Pope opposes making priestly celibacy optional, but is open to exceptions

[_Abyssinia]

The Pope said the prospect of married priests could be considered in remote areas that lack clergy
Pope Francis has said he opposes making priestly celibacy optional, however he may consider allowing married men to be ordained priests in remote areas.

Speaking to journalists on the flight back from World Youth Day, the Pope said he would not allow optional celibacy in the Latin Church in a way similar to the practice of the Eastern Catholic churches.

https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2...-celibacy-optional-but-is-open-to-exceptions/

 

[ZMystiCat]

Is there a particular reason why remote areas would be exceptions? Are these areas where there aren’t a lot of people who can speak the native language? Is it to help make going to a remote area more enticing? Sorry if I missed anything, but I’m not entirely sure why an exception would be made here.

 

[Weserthy]

The reasoning is that many people in remote areas of the Amazon don’t have access to the sacraments (in some cases maybe once a year a priest will visit certain areas is what I’ve heard) due to a severe shortage of priests. The proposed solution is to start ordaining married Catholic men as priests to serve these areas. I am under the impression that these priests would not be receiving the same training or instruction as priests normally do, rather their main responsibilities would be to simply dispense the sacraments and say mass.

I am not convinced that if this exception is made for the Amazon that it will remain just an exception. Bishops in Germany and Canada have already stated that if they go ahead and start ordaining married men as priests in the Amazon, then they want married priests too. There will quickly be calls for the practice to spread to other places where Catholicism is on the decline and priests are scarce, probably mostly in Europe, which is why it is no surprise that the German bishops would be so in favor of this proposal. It may not happen right away, but it will happen eventually.

 

[graciew]

Yes.
The case I know about from reading years past is the Archidiocese of Xingú in Brasil.
It includes part of Amazonia and if I am not mistaken is about the size of Germany( should check it out).
The issue of the huge scarcity of priests to cover remote places and their accessibility makes hundreds of communities not receive Communion but once or twice a year.
What I read long ago, was that they were considering ministers or maybe deacons who belonged to those very remote communities ( and spoke their language and dialects aside from already living there) and the issue of this chance of married men.
I also remember their Archbishop Krautler(or so I believe it is spelt) who has been asking Rome for help for quite a while for a solution, saying that it isn t about celibacy, which is a grace In itself,but that his request for a different solution was that people were deprived of Communion.
The disproportion between priests and communities is huge there in Xingú.
Later on I read that the neopentecostal Church has sent thousand of pastors to Brazil.
So yes… this would be a very specific and different difficult situation.
Not super detailed but I believe you get the idea,ZMystiCat.

 

[ZMystiCat]

OK, thanks for the details, @Weserthy and @graciew . I wasn’t aware of the problems in places like the Amazon.

 

[tafan2]

In the past, the Church had many priests, missionaries could be sent to remote areas. Now, that approach is not doable. So the Church must investigate other ways to provide sacraments to these people. If you lived somewhere where a priest showed up once every six months, would you feel it was not necessary?

 

[MikeInVA]

In the past, the Church had many priests, missionaries could be sent to remote areas. Now, that approach is not doable.

Is it not doable or just hard to do? The Church has a 2000+ year record of missionary work, what’s changed?

 

[tafan2]

Lack of priests to send to these areas.

 

[MikeInVA]

I’d much prefer for the Pope to asks his bishops to provide a couple of priests each to go on mission work rather than revamping Church’s teaching on priestly celibacy.

 

[Leferdion]

…and how is the pope ‘‘revamping’’ church teaching on priestly celibacy?

 

[tafan2]

That is likely too simplistic. Many bishop’s here in the US are relying on “mission” priests from other parts of the world, eg Indo and the Philippines. Diocese in Europe and many in various parts of the US have very few young priests.

And the Holy Father defended priestly celibacy very strongly. He simply said that theologians need to study the option for married priests that could serve in very remote parts of the world. It was a wonderful statement. My decision is: no optional celibacy, I will not do this. I don’t feel like I could stand before God with this decision."

I actually posted the first response on this thread, and it disappeared, so I am hesitant to say what I said then, but I will. The Holy Father should be universally praised for this statement. Unfortunately, those on the progressive side of the Church will want to pretend he never gave such a strong defense of celibacy. As for those who oppose the Holy Father, he can simply do nothing right.

 

[commenter]

I am under the impression that these priests would not be receiving the same training or instruction as priests normally do, rather their main responsibilities would be to simply dispense the sacraments and say mass.

In other words they may not have the training to preach or hear confessions.

The other issue is that they would not get nearly as much screening before ordination as the current seminarians get.
Given the problems the Church has had, both sexual and doctrinal, this should stick out like a sore thumb. If these men are in villages where a priest visits once a year, how well does the Church know them?

Why is there so little mention of the Permanent Diaconate? Has this option been offered to them?

Pentecostal churches grow, not because of the number of clergy, but because the laity evangelize. They often lose members because some of their clergy are poorly trained, poorly screened, vary wildly from one pastor to the next.