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Pope Francis Shuts Down Proposal To Allow Married Priests, Female Deacons

   DailyWire.com
Pope Francis receives the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in the library of the Apostolic Palace. Vatican City (Vatican), February 8th, 2020 (Photo by Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
Photo by Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images

Pope Francis turned down an opportunity, pushed by left-leaning bishops, to allow for married priests and female deacons to serve Catholics in the Amazon, where clergy are scarce, keeping the Catholic Church’s tradition of priestly celibacy and an all-male priesthood alive.

The Pope issued his decision in a 32-page letter entitled “Beloved Amazon,” on Wednesday, shattering progressive hopes and providing a measure of relief to his conservative critics, who feared that the bishops’ proposal would usher in a degredation of the priesthood worldwide.

Instead, Pope Francis urged those concerned about the dearth of clergy in the Amazon region to seek other options, and for those seeking to expand the priesthood to focus on quality instead of quantity.

“Priests are necessary, but this does not mean that permanent deacons (of whom there should be many more in the Amazon region), religious women and lay persons cannot regularly assume important responsibilities for the growth of communities,” the Pope wrote, “and perform those functions ever more effectively with the aid of a suitable accompaniment.”

The Pope suggested that those who care about the future of the Amazon region consider becoming missionaires or encouraging others to embrace missionary work, particularly given that ministering to underserved communities is a full-time job.

“It is not simply a question of facilitating a greater presence of ordained ministers who can celebrate the Eucharist,” he said. “That would be a very narrow aim, were we not also to strive to awaken new life in communities.”

Pope Francis also dismissed talk of allowing women to serve as deacons — an effort that might have led to arguments about women serving in the Catholic priesthood. Women, Pope Francis said,  “have kept the Church alive in those places through their remarkable devotion and deep faith,” and they have a role to play in the Church that is as necessary as that of priests.

Women, instead, “should have access to positions, including ecclesial services, that do not entail Holy Orders and that can better signify the role that is theirs.”

The Catholic Church has long taught that men and women are equal, but that the genders have unique characteristics that make them suited for specific positions and jobs within the Church. While women are not able to serve as priests, they have their own unique calling to service. The basis of the Church’s teachings on the sacrament of marriage rely on these unique, but interdependent, gender-specific roles.

“Francis has long said he appreciates the discipline and the gift of celibacy, and didn’t feel he could make such a sweeping change,” NBC News reports. “However, he has also expressed sympathy for the plight of the Amazonian faithful, and said theologians had debated pastoral reasons to consider an exception, which is possible given the celibate priesthood is a tradition of the Roman Catholic Church rather than a matter of doctrine.”

Conservative Catholics had feared that the Pope might use the Amazon proposal to usher in more liberal approach to the priesthood and, indeed, progressives, the National Catholic Reporter said Wednesday, were “disappointed” and “outraged” that the Pope did not take the opportunity to push the Church in a more liberal direction.

Some of the Pope’s biggest fans even went so far as to suggest that Pope Francis might not be the progressive leader they’d hoped for.

“People are starting to adjust their expectations,” historian Massimo Faggioli, an outspoken progressive Catholic said. “The major reforms they were expecting of him may never come.”

“We are profoundly shocked and disappointed,” said Linda Pinto, leader of a dissident Catholic organization that advocates for married and female priests told the NCR. “We were hopeful that this process would begin a Vatican II approach to governance and that leadership would listen to the needs of the people. One of our deep regrets is that this, like our culture, has devolved into an either/or, black or white, conservative or progressive fight, which loses the focus that this is about the needs of the people of God.”

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