Synod update: a dissenting voice on married priests in the Amazon

“We must allow people to hear the calling of Jesus, and sometimes because of our actions they’re unable to do so.”

John Allen filed this at Crux: 

For the first time in one of the Vatican’s daily news briefings during the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, a dissenting voice was struck Wednesday about the idea of ordaining married men to solve priest shortages in the region.

“I don’t see celibacy as the main problem” in attracting young men to the priesthood, said Bishop Wellington Tadeu de Queiroz Vieira of Cristalândia in Brazil, emphasizing that nobody had appointed him a spokesman for the synod but nevertheless saying, “I think there are many who share my views.”

“We’ve got other problems, and the main one that has to be addressed is our own lack of consistency, our infidelity and scandals, our lack of holiness, that sometimes represents an obstacle preventing other young people from following this path,” Queiroz said.

“We must allow people to hear the calling of Jesus, and sometimes because of our actions they’re unable to do so,” he said.

“If I lead a holy life, I won’t have a problem with ordained ministers, because young people are looking for values and things they can believe in,” Queiroz said, “and I can’t believe that Jesus has lost his power of attraction.”

Read it all.