Though 500 years have passed since the Protestant Reformation began in the eastern German town of Wittenberg, traditional and conservative Catholics find themselves eyeing the German church with concern once again. 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 Read more
It was disappointing but not a surprise that Pope Francis decided not to respond to the Amazon synod’s recommendation that the Catholic Church ordain mature, married men to make up for the huge shortage of priests in the Amazon region. Francis did not say yes to married priests, but neither did he really say no. Read more
A new document by Pope Francis slams countries and companies exploiting the Amazon region and calls on the Catholic Church to find new paths and methods to minister to its indigenous people. But those new paths do not include the ordination of married men to the priesthood in the region. The document, called “Querida Amazonia” Read more
In a new book, “From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy, and the Crisis of the Catholic Church,” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and his co-author, conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah, strongly defend celibacy, arguing that priesthood and sexual abstinence are integrally linked together. He argues that even married priests were supposed to abstain from sex Read more
The apostolic exhortation on the Amazon has disappointed those hoping for an opening of clerical roles to married men and women. 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 Read more
Ireland’s Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) says the vocations crisis has become so critical that sacraments like baptisms and marriages are likely to “disappear” from some parishes in the near future. 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 Read more
Catholics, especially in the German-speaking world, were surprised to hear that Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, once strongly favoured the ordination of married men. Not only in remote areas but also in large city parishes. More recently, on 11 October, Müller told the Tagespost that “not even the Read more
Three issues coming out of the Amazon synod’s final document include ordaining married men to the priesthood, the female diaconate and creating an Amazonian Rite. 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 Read more
The agenda for the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region being held in Rome includes discussion of the ordination of “married men of proven virtue” (viri probati) to provide opportunities to join in the Eucharist for the Catholics of Amazonia, where a shortage of priests prevents people from sharing in the sacrament for months Read more
As the synod on the Amazon region enters it final week, the bishops gathered here to discuss the region’s challenges and make recommendations to Pope Francis will begin preparing their final report. Their words could have profound impact not only on the Amazon but the entire church, as the ideas they present about protecting the Read more