Pope Francis on Sunday convened a meeting of bishops to discuss a list of topics -- including whether the Catholic Church should ease its policy of celibacy for priests, a 1,000-year-old precedent that is expected to spark a heated debate between adherents of the tradition and proponents who’ve said ordaining married men would help solve the church’s clergy shortage. The Vatican meeting, known as a synod, was to focus on the church’s activity in South America’s Amazon region, a sparsely populated region where Catholic parishes could go for months without seeing a priest. Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, a former archbishop of São Paulo, told reporters last Thursday that the priest shortage has meant Catholics in the Amazon frequently have lacked access to the sacraments, a bleak sign for the church’s ministry. But, some analysts have doubted whether ordaining married indigenous leaders in the Amazon would solve the priest shortage there. Still, any decision would require the final approval of the pope who has said he would pray and reflect on the decision further.

Source: Fox News October 06, 2019 19:30 UTC