Argentine official lashes out at clerics accusing him of human rights abuses
- Jan 27, 2021
On Wednesday the Vatican announced that Italian Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, who turns 79 at the end of this month, has stepped down as Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops and will be replaced by Bishop Mario Grech of Malta.
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Italian Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri as secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops and appointed in his place its current pro-secretary-general, Maltese Bishop Mario Grech.
Not wasting any time, the chairman of Pope Francis’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon kicked things off Monday morning by putting the hotly contested issues of married priests and the role of woman squarely on the assembly’s table.
Pope Francis rued what he called a tendency to see some cultures as “second-class civilizations,” which, he said, “distances us from the reality of a people and separates us from them, which is disrespect.”
When the curtain rises on Sunday for the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, much of the attention will be focused on the possibility of ordaining married men to the priesthood as a way of providing sacraments to areas that might not see a priest more than once or twice a year.
Though it doesn’t actually mention the ‘viri probati’, the Synod’s preparatory document suggests studying “priestly ordination for elders — preferably indigenous, respected and accepted by the community — even if they have an established and stable family.”