It's a small step for the man, but a giant step for the Catholic Church. In a working paper unveiled Monday, June 17, written for the World Bishops' Meeting on the Amazon, to be held from October 6 to 27, the Vatican suggests that in the remote Amazon region "be studied the possibility of priestly ordination of elders, preferably indigenous, respected and accepted by their community, even if they already have an established and stable family ".
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A first in the Catholic Church. "Until then, this possibility has always been mentioned in the mouth of theologians, but never in an official document of the Church drafted by the Vatican.This is a real change," says France 24 Christine Pedotti, director of the review Christian testimony.
"The ratcheting effect"
The special geography of the Amazon effectively deprives the Catholic population of religious services, including Eucharistic celebrations that can only be consecrated by priests. But the argument of the isolation advanced by the Church could well be taken by a good part of the world population. "If we open this possibility to the Amazon, there is a good chance that there will then be a ratchet effect: we will very quickly then mention the case of Papua, then that of certain French regions such as Creuse, The French essayist emphasizes that there are practically no priests in practice, and everyone knows that it is local peculiarities, like the Amazon, that global changes will come. "
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This is not the first time the Pope has put the subject on the table. In 2014, the sovereign pontiff had already mentioned on two occasions in less than three months the idea that the rule could be amended. "The celibacy of priests is not a dogma," he had said before reporters. Moreover, "there are married priests in the Church", he added, citing among others the Anglicans rallied to Rome, the Coptic Catholic and some priests of Eastern Churches. "The door is open," he said, immediately raising hope among all Catholics who favor the ordination of married men.
"The suspense is huge"
The challenge now is whether the Vatican will endorse the proposal. "All observers will have their eyes riveted on the Vatican next October, the suspense is complete," says Christine Pedotti with excitement.
Such a change is not contrary to dogma because celibacy does not fall under divine law, but only discipline. It was not until the eleventh century that the Latin Church imposed it on his servants. But the new document emanating from the Pontifical services suggests to return to the pragmatism of the first Christians who tried to "meet the needs by creating the adapted ministries".
The introductory text at the October synod goes further. The Vatican addresses another taboo: that of the place of women in the Church. The instrumentum laboris invites in particular to change "the criteria for selecting and preparing the ministers authorized to celebrate". He calls, in more specific terms, to "promote indigenous vocations of men and women as a response to the needs of sacramental pastoral care", as well as "to identify the type of official ministry that can be conferred on women, given the central role they have today in the Amazonian Church ".
The women's place
Amazonian women could now be entrusted with official duties. If the proposal leads to concrete measures, it would soon become the rule on the whole globe. "Certainly, Amazon women have a special role in the Church, but this is also the case in France and in the rest of the world," observes Christine Pedotti.
In a general way, the text invites to "overcome rigid positions that do not sufficiently take into account the concrete life of the people and the pastoral reality, to meet the real necessities of the indigenous peoples and cultures."
For the progressives, such a pragmatism is welcome in a church hit hard by the vocations crisis and repeated pedophilia scandals. "The question of the ordination of married priests goes in the right direction, but the crisis that the Church is going through is such, especially in France, that I have the impression that we are discussing the sex of angels, ironically the Patroness of Christian Testimony Of course, the marriage of the priests will partly solve the shortage of priests, but it is necessary to go much further by notably opening the ordination to the women and by modifying the approach of clericalism because the situation will be even worse in 10 years…"