Pope Francis sets aside proposal on married priests

Pope Francis has for now rejected a landmark proposal by bishops to allow the ordination of married men in remote areas, a potentially momentous change that conservatives had warned would set the Roman Catholic Church on a slippery slope toward lifting priestly celibacy and weakening church traditions.

Francis’ decision, in a papal letter made public on Wednesday, surprised many given the openness he had displayed on the subject and his frequently expressed desire for a more collegial and less top-down church.

It disappointed supporters of Francis who had hoped for more revolutionary change. Coming seven years into his papacy, it also raised the question of whether Francis’ promotion of discussing once-taboo issues is resulting in a pontificate that is largely talk.

His closest advisers have already acknowledged that the pope’s impact has waned on the global stage, especially on core issues like immigration and the environment. His legacy, they have said, will be inside the church, where his authority is absolute.

“It’s difficult to reform a long-standing global institution,” said Marco Marzano, author of “The Immobile Church: Francis and the Missed Revolution,” who called it “improbable” that Francis could deliver on all the changes his supporters hoped for, especially because they ignored his moderate streak. For liberals, he said, “there has been an exaggerated optimism.”

But the pope’s refusal to allow married priests was likely to delight conservatives, many of whom have come to see Francis and his emphasis on a more pastoral and inclusive church as a grave threat to the rules, orthodoxy and traditions of the faith.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, who was fired as the church’s top doctrinal watchdog by Francis in 2017 and has emerged as one of his most prominent conservative critics, welcomed the letter as a “document of reconciliation.”

“This text could also have the reconciling effect of reducing internal church factions, ideological fixations and the danger of inner emigration or open resistance,” Muller, of Germany, wrote on Wednesday.

The recommendation to allow married priests in remote areas was approved by more than two-thirds of the voting members who attended a church leaders’ summit on the Amazon region in October.

The proposal, which aimed to further the reach of the church in areas with a shortage of priests, set off a vigorous debate.

Progressives said it was high time the church recognised reality and the demands of the faithful; conservatives called the idea a threat to the priesthood, and warned that married priests would follow everywhere, including Europe.

Even the pope’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, put a finger on the scale, arguing for priestly celibacy in a rare intercession that highlighted the hardening of liberal and conservative camps that has come to define Francis’ papacy.

Despite expectations, Francis backed off.

In his letter, which took the form of a 94-page booklet and has the power of church teaching, Francis notably made no mention of ordaining married men in good standing or elevating to the priesthood married deacons, a lower clerical rank that does not require celibacy.

The silence amounted to a pocket veto of the proposal.

Cardinal Michael Czerny of Canada, a close adviser to Francis, said in a news conference on Wednesday that specific proposals in the final October document “remain on the table” and characterized the process as a “journey.”

But the Vatican made clear that for now the pope had not given the go-ahead for married priests in the Amazon.

Writing that “a specific and courageous response is required of the church,” Francis argued in his letter that access to the sacraments needs to be increased in “the remotest” places, but that a “priest alone” can celebrate communion or absolve sins.

Francis argued that the gap should be filled with a culturally sensitive effort to increase priestly vocations and by encouraging more of those already ordained to go to remote areas.

Anticipating the backlash that Francis’ decision might bring after months of fervid debate, the Vatican immediately sounded a defensive note on Wednesday.

The pope’s letter “demonstrates a thought that supersedes the dialectical diatribes which ended up representing the Synod as a referendum on the possibility of ordaining married men,” Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican spokesman, said in a statement.

He said the pope had decided against “changes or further possibilities of exceptions.”

Francis said he would “officially present” the bishops’ final document, “The Amazon: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology,” and recommended “everyone to read it in full.”

But there was some confusion about how influential that document was. Czerny said on Wednesday that the document had a “moral authority” and that “to ignore it would be a lack of obedience to the Holy Father’s legitimate authority.” But the Vatican made clear that this moral authority did not extend to ordaining married men.

The bishops’ document urged the church to adapt to the religious customs of indigenous people and to support them in their resistance to large economic and political interests exploiting the Amazon.

The pope’s letter echoed those concerns, arguing for the protection of the environment, but stopped short of calling deforestation and stripping of resources a “sin,” as the bishops had.

During the bishops’ meeting, conservatives expressed deep concerns that the church was diluting its teaching by opening to indigenous forms of worship that they considered pagan.

At one point, fertility statues were stolen from a church near St Peter’s Basilica that had become a makeshift headquarters for the indigenous attendees.

In his letter, Francis wrote: “Let us not be quick to describe as superstition or paganism certain religious practices that arise spontaneously from the life of peoples,” adding, “It is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry.”

But the section of the document that might have presented the greatest change — potentially a diversion from 1,000 years of church tradition — was on ordaining married men as priests.

Married priests are already allowed in Eastern Catholic Churches loyal to the pope, and Anglican priests who convert to Catholicism can remain married after ordination. But the document wrestled with what many church historians consider a more significant change.

At the close of the October meeting, bishops from the Amazon region had proposed that the pope ordain as priests “suitable and respected men of the community” with families who had already had “fruitful” experiences as deacons and who would “receive an adequate formation for the priesthood.”

The Amazon bishops argued the change was necessary because many of the faithful in the region had encountered “enormous difficulties” in receiving communion.

Critics said it was a sea change, not simply a practical measure.

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