Pope Francis did not mention the idea of ordaining priests of married men in remote areas of the Amazon to remedy a shortage of priests. In a highly anticipated document, released Wednesday, he did not respond to a request made in October by bishops in the region. In his "post-synodal apostolic exhortation" entitled "Querida Amazonia", "Chère Amazonie" in French, the sovereign pontiff delivers a message that wants to be universal in the form of "dreams" for the Amazon, but he does not mention the the most concrete proposals of the unprecedented synod of Amazonian bishops.
The most controversial issue of the Church
After three weeks of debate in October at the Vatican, an assembly of bishops from the nine Amazon countries asked the Pope to consider opening the priesthood to married men and relaunching the debate for deacons. On the most controversial issue for the Church (allowing pious men (viri probati) with stable marital lives to become priests) the 83-year-old Pope did not change his very deep conviction that the priesthood should be a call from God, a "gift".
In his response, the pope preferred "to urge all the bishops, especially those from Latin America" to convince more missionaries to go to the Amazon. According to him, it is also necessary to better train the priests for a real "dialogue with the Amazonian cultures". He also stressed the importance of safeguarding the environment in the Amazon.
Significant lack of itinerant priests
In this territory, the Church is faced with a glaring lack of itinerant priests, the only ones able to give communion, an essential sacrament of Christian doctrine. The pope nevertheless encourages the laity, men and women, through training, to continue to perform important services within the Church.
For progressive Catholics, the pope's decision is difficult to understand. Some even wonder about the influence that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI could have had, opposed to married priests, and who expressed himself in a controversial book a month ago.
A tribute to secular women who transmit the faith
The current pope also paid tribute to the crucial role of secular women to transmit the faith in communities in the Amazon. "They should be able to access functions, including ecclesial services," writes François, without giving details.
In this text with a very spiritual tone and peppered with sometimes old quotes from his predecessors, Pope Francis also pays tribute to Amazonian culture and rites, mocked during the synod by certain traditionalists of the Church. A reputed group close to Catholic traditionalists had stolen sacred Amazonian statues from a church and thrown them into the Tiber.