The text says it’s urgent that in the Amazonian Church “ministries are promoted and trusted to women and men in an equitable way.” Men and women must be granted the power to officiate the sacraments, baptizing and celebrating marriages. It must be created an instituted ministry of “female community leader” and women must be ordained deacons.
“For an authentic Amazonian Rite, it’s essential that women can, in a symmetric and complementary way, occupy spaces as preachers and officiants of sacraments, as well as in the organization and the structures of the Church,” the document affirms.
According to Bishop Eugenio Coter of Pando, Bolivia, one of the coordinators of the elaboration of the Amazonian Rite, the commissions haven’t argued for the legitimacy of the ordination of women deacons, given that it’s a matter that it’s up to the universal Church to analyze.
“In part, it corresponds to an acknowledgement of the women’s role in the celebratory spaces. It’s coherent to the logic of the women’s presence in the Amazonian communities. But it’s something that surpasses the Amazonian Ecclesial Conference due to its doctrinal nature,” Coter told Crux.
He recalled that some ecclesial segments objected to the ordination of women deacons arguing that it would be an incentive to a kind of clericalism. He doesn’t agree with such a thesis.
“That corresponds to saying that the sacrament of the order creates a clerical mindset. I don’t think so. It’s a lack of understanding of the sacrament of the order,” Coter argued.
Concerning the viri probati, Coter emphasized that it’s also something typical of the Amazonian context to expect that an authority is a married man and knows how to guide his family.
“The ability to keep a mature and stable relationship is part of the dignity of the authorities, otherwise that leader causes mistrust,” he explained.
Coter recalled that the final document of the Synod for the Pan-Amazon region included a request from the bishops for the ordination of married men.
“It has never been answered. That’s also a
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