Vatican considers married priests in Amazon region

The Vatican is considering ordaining married men in order to resolve a drastic shortage of priests in the Amazon region, foreign news media outlets, including The Associated Press reported on Monday. In a document being prepared for a synod, meeting of bishops, to be held at the Vatican in October, the Catholic Church suggested allowing some religious married men to be ordained as priests and conducting a study on the issue, according to the news report.

“It is asked that for the most remote areas of the region, the possibility of priestly ordination of elders, preferably indigenous, respected and accepted by their community, even those who already have stable and consolidated families, be studied in order to ensure the sacraments to accompany and sustain Christian life," the document said.

Celibacy has been the main reason behind the shortage of priests. In some parts of the world, such as the Amazon region, Catholics would go months without attending a Mass due to lack of priests. This has prompted the argument inside and outside the Catholic Church that the vow of celibacy for priests should be scrapped and married men or women should be allowed to be ordained as priests.

In an interview with a German news media outlet in 2017, Pope Francis said he would like to consider allowing married men to become priests in remote areas, where there is a lack of priests.


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