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.”
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The U.S. Bishops have just been silenced! This saddens my neart. As long as Pope Francis and his supporters are in charge, this evil will continue to prevent Graces to flow into the Church. I pray that the suffering and prayers of our good priests and faithful members of our Church be accepted as reparations for sins committed by those who held power and continue to hold power in the Church established by Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Lord have mercy on us. Christ have mercy on us. Lord have mercy on us. Christ hear us. Christ graciously hear us.
“The U.S. Bishops have just been silenced! ”
Its about time! May they all be converted!
“We cry for the injustices perpetrated upon victims of abuse. We vow to fight a clerical culture that tolerates the abuse of authority. When abuse occurs, it is our sin and we must take it as such. These are not the sins of the media or the products of vast conspiracies. These are things we must recognize and fix. Our Holy Father has said it must end, and it must — not simply because he has said it, but because each of us in our hearts know that this is the only right thing to do.”
– Archbishop Christoohe Pierre
Apostolic Nuncio
Archbishop, with all due respect, the nuanced sychophantic speech that emanates from the “official” channels of The Church is for lack of a better word despicable. Its as though the shepherds are protecting the shepherds and slaughtering the sheep. Where is your compassion? Why do a last minute power play on the US bishops when you just spent an entire month with them. Couldn’t you resolve what you know was coming then? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
“It is clear the the Holy See is taking the abuse crisis seriously,” Cupich said.”
Maybe it’s clear to him, but it isn’t clear to me.
The Vatican may be serious about the abuse crisis. But that means only that the Vatican is against pedophilia. And that is applaudable. But the Vatican is not at all serious about homosexuality. It condones homosexuality. James Martin thinks gay sex is as normal as hetero sex. The Vatican supports James Martin. Gave him a job at the Vatican.
The Pope is not the boss of the U.S. bishops. The bishops should simply decline to comply with the Vatican’s directive.
Yes, be obedient to God, not to the Pope.
Yet another reason Pope Francis needs to step down. He is a liability to the Church and doing everything in his power to sabotage efforts to curb sexual abuse.
The Vatican’s decision to prevent the USCCB from voting on reform may convince secular authorities in the USA that the Church is not serious in protecting those vulnerable to sexual predators. I look for more states to launch grand jury investigations similar to that of Pennsylvania. I fear the Church has lost its last chance to be proactive and if any reform takes place, it will come from the secular arm.
It’s like we are witnessing the corruption in the era of the Reformation all over again, and there were no serious attempts at reform until after the armies of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sacked and looted Rome. It may take a similar chastisement for the Church Hierarchy to take this crisis seriously.
Canon 333 of the Code of Canon Law states, in part, that the Pope “obtains the primacy of ordinary power over all particular churches and groups of them….” I’m not sure what exactly that means, but my prior post may have been in error.
Cupich interrupted to give the Vatican spiel to show who really was boss.
Personally, I think as this does not have to do with Doctrinal questions, it is time for some spine from our bishops, and to practice some good old fashioned Civil Disobedience.
Until they show that spine, and until they expose this rampant corruption, and not allow it to be swept under the rug of decades…
NOT ONE THIN DIME….except to charities and parishes I KNOW are Faithful.
I watched the 9 o’clock EWTN broadcast and the guy (forgot his name) who reported Cupich’s statement said it was his clear impression that Cupich knew what was coming and was ready for it.
And did you see the expression on Archbishop Chaput’s face as His Royal Highness spewed forth? (He could be seen behind Cupich, to the left.) Archbishop Chaput looked shocked and angry – and rightly so.
Somewhere in the mix are at least two longer-term risks:
(a) a threat to the sacramental seal due to aggressive state Attorney’s General probes (think Australia), and (b) the possible and even unintended mission creep of the lay investigation initially focused on sexual abuse and embedded homosexuality, e.g., eventually extending into disposal of Church properties to cover future lawsuits?
“Trusteeship” was an issue in early 20th century America, and 16th-century lay takeover of the Church by nation-states was an outcome of the Reformation (triggered by the comparatively trivial abuse of “indulgences” salesmanship).
Whether further delay helps or worsens the malignant and potentially far-reaching big picture is high-end Calculus. A different Vatican action could have been to simply announce, however late, a Visitation, and then to order the announced pause on pending USCCB actions.
Now the proof is in the pudding–a very short four days in February. Announcement of an extended and more functional session could be a good sign.
It is not “high end calculus”. It is not rocket science.
The bishop of Rome planned the timing of this kick to the bishops groin perfectly.
Francis holds DiNardo, et al, in complete contempt: just as he does the American pewsitter.
The states attorneys general will have an absolute field day with this.
So be it.
This was all scripted by the Holy See, make no mistake about it.
The diminutive Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago is Pinocchio to the Pontiff’s Geppetto.
Rod Dreher, in The American Conservative, reacts to the news from Baltimore:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-pope-is-the-problem/
There is a Tweet from Mark Brumley, president of Ignatius Press.
Bergoglio likes controlling votes whether it’s here or at the Youth Synod where voting was pushed through for the final document whether someone really considered what they’re voting for or not.
Adios, Aristotle and Aquinas. Welcome to the hyper-voluntarist “spirituality” of Bergoglio, Spadaro and yes, Martin.. where the “Ignatian” has a lot in common with Machiavelli and Nietzsche.
This is really a dangerous game though, where the folks playing at being crazy are actually crazy. This nervous breakdown, masquerading as new and improved, once in slow motion is now ever-escalating. This acting out won’t be resolved in family or by the family doctor but by the decisive interventions of that less spiritual, secular part of our psychiatric team known in the broadest sense as “the authorities” or “the cops.”
Should we also pray? Yes. Many rosaries…numbers of rosaries similar to those Bergoglio disparaged when he became Bishop of Rome.
If my child is stricken with dangerous illness, a life threatening,,but my husband due to poor judgement,,delay the life saving treatment,will i commit disobedience if i will bypass him?The situation is the same in the church..Men of goodwill must act now…
Actually it makes sense for them to wait until the February. Though it would’ve been better had the Holy See told them earlier than at last minute.
No, it does NOT make sense for the U.S. Bishops to wait until February. They’ve had a conflagaration on their hands since this summer. If it’s complexity around the issues, this is precisely why they need their November meeting for part 1 and February for a part 2 for addressing the current crisis. There’s a good chance that the lavender mafia led by Cupich–which wants to reduce the sexual abuse crisis to clericalism only, or about any other theory, as long as the topics of homosexuality and gay power cliques are not also brought into a serious forensic examination–was alarmed by a November 2018 study produced by Fr. Paul Sullins’ (Ph.D., sociology)and issued by the Ruth Institute that corrects the gay-friendly PC conclusions of the otherwise very pertinent John Jay Report. Every single U.S. bishop received a copy of this study, which establishes a high correlation between homosexuality among priests and clerical sexual abuse. Corrupt forces within the Vatican and their proxies in the U.S. were at risk of facing uncomfortable questions and even possibly an organized push back against those who wish to ignore the pink elephant in the room.