In Ecuador, pro-life groups protest U.N. abortion conditions on coronavirus aid.

Breves, Brazil, Oct 17, 2019 / 03:12 am (CNA).- A retired bishop from Brazil has spoken out against the claim that married priests are necessary in the Amazon region because the indigenous people do not understand celibacy.

“It’s not the indigenous culture that finds insurmountable difficulties in understanding celibacy. It’s that there was not a real inculturation of the Gospel among them,” said Bishop emeritus José Luis Azcona of Marajó, Brazil.

“For many reasons, there has been a transmission of the faith that was not transformed into culture, a faith that was not completely received, not thought out completely, not lived faithfully.”

Therefore, he said, “the first step in solving the problem of celibacy is not the abolition of it” but to work toward a more authentic incultration of the Gospel.

In an article sent to ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese language sister agency, Azcona commented on the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, an Oct. 6-27 meeting on the Church’s life and ministry in the region.

Bishop Erwin Kräutler, the retired head of the Xingu prelature in Amazonian Brazil and a contributor to the synod’s working document, said last week that married priests are the only option in the region because “the indigenous people do not understand celibacy.”

Azcona, who led the Amazonian diocese from 1987-2016, rejected this argument, noting that cultures throughout history have had to learn truths about sexuality and celibacy, and saying this learning process does not post “an insurmountable hindrance.”

The Greeks, Romans, and Jews, he said, “all had the same difficulty in understanding, but at the same time they experienced the unbridled joy of ‘glorifying Christ in their bodies.’”

“It’s not an indigenous world-vision that determines evangelization and establishes what can or cannot be accepted of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he stressed. Doing so would create a pseudo-Gospel, based not on the person of Christ and on his Church, but instead “arising from the indigenous, from their cultures or from their analysis.”

“The evangelization of the Amazon cannot arise from the desire to please men, or to win their favor,” he stressed.

“It’s Jesus Christ and his Spirit that transcends all culture, but at the same time he is incarnated in the values and deepest expressions of each culture. He is the beginning, the middle and the end of all inculturation.”

The bishop argued that elements of the synod’s working document reflect a secular worldview and lacks the joy and hope that come from authentic Christian witness. He added that celibacy in the priesthood allows for an undivided focus on the work of God.

Abandonment to the will of God will create the environment in which priestly celibacy can be joyfully understood and experienced, Azcona said.

“It is exclusively God who gives the gift of celibacy. Man is incapable of achieving it with his own efforts,” he said.

Rather than abandoning celibacy, the bishop urged the Church to renew its prayers to Christ for strength to carry out his will.

“The time has come to reaffirm in the Amazon the importance of prayer in face of the activism and secularism that threatens many Christians in evangelization.”

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Digital. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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CNA Staff, Oct 20, 2020 / 06:00 pm (CNA).-  

The pastor of a parish destroyed by arson in Santiago, Chile on Sunday has urged local Catholics to reject temptations toward revenge, and to place their hope in unity with Jesus Christ.

Fr. Pedro Narbona, pastor of the Church of the Assumption in Santiago, Chile, which was destroyed by arsonists Oct. 18 called on people to open their hearts “without hatred and without revenge” and to “deeply reflect on the Chile that we want to build.”

“Death and pain don’t have the last word, rather hope and life always have the last word. The one who triumphs is always Our Lord and we are upheld by him and united with him,” Narbona told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner.

The priest said he was especially concerned because “with so much destruction, so much hatred and revenge” those most affected are the poor. “And in this case, a specific community that has seen the historic place where they meet and worship vandalized twice, three times.”

El dolor no tiene la última palabra mientras la esperanza y la vida vivan en la humanidad. (Parroquia La Asunción y Parroquia Francisco de Borja tras el ataque del 18 octubre) pic.twitter.com/94SKEsto5v

— Giselle Vargas ن (@Giselle_VN) October 19, 2020

“This is a living place,” Narbona said of his parish, where people “trust that Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd leads them through dark valleys and we fear nothing. The certainty and the strength that it gives us now is that, without hatred, without revenge, we may open our hearts to deeply reflect on the Chile that we want to build.”

Narbona was alluding to an Oct. 25 referendum in Chile on a new constitution that would replace the current one written in 1980 under the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli tutti “invites us to dream of the world we want, the country we want; we want an open country, a welcoming country, a country where we can all sit at the table, but truly everyone, with no one excluded,” Narbona said.

“Chile, as our bishops say, has a vocation to understanding, not confrontation, Chile is called to be a country of brothers where everyone has his daily bread, respect and joy. That is what’s fundamental, what’s most important. Opening our hearts to hope, to Jesus Christ.”

The priest asked believers to “find light and peace–may the Lord disarm our hands, cool off our heads and open our hearts to dialogue,” which would be the best thing that could happen, Narbona concluded.

Chilean police are investigating the church fire. After that, Narbona and diocesan officials say they will evaluate how to rebuild the parish community spiritually, morally and physically.

The Church of the Assumption had previously been attacked by looters in November 2019. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been difficult for the community to begin rebuilding.

A few weeks ago, Masses and pastoral life resumed, putting in place the measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

On Sunday, at the same time that Narbona’s parish was lit ablaze, rioters also attacked nearby St. Francis Borgia Church, which serves the national police force. The two churches are located in Santiago’s downtown area near Plaza de Italia, where demonstrations began that day.

Both churches were looted, tagged with slogans, and completely burned,  with bell towers and roofs coming down in the conflagration.

The Chilean Investigative Police and other federal police forces are still investigating the blazes. Some arrests have already been made.

The attacks came as demonstrators across the country marked the one-year anniversary of large anti-government protests that took place across Chile last year, during which riots destroyed supermarkets and other businesses, and reportedly caused more than 30 deaths.

The demonstrations began last October in Santiago over a now-suspended increase in subway fares. Other regions joined in the protests, expanding their grievances to inequality and the cost of healthcare.

Since last October 57 churches and religious buildings have been attacked in Chile.

Adding to that total, a large outdoor statue of the Virgin Mary in Pirque, a town located on the outskirts of Santiago, was doused with red paint and tagged with anti-Catholic abortion slogans on Oct. 18. The green neckerchief adopted by abortion advocates in Latin America was tied around Our Lady’s face.

On Monday night, unidentified vandals smashed windows, tagged, and tried to burn down Saint Francis of Assisi Church in Serena, Chile, about 245 miles north of Santiago. A quick response by the local unit of the national police put the vandals to flight and prevented further damage.

This report was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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