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Catholic Bishops Consider Married Priests, Face Opposition

Associated Press

   SANTA ROSA, BRAZIL - At dusk in this small indigenous village, Antelmo
   Pereira calls Catholics to prayer, changes into a white robe and leads
   a religious service that is the closest thing the faithful in this
   remote part of the Amazon can get to a proper Mass.

   Speaking in the indigenous Ticuna language, he leads a recital of the
   Lord's Prayer, reads a passage from the Gospel of Matthew and delivers
   a sermon on accepting Jesus into one's heart, as cicadas chirp loudly
   in the jungle that lies just beyond the recently built Catholic church.

   Pereira, 61, has been a part-time missionary for the past 15 years,
   volunteering his time on weekends to visit indigenous communities that
   rarely see a priest. He leads prayer services called Celebrations of
   the Word but cannot celebrate Mass or hear confessions from Catholics
   in the isolated places that he visits because he's married, has nine
   children and cannot become a priest.

   But that could change if a proposal to ordain married men in remote
   parts of the Amazon gains traction at a gathering of bishops that opens
   at the Vatican Sunday.

   More than 100 bishops from South America will convene at the Synod of
   Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region. The meeting will discuss social and
   environmental problems faced by the inhabitants of the Amazon but
   bishops are also looking at ways to introduce changes to official
   ministries to better serve Catholics in this part of the world.

   One item on the agenda is a proposal to study priestly ordination for
   older men who have good standing in their communities and are
   preferably of indigenous origin, "even if they have an established and
   stable family."

   While the proposal would be novel for the Latin Rite church, there are
   already married priests in Eastern Rite Catholic churches and in cases
   where married Anglican priests have converted.

   Nevertheless, the proposal has set off a firestorm of criticism of Pope
   Francis, with opponents accusing synod organizers of heresy for even
   introducing debate on the centuries-old tradition of a celibate
   priesthood in the Latin Rite church.

   On the ground, however, the agenda and focus on the needs of the
   indigenous have been welcomed.

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