To ordain priests of men of old ages, married, even with children, would be a revolution for the Church. Pope Francis has nevertheless decided to put the issue on the agenda of the synod, the meeting of bishops around the world, which opens this Sunday. The latter, devoted to the Amazon, must last three weeks.
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The Amazon region is very large. She is sorely lacking in priests and faces competition from evangelicals. If the rule regarding married men changed, it would only change for that part of the world. But that raises questions.
The refusal of conservative bishops
"Why would we accept this turning of the married priests in the Amazon and why we would not accept it in France?" Asks Henri Tincq, specialist of religions and author of Vatican, the end of a world (editions Cerf). "Here too there are extensive territories without priests, without churches and without practices of the Mass."
Already in Rome the ultra-conservative bishops are brewing their weapons. It is out of the question for them to accept this change, even though the celibacy of the priests is not a dogma. It is a late practice, dating back to the 11th century. There were already married priests in the early Church, and even today in the Eastern Christian churches.