• Synod: Bishops approve the ordination of married priests for the Amazon

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has publicly exhorted his successor Francisco to abandon the idea of ​​ordering priests to married men, a very unusual initiative in the Vatican.

Given the local lack of priests in the Amazon that facilitate access to the sacraments, a synod suggested ordering priests to married men of a certain age (called "viri probati"), preferably indigenous. Francisco must make a decision on this issue in the coming weeks.

Benedict XVI, 92, expressed his opinion in a book written with ultraconservative cardinal Robert Sarah, whose fragments were published exclusively by the French newspaper Le Figaro.

"The similarity of our concerns and the convergence of our conclusions have led us to make the fruit of our work and our spiritual friendship available to all the faithful as Saint Augustine did. Indeed, as he can affirm:" Silence non possum! I can't shut up! ", write the two ecclesiastics.

"It is urgent, necessary, that all, bishops, priests and laity, recover a look of faith on the church and on the priestly celibacy that protects its mystery, " they say.

They ask the whole Church not to be "impressed" by "the bad allegations, theatrical staging, the evil lies, the fashionable mistakes that want to devalue the priestly celibacy."

"The conjugal state concerns every man as a whole, but the service of the Lord also demands the total gift of man, it does not seem possible to perform both vocations simultaneously. Therefore, the ability to renounce marriage to make himself completely available to the Lord has become a criterion for priestly ministry, "writes Benedict XVI, who left office in 2013.

For the Guinean Cardinal Sarah, "well-understood priestly celibacy, although sometimes it is a test, is a liberation. It allows the priest to establish himself with consistency in his identity as a church husband."

Benedict, the first pontiff to resign in almost six centuries, initially devoted himself to a life of contemplation and calm, but over time he expressed himself more and more openly about the important issues of the Catholic Church.

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