ROME (ITALY)
Crux
June 17, 2019
By Inés San Martín
While much attention has been paid over the past days and weeks to the ins and outs of the spring meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, that doesn’t mean the rest of the Church simply went on “pause” while the Americans did their thing.
In fact, the past week has been a busy period all over the Catholic map. Here’s a small sampling from the Church south of the border, offering a reminder that the word “Catholic” does indeed mean “universal.”
The upcoming Synod on the Amazon
On Monday, after this week’s Angelus went to print, the Vatican released the working document for an upcoming summit of bishops from the Amazon region, which will take place in Rome this October, bringing together prelates from countries that make up a vast region considered one of the world’s two lungs.
Speaking about the synod, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the general relator (more or less, chairman), said that if the bishops request it, Pope Francis would be open to ordaining “viri probati,” married men of proven virtue, as priests.
“The shortage of priests and, therefore, the absence of the Eucharist in the Amazonian communities, is a great limitation,” Hummes said last week while he was in Francis’ native Argentina. “In fact, for its inhabitants the Eucharist is something rare, not part of their daily life.”
However, he said, for the Catholic Church the Eucharist is “fundamental and necessary” to develop a community faithful to Jesus Christ.
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