Vatican City, Aug 9, 2019 / 05:38 am
The ordination to the priesthood of mature, married men, sometimes called viri probati, is among the topics to be addressed at October's Amazon synod but is "absolutely not" one of the principle themes of the meeting, Pope Francis said.
In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, published Aug. 9, Pope Francis said the possibility of ordaining viri probati is "absolutely not" among the main topics and is "simply a number of the Instrumentum Laboris."
"The important themes," the pope stated, "will be the ministries of evangelization and the different ways of evangelizing."
Instrumentum Laboris is the name given to the working document published ahead of a synod. The working document for the special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian region was published in June and opened the door for a discussion of the ordination of mature, married men.