VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The president of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) stated today that married deacons and priests may be a help for regions with few priests, while also confirming to this correspondent that the Amazon rite and indigenous inculturation of the liturgy is taking place in Brazil.
During a Synod on Synodality press conference October 8, Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, fielded questions from this correspondent about the Amazon rite of the Mass. Just weeks ago, a key theologian involved in drafting the rite attested that it would begin a three-year trial period later this year.
READ: New Amazon rite of the Mass to enter 3-year ‘experimental phase’
“At the moment we are talking about the possibility of an Amazon rite,” Spengler said, when asked to give further details about the news.
NEW: I asked CELAM president Cardinal-elect Jaime Spengler about the Amazon rite/Amazonian rite at #Synod presser for @LifeSite today.
His response below begins at 1:24 —
I also asked what the required “synodal” style of authority looks like. Response from +Kikuchi at 4:36 https://t.co/x7tyhWUxih pic.twitter.com/smQoHp1kpQ
— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) October 8, 2024
“We have communities in several areas where it takes days, weeks, even months or years without people being able to celebrate the eucharist,” he added, noting that the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) is “speaking of the possibility of a specific rite for the Amazon region – this is a fact.”
“On the other hand,” he added, “there is also something that says the following guidance: today in the Latin Church we have the Roman rite and the Roman rite must be inculturated in the different realities.”
READ: Pope Francis establishes ecclesial body to implement controversial Amazon Synod
Native liturgical inculturation
Echoing this often-used term of Pope Francis – inculturation – with regard to the liturgy, Spengler said that his personal opinion was for more “in-depth” study of “this possibility.”
Spengler, named as a new cardinal just this Sunday, noted that it would necessitate “special sensitivity and an attention on the part of the involved parties, a readiness to find a way, a journey.”
But inculturation was key, he argued, in the Amazon region:
Talking about the Amazon, how many peoples do we have there? How many cultures and different languages? Finding a rite that can be typical of that region, a new rite – I think that it could be easier to find ways to inculturate the Roman rite, rather than the other solution.
Spengler referenced a Mass in Manaus in 2023, during which “some indigenous peoples served at the altar in different capacities, and we followed the Roman rite on that occasion.”
He had high words of praise for the inculturation present in the liturgy and said that its “dignity” and “reverence” impressed him greatly:
But seeing the indigenous ministers doing what they were asked to do – probably not as we are used to in our own realities – was really something striking.
The dignity, the reverence, the attention, the care: the way they in which they were carrying out all the necessary actions was so remarkable.
Being a part of this rite I was so struck by this dignity, a dignity which sometimes we miss: we fail to realize in our celebrations as solemn as they may be. So I was truly struck that time in Manaus by that celebration in which the indigenous people were participating.
No concrete details have emerged about what an Amazon rite would resemble, or what elements of indigenous inculturation would occur. However, keen Vatican observers will recall the Pachamama ceremony at the Vatican during the 2019 Amazon Synod, along with the inculturation present in the approved Zairean rite and the proposed Mayan rite.
READ: Vatican considering ‘Mayan rite’ of Mass after Mexican bishops overwhelmingly approve it
Indeed, Bishop Raimundo Vanthuy Neto of São Gabriel da Cachoeira in Brazil suggested in August that the Amazon rite or inculturated liturgy would indeed use elements of indigenous pagan worship, including their manner of burning incense.
“In several regions, indigenous groups use a kind of clay bowl instead of a thurible, and burn their usual resins inside of it,” he told Crux. “Those are examples of cultural and identity elements of such peoples. So, we won’t create anything, we’ll just build a new rite according to already existing practices.”
The final document of the Amazon Synod called for such an Amazonian rite based in native practices. This “Amazonian rite” would “expresses the liturgical, theological, disciplinary and spiritual heritage of the Amazon,” which would assist the “work of evangelization.”
Viri probati still on the table
A key accompanying aspect of the 2019 Amazon Synod and the Amazon rite is the controversial issue of married clergy, or viri probati. The topic is proposed in Querida Amazonia – the document which emerged from the 2019 synod.
Responding to a question from a journalist in the press room about the possibility of married priests, Spengler began by noting the issue is “very delicate,” describing it as “a matter related to discipline of Church, not to theology.”
But he recounted the testimony of a bishop in central Brazil who was faced with the issue of having just one priest to cover an area “that is twice as big as Italy.”
Given this issue, Spengler said that married clergy is “a reality that truly needs deepening.”
“I don’t know if the possibility of having married men who would play the role of presbyters would be the best solution or not,” he commented. “However, I believe we do need openness and honesty to address this issue.”
The cardinal-elect also linked the question of married clergy to the proliferation of permanent deacons – something which has become much more commonplace in the decades following Vatican II. “But starting from the experience of permanent diaconate, maybe in a near future, these men could also be ordained priests for a specific community. It’s evident that then there will be on our part the need for openness of our hearts to be more generous.”
Echoing talking points made by Francis and leaders of a number of Roman curial offices, Spengler pointed to the Church’s Tradition but also urged the Church to keep up with the current times:
I don’t have the answer for you, but we can and we must address and face this issue with courage considering theological aspects from the Bible and the tradition of the Church: that goes without saying. But we must also pay attention to signs of the times. At first the apostles were able to understand the signs of the times, then they managed to find response to the different situations and I hope that we can also do that.
However, in 2018, Cardinal Robert Sarah – then prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments – condemned the viri probati proposal, saying, “the plan, again advanced by some, to detach celibacy from the priesthood by conferring the sacrament of the Order on married men (“viri probati”) for, they say, ‘pastoral reasons or necessities,’ would have serious consequences, in fact, to definitively break with the Apostolic Tradition.”
He reiterated the same condemnation in 2019, in relation to the Amazon Synod:
If by a lack of faith in God and by an effect of pastoral short-sightedness the Synod for the Amazon were to decide on the ordination of viri probati, the fabrication of ministries for women and other such incongruities, the situation would be extremely serious.