Amazon bishops urge the Pope to ordain married men

Vatican City: Catholic bishops from across the Amazon have called for the ordination of married men to address the clergy shortage in the region, a historic proposal that would upend centuries of Catholic tradition.

The majority of 180 bishops from nine Amazonian countries also called for the Vatican to reopen a debate on ordaining women as deacons, saying "it is urgent for the church in the Amazon to promote and confer ministries for men and women in an equitable manner".

Pope Francis walks in procession on the occasion of the opening of the Amazon synod, at the Vatican, earlier this month. Credit:AP

The proposals were contained in a final document approved on Saturday at the end of a three-week synod on the Amazon, which Pope Francis called in 2017 to focus attention on saving the rainforest and better ministering to its indigenous people.

The Catholic Church, which contains nearly two dozen different rites, already allows married priests in Eastern Rite churches and in cases where married Anglican priests have converted. But if Francis accepts the proposal, it would mark a first for the Latin Rite church in a millennium.

Still, the proposals adopted on Saturday also call for the elaboration of a new "Amazonian rite" that would reflect the unique spirituality, cultures and needs of the Amazonian faithful, who face poverty, exploitation and violence over the deforestation and illegal extractive industries that are destroying their home.

Participants in the Amazon synod attend a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis.Credit:AP

Francis told the bishops at the end of the voting that he would indeed reopen the work of a 2016 commission that studied the issue of women deacons. And he said he planned to take the bishops' overall recommendations and prepare a document of his own before the end of the year that will determine whether married Catholic priests eventually become a reality in the Amazon.

Some conservatives and traditionalists have warned that any papal opening to married priests or women deacons would lead the church to ruin. They accused the synod organisers and even the Pope himself of heresy for even considering flexibility on mandatory priestly celibacy.

AP

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