This is really the wrong attitude to have towards a Pope, corydonmundi. It’s almost an insult to the Holy Spirit in my opinion, (not that you mean to). Here is an insightful paragraph written by then Crd Ratzinger in response to Pope St JPII asking the CDF to expound onpapal infallibility for our generation.I wish he’d quite being so vague and just state the facts. I’ll be happy when we have more clear leadership.
I also loved his line on how indigenous people and how they are unable to comprehend celibacy:
By and large, contemporary Americans (aside from Catholics) aren’t able to comprehend celibacy for religious ministers either.Bishop Kräutler told reporters today he estimates “two-thirds” of bishops in the Amazon support the ordination of viri probati.
“There’s no other option,” he said during the press conference a short while earlier. “Indigenous people don’t understand celibacy,” he added, and he recalled many times he would go to a village and that the first thing they asked him was: “Where is your wife?”
“I had to explain I’m not married, and they almost felt sorry for me, saying: ‘Oh poor man.’” He added that a second time that happened, he replied: “She’s far away” and was “thinking of my mother.”
“Indigenous peoples, at least those I’ve met, cannot understand this thing that man is not married,” he said.
So, they used to be solidly Catholic. But we are attempting to woo them back using old tribal religious icons / costumes, etc?Too many commenters, outside South America, have fallen into the trap of assuming that the October synod is mainly about the tribal Indians still surviving, and still maintaining their traditional way of life, in remote areas of the Amazon jungle. It isn’t primarily about them at all. It’s about the much more numerous settler population of peasants who struggle to scrape a living through subsistence farming in the vast areas where the jungle has been cleared, in a slow, constant process that has been going on for over a hundred years. These are the people that the Catholic Church is losing, year by year or even Sunday by Sunday, to the Pentecostal invasion of territory that in a quite recent past was still solidly Catholic.
Of course, there can’t be and won’t be a “rescript” that allows a person who is not a priest to hear confessions or celebrate Mass, which were mentioned in the post to which you responded. A layperson witnessing a wedding, yes, you can say that can be allowed by rescript.I assume you have never heard of a rescript
It seems I failed to make my meaning clear. To the extent that this synod is concerned with meeting the religious needs of the people living in the Amazon region, the tribal Indians still maintaining their traditional way of life in remote jungle areas are only a secondary concern. The tribal icons, costumes, and so on have to do with addressing the needs of these people, who are not the Church’s main concern in the synod. The very much greater population of settlers who have moved into the area in recent decades, following jungle clearance, and who are largely engaged in subsistence farming, are the ones the Catholic Church has been losing to the Pentecostals.So, they used to be solidly Catholic. But we are attempting to woo them back using old tribal religious icons / costumes, etc?
I’m confused by this, particularly when it comes to weddings. How would that work for lay women? And what about purifying vessels? Giving blessings?As for women doing what deacons do, well, laypeople can theoretically be allowed to do everything a deacon does and the permission does not always have to come from the Holy See.