph.

One of the document's main focuses further including laity and women in the Church's ministry in the Amazon region.

The most contested sections of the document concerned the:

• Roles of the female diaconate (30 votes against)
• Viri probati — a discussion of ordaining married "men of proven virtue" to the priesthood — (41 votes against)
• Creating an Amazonian rite (29 votes against).

The bishops said they wished to "share their experience and reflections" with the Commission for the Study of the Female Diaconate that Francis created in 2016.

That study was tasked with providing further study and historical context for the role of women in the early church.

Although the final document does not have any real decision-making power, Pope Francis will consider all the bishops' recommendations

Francis says after considering the document, he will prepare and release an apostolic exhortation on the Amazon.

Although Francis praised the spirit of the discussions among the bishops, he says the final document falls short on recognizing the role of women in the church.

"We haven't yet comprehended what women mean for the church and we stay in the functional side" he said.

He also pointed out "the role of women in the church goes much further than functionality."

Francis said he interprets the document as calling for the creation of a second commission to look into the historic role and diaconate of women in the church.

Although the first commission did not reach a comprehensive conclusion, Francis said he will submit it to a new commission.

With the help of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Church, the commission will ensure women seeking further inclusion will "be heard."

The lack of priests to minister to the numerous indigenous peoples in the Amazon region, is one of the main problems bishops grappled with at the synod.

If women deacons were permitted, they would be able to preach, distribute the Eucharist and officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals. Deacons may not hear confessions or consecrate the Eucharist.

Another way to address the shortage of priests, amid growing competition from Pentecostal denominations, will be to encourage the ordination of tested married men to the priesthood, the final synod document says.

While they acknowledged "celibacy as a gift of God," they also said "the legitimate diversity does not harm the communion and unity of the Church, but expresses and serves it."

They also note that creating an "Amazonian rite," through a liturgy that would better reflect the Amazonian region is not unprecedented.

The Church already recognizes over two dozen liturgical rites, which usually have their own bishops and specific liturgies.

Source

• Religion News Service
• Image: Pan-Amazon Synod Watch

The topic is important and the eventual implementation of such a move is essential not only to the People of God in Amazonia but throughout the world if we are to be true to the Catholic tradition that the Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life."

Simply put, if the Eucharist is what we say it is, then the right of Catholics anywhere to share the sacrament is absolute and must not be hindered, let alone prevented, by lesser non-dogmatic historically and regionally developed regulations regarding celibacy or models of sacramental service.

And yet, though the issue is of utmost importance, the way the matter is expressed is either comic or insulting or both, depending upon your taste.

In light of the sexual abuse and financial corruption by clergy that have been tearing the Catholic Church apart for at least the past three decades, and the clerical culture that abets it all, it is hard to not give a sardonic smirk or even a loud guffaw at the implicit claim that married men need special supplementary verification that they are of "proven" virtue in order to be ordained.

I have never heard talk of ordaining "celibate men of proven virtue."

Do we only require certifiable virtue of married men?

Are celibate men exempt from that requirement because though they can and should be virtuous, proof of their virtue is not needed either because it can be presumed or because it is not so important as being at least nominally celibate?

Certainly the evidence does not show that celibate priests are greater exemplars of virtue than other men.

At best, we hope and pray that on the whole they are no worse than married men, as is probably the case.

So, the emphasis upon "proven virtue" is ridiculous enough to be mildly amusing to those who, like I, are sarcastically inclined.

However, there is a much less amusing aspect to the emphasis.

The requirement of "proven virtue" carries the implication that somehow or other, men who are married are ipso factonot to be considered virtuous unless proven otherwise.

Why might that be?

What is it about married men that would make vice the presupposition of their state?

Obviously, the basic fact about married men is that their lives involve women.

And not only women but women with whom they have sex.

There is a long history in the Catholic Church, especially perhaps among clerics, of considering sex to be somehow defiling and women to be invitations to sin.

That attitude is one of the reasons (not the sole one nor, one hopes, the chief one) underlying the emphasis upon celibacy.

When after the recent restoration of strict liturgical compliance with older Latin practices, the bishops of Japan wanted to reaffirm their practice of not kissing the altar during Mass, a curia cardinal insisted that they must reintroduce kissing because it is a universal gesture of respect.

He pointed out that when Japanese meet their emperor, they genuflect and kiss his ring. In fact, they bow and do not touch His Majesty at all. And he does not wear a ring.

Those facts made no impression upon His Eminence. He insisted that kissing the altar must be restored.

What finally got him to change his mind was a bishop's pointing out to him that in Japan kissing is solely a sexual gesture.

The word "sex" was enough to get the cardinal to back off and declare that if such were the case, a bow could replace the kiss in Japan.

However, it could not be a "Japanese bow."

No one has yet figured out how bending at the waist differs in Japan from doing so elsewhere.

But, at least for once, the ecclesiastical wariness of sex advanced the cause of common sense.

By all means, let's ordain men, married or not, in order to open access to the Eucharist to all Catholics no matter where they live. (The ordination of women is not in the present state of the question within the realm of realistic possibility and is unlikely to be so for a long time if ever.)

By all means, let's expect those men to be virtuous, as we expect all Christians to be virtuous.

But let's stop acting as if married men are somehow more in need of vetting by the virtue police or vice squad than unmarried men, whether celibate or merely single.

• Fr Bill Grimm MM is based in Tokyo and is publisher of UCA.News

Their words could have profound impact not only on the Amazon but the entire church, as the ideas they present about protecting the environment, the rights of indigenous peoples as well as adaptation of church practices to local cultures are theoretically applicable anywhere.

The final report for the synod, which has been meeting since Oct. 6, will be put together by a drafting committee made up of bishops elected by the synod and appointed by the pope.

After discussion and revisions, the report will be voted on paragraph by paragraph. Passage of any one paragraph requires a two-thirds vote. Only the 185 official delegates to the synod (almost all of them bishops) can vote.

The drafting committee will work with input from 12 synod groups that met to discuss issues. The groups were organized by language (two Italian, four Portuguese, five Spanish, and one for English and French speakers).

Each group of about 20 contained bishops, lay observers and experts who participated equally in the discussions.

The individual reports from these language groups, which totaled 35 pages, are the most accurate representation of where the synod is as it enters its final week.

The reports show that the bishops are unanimous in their concern about the ecological destruction being inflicted on the Amazon by extractive industries (oil, mining, and lumber), cattle ranchers, monoculture and hydroelectric dams.

The Amazon's natural biodiversity has been destroyed to benefit development that is unsustainable but provides huge short-term profits to special interests.

Huge hydroelectric dams take away indigenous lands, rivers and sources of food, as do cattle ranches and monoculture. Mines do same plus pollute the land and water with cancer causing chemicals.

These issues are of concern far beyond the Amazon and especially in the global north, which benefits from the products and profits coming from the Amazon.

The language groups called for an ecological conversion to a simpler lifestyle that is sustainable and respects Mother Earth as the indigenous people of the Amazon do.

"An ecological conversion to a sober life is indispensable," explained Portuguese language Group B. This "implies changes in mentality, lifestyle, modes of production, practices of accumulation, consumption and waste."

This conversion is not simply personal. "Ecological conversion leads the church to assume its prophetic role," said Spanish Group A, "denouncing the violation of the human rights of indigenous communities and the destruction of the Amazon territory."

But this ecological conversion and commitment must be grounded in spirituality, since the church is not just an nongovernmental organization.

This conversion would lead to "a new style of life that is simple, sober, caring, attentive, without waste, that avoids the disposal of things and people, that is generous and inspired by Francis of Assisi, by Brother Sun, Sister Moon, [and] Sister Water," explained Portuguese Group C.

The English/French Group suggested the four principles articulated by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I to ground this spirituality:

• A sacramental view of creation as a reflection of God,
• A Eucharistic spirit that thanks God for what he offers us,
• An ascetic ethics that embraces a simple lifestyle, and
• Living in solidarity and fraternity with all.

Other groups looked to indigenous values as a foundation for ecological spirituality, "such as community, family, spirituality, communion of goods, respect for the common house," explained Spanish Group A.

It is not only the environment but also people who are victims in the Amazon. European invaders enslaved and exploited the region's native inhabitants. Later, the auto industry exploited them in rubber plantations. Today it is cattle, mining and monoculture industries that invade their territories.

Even now, "Several mega-projects are underway," reports Spanish Group D, "violence is exerted on the peoples, the states implement policies conceding [indigenous] territories" to these interests.

The violence against the land and the people of the Amazon was a repeated theme in the group reports.

"Violence in the Amazon is practiced against peoples, cultures and nature," said Portuguese Group D. Several groups decried violence against women and children, especially through human trafficking.

Violence also forces the indigenous people either further into the jungle, or to migrate to cities.

"As a consequence of these migrations," explained Spanish Group D, "we have family disintegration, the loss of cultural identity, social marginalization, the rejection by the people of the cities, where they arrive as strangers. They are exploited, fall into violent and criminal structures, into prostitution, and so on."

Summing up their conclusions, the Portuguese Group B said, "We say no to deforestation, no to big aggressive projects that destroy the forest, no to monocultures and pesticides. We say yes to sustainable development, yes to ecological conversion, yes to integral ecology."

The reports also proposed reforms to the church.

A less clerical and more synodal church is needed, according to almost all the group reports.

"The synodal journey for Amazonia has shown us that the process has opened the perspective of a different ecclesiology, more baptismal and collegial, different from the clerical church," reports Portuguese Group A.

"The church with an Amazonian face emphasizes the co-responsibility and participation of the whole People of God in the life and mission of the church."

Many of the groups spoke of the need of priestly formation that produces men who listen and encourage the participation of laity, especially women.

The need for the church to be inculturated in an Amazonian context was repeatedly emphasized.

Italian Group B stated, "It is necessary for the church to recognize this particular historical moment, and in her tireless work of evangelization to work so that the process of inculturation of the faith may be expressed."

After noting that there are currently 23 different rites in the Catholic Church, the group went on to call for an indigenous rite for the Amazon as did other groups.

"We are challenged to promote and live an inculturated liturgy," insisted Spanish Group D, "as a living experience of faith with its own signs and symbols, guaranteeing the right of every baptized person to celebrate fully, consciously and actively."

Groups that did not specifically mention an Amazonian rite wrote of adapting the liturgy to local cultures, of using symbols, language and actions that express the positive values of indigenous people.

"Ethnocide must be fought because it kills culture and spirit," explained Portuguese Group D. "For this reason, the missionary should strip himself of any colonialist mentality and respect the customs, rites, beliefs, habits of the people of that culture."

"The manifestations with which the people express their faith, through images, symbols, traditions, rites and other sacramentals, should be appreciated, accompanied and promoted," the group said.

The only group to explicitly speak against an indigenous rite was Italian Group A, which wanted to preserve "the substantial unity of the Roman rite."

The bishops acknowledged in their reports that the Eucharist is not available to most of their people because of the lack of priests.

The English/French group did not consider this a problem, pointing to solutions used in other regions where priests are in short supply.

"In other places, such as Africa, the number of priests has never been sufficient to offer Masses every Sunday."

The African church uses many catechists, officially designated teachers of the Gospel, and the group reminded that synod that "The Word is food as well as the Eucharist."

Why these catechists, who are capable of being ministers of the Word, could not be ordained ministers of the Eucharist was not explained.

About half of the 12 groups explicitly supported the ordination of married men. Italian Group A appeared split on the question, while Portuguese Group D called for further thought on the topic.

Some of the groups that favored ordaining married men also supported the diaconate for women.

Almost all spoke of the importance of women in the church and urged that they be respected and empowered. Some suggested reviving the ministries of acolyte and lector and allowing women to participate.

The last week of the synod will be crunch time for the bishops.

There appears to be a lot of consensus among the bishops, but it remains to be seen exactly what they will do on the ordination of married men, women deacons and on an indigenous rite.

Whether these can garner a two-thirds vote is the question.

• Thomas Reese SJ is is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.
• Image: America Magazine