Edward Pentin at National Catholic Register gives us info about the deck stacking going on at the Vatican against celibacy in the pre-synodal council:
The Vatican announced today that Pope Francis has appointed members of a pre-synodal council who will collaborate with the secretariat of the Synod of Bishops in preparation for the Pan-Amazonian synod next year.
Also announced was the theme of the October 2019 synod: Amazonia: new pathways for the Church and for an integral ecology.
Of particular, though not unexpected, interest are the appointments of Cardinal Claudio Hummes and retired Bishop Erwin Kräutler to the council. Both have advocated a change in discipline to allow married clergy in the Latin rite, and the Pan Amazonian synod is expected to provide a forum to at least discuss the matter.
Although some exceptions already exist to allow married priests in the Catholic Church (the Eastern rites and the Ordinariate for former Anglicans for example), the Amazonian case could be used to allow for married clergy wherever priest shortages might exist, and therefore permit a far wider provision.
Bishop Kräutler, an Austrian who headed the Xingu diocese in Brazil from 1981-2015, has long argued for viri probati (ordination or married men of proven virtue) to make up for a shortage of priests in remote Amazonian regions.
A supporter of the ordination of women despite Pope Francis and his predecessors definitively ruling it out, Bishop Kräutler said in an interview last year that he thinks the Pan-Amazonian synod might consider the issue of viri probati, and disclosed that after meeting Pope Francis in 2014, the Holy Father had encouraged him to “courageously” explore the matter.
Francis reportedly wanted the issue discussed at the next synod this October, but the theme was voted down by the majority of members on the ordinary council of the Synod of Bishops, the body charged with drawing up the theme. Instead, they opted for a synod on “Young People, the Faith and the Discernment of Vocation.”
Cardinal Hummes, meanwhile, has made comments in the past advocating for a change in the discipline.
Go here to read the rest. One of the things that PopeWatch most hates about the current pontificate is the smarmy, backstairs manner in which Catholic teaching is betrayed. At least Luther stuck his blade of heresy into the front of Mother Church.
Completely agree with Pope Watch. Sneaky, devious, disingenuous, etc. And of course, totally ignoring the fact that the priesthood is supposed to be a carefully discerned calling, but these schemers treat it like just a corporate management job, as do the “women priests” agitators. No coincidence there, I suspect. Finally, we should note that the continued weeding out of truly faithful men from the seminaries in favor of sodomites and Modernists is likely more responsible for supposed priest shortages than is the discipline of celibacy.
The issue with the Priesthood is not they cannot marry, it is that seminaries has become a pervert club. My brother, recently ordained, almost left the seminary because he could not handle the perversion. Holiness is considered a vice that MUST be redirected to social judas – err – justice, sorry. They are using the oldest trick in the book – create the problem so your “policy” becomes the solution.
It’s been that way for awhile sadly. A middle aged priest I know told me that at his seminary one of the lavender mafia members of his class approached him in the shower. He informed the “gentleman” that unless he backed off he would break his arm. The administrators of the seminary knew all about this problem and did bupkis.