By Cristina Hodgson • Published: 12 Feb 2020 • 13:01
Pope hospitalised Credit: Shutterstock
There is a shortage of priests in the Amazon, in fact, it is estimated that only 25 per cent of villages in the Amazon are able to celebrate Mass every week with some areas seeing a priest only about once a year.
In October last year, 184 bishops met at the Vatican to discuss the future of the Church in the Amazon where it was proposed that married men should be allowed to become priests.
Bishops backed the measure last year as a means of addressing the shortage of Catholic priests in the Amazon, but the proposal needed the Pope’s approval to be implemented. As Euro Weekly News understands, Pope Francis has just ruled against ordaining married men in the Amazon region.
It has been highlighted that Catholic priests are required to abide by the rule of celibacy upon ordination. Celibacy is seen as the devotion of one’s life to God.
A statement from the Vatican said: “The Amazon challenges us, the Pope writes, to overcome limited perspectives and not to content ourselves with solutions that address only part of the situation.”
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