Church: Conversation with Pope on ordination of married men

Brazilian prelate recounts conversation with Pope on ordination of married men

CWN - April 16, 2014

An Austrian-born missionary bishop in Brazil recounted a recent conversation with Pope Francis on the ordination of married men to the priesthood. The bishop met with the Pope on April 4.

"I told him that as bishop of Brazil's largest diocese with 800 church communities and 700,000 faithful I only had 27 priests, which means that our communities can only celebrate the Eucharist twice or three times a year at the most," said Bishop Erwin Kräutler of the Territorial Prelature of Xingu, according to a report in The Tablet.

"The Pope explained that he could not take everything in hand personally from Rome," he added. "We local bishops, who are best acquainted with the needs of our faithful, should be corajudos, that is 'courageous' in Spanish, and make concrete suggestions … Regional and national bishops' conferences should seek and find consensus on reform and we should then bring up our suggestions for reform in Rome."

Additional sources for this story
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• Pope says married men could be ordained – if world's bishops agree (The Tablet)