"What's More Important, Celibacy or the Eucharist, the Center of Christian Life?": Fr. J. Aristin of Peru

Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2019-09-24/in-remote-amazon-indigenous-married-catholics-spread-gospel-pray-for-priesthood
(10/17/19)

"What's more important, celibacy or the Eucharist, the center of Christian life?" said Aristin.

"Conservative" U.S. Bishop Richard Stika Supports Married Priests: "I See No Reason Not To," "If Amazon Synod Sees a Need, & w/Permission of Vicar of Christ"

Source: https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2019/07/09/u-s-bishops-at-odds-over-amazon-synods-married-priest-proposal/
(9/29/19)

While both U.S. prelates are considered to be theologically conservative, their responses reflect a wider divide over the issue, which is likely to be one of the most divisive issues debated when the Synod convenes in October.

In a series of Tweets over two days, Stika defended the proposal of allowing married priests, noting that he assented to the authority and wisdom of the pope on the matter.

In his first message, he wrote that “Since the Church already has married priests in the world, I see no reason not to. To deny the Eucharist because of Church discipline to a remote area is wrong.”

“Most likely the ones who may complain are folks who can easily go to Mass,” he added, noting that he has traveled in the region and recognized its remoteness.

After sparking a range of replies, he added: “For those who have attacked my position of ordaining married elders in the Amazon. You live in the United States where Mass is readily available.”

“You live in comfort and in many places people are begging for the Sacraments and in other places they are dying because of their desire. Your comfort makes you blind to those who are not so blessed. It is shameful. You are spoiled. You have an ignorance of the missionary world,” he added.

“If the Amazon Synod sees a need, and with the permission of the Vicar of Christ and the successor of Peter gives his assent then it is correct,” he wrote in another message.

"Many Questions" by Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas, Venezuela

Addendum on 10/26/2019: I replied to the Cardinal's questions from this article in my own blog here and sent to the National Catholic Register on the eve of the Synod vote: https://marriedromancatholicpriesthood.blogspot.com/2019/10/a-conservative-response-to-10-questions_26.html


____

Source: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/cardinal-urosa-some-pastoral-suggestions-for-the-pan-amazon-synod
(10/15/2019)


Excerpt:

Sure enough, the issue of ordaining older, married men is a matter of discipline, of religious and pastoral convenience. Priestly celibacy is not a dogma fidei and admits weighing the pros and cons. Of course they could be ordained. But we must think about what kind of priests they would be. Some second-class priests? Won’t they perhaps be like the famous “Mass and meal priests” of the past? What kind of preparation would they have? Permanent deacons require a rigorous preparation, generally of at least four years. And once ordained, they are not on their own; they generally work closely with some bishop or some priest. And what would their ministry be, simply celebrating the sacraments? From whom would they depend, that is to say, who would be their immediate superiors?  Would there not be conflicts between these older sacraments-only priests and the parish priests and episcopal vicars? How would their economic and administrative regimen be set up, that is, who would support them in the extremely poor dioceses and missionary vicariates?

And another thing: Ordaining older married priests in mission territory would not mean placing them in a kind of isolated territory. These missionary lands are neighbors of established dioceses. And the older married priests would move around. How could married priests in the missions combine with the celibate priest of the neighboring diocese? And then, this opening in the discipline: Would it be limited to Amazonia? Would it not debilitate the celibate priesthood in the rest of the world? There are many serious questions about the ordination of good married elders. And it would not solve the problem that we are facing. I do not think it suitable nor useful.

I believe that the solution to attending to these communities lies in an ever greater activity of evangelization and sanctification, so as to strengthen the faith in those Christian communities that have no priest. Evangelization and vocations produce fruits in the long run. We have seen that happen in many dioceses of Venezuela.

Certainly the labor of our beloved missionaries has been, and is, magnificent, of great sacrifice and worthy of all respect, recognition and praise. That is why we must study the reasons why preaching the Gospel and all the missionary work there has not produced more fruits, such as native vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. Now: Would the ordination of some older men to the priesthood, good only for liturgical functions, really inject the necessary energy into the Church? There are many questions that need answers. And, finally, the subject of married elders ordained to the priesthood is too important and serious to be decided for the universal Church by a regional synod.
__________________

Addendum on 10/26/2019: I replied to the Cardinal's questions from this article in my own blog here and sent to the National Catholic Register on the eve of the Synod vote: https://marriedromancatholicpriesthood.blogspot.com/2019/10/a-conservative-response-to-10-questions_26.html

"Look at the Eastern Church[es] Model": Synod Priest Msgr. Carlo Verzeletti of Brazil

Source: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2019/10/14/synods-second-week-opens-with-continued-focus-on-married-priests-ecology-inculturation/ (10/15/2019)


Excerpt:

In the synod I support and continue to support the importance of being able to ordain married men for the priesthood, so the Eucharist may become a reality that is closer to people and communities, so that these married men can, in fact, accompany the lives of the peoples, the lives of their communities.

Msgr. Verzeletti has served in the Amazonian region for twenty years. Despite the work of heroic early missionaries, Verzeletti believes the region as suffered from “400 years of colonization” and continues to be oppressed by globalization. He told journalists, “I asked in the session that the pope look with affection on this idea, ordained married men. Look at the Eastern Church model.”

EWTN Robert Royal: "Quite Definitely a Possibility" of Married Priesthood in Amazon; Only 3 Synod Bishops Have Been Vocal Against Proposal So Far

 

Source: https://youtu.be/TVULRtbdNbM
(10/12/19)

"Significant Number" of Synod Bishops Support Ordaining Married Men to Priesthood: CNA

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/priestly-celibacy-discussed-as-amazon-synod-gets-underway-96232 (10/10/19)

The synod participant told CNA that a “significant number” of bishops at the meeting have expressed support for married clergy...

Celibacy Law "Could Have Exceptions in Concrete Cases": Vatican Communications Office (Synod Day 3)

Source: https://youtu.be/zPv3HFJyVfQ (@ 0:50)
(10/9/19)

Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Vatican Communications Office

Editorial: Do It If It Saves Souls & Don't Do It If Souls Will Be Eternally Lost

If it will damn more souls to Hell (firstly my own), then don't do it.  If it will save more souls for Heaven (firstly my own), then do it.

Sandro Magister: Continence "No Longer Being Asked" in West and East (After Vatican II)

Source: http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350085bdc4.html

Another new development is a practice that has become widespread after Vatican Council II, that of ordaining married men to the diaconate, here as well without any requirement of "continentia." Today all around the world there are tens of thousands of deacons with families.

In recent decades, moreover, bishops have repeatedly made the request to compensate for the decline in vocations to the celibate priesthood by resorting to the ordination of "married men of mature age and confirmed probity," here as well with the implication that they would continue their family life. At the synod of bishops in 1971, a similar request was put to a vote and defeated by only a narrow margin: 107 votes against 87.

In short, the new development of the past century is not so much that the number of ordinations of married men to the priesthood or to the diaconate has begun to increase again in the Catholic Church, but rather that they are no longer being asked for the discipline of "continentia," even temporary, in regard to their wives.

The 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches also confirms this shift. Canon 374 simply says that "clerics, celibate or married, are to excel in the virtue of chastity," and that "it is for the particular law to establish suitable means for pursuing this end."

And the following canon specifies that "in leading family life and in educating children married clergy are to show an outstanding example to other Christian faithful."

Rarely, and with little effect, has anyone objected that such an abandonment of the discipline of "continentia," in addition to being contrary to an age-old tradition of the Church, was not  authorized even by the texts of Vatican Council II.

"Irresponsible" to Conflate Heretical Issues Along w/Married Priests: Deacon Daniel Dozier

Reflecting on NY Post on Amazon Synod:

"The incessant mischaracterization of the discussion of a change in the priestly celibacy mandate as a “dispute with Church teaching” by conflating it with heretical issues like women’s ordination and sexual immorality is a bit tiresome and irresponsible. Latin Catholic authors need to find another way to address their disagreement with the proposed change so as not to offend the myriad of ordained married priests in their own particular Church as well as the many married priests in the Eastern Catholic Churches."

"Priestly Celibacy is Not Up For Grabs"

Source: https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/06/17/married-priests-officially-on-the-agenda-during-amazon-synod/
(9/26/19)

"Though the three language versions of the document speak of “people” and not men, it is referring to the ordination of what are known as the viri probati, married men of proven virtue, many of whom already serve as permanent deacons.

The shortage of priests in the Amazon region has long been at the center of debate, as has been the possibility of ordaining the viri probati. However, whenever he’s been approached about the issue, Pope Francis is clear that priestly celibacy is not up for grabs, despite the fact that it is a discipline and not doctrine."