Roman Catholic priests, deacons and bishops across the Amazon expressed shock and reluctant acceptance of Pope Francis’ refusal to allow married men to be ordained priests. According to ABC news, the faithful in the region will continue to be subject to competing evangelical churches that have risen.
Francis failed to address the issue in his documentation of the Amazon released Wednesday, where he presented the acute priest shortage in the region but refused to consider ordained married permanent deacons as a way to address the issue. In the Amazon, Catholics can go months or even years without a Mass.
Francis didn’t rule out the proposal entirely, but didn’t exactly welcome it. Many had hoped Francis would after a three-week synod last October at the Vatican, in which Francis devoted prayer to the plight of the world’s largest rain forest and its indigenous people. Church leaders in the five countries home to the Amazon basin expressed resignation to the denial of their request.
Bishops backed the measure last year, but the decision needed the Pope’s approval to be implemented. Catholic priests are required to abide by celibacy upon ordination except in cases where married Anglican ministers were converted. Celibacy in the Catholic faith is seen as the devotion of one’s life to God. The conservative wing of the Catholic Church, particularly in Europe and North America, spoke out against the idea of married priests, arguing it could ruin the rule of celibacy.
“The Amazon challenges us,” the Pope wrote, “to overcome limited perspectives and not to content ourselves with solutions that address only part of the situation.” The Pope, according to BBC, said there was a need for ministers who can understand Amazonian cultures from within. He instead urged those who wanted to become missionaries to “opt for the Amazon region.”
Ferney Pereira, 30, a deacon from the Ticuna indigenous group, was surprised the Pope didn’t address the issue, as priests find their way to his village just once every several months. His village is accessible only by boat on the Amazon River and home to 1,000 people. “We need more priests to deliver the sacraments,” Pereira, who is unmarried, said. “Our cathecists are able to do some work, but we really need more priests to acconmpany indigenous communities.”
Dom Erwin Kräutler, an Austrian bishop who has spent his last 55 years in Brazil’s Amazon, has defended the view that married men should be eligible for priesthood. Based in Altamira in Para state, he said, “We cannot say that our church, in terms of priests, is present in the community.” He added, “They’re always traveling from one community to another.” Itinerant priests don’t have the same relationship with local communities as those who live there.
In the meantime, neighboring villages are visited often by evangelical missionaries and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have preached against indigenous rituals, leaving some concerned about the preservation of their cultures. “If there are no priests, the people are also more tempted to join the evangelical churches,” Pereira said. Kräutler called for an “Amazonian face” in the region, or a deeper bond between Catholic priests and Catholic communities. In the 1970s, Brazil was more than 90 percent Catholic, according to the Pew Research Center. The number now settles around 65 percent, as Evangelicals are more available to communities and accepting of married men being ordained.
First published in print by The Stillman Exchange on February 24, 2020.
