VATICAN (ChurchMilitant.com) – Synod fathers are proposing the creation of an “Amazonian Rite” that will allow the ordination of women to the diaconate and married men to the priesthood.
On Friday, the Vatican published summaries of the synod fathers’ small circle working groups, with cardinals grouped according to language. The majority of working groups did not mention an Amazonian rite, female ordination or married priests, but a vocal minority, involving Italian Groups A and B, Portuguese Groups A and B and Spanish Groups C and D, promoted some or all of these ideas.
Italian Group A, moderated by Bp. Flavio Giovenale, proposed ordaining women as acolytes: “We propose that the ministry of lector and acolyte also be conferred to women, religious or lay, adequately trained and prepared.”
Portuguese Group A stressed that new paths for ordained ministries are “necessary and urgent” and the ordination of women would give “a feminine and maternal face to the Church.”
Italian Group B stressed that the new rite should be allowed to develop its own spirituality, theology, liturgy and discipline based on the “singular richness of the Catholic Church in the Amazonia.”