Vatican City, Oct 15, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- A South American missionary to Angola who is participating in the Amazon Synod at the invitation of the pope has said the proposal to ordain as priests married men to solve the lack of evangelization in the Amazon is “illusory”.
“Is the lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the Amazon a pastoral challenge, or rather is it the consequence of theological-pastoral options that have not yielded the expected or partial results? In my opinion, the proposal of ‘viri probati’ as a solution to evangelization is an illusory proposal, almost magical, which does not address the real underlying problem,” Fr. Martín Lasarte Topolanski, a Salesian priest, said in a text published by Sandro Magister Oct. 12 in his Settimo Cielo column at L’Espresso.
The Uruguayan priest and missionary in Angola is responsible for missionary efforts in Africa and Latin America for the Salesian congregation. Pope Francis included him among the 33 ecclesiastics he personally called to participate in the Synod on the Amazon.
The text published by Magister is a summary of Fr. Lasarte’s Aug. 12 article “Amazonia: Are ‘viri probati’ a solution?” published in Settimana News.
In his text, the missionary pointed out that the argument that ordaining married men as priests because it is hard to reach remote communities with the ministry “commits the sin of major clericalism” because it sets aside the work of lay people, believing that the Church where “the ‘priest’ is not there doesn’t function. That’s an ecclesiological and pastoral aberration. Our faith, being a Christian, is rooted in baptism, not in priestly ordination,” he said.
As examples he gave Korea, Japan, Angola, and Guatemala, where the laity were essential.
He noted that the Church in Korea got its start thanks to layman Yi Seung-hun, who was baptized in China and baptized other Catholics. “For 51 years (1784-1835) since its foundation the Church in Korea was evangelized by lay people, with the occasional presence of some priest. This Catholic community flourished and expanded enormously despite the terrible persecutions, thanks to the leadership of the baptized,” Lasarte said.
In the case of Japan, after the martyrdom of the last priest in 1644, priests did not return until 200 years later, finding “a living Church” made up of “hidden Christians.”
Regarding his 25 years of experience in Angola, the priest said that “when the civil war was over in 2002, I had the possibility of visiting Christian communities, which for 30 years did not have the Eucharist, nor did they see a priest, but they were strong in faith and were dynamic communities guided by the ‘catechist,’ an essential ministry in Africa (…) A living Church, laity with the absence of priests.”
In Latin America he gave as an example “the Quetchi from central Guatemala (Verapaz), where despite the absence of priests in some communities the lay ministers also had living communities” where the evangelicals “were little able to penetrate.” He said that despite the shortage of priests “it is a local Church rich in indigenous priestly vocations” and “men and women religious congregations of totally indigenous origin.”
In that regard, he noted that in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, Pope Francis pointed out that the shortage of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life is often “due to the absence of contagious apostolic fervor in communities which lack enthusiasm and thus fail to attract.”
“The Holy Father gives the key to the problem. It’s not the lack of vocations but the poor proposal, the lack of apostolic fervor, the lack of fraternity and prayer; the lack of serious and profound processes of evangelization,” the Salesian priest said.
Thus with regard to the question why after 200 to 400 years of evangelization vocations are lacking in the Amazon, the priest said that “one of the pastoral problems in various parts of Latin America, and in particular in Amazonia, is the insistence on the ‘old ways’. There is a great conservatism in various churches and ecclesial structures, I’m not referring just to pre-conciliar traditionalists, but to pastoral lines, mentalities, that remain stuck in ’68 and in the 1970-1980 decade,” Lasarte pointed out.
The Salesian priest indicated three kinds of “Alzheimer pastoral ministry” which affect evangelization in the Amazon.
The first is “cultural anthopologism,” which originated after the 1971 Barbados Declaration, put together by 12 anthropologists, which “claimed that the Good News of Jesus is bad news for the indigenous peoples.”
Although “from this provocation emerged in various places a fruitful dialogue between anthropologists and missionaries, which served mutual enrichment,” in other places “it fell into a self-censorship, losing ‘the joy of evangelizing,” with “cases of religious that decided to not announce Jesus Christ, or give catechesis ‘out of respect for the indigenous culture,’” and that “they would limit themselves to witness and service” claiming that this “substitutes for the proclamation.”
The missionary recalled that in Evangelii nuntiandi Saint Paul VI said that “the Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.”
Fr. Lasarte said that the second kind of “Alzheimer pastoral ministry” is “social moralism.” “In more than one place I have heard similar expressions from pastoral workers: ‘When people require services they come to us (the Catholic Church), but when they are looking for meaning to their lives, they go to others (evangelicals, etc.)’ It is evident and observable that the church that wants to be a ‘Samaritan Church’ has forgotten to be a ‘Magdelene Church’, a Church providing services that doesn’t announce the joy of the Resurrection of the Lord,” he pointed out.
The missionary reaffirmed that the social commitment of the Church and the option for the poorest continues to be “a constitutive aspect of the evangelizing process” and a richness; but “the problem is when this kind of activity has absorbed the rest of the life and dynamism of the Church, leaving in the shadows, silencing, or taking for granted the other dimensions: kerygmatic, catechetical, liturgical, koinonia. We are in an unresolved tension of Martha and Mary.”
He said that the “great hemorrhaging” of Catholics toward evangelical communities has to do with several factors, certainly “the lack of a much ‘more religious’ pastoral ministry and a ‘less sociologized’ one has had a very great influence”.
“I visited a diocese where at the beginning of the 1980’s, 95% of the population was Catholic, today they are 20%. I remember the comment of one of the European missionaries that systematically had ‘de-evangelized’ the region: ‘We do not foster superstition but human dignity’…I think that says everything,” he said. “The Church is some places has been transformed into a grand manager of services (healthcare, educational, development, advocacy…) but little as a mother of the faith.”
Finally there is secularism. He said, “a church secularizes when its pastoral workers interiorize dynamics from a secularized mentality: the absence or a very timid, almost apologizing, manifestation of the faith.”
He said that the consequences “are reflected in vocational sterility or the lack of perseverance in the path undertaken, because of a lack of deep motivations,” since “no one leaves everything to be a social director, no one dedicates his existence to an ‘opinion,’ no one offers what is absolute in his life for what is relative, but only to the Absolute which is God.”
“When this theological, religious dimension is not evident, patent, and alive in the mission, there will never exist options for evangelical radicalness, which is an indicator that the evangelization touched the soul of a Christian community,” he pointed out.
To conclude his article, Lasarte said that a Christian community that “does not generate priestly and religious vocations, is a community carrying some kind of spiritual disease. We can ordain the ‘viri probati, the honeste mulieribus, the pueribus bonum, but the underlying problems will remain: an evangelization without the Gospel, a Christianity without Christ, a spirituality without the Holy Spirit.”
“Logically in a horizontal vision of the dominant culture, where God is absent or reduced to a few symbolic, cultural or moral concepts, it’s impossible to come to appreciate the fruitful spiritual and pastoral value of priestly celibacy as a precious gift from God and of a total and sublime disposition of love and service to the Church and to humanity.”
The Salesian missionary said that “there will only be able to be authentic priestly vocations when an authentic, demanding, free and personal relationship is established with the person of Jesus Christ. Perhaps this may be simplistic, but the way I see things, the ‘new path’ for the evangelization of Amazonia is the novelty of Christ.”
[…]
We read: “The Vatican warned: ‘It would not be permissible to introduce new official structures or doctrines in dioceses before an agreement had been reached at the level of the universal Church…’.”
Permissible? An Agreement? Proceduralism over content; this is a secular game plan…
Before we know it, we’ll be notified in the footnotes that truth is constructed rather than discovered, and that even the Council of Nicaea was only a synodal/consensus sort of thingy, rather than a recollection of what the Church has lived and believed from the beginning in the incarnate Christ. Arius was not “synthesized” (synodal jargon!) into the top-level package; he was rejected.
Can’t see the kind of clarity demonstrated at Nicaea ever coming under Cardinal Hollerich–grand-poobah relator for the 2023 Synod on Synodality–who through the media has already joined with Germania’s Marx and Batzing in calling for the deconstruction of human sexual morality as clearly articulated in the Catechism.
Instead of the Trinity, the triumvirate. What a joke.
Attacks against the church are common in any era. The church stands against all unrighteousness and those who espouse ungodly paths do infiltrate the church in order to destroy their critics.
It appears that Papa is reluctant to stamp out heresy. Some will argue that he sows the seeds of disunity and wishes a church to be a soup kitchen and hostel.
Jesus Christ is our spiritual food and drink. To those who would steal away the essence of the church, let them be excommunicated as a warning to all.
Thank you for steadfast love of truth and proclaiming Christ crucified.
Since this matter has become as serious as stated [most would agree], would not the more effective response to the German Synodal Way be for the pontiff to call an ecumenical council of world bishops, the pontiff in attendance, and required attendance by all German bishops with a set agenda of the issues? If some bishops remain obstinate they may be penalized, if necessary a new German bishops conference and president to replace the former.
That’s a great idea of how to proceed if we had the episcopate of 40 years ago. Currently, I not only don’t trust Francis, but after watching how many of the Cardinals swayed in tune to the trash music of the “Youth Synod” several years ago, I don’t trust an assembled Church leadership to not end up embracing rather than disciplining the Germans.
Alas, so it may be.
I keep asking myself, “Who’s on first.”
No, that would not be the most effective response at the moment Fr. Peter. At the moment, they – the German Bishops – are merely voicing their opinion. Next year, the Bishops will meet, as planned, and then the Germans will know that their views have been totally rejected by the universal Church. Pope Francis has already stated that this journey is not about doctrine.
Fr Peter, why in the world would he do that when he is very much the head of the German Synodal path? This is the symphony he is conducting, the play he is writing and directing.
Just a wild guess.
That tittering sound we hear is Tetzel laughing, possibly in hell.
Instead of him tin-cupping indulgences in the 16th century, the Church in Germany in the 21st century excommunicates those who refuse to pay the federal church-tax, AND, sells out to those who would exchange the entire Church for a “synodal” mess of pottage.
Way back on February 25, 1296, before fledgling nation-states had become radically secularized, Pope Boniface VIII prohibited (in Clericis laicos) “all prelates and in general all persons belonging to the Church” (without the consent of the Holy See) from paying to laymen [today read the ZdK: the lay Central Committee of German Catholics] any ‘imports, taxes, tithes or half tithes or even a one-hundredth part”—on the penalty of ipso facto excommunication.
This penalty of 1296 A.D. was incurred automatically in 1955 by the lay-Catholic, Argentine dictator, Juan Peron. Butt, what will later history say of today’s clerical money-changers and proposed flesh markets in Germania?
The Vatican has issued another warning
Warning, or rather projection?
The single subject on which the Pope seems to speak with razor sharp clarity and focus is his intense dislike of the EF of the Mass and those who are attached to it. Everything else is fog and evasion.
Bergoglio’s Synodal Way poses threat to Catholicism by Design.
Pope Francis’s Synodal Way poses absolutely no threat to our Church. The Holy Spirit is present. Respect His presence and guidance. Pope Francis does.
There is absolutely not purpose to these synods other than to attempt to enshrine anti-Catholic bigotry into the Deposit of Faith.
The warning by Pope Francis to the
liberal “German Synodal Way” is significant for another reason. This is bad for Arch-conservative US Bishops because it puts Francis in the middle as a moderate between arch- conservative US Bishops and radical- liberal German Bishops; and makes it more difficult for US Bishops to claim that Francis is “going too far” to the left. Remember the old saying: “play the middle.” Francis can do that now because of the “radical” Germans, who have pushed US Bishops further to the right and placed Francis in the middle now between the two of them.
Is that the story you tell yourself? The radical Germans? They are very much of the heart of Pope Francis. The Pope pretends to excoriate them. That is all. It is a charade, nothing more.
Francis, himself, poses a threat to the unity of the Church. He refuses to stand against “Catholics” who promote an anti-Catholic agenda when it comes to their public defiance of Church teaching to protect the unborn. And, worse, he admonishes those shepherds who seek to bring members of their flocks back into the fold. Add his admiration for James Martin, and the case becomes airtight. Compassion is one thing, but when it silences the teaching of the Church, it is no longer compassionate.
Oh, there is no silence. Pope Francis, our teacher, has made it clear that abortion is an evil act, and those who support it are not in communion with the Church and so should not receive communion.
Donna, St Paul tells us the same thing. BTW, Is there any statement in the Bible that says they should be refused communion?
Steeped in mortal sin….Cordileone’s letter explains it.
Read 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, but don’t get wrapped up in sola scriptura, Mal. Canon 915 also addresses the subject of excommunication, which one does to oneself when denying the teaching of the Church and presenting oneself to receive the Eucharist.
Donna, it is truly our belief that if the teachings of the Church are denied then, when this is done, one excommunicates one’s self. This is exactly what Pope Francis has said on a few occasions.
Does the priest, who is distributing Holy Communion, really know what is lurking in the minds and hearts of all those who come up to receive the sacred bread? It is possible that many of these people do not accept or live by all the teachings of the Church. The onus is on the receiver. St. Paul makes it clear that these people eat and drink judgment upon themselves.
Mal,
Excommunication is used when a transgression is public. Not privately held in the heart.
When the archbishop of New Orleans excommunicated segregationists he only used that discipline for those who loudly and publicly continued unrepentant in error. If holding segregation beliefs silently in one’s heart was grounds for excommunication the archbishop would have need to excommunicate virtually every white person under his jurisdiction. That was the sad condition of civil rights in that time and region.
Where is it in the BIBLE??? Spoken like a Protestant. Are you?? As you must know the Catholic church is based on more than that alone. There is an old saying that actions speak louder than words. Having spoken several times to the Germans no effect, its time for the Pope to actually do something. Call in the particular German Bishops for a session of discipline including a time of quiet reflection on there actions for some extended period of time at some isolated monastery. As for your commentary above to my post, people commit many sins. No matter how bad, they will be forgiven if repented of. In the main those sins are committed by private people of no public note. The actions of the German bishops are much more serious as they threaten the unity of the church. Further they have made statements suggesting it is the church which must change to reflect modern times. Women priest, gay marriage , communion for non catholics are all on their agendA which they defiantly continue to push publicly. Time for Frances to put and end to these ramblings before bigger damage is done.
1 Corinthians 5:11
The Amish reference scripture verses for their practice of shunning which like excommunication is really meant to awaken people to the gravity of their transgressions in hopes they will repent.
Exodus 20:13 – Thou shalt not kill.
Exodus 20:16 – Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Only a hypocrite would support abortion (or another intrinsically evil act) while presenting oneself for Holy Communion. Such a hypocrite is like the Pharisee about whom you often write. His thinking is warped and fossilized. He is a self-styled judge against the word of God and the 2000-year-old Magisterium of the Catholic Church. One who loves God knows Him and keeps His commandments.
Catholic works of mercy compel us to instruct the ignorant and to admonish the sinner. This is the work of the Church and the work of each of the faithful.
Sure, sure. Then he hails the number one abortionist in Italy as one of its greats.
A landmark event happens with the overturning of Roe V Wade and he is mum.
Sola Scriptura? Catholicism, unlike Protestantism, affirms it is a grievance sin to be in grievance sin and receive communion and for a priest or high prelate to knowingly facillitate the act.
Yes, and back in olden times we even had the following from the Council of Trent:
“CANON XI. If any one saith, that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, let him be anathema. And for fear lest so great a sacrament may be received unworthily, and so unto death and condemnation, this holy Synod ordains and declares, that sacramental confession, when a confessor may be had, is of necessity to be made beforehand, by those whose conscience is bothered with mortal sin, how contrite even soever they may think themselves. But if any one shall presume to teach, preach, or obstinately to assert, or even in public disputation to defend the contrary, he shall be thereupon excommunicated.”
Today, more complicated than abortion, because regarding the possible psychological complexity of aberrant sexual activities, in individual cases, the new Catechism carefully recognizes mitigating circumstances affecting subjective guilt (those individuals (!) whose consciences might be aware of “grave” but not fully deliberate “mortal” sin).
But it is precisely this so-called (!) “grey area” of mitigation—in individual cases—which Marx, Batzing, Hollerich and Grech would like to expand and exploit into a morally exempt category (!) for a contrived category of (LGBTQ) persons. And, indeed, even for unmarried and non-celibate heterosexuals as well (equity!).
Alchemy by a new name: synodality.
Thanks. Well said.
Well, well.
Tepid, but maybe a beginning.
Pope Francis cannot avoid being drawn out in this. Schism is a real possibility considering the declarations coming from the German Synod.
As promised by Christ, the Holy Spirit will have the final say on the Deposit of Faith.
As he has said before he is ok with schism. He is likely enjoying this.
It sounds as though the devil is alive and well in Germany. What is our Pope waiting for? Excommunicate those responsible.
James, you can wait until pigs fly if you are waiting for the Pope to do anything about it. They are merely executing his playbook.
The warning by about the liberal “German Synodal Way” is significant for another reason. This is bad for Arch-conservative US Bishops because it puts Francis in the middle as a moderate between arch- conservative US Bishops and radical- liberal German Bishops; and makes it more difficult for US Bishops to claim that Francis is “going too far” to the left. Remember the old saying: “play the middle.” Francis can do that now because of the “radical” Germans, who have pushed US Bishops further to the right and placed Francis in the middle now between the two of them.
“The Roman Pontiff has
full, SUPREME and universal POWER over the WHOLE Church, a power which he can always exercise UNHINDERED.” Cathechism # 882.
Yet ANOTHER “warning”???? How ineffective and banal. When is the Vatican ( aka the Pope) actually going to DO something about the German Church? Endless meetings and warnings have evidently resolved NOTHING and the fact that the German church roars on toward their goal of schism unimpeded ( for that is the only explanation which makes sense) is an indictment of the Pope. He refuses to protect the church from being publicly injured. Instead , crazed liberal clerics are deluding scores of Catholics that their way is fine and dandy. It would seem the pope has had too many “who am I to judge” moments and has abdicated his role. SOMEBODY has to judge, and that somebody is HIM. Tip-toeing around the truth will serve no one.
Wow! What if somebody else was to judge? He would kick out these Germans for merely expressing an opinion, kick out those who have had abortions, who take contraceptive pills, who have lustful thoughts, who have Pharisaical attitudes (our Lord denounced them) who allow some form of bigotry to reign in their lives etc. etc.
I don’t think the Germans are merely expressing an opinion. They are making up changes specifically to sacraments contrary to Magisterium. And if acts are no longer recognized as sin then what’s the point of the confessional. Self and pride certainly does not examine conscience. And I wonder how does the Holy Family hold as an image? It ain’t Joseph, Joseph and Jesus or Mary, Mary and Jesus. Will even that sacred image be tossed aside for wokeness?
Mal, don’t you know that abortion is an automatic excommunication?
Pope Francis has made it clear to this group – which is not the whole German Church – “If they find themselves separated from the entire ecclesial body, they weaken, rot and die. Hence the need always to ensure communion with the whole body of the Church.”
Here is another strong statement: “In order to safeguard the freedom of the People of God and the exercise of the episcopal ministry, it seems necessary to clarify that the ‘Synodal Way’ in Germany does not have the power to compel bishops and the faithful to adopt new forms of governance and new orientations of doctrine and morals.”
Natural calamities like droughts, forest fires, thunderstorms, floods, earthquakes, landslides, diseases, hunger, joblessness, homelessness, air and water pollution – are making life difficult for people in different parts of the world.
Yawn. Surely.
Well put Meiron.
The changes that the German “Bishops” proper with special regard to homosexuality, blessing same sex marriages. etc is a\particulatly grievous and deserving of a harsh warning to defrock and even excommunicate priests that participate in such activity…..I am moved to ask what good comes out of Germany after Martin Lither, Karl Marx, Adolph Hitler and now this!