Pope Francis’ Brazilian pick for cardinal urges openness to ordaining married priests in region

 

Brazilian Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, speaks at a Synod on Synodality briefing on Oct. 8, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 10, 2024 / 12:20 pm (CNA).

Brazilian Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, one of the 21 men chosen by Pope Francis to become a cardinal in the next consistory on Dec. 8, confirmed plans for a trial run of an Amazonian rite of the Mass and urged “openness” to the idea of married priests to serve certain communities facing a shortage of priests.

The 64-year-old is a prominent figure in the Church in his home country and throughout South America, heading both the Catholic bishops’ conference of Brazil and the Latin American bishops’ conference (CELAM).

A descendant of German immigrants, Spengler has been a member of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor for more than 40 years and a priest for almost 34 years.

After serving as auxiliary bishop of Porto Alegre for two and a half years, Pope Francis tapped him in 2013 to lead the archdiocese, making him the youngest archbishop in Brazil at the time, having just turned 53.

The Archdiocese of Porto Alegre, which covers the capital city of the southernmost state of Brazil, serves over 2 million Catholics spread across more than 13,000 square kilometers (more than 5,000 square miles), according to 2021 Vatican statistics.

With just 300-some priests, the archdiocese has had to explore ways of overcoming the challenges posed by a priest shortage — a problem faced by much of the Catholic Church in Latin America.

Spengler once again indicated he is open to ordaining married men, so-called “viri probati,” to serve as priests — a subject much debated during the Vatican’s Amazon synod in 2019.

The archbishop and future cardinal said at a briefing for the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican Oct. 8 that his archdiocese is “investing in permanent deacons: Maybe in the future these married men could also be ordained as priests for a specific community.”

The issue of the priestly ordination of married men — currently not allowed by Church discipline in the Latin rite — is “delicate,” Spengler noted. “I don’t know if it could be the best solution to the shortage of priests, but we need frankness and openness to deal with it. It’s a journey.”

“I don’t have prepackaged answers,” he continued. “We can and must face the issue with courage, keeping in mind theology but also grasping the signs of the times.”

Spengler, who has a doctorate in philosophy from the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome, was born in Gaspar in the state of Santa Caterina, just north of where he now lives in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Santa Caterina is the source of a lot of Brazil’s priestly vocations and also the birthplace of two of the most influential figures in liberation theology: the late archbishop of São Paulo, Paulo Evaristo Arns, OFM, and theologian Leonardo Boff, a former Catholic priest and one of the founders of the movement, which gained popularity in the 1970s and emphasized freedom from poverty and oppression as the key to salvation.

Spengler has also supported an Amazonian rite of the Mass, something that has been under study since the 2019 Amazon Synod. A three-year experimental phase of an Amazonian rite will begin before the end of this year, according to Father Agenor Brighenti, a priest leading the Amazonian bishops’ (CEAMA) study of an Amazonian rite.

Brighenti, one of the Synod on Synodality’s theology experts, is also the new head of the theological-pastoral team of CELAM.

Responding to a question, Spengler confirmed at the Oct. 8 Vatican briefing that there is a group in the Amazon bishops’ conference working on creating an Amazonian rite of the Mass but added that he thinks it could also be easier to explore ways of inculturating the Latin rite of the Mass instead.

The Brazilian cardinal-designate tied the need to have a Mass that reflects Amazonian culture in some way to a lack of access to the Eucharist in some remote areas of the Amazon.

“Today in the Latin Church we have the Roman rite, and the Roman rite must be enculturated in the different realities,” he said. “Personally I think we can explore this possibility in a more in-depth manner … Of course, this requires a special sensitivity and attention on the part of the involved parties, and also a readiness to find a way, a journey.”

The future cardinal also said a challenge for the Church in traditionally Christian countries such as Brazil is how to present the faith to the next generation.

The remarks echoed comments Spengler made during a different synod, the 2018 synod on young people, faith, and vocational discernment. As a delegate to the youth synod, Spengler told journalists he thought the question of transmitting religious values to young people was at the foundation of all the bishops’ debates.

In the context of the current synod, Spengler is among those who see deep connections between the Second Vatican Council and the push for a more synodal Church.

The Synod of Synodality is “an opportunity to rescue the main lines of the Second Vatican Council,” the archbishop said in a letter to the Brazilian bishops’ conference this week.

“In truth, it is about developing the intuitions of the council fathers and finding viable ways to implement them,” he wrote to the bishops, noting that they should not fear controversies, which are only “part of the process.”


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8 Comments

  1. The possibility of married priests under special circumstances in Amazonia–not a doctrinal matter but, thinking globally, also the camel’s nose under the tent. And about an Amazonian rite–hard to support now that even the Tridentine rite has been suppressed.

    And then, from other corners of the polyhedral (c)hurch, we can expect moral diversity, as with the LGBTQ religion being included as a sort of dhimmi (Islamic!) or a millet (Ottoman Empire!) within some national boundaries, but not within others that might even be adjacent.

    Babel beckons…

  2. Contradictions abound, efforts at producing an Amazonian rite while the ancient Latin Rite is suppressed on the grounds of uniformity, transgender transition surgery condemned while advocates for transgenderism made cardinals others seemingly neutral, even orthodox. NCReg recently listing the profiles of the new batch of red hated herrings that distract from a well organized operation modernization. Archbishop Spengler a prototype.

    • Should read “the new batch of red [hatted] herrings”, a reference to the galero, the wide brimmed tasseled red hat traditionally worn by cardinals. In this instance the large contingent of cardinals from the peripheries, unknown, not familiar with European, other cardinals. Made cardinals to suggest independent selection, instead they’re likely prone to manipulation and following the more assertive progressives.
      Papal plan A moves forward with hushed meetings of the select few decision makers representing the entire Catholic corpus. Who would have thought this could be pulled off, that the Church would be recreated pyramidal style, the people making their own dreamy doctrines? Commentators journalist, studied intellectuals gasping at what’s occurring so aghast they’re unwilling to recognize the pernicious reality.

  3. Here’s an idea. If we want to view sex as a means to increase priestly vocations, why not allow priests to have two, three, five or nine wives?

    Or, better yet, give priests permission to conduct unlimited numbers of dalliances without the necessity to marry.

    After all, we are a Synodolatrous church now. No longer constrained by backwardist notions like morality or revelation or good sense.

  4. The article headline is wrongly worded. It’s impossible to ordain a married priest, he was already an ordained priest to begin with.
    It is possible, however, to ordain married MEN to the priesthood, which I have no objection to. Married men are often ordained priests in the Eastern Churches, especially in the Byzantine Rite. This tradition dates back to the early centuries of the Church; a married priesthood is no new thing or idea promulgated by Pope Francis, who, 10 years ago, thankfully lifted the ban on married Eastern Catholic priests serving outside their home country, which usually was North America.
    The discipline of celibacy in the predominant Latin Rite is their noble tradition, and the married priesthood in the Eastern Churches is just as noble, just different, more complex but very rewarding. What an even more awesome role model a dad would be to his kids if he happened to be an ordained priest.
    In the Eastern Churches, a married priest cannot be ordained as a bishop; he must be celibate and/or possibly a widower. Likewise, priests/deacons in Latin or Eastern Churches cannot marry after ordination, nor re-marry if/when his wife dies. Unless the priest is willingly breaking his vow of celibacy or his faithfulness to his wife, there is no such thing as “Father has a new girlfriend, maybe they’ll marry!” (One exception is defrocked priest Alex Crow).

    The most genuine and kindest priest that I have ever known is married with a wonderful family. He is an awesome priest and confessor because he already knows what marriage entails and what it’s like because he lives both of them every day, and is grateful to God for them.

    There is no shame in a married priesthood.

  5. For Didn’tThinkSo,
    Yes, a celibate priesthood is simply a discipline within the Latin Church. But maybe it has something to do with a single-hearted vocation?

    Maybe, too, there’s the question of how a married priest might handle or evade some issue of substance when his bishop holds one position and his wife another? Or, maybe it’s the inconvenience of the priest’s availability for an emergency call when his own children or wive are really sick at home? Or, maybe it’s simply a question of what the parishioners might feel about supporting the dental work of the priest’s children when they come up short at home on dental expenses?

    A friend of mine, a celibate Byzantine Rite priest, said to me: “our different Rites have made two mistakes…the Latins by separating the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, and the Byzantines by admitting a married priesthood.”

    • The 3 Sacraments of Initiation should never have been split apart in the Roman Church, I agree there. I don’t consider the admittance of married men as priests as a mistake, but as an extra sacrifice to God and his family.
      When a married man is ordained a priest, he still remains faithful to his wife and family, but ultimately turns his full focus toward Christ and the priesthood. If his wife and kids were sick at home and he had to leave them in the middle of the night to give someone last rites, situations like that is something that would have already been brought up, worked out, and agreed upon before seminary formation and ordination. Any married man seeking the diaconate or priesthood MUST have the full consent and cooperation from his wife, and she likewise must be fully aware and informed of how drastically her life and marriage is going to change once her husband is ordained, and be willing and able to accept that and help her husband in his new vocation. If she doesn’t want that, he will not be admitted. In short, his wife knows what she’s getting into, and if her husband has to leave at 1:30AM to anoint someone, it should not come as a surprise to her or their kids.
      As for health and dental care, a priest’s salary can’t cover the entirety of that. They’ll most likely rely on donations and have the basics in life; 4 walls and a roof, a tight budget, and a couple vehicles. The priest and his wife may be very low income for the remainder of their lives, but they have the Church which sustains, and the satisfaction of knowing that they are living their true vocation. Depends too on how old the children are, many married men aren’t ordained until their children are grown up. There’s definitely pros and cons, but ultimately there is nothing inherently wrong with a married priesthood, nor do I believe it’s a mistake to ordain them. No offense to your celibate Byzantine priest friend, just a difference of opinion. God bless you sir.

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