ROME — The Pope has requested a debate over allowing married men to become priests in the Amazon region of Brazil, a move likely to outrage conservatives in the Catholic Church. He has also suggested the bishops attending the synod in 2019 on the Amazon, now being prepared in Rome, should consider ordaining women deacons as priests. There are already a limited number of married priests within the Catholic Church, including married Anglican ministers who defected to Rome, some Coptic Catholics and members of some Eastern rite Catholic churches. Giacomo Canobbio, a leading Italian theologian, added that “the fact of having a wife or children does not limit at all working in a parish.”Such married priests would not have to take a vow of chastity, he added. The question is urgent.”A Brazilian pilot project could be extended to regularize the situation in Africa, where many Catholic priests have mistresses and children, Canobbio said.

Source: National Post November 03, 2017 03:33 UTC