MAMARTICLE
AMAthe Facts: the AThe
three-week Synod of Bishops for the Amazon has drawn to a close, with a final
Mass celebrated by Pope Francis on Sunday, October 27. It was convened to
address two principal topics, both mentioned its title, Amazonia: New
Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology.
By discussing “new paths for the
Church,” organizers sought to address pastoral concerns in the pan-Amazon
region of South America, and by discussing “an integral ecology,” it sought to
address environmental concerns in the region.
So, what happened, and what happens
next?
Controversy erupted over the synod before it even began, with some criticizing its initial working document as being
insufficiently focused on Christ and the Christian faith.
The controversy only grew
following a tree-planting ceremony held at the
Vatican on October 4, just before the start of the synod. The ceremony featured
several wooden carvings of a naked, pregnant woman whose identity was
ambiguous. They were identified by various parties as representations of “Our
Lady of the Amazon,” Mother Earth, the Incan earth deity Pachamama, or some
kind of symbol of life.
In an event that made headlines, the
carvings were taken from the Roman church where they were on display and thrown into the Tiber River, though they were
later recovered. The Italian police commander who took charge of the carvings
upon their recovery suggested that they might be present
during the closing Mass of the synod, but this did not happen. Instead, a traditional image of Mary was used.
When the Synod of Bishops meets, it
uses a working document prepared ahead of time as a starting point for its
discussions and then it prepares a final document that is submitted to the
pope. It’s then up to the pope to decide what—if anything—is to be done on the
basis of the synod’s advice. The final document produced by this synod discussed
a wide variety of subjects—many more than we can cover here—but we will focus
on two that have been lightning rods.
Based on the initial working document,
various commentators expressed concerns that the synod might call for the
ordination of married men to the priesthood and for the ordination of women to
the diaconate. The final document submitted to the pope did contain paragraphs discussing these subjects, though
they contained qualifiers that weren’t always reported in the press. John Allen notes:
In the final document of the synod
released Saturday night Rome time, the 184 voting members, mostly bishops from
the nine countries that contain a share of the Amazon rainforest, appeared to
offer cautious approval to all three ideas—married priests, women deacons, and
an Amazon rite—but with an emphasis on “caution.”
Some of that was actually
anti-climactic, since Francis himself drew the synod to a close by insisting
that it would be a mistake to focus on internal Church debates, saying the
emphasis instead should be on the fate of the Amazon itself.
On ordaining married men to the
priesthood, the final document cited a shortage
of priests in the Amazon that can lead to gaps of months or years between
visits by a priest who can celebrate the Eucharist, hear confessions, and give
the anointing of the sick. It therefore proposed establishing criteria to
ordain to the priesthood those who are “suitable and esteemed men of the
community, who have had a fruitful permanent diaconate and receive and adequate
formation for the priesthood, having a legitimately constituted and stable
family” to serve “in the most remote areas of the Amazon region.”
Married priests are found in many
Eastern rite Catholic churches, but for many centuries, the Latin rite of the
Catholic Church has ordained only celibate men to the priesthood—at least under
ordinary circumstances. There have been exceptions, such as when a couple with
no children at home separates to devote themselves to God (e.g., the wife
becomes a nun and the husband becomes a monk or priest). Recently, the Holy See
has allowed the ordination of married men in the Latin rite who were clergymen
in another Christian body.
Under present Latin canon law, a man
who has a wife is impeded from ordination except to the permanent diaconate (can. 1041 §1), but this impediment can be
dispensed by the Holy See (can. 1047 §2 n. 3). The final synod document
proposes that a new exception be made for certain married men in the Amazon,
though the document notes that some synod members preferred “a more universal
approach to this subject.” Since divine law and Church teaching do not require
that only unmarried men be ordained to the priesthood, the question of
ordaining married men is a subject of prudential judgment on which Catholics
can hold different views.
The situation is different when it
comes to women deacons, for here Church teaching is
involved. The Church teaches that “Only a baptized man validly receives sacred
ordination” (CCC 1577). It also teaches that the diaconate
is one of the three grades of holy orders (CCC
1554). From that, it follows that the Church teaches only a baptized
man can validly be ordained to the diaconate. Yet in the early Church there
were women who were called “deaconesses” (cf. Rom. 16:1).
How can these things be squared? The
standard view is that the deaconesses in the early Church did not receive the
sacrament of ordination but were called “deaconesses” because of their role in
serving the Church (Greek, diakonos, “servant”). However, some
argue that they were ordained.
In 2016, Pope Francis convened a commission to study the
subject, but its results were inconclusive. The synod referred to this
commission, and its concluding document noted that some of the synod fathers
favored the permanent diaconate for women. It stated, “We would therefore like
to share our experiences and reflections with the commission and await its
results.” No doubt, the bishops who favored ordaining women to the diaconate
would use the opportunity to make their case, while bishops who did not favor
this proposal would urge the reverse.
Unlike ordaining married men to the
priesthood, ordaining women to the diaconate would require a change in Church
teaching. Would such a change be possible?
In 1994, John Paul II ruled that it has
been definitively (infallibly) settled that women cannot be ordained to the priesthood, and in 2002, Joseph Ratzinger approved a document of
the International Theological Commission that concluded that, on the subject of
ordaining women to the diaconate, it still “pertains to the ministry of
discernment which the Lord established in his Church to pronounce
authoritatively on this question.” It thus held that this was still a subject
of possible doctrinal development.
What is Pope Francis likely to do in regard to these questions?
Just before the synod, Cardinal Marc
Ouellet, head of the Congregation for Bishops, indicated that Pope Francis is skeptical of
ordaining married men to the priesthood, though he noted that he had authorized
discussion on the subject.
Whether the pope will agree to the
synod’s request to make exceptions for married men in certain regions of the
Amazon remains to be seen.
On the question of women deacons, Pope
Francis has indicated he will try to reconvene the commission studying
this question for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Whether a
reconstituted commission would be able to achieve more of a consensus than the
first one did remains to be seen—and it would take some time for the new
commission to do its work.
The next concrete development is
expected to be the publication of a document that popes traditionally release
after a synod (known as a post-synodal apostolic exhortation). This may happen
before the end of the year, and it will provide a clearer idea of what Pope
Francis plans to do in response to the synod.
Now, as Pope Francis discerns his
response, is a good time for prayer.