¿Qué ha sido de la propuesta viri probati?

¿QUÉ HA SIDO DE LA PROPUESTA VIRI PROBATI?GABRIEL Mª OTALORA, [email protected] (VIZCAYA). ECLESALIA, 05/02/24.- Con motivo de la Jornada Mundial de la Vida Consagrada, que se celebra cada 2 de febrero, quiero agradecer a quienes han hecho de su vida una apuesta radical por el Evangelio, de compromiso y testimonio. Es un carisma importante que, en mi opinión, debiera…

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Os inimigos do Papa Francisco veem o caminho livre para promover seu modelo 'ultra' após a morte de Bento XVI

Traduzido por conta própria do texto original no elDiario.es.

"Existe apenas um Papa, e seu nome é Francisco." De forma contundente, Joseph Ratzinger respondeu em 2018, por carta, às teses do cardeal Walter Brandmuller, um dos quatro cardeais que chegaram a ameaçar declarar o Papa Francisco 'ilegítimo' por sua abertura à comunhão para divorciados recasados, e por abrir o debate sobre a possibilidade de consagrar padres casados ​​('viri probati') em rincões que, como a Amazônia, não tinham padres.

O movimento de Brandmuller, secundado por outros cardeais como o americano Burke (um dos mais próximos colaboradores eclesiásticos de Donald Trump), o italiano Carlo Cafarra e Joachim Meisner, ficou conhecido como movimento das 'Dubia', por causa do documento enviado pelos quatro a Francisco onde exigiam que ele se retratasse dessas decisões, ou o declarariam incapaz de continuar a liderar a Igreja Católica.

Dos quatro cardeais anti-Francisco – Carlo Cafarra, Joachim Meisner, Raymond L. Burke e Walter Brandmüller – só os dois últimos seguem no baile. E muito ativos. Há alguns meses, Brandmüller voltou a pedir uma mudança nas regras do Vaticano para a eleição do Papa para evitar um 'Bergoglio II', instando que apenas os cardeais romanos (da Cúria) pudessem intervir em um hipotético conclave.

Müller, Sarah, Rouco, Viganò, Salvini, Abascal…

Eles não são os únicos, nem mesmo os mais poderosos, entre os inimigos do Papa Francisco. A lista é conhecida de todos: Gerhard Müller, ex-prefeito da Congregação para a Doutrina da Fé; Robert Sarah, ex-prefeito da Congregação para o Culto e um dos protagonistas do maior embaraço entre os opositores a Bergoglio; o espanhol Antonio María Rouco Varela ou o ex-núncio nos Estados Unidos, Carlo María Viganò são apenas alguns dos nomes de um movimento mais poderoso do que aparenta, que busca reverter as reformas implementadas por Francisco na última década e que, apesar do seu ímpeto, sempre encontraram fechadas as portas de qualquer apoio direto de Bento XVI.

Também não se trata apenas de eclesiásticos: muitos dos políticos que hoje desfilam pela capela funerária de Ratzinger, de Mateo Salvini a Viktor Orban, passando por Giorgia Meloni, e outros que não vieram a Roma, como Steve Bannon ou Santiago Abascal, são opositores declarados do “cidadão Bergoglio”, como o líder da extrema-direita espanhola costuma chamar o Papa.

Ratzinger nunca encorajou, pelo menos em público, qualquer estratégia que pudesse ser interpretada como apoio aos inimigos de Francisco. O que acontecerá agora, que o contrapeso moral de Ratzinger não existe? Especialistas do Vaticano preveem que os críticos de Francisco entrarão em guerra total contra o papa argentino. O primeiro a fazê-lo é o secretário pessoal de Bento XVI, Georg Gänswein, que já anunciou a publicação de suas memórias, nas quais esclarecerá escândalos como Vatileaks, abusos sexuais ou o 'caso Emanuela Orlandi', e que atacará o que considera "calúnias" contra o Papa emérito.

Numa das muitas entrevistas que Gänswein concedeu nestes dias destaca-se a concedida ao semanário Die Tagespost, em que o secretário de Bento XVI assegura que o Papa emérito leu o decreto Traditionis custodes "com dor no coração", em que Bergoglio pôs fim às missas em latim e de costas para o povo, reaberto por seu predecessor em 2007. "[Bento] não se sentia à vontade tirando este tesouro do povo", denunciou o secretário do falecido Papa.

As memórias de Gänswein são apresentadas, assim, como a primeira rodada de uma nova batalha na qual, seguramente, personagens como o ex-núncio Viganò, que acusou o Papa Francisco de olhar para o outro lado no caso dos abusos do ex-cardeal McCarrick, líder do a Igreja americana durante o pontificado de João Paulo II e Bento XVI, e que foi expulso do colégio cardinalício por Bergoglio.

Espera-se também que os ataques sejam redobrados pelo ambiente do também deposto cardeal Becciu, protagonista de um macrojulgamento por desvio de fundos vaticanos para a criação de uma diplomacia paralela e pela famosa compra e venda do palácio em Londres. Becciu foi um dos primeiros a reivindicar a figura de Bento XVI e sua nomeação como Doutor da Igreja, algo em que concordou com o cardeal Rouco Varela e o ex-prefeito Müller. Ambos foram dois dos protagonistas da homenagem (alguns chamam de coven ultraconservador) organizada em outubro passado pela Associação Católica de Propagandistas do CEU.

Durante o simpósio (ao qual também compareceram outros bispos claramente antiFrancisco, como Juan Antonio Reig Pla ou José Ignacio Munilla), o cardeal alemão destacou que "as questões centrais da Igreja não devem ser as mudanças climáticas ou a política de imigração, mas o Evangelho de Jesus", no que interpretou-se como um duro golpe nos eixos programáticos do pontificado de Francisco, muito menos centrados no litúrgico ou na moralidade das atitudes do que na misericórdia e na abertura aos distanciados e sofredores.

“O Concílio Vaticano II foi a centelha para a ruptura da Igreja”, destacou Müller no dito fórum, que destacou que “a Igreja não é um programa para estabelecer uma sociedade capitalista liberal ou social-comunista, nem para criar uma nova ordem mundial em 2030”.

O falso livro de Ratzinger 'à quatro mãos' contra Bergoglio

Outro dos grandes opositores do atual pontificado, colaborador próximo de Bento XVI e considerado pelos ultraconservadores como possível candidato papal no caso de um hipotético conclave, é o cardeal guineense Robert Sarah. Ex-prefeito do Culto Divino, foi um dos responsáveis ​​pelo retorno à liturgia tradicional, abençoado por Ratzinger e, que desde o início do pontificado de Francisco se manifestou contrário às aberturas do argentino aos casais homossexuais, aos divorciados recasados ​​e a uma nova olhar para a sexualidade e controle de natalidade.

Em janeiro de 2020, ainda prefeito, Sarah anunciou a publicação de Desde lo más profundo de nuestros corazones, escrito "a quatro mãos" junto com Ratzinger, e no qual se pressionava diretamente o Papa a não cogitar a possibilidade de ordenar homens casados.

O escândalo foi desfeito em poucas horas, quando o secretário Gänswein - considerado pelas esferas vaticanas como o verdadeiro mandante da trama - teve que se apresentar e, em nota oficial, exigir que fosse retirada a autoria do Papa emérito do volume, assegurando que Ratzinger "nunca aprovou nenhum projeto de livro com dupla assinatura".

Gaenswein, em comunicado oficial, destacou que "o papa emérito sabia que o cardeal estava preparando um livro e lhe havia enviado seu texto sobre o sacerdócio, autorizando-o a usá-lo como quisesse", mas que "não havia aprovado nenhum livro com dupla assinatura nem tinha visto a capa. Depois de alguns meses, Sarah foi dispensado do cargo de prefeito e Gänswein retirou-se do cargo de prefeito da Casa Pontifícia (responsável pela agenda do Papa), com a desculpa de cuidar exclusivamente do pontífice emérito.

Com a morte de Ratzinger, ninguém duvida que Gänswein não voltará ao serviço direto de Bergoglio. Entretanto, por parte da Santa Sé há um especial empenho em destacar os “muitos encontros, públicos e privados, entre o Papa Francisco e o Papa Emérito Bento XVI”, sempre “marcados por grande cordialidade, oração comum, afeto e respeito mútuo”. O site oficial da Santa Sé, Vatican News, dedica uma extensa reportagem para resgatar todas as vezes que Francisco visitou ou ligou para Bento XVI desde sua renúncia até sua morte. Talvez tentando colocar o curativo antes da ferida. Ou, certamente, sabendo que, uma vez morto Ratzinger, os mesmos lobos que cercaram o pastor que decidiu renunciar há uma década, atacarão impiedosamente seu sucessor. Que parece ainda ter corda* por um tempo.

*Acho que como num relógio de corda, como explica, em espanhol, esse site.

Choosing voluntary celibacy or marriage "does not touch the priesthood in itself"

Choosing voluntary celibacy or marriage “does not touch the priesthood in itself”

Voluntary celibacy or marriage – the call for priests to be able to choose which state they prefer is growing stronger in Germany. German bishops’ conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing and Archbishop Ludwig Schick have added their support to Cardinal Reinhard Marx who spoke strongly in favour of voluntary celibacy at the beginning of February. Schick is advocating ordaining ‘viri probati’ –…

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Se il prossimo conclave vorrà un secondo Francesco, ecco il nome e il programma

Se il prossimo conclave vorrà un secondo Francesco, ecco il nome e il programma

Nella rosa di cardinali che Francesco vedrebbe bene come suoi successori c’è un nome nuovo, balzato rapidamente in testa alla classifica. È quello del cardinale gesuita Jean-Claude Hollerich, arcivescovo di Lussemburgo. (more…)

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Pope Francis has said in the past that he would entertain the possibility of ordaining “viri probati” in remote areas that are deprived of the sacraments. But he has also made clear that the church’s broader commitment to celibacy for priests remains intact.

Querida Amazzonia? Ecco l'inganno....

Querida Amazzonia? Ecco l’inganno….

Ringraziando le riflessioni fatte da Don Alfredo M. Morselli, siamo grati anche ad una riflessione del professore Josè Antonio Ureta – dall’Osservatorio  Sinodo Amazzonia dell’ Istituto Plinio Correa de Oliveira, insieme anche ad un articolo del professore Stefano Fontana…

Fermo restando che al momento pare “salvata” la legge ecclesiastica sul celibato sacerdotale, si profila però un altro…

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Ma il sacerdote non è già sposato con la Chiesa? Chi è che vuole la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca?

Ma il sacerdote non è già sposato con la Chiesa? Chi è che vuole la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca?

Gesù fu celibe proprio per dare l’esempio e la testimonianza di questo intreccio, legame  INDISSOLUBILE… e ha posto DUE SACRAMENTI: quello del Matrimonio fra l’uomo e la donna PER DARE LA VITA; e quello del sacerdozio ministeriale PER CUSTODIRE E FORMARE ALLA VITA ETERNA…

«Il celibato sacerdotale, che la Chiesa custodisce da secoli come fulgida gemma, conserva tutto il suo valore anche nel nostro…

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Pope on celibacy, populism and “moments of emptiness”

Associated Press, March 9, 2017

BERLIN (AP)--Pope Francis says the church must study whether it’s possible to ordain married men to minister in remote communities facing priest shortages.

In an interview published Thursday with Germany’s Die Zeit, Francis stressed that removing the celibacy rule is not the answer to the Catholic Church’s priest shortage. But he expressed an openness to studying whether so-called “viri probati”--or married men of proven faith--could be ordained.

“We must consider if viri probati is a possibility. Then we must determine what tasks they can perform, for example, in remote communities,” he was quoted as saying.

The “viri probati” proposal has been around for decades, but it has drawn fresh attention under history’s first Latin American pope thanks in part to his appreciation of the challenges facing the church in places like Brazil, a huge Catholic country with an acute shortage of priests.

Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, a longtime friend of Francis and former head of the Vatican’s office for clergy, is reportedly pressing to allow viri probati in the Amazon, where the church counts around one priest for every 10,000 Catholics.

Francis has shown particular openness to receiving concrete proposals for ordaining married men as well as his own pastoral concern for men who have left ministry to marry.

He has maintained friendship with the Argentine widow of a friend who left the priesthood to marry, and he spent one of his Friday mercy missions last year visiting with men who had left ministry to start families. He has also said that while he favors a celibate priesthood, celibacy technically can be up for discussion since it’s a discipline of the church, not a dogma.

The church allows some exceptions to the rule. Priests in the eastern rite Catholic Church are allowed to be married, as are married Anglican priests who convert to Catholicism.

In the interview, Francis also confirmed Colombia was on his travel plans for 2017, as well as India and Bangladesh. He ruled out Congo, which had been rumored, but mentioned Egypt as a possibility. Francis has also recently said he hoped to visit South Sudan.

Francis also repeated his warning of the dangers of rising populism in western democracies, saying “populism is evil and ends badly as the past century showed.”

In the first major interview that Francis has given a German newspaper, the pope was asked whether he experienced moments in which he doubted the existence of God. He responded: “I, too, know moments of emptiness.”

But, he pointed out periods of crisis are also a chance to grow, saying a believer who doesn’t experience that remains “infantile.”

Il celibato resta, ma il Papa apre sui "viri probati": plauso dalla Germania

L’apertura sui viri probati lasciata intravedere da Papa Francesco al settimanale Die Zeit rilancia il dibattito sul celibato nella Chiesa e incassa il plauso di parte di quella…

La Iglesia Universal sufre ataques desde dentro y desde fuera. Pero la promesa de nuestro Señor Jesucristo es clara y contundente: “Yo también te digo que tú eres Pedro, y sobre esta roca edificaré mi iglesia; y las puertas del Hades no prevalecerán contra ella.” (Mateo 16, 18) https://www.aciprensa.com/noticias/cardenal-jesuita-admite-grave-riesgo-de-cisma-si-se-aprueban-viri-probati-y-diaconisas-22237 https://www.instagram.com/p/CZRiMxeOv3z/?utm_medium=tumblr

Why the pope said no to married priests

Why the pope said no to married priests

Lack of prayerful discernment is the reason Pope Francis said no to the Amazon synod’s suggestion that the Catholic Church should allow priests to be married.

The question of addressing a priest shortage in the Amazon by ordaining older, mature and married men (viri probati) from local communities was one of the issues raised at the 2019 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

The Synod’s primary purpose…

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Querida Amazonia: un freno alla rivoluzione? Colpo di freno sui viri probati; fallimento del Sinodo sull’Amazzonia; aperto contrasto con i vescovi germanico-amazzonici.

dominik: Der „Synodale Prozess“ schleppt sich mühsam weiter

<div class="pf-content"><p style="text-align: justify;">Warum ist der „Synodale Prozess“ so mühsam? Weil die Mehrheits- und die Minderheitsfraktion unterschiedliche Vorstellungen von Reform haben. Die Mehrheit ist an Strukturveränderungen interessiert, die Minderheit an Neuevangelisierung, ausgerichtet am Wort Gottes und der Lehre der Kirche.<br /> Guido Rodheut drückt das so aus: „Dass es sich nämlich bei der konkreten Verfassung und Ausrichtung des ‚Synodalen Weges‘ jenseits aller redlich bekundeten Absichten und Schönfärbungen um ein gigantisches, die katholische Kirche durch ihre Wesensverkennung schwer beschädigendes Unternehmen handelt“ (Vatikan-Magazin 8-9, 2020, S. 36).<br /> Das Problem der sogenannten Reformvorhaben hat auch damit zu tun, dass sich der Relativismus in den Köpfen der Synodenmehrheit breit gemacht hat. Noch einmal Rodheut: Er zitiert zur Verdeutlichung die Pastoraltheologin Christiane Bundschuh-Schramm, Mitarbeiterin des Bischofs von Stuttgart-Rottenburg: „Die Wahrheit ist nicht unveränderlich, weil sie nicht etwas Objektives ist. Sie ist wandelbar, weil sie im Subjekt entsteht und folglich müssen wir Schluss machen mit überholten Gottesbildern und Denkmodellen“. Mit einer solchen Geisteshaltung ist der demokratischen Mehrheit der Synodalen die Tür geöffnet und sie macht vor Abstimmungen, auch über die Lehre der Kirche, nicht Halt. Diese synodale Gesinnung stieß inzwischen auf zwei Staumauern: Das Schreiben von Papst Franziskus zur Amazonassynode. Es öffnete nicht den erhofften Türspalt zum Frauendiakonat/Priesterweihe und zu den „Viri probati“. Die Instruktion der Kleruskongregation beugt der Entmachtung des Pfarrers durch Teams, in welcher der Pfarrer einer von mehreren ist und jederzeit überstimmt werden kann, vor. Eine Reihe von Bischöfen (Kohlgraf, Schick, Ackermann, Overbeck, Feige, Bode, Marx) übten heftige Kritik an dieser Instruktion. Andere Bischöfe (Wölki, Hanke, Ipolt, Meier, Oster, Voderholzer) halten die Instruktion für richtig, weil sie der Laienarbeit Raum bietet. Das Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken (ZdK) sieht durchaus Möglichkeiten, aus der Universalkirche auszuscheren. Die ZdK-Vizepräsidentin Karin Kortmann meinte: Es helfe nicht, „wenn wir nur einen Einheitsbrei auf Weltkirchenebene, der für alle eine Gültigkeit hat, immer im Blick haben… Kirche ist wie alle anderen lebendigen Gemeinschaften von Ort zu Ort, von Land zu Land, von Voraussetzungen und Bedürfnissen her unterschiedlich“ (Passauer Bistumsblatt, Nr. 36, 6.9.2020, S. 3). Einen Weg, der aus der Universalkirche herausführt, werden wir nicht mitgehen!<span id="more-10603"></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Die Instruktion aus Rom war auch das Thema auf der Sitzung des „Ständigen Rates“, der 27 Diözesanbischöfe am 24. August 2020 in Würzburg. Die Bischöfe nahmen das Gesprächsangebot vom Präfekten der Kleruskongregation Kardinal Beniamino Stella an. Allerdings will der Vorsitzende der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK) Bätzing mit dem gesamten Präsidium des „Synodalen Prozesses“, d.h. mit seinem Stellvertreter, Bischof Bode, und dem Präsidenten des ZdK Thomas Sternberg und der ZdK-Vizepräsidentin Karin Kortmann in Rom anrücken. Das Gesprächsangebot galt nur den Bischöfen.<br /> Die deutschen Bischöfe haben mehrheitlich einen lange praktizierten Anpassungskurs an die Haltung der mitgliederstarken katholischen Laienorganisationen im ZdK (KDFB, kfd, BDKJ), die von den Medien massiv unterstützt werden, toleriert. Sie haben das Heft nicht mehr in der Hand. Der bisherige Verlauf des „Synodalen Prozesses“ bestätigt das.<br /> Das Surfen im Gegenwind von Synodenmehrheit und Medien gegenüber der o.a. römischen Instruktion zeigt Bischof Heiner Wilmer von Hildesheim in einem Interview mit der Augsburger Allgemeinen Zeitung (AZ) vom 31.8.2020, S. 6. Gefragt… „In einer Vatikaninstruktion wurden Leitungs-Teams für Pfarreien aus Pfarrern und Laien ausgeschlossen. Können Sie die Verärgerung nachvollziehen?“ Wilmer: „Ich kann sie nachvollziehen, zumal die deutschen Bischöfe von der Instruktion nichts wussten“… Diese Vatikaninstruktion ruft das Kirchenrecht in Erinnerung. Sie bringt nichts Neues. Wilmer strapaziert ein Nichtwissen, das eigentlich nicht sein dürfte.<br /> Der Interviewer: „Auch eine Reihe Ihrer Mitbrüder kritisierte das Papier, eine Art Verwaltungsanweisung, scharf als ‚wirklichkeitsfern‘. Es säe Misstrauen“. Wilmer: „Ich plädiere für eine differenzierte Betrachtung… (Papst Franziskus) geht es darum, dass das Volk Gottes der Hauptakteur der Evangelisierung sei“. Das stellt die Instruktion nicht infrage.<br /> Interviewer: „Der Vorsitzende der deutschen Bischofskonferenz will den obersten deutschen Laienvertreter dazu (zum Gespräch in Rom) mitnehmen. Ob das Stella wohl passt?“ Zu diesem Affront, besser Provokation antwortet Wilmer: „Ich gehe davon aus, dass sich auch die römische Behörde freut, wenn Getaufte Verantwortung übernehmen. Auch das wird von der Instruktion in keiner Weise behindert“.<br /> Interviewer: „Was erhoffen Sie sich von dem Treffen im Vatikan?“:<br /> Wilmer: „Ich erhoffe mir eine gute Gesprächskultur. Und ich erhoffe mir, dass wir die Umstände, in denen die Menschen jeweils leben, ernst nehmen. Die Frage ist doch: Wie können wir in Deutschland die Frohe Botschaft so leben und verkünden, dass sie uns trägt?“ Dem steht die Instruktion nicht im Wege und wenn Wilmer im weiteren Interview feststellt: „Wir sind nun einmal Kirche im Wandel“, wäre interessant, was er mit Wandel meint und wie er ihm begegnen will. Es gibt die Möglichkeit der gefügigen Anpassung an den Wandel oder einer Rückkehr zur Botschaft Jesu und zur Lehre der Kirche. Man würde Bischof Wilmer gerne zurufen: Kann es nicht etwas konkreter sein, Herr Bischof!<br /> Nach der Generalversammlung und den Regionalkonferenzen bilanziert Regina Einig (Tagespost, 10.9.2020): „Auf der Folie der Corona-Krise radikalisiert sich der ‚Synodale Weg‘. Weitgehende Wertungsfreiheit bestimmte den Austausch der Regionalkonferenzen. Wunschdenken, offene Häresie, unrealistische Forderungen, Analyse und dann und wann auch katholische Lehre stehen unsortiert nebeneinander. Von wenigen Ausnahmen abgesehen, bleibt auch Abseitiges und Abstruses unbewertet und unkorrigiert stehen“…<br /> Katholiken, die Reformen wollen, werden an der Seite jener Bischöfe stehen, die Maß am Wort Gottes und der Lehre der Kirche nehmen – auch wenn sie die Minderheit sind.</p> <p>Hubert Gindert</p> <p>Wird auch in „Der Fels“ erscheinen</p> </div>

--Quelle: http://blog.forum-deutscher-katholiken.de/?p=10603

How to read ‘Querida Amazonia’

How to read ‘Querida Amazonia’

By Austen Ivereigh

February 25, 2020

Jesus spoke of the need for new wine in new wineskins for a reason: sometimes we don’t see and hear the new thing happening because we’re looking out for the old thing. Nowhere has that been truer than in the reception of Pope Francis’s latest apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia. As the dust begins to settle on the reaction to Pope Francis’s response to the Amazon synod, we have only begun to see what his move really consists of, and the future he is opening up: a truly global Catholicism in which lay people assume their responsibility for evangelization, and exercise real authority in a church that is embedded in local, not just Western, clerical culture.

We didn’t see it coming because we were conditioned to wait for what has always come before. We were expecting a ruling from the supreme legislator of the Catholic Church on a disputed ecclesial question; we were looking for a decision. What we got was a dream, a vision, and a prophecy. What we were waiting for was a solution to a pressing problem—the lack of clergy in the Amazon and therefore of access to the Eucharist. What Francis gave us was an answer to a deeper problem: a response to the agonized cry of the people of the region, and God’s dream for their fullness of life.

We are used to post-synodal apostolic exhortations that subsume and replace the synod’s concluding report. What we got instead was something quite new: a papal response that complements the synod report with what has resonated in his discernment. We were expecting an old wineskin to carry the wine we were used to, and when we were given a new wineskin we failed to taste the new wine in it. But it’s not too late to look again, and taste.

The pope said he intended neither to duplicate nor to replace the synod final report; ergo, what is not replaced is not refused. Nothing in that report, endorsed by two-thirds of the synod, is rejected; indeed, everything in it is affirmed, endorsed, and given papal recognition. Contrary to almost every news story or reaction to Querida Amazonia, the pope did not rule against the possibility of ordaining married men, or of women deacons, or of anything else the synod agreed to propose. Instead, he said something quite astonishing: that the synod final report was the fruit of a collaboration by people “who know better than I and the Roman curia the problems and issues of the Amazon region.” And he went on to urge pastors, religious, and lay leaders to “strive to apply” the report in Amazonia, while inviting us all—the whole church—to be enriched and challenged by studying it in its integrity. Because, as we shall see, Querida Amazonia is about much more than Amazonia.

Francis prefigured the new thing in Evangelii gaudium, when he said he did not think it “advisable for the Pope to take the place of local Bishops in the discernment of every issue which arises in their territory.” The pope, in short, defers to the discernment of the local church. A Vatican official close to Francis has helped me to understand this. “It’s a complete reversal,” he writes. “Before, the hierarchical scheme needed the validation of the Holy Father, but here the Holy Father places himself in a position of listening to the action of the Spirit in the Synod.” It’s not easy for people to grasp what is going on, he explains, because it involves a category inversion typical of the Gospel’s subversive ways. “Many see in this exhortation a conclusion but it’s the opposite: it values all the proposals of the synod and treats them as a point of departure.”

The bishops have discerned; the pope respects their discernment; now it is they who must act. Far from reacting with disappointment or fury—as so many American and European progressives have—Catholics in Amazonia saw the exhortation as the pope inviting them to take the initiative. Cardinal Cláudio Hummes,the Amazon synod’s relator (chair), told journalists that the question of the ordination of married men would now be dealt with directly by the bishops of the region in dialogue with the pope and the Vatican. The bishop of Juína in the Brazilian region of Mato Grosso, Neri José, who spoke to me regularly during the synod, was one of those strongly urging the ordination of married men and women deacons. “He’s thrown the ball right back in our court,” he told me after reading the exhortation. “Now is the time for courage.”

How will the Amazonian church respond? The pope himself points to the doors waiting to be pushed open: in favorably noting the proposal for an Amazonian rite, and for a territorial episcopal council that would allow the bishops of the region to act together across national boundaries. Dom Neri is among those urging his fellow bishops to form this Amazon-specific “strong synodal body” alongside Celam—the transcontinental episcopal conference—to push these proposals forward. “If [Celam] doesn’t take the initiative,” Dom Neri tells me, “the bishops of the dioceses can seek the competent authority to proceed.” In other words, they can apply diocese by diocese for permission from Rome to ordain viri probati.

But given that this is a decision that would affect the whole Latin-rite church, most observers believe that the ordination of viri probati will be the result of a regional synodal process that creates a new Amazonian rite. “The pope is asking the bishops to come up with concrete proposals,” another Vatican official involved with the synod process told me. “He thinks the time wasn’t yet ripe for any kind of decision by him: there’s too much anxiety, too little clarity. But he expects the bishops to move forward with it.” Cardinal Hummes, who heads the trans-Amazonian church network REPAM, says the future “ecclesial organism” for Amazonia “will have an important role in discussions in the Vatican about how to bring about the ordination of married men in areas of scarcity.” Mauricio López, the executive secretary of REPAM, sees the exhortation as “an invitation to continue exploring ways and channels which will perhaps lead to relaxing the rule [of celibacy].”

Another door has meanwhile opened to a female diaconate. At the end of the synod, Francis promised to reopen and reconstitute the commission looking into women deacons that ended last year in disagreement. That will now happen, says the official involved with the synod. “But he wants the study to go beyond the diaconate, to incorporate a deeper understanding of ministries in the early church.” Because for Francis, to consider the question of ministries only through the lens of the clergy is to get stuck with the old wineskins and to miss the new wine the Spirit is offering.

  Is it possible that the church in the Amazon has focused too much on the clerical institution, and not seen what gifts are already being poured out on the People of God?

In this regard, Francis may be respecting the discernment of the synod, but he is not confined by it. Querida Amazonia expresses his conviction that the Spirit has been calling the church to look at something other than the issue of clerical ministries. The sign of that, to Francis, was the polarization over the viri probati issue. He was deeply dismayed at the politicking by curial cardinals Marc Ouellet and Robert Sarah, who attempted to mobilize public opinion against the synod’s discernment by claiming in coordinated books—one before, one after the synod—that the issue had long been settled in favor of mandatory, universal celibacy. But he was also upset at the obsessive focus on the issue during the synod by many of the Amazonian bishops, as if simply ordaining more people would somehow resolve the deeper challenges facing the church.

Whenever two church tribes blindly go to war with each other, Francis sees a sign that the bad spirit has prevailed: we have been deceived into a conviction that a tension between two goods—in this case, a celibate and married priesthood—is a contradiction that must be resolved by the defeat of one side by the other.

In such circumstances, the pope says in Evangelii gaudium, the appropriate response is not to opt for some wishy-washy compromise, nor for one pole to vanquish the other, but rather to be open to “a resolution which takes place on a higher plane and preserves what is valid and useful on both sides.” As he puts it in Querida Amazonia, the answer lies in “transcending the two approaches and finding other, better ways, perhaps not yet even imagined.” Solutions often come in the form of a “greater gift” that God is offering from which “there will pour forth as from an overflowing fountain the answers that contraposition did not allow us to see.”

The pope’s purpose in Querida Amazonia is to offer—passionately, but without dictating or lecturing—some of the answers he sees flowing from that fountain. They are answers that indignant progressives or triumphant conservatives still focused only on the institutional, clerical issue simply fail to see, because they are expecting law and have been given something more like a parable.

Fr. Augusto Zampini Davies, an Argentine official at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, suggests the analogy. Like Jesus’ parables, he says, “if you don’t get inside Francis’s dreams, they won’t change you. But if you do, you are changed.” The change Francis is pointing to requires a different way of thinking: not “How do we make sure more communities receive the Eucharist?”—important though that is—but: How can we have communities of life that care for the poor, that know Christ’s nearness? How to ignite the life of the Spirit? How to incarnate Christ?

Fr. Zampini asks me to consider the pope’s dreams as biblical dreams, that offer warnings, open new horizons, show the paths out of slavery into abundant new life.  Querida Amazonia is about Amazonia, but it’s really about all of us, he says. Replace Amazonia with the United States, or Kenya, or France, and it is just as resonant. “Try it, you’ll see it works,” he urges. I have. It does.

The first ecology we need, says Francis at the start of the exhortation’s third chapter, is to grasp that freedom from slavery means helping the hearts of people to open trustingly to that God who has not just created all that exists but has given Himself to us in Jesus Christ: “The Lord, who first cares for us, teaches us to care for our brothers and sisters, and the environment that he gifts to us each day.” There is a created order, full of creatures, because there is a Creator; and we are invited to enter into that truth by contemplating our world, not analyzing it; by loving it, not using it; by uniting ourselves to it, entering into it, giving ourselves to it.

So our created world—Amazonia, Arizona, Azerbaijan—is the place of our encounter with our Creator, who is not a distant figure but an incarnated savior. Our place is the locus theologicus of incarnation and therefore inculturation. And in our realization of that truth, our conversion, we abandon our colonialism, our corruption, our technocratic illusions of superiority, and our contempt. Instead, we embrace fraternity, open ourselves to dialogue with all (especially the poor), see all that is created as gift, and work for justice and the dignity of all. We nurture and build up culture; we respect ancestral wisdom born of the symbiotic bond of humankind and the natural world; we listen to our elders and hear the dreams of our young; we stand with the people against the power-drunk bosses who have no use for poetry and song and memory.

The church, says Francis in one of the most beautiful passages in Querida Amazonia, grows through inculturation—by incarnating the Gospel in culture. In nurturing the seeds of the Word the Lord has sown in every people, the Gospel affirms God’s action in that people, building up their culture; and at the same time, the church grows, enriched by each inculturation. It becomes a living tradition that is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire, to quote Francis quoting Gustav Mahler.

It would be a shame, says Francis, if people received from the church merely a doctrinal code or a moral imperative, and not “the great message of salvation,” which is “a God who infinitely loves every man and woman and has revealed this love fully in Jesus Christ, crucified for us and risen in our lives.” (Here Francis refers us to chapter four of his earlier exhortation Christus vivit, which describes how Christ loves you, is your savior, and is alive).

Chapter Four of Querida Amazonia is about the inculturation of the Gospel in the Amazon, but is also about what the incarnation of Christ in any culture looks like. In other words, it is about how the church needs to be present in and to a particular people. And thus the question of ministries—the way in which the church serves a people, becoming a means of encounter with Christ—is also a question of inculturation, and so necessarily raises the question of how the church organizes itself to that end.

This is where Francis gently performs his major move. The church’s pastoral presence in the Amazon, he observes, is “precarious” (the English translation, “uneven,” lacks the force of the Spanish) “due in part to the vast expanse of territory” and other existential factors: cultural diversity, the isolation of ethnic groups, and so on. The “in part” is significant; for Francis, geography only partly accounts for the problem. He calls for “a specific, courageous response” from the church to rise to this challenge, which implies a degree of pusillanimity in its response thus far. He then speaks of the need for greater access to the sacraments but immediately adds: “at the same time, there is a need for ministers who can understand Amazonian sensibilities and culture from within.” It is easy to miss the significance of this qualifying sentence, not least because the English translation softens “at the same time” to “also,” so it’s worth spelling out: the sacraments are part of the means, but the end is the inculturation of the Gospel. The purpose is not the expansion of an institutional presence. What matters is inculturated ministry that performs the Incarnation. That is the telos, the deeper purpose or end that must govern our discernment of the means.

Then comes a key passage in which Francis says that, while a priest has the non-delegable qualification to preside at the Eucharist, this does not make him the highest authority in the community. Religious women and lay leaders can and do run communities, he points out, before going on to note the distinctively lay ecclesial culture of the Amazon, where most Catholic communities have no priest and are run by women. Many of these leaders, he says, promote the encounter with God’s Word and growth in holiness through their service, and have spent decades embedded in the life of the communities of the region. He goes on to call for women, in particular, to have their roles publicly recognized and commissioned by bishops, allowing them “to have a real and effective impact on the organization, the most important decisions and the direction of communities.”

Much of the action, in these passages, is happening in the footnotes, where Francis observes that more Amazonian priests are sent to Europe and the United States than to serve in the Amazon, and that there is a lack of seminaries for indigenous priests. Who, in this scenario, is inculturating the Gospel? Is it the clergy or the lay leaders, the women, who are really running the show? Is it possible that the real issue here is a hermeneutic one—that the church in the Amazon has focused too much on the clerical institution, and not seen what gifts are already being poured out on the People of God?

If you ask that question again but replace “Amazon” with your own parish or diocese, then you’ll get Francis’s larger point. But not everyone will: these are new wineskins.

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Tông huấn Thượng Hội Đồng Amazon sẽ được công bố ngày 12/2. Dự đoán viri probati sẽ được cho phép

Tông huấn Thượng Hội Đồng Amazon sẽ được công bố vào ngày 12 tháng Hai, Phòng Báo Chí Tòa Thánh cho biết như trên hôm thứ Sáu 7 tháng Hai. Tài liệu, theo sau Thượng Hội Đồng Amazon vào Tháng Mười vừa qua, được nhiều người chờ đợi để xem liệu Đức Thánh Cha có cho phép việc phong chức linh mục cho các viri probati, tức là những người đã kết hôn và được cộng đồng coi là có phẩm hạnh, trong khu vực hay không.

Viri probati e diaconesse? "Il Sinodo è stato sconcertante, frutto dell'ideologia progressista nella Chiesa". 

Scisma tedesco? "Roma intervenga prima che sia tardi, stanno portando avanti proposte scandalose". 

Abusi del clero? "Nelle diocesi ci sono vere e proprie lobby di preti gay". 

La Pachamama? "Un papa come Leone Magno non avrebbe mai permesso una simile aberrazione". 

Hector Aguer, arcivescovo argentino parla senza peli sulla lingua dei fattori di crisi che attanagliano la Chiesa, e denuncia i frutti dell' iperprogressismo  postconcliare.