（2019．6.17 Crux Rome Bureau Chief Inés San Martín ）
Pope Francis arrives in a coliseum in Puerto Maldonado, the city considered a gateway to the Amazon in the Madre de Dios province, Peru, to meet with several thousand indigenous people on the first full day of the pontiff’s visit to Peru, Friday, Jan. 19, 2018. (Credit: L’Osservatore Romano Vatican Media/Pool Photo via AP.)
ローマ発－10月にローマで開かれるアマゾン地域シノドス（代表司教会議）で、同地域の遠隔地にある教会共同体が必ず秘跡に与れるようにするために、先住民を優先した「年配者の司祭叙階」について話し合われることになった。
17日にバチカンのシノドス事務局が発表した同シノドスの討議要綱で明らかになったもので、討議要綱の第三章「アマゾン地域における予言的教会－課題と希望」の129項の提案２に「司祭の独身制はカトリック教会にとっての賜物であることを確認しつつ、この地域のもっとも遠隔の地のために、年配者の司祭叙階の可能性について検討することが求められる」と明記。
さらに、遠隔地において叙階される年配者の条件として、「キリスト教徒としての暮らしに寄り添い、支える秘跡を確実に授けるために、たとえ、しっかりとした家庭を持った人であっても、その地の教会共同体で尊敬され、受け入れられている先住民が優先される」必要がある、としている。
この討議要綱は、3か国語で発表され、そのいずれもが、叙階される年配者に関して英語の”man”ではなく”people”としているが、viri probati（相応しい男性）、つまり「徳が証明された既婚男性」－その多くは現在でも終身助祭として奉仕している－の叙階を念頭に置いている。
アマゾン地域における司祭の不足はこれまで長い間、viri probatiの叙階の可能性を含めて議論の中心になってきた。だが、教皇フランシスコはこれまでこの問題が浮上すると、それは教理でなく規範の問題だが、司祭の独身制の扱いは軽々に判断すべきでない、という考えを明確にし、現地の信徒たちが何か月も司祭に会えないようなアマゾン地域や太平洋の島々におけるviri probatiを支持する意見に、とくに注意深い態度をとってきた。
遠隔地での「徳が証明された男性」の叙階をめぐる議論が最近になって再燃する中で、多くの東方典礼のカトリック教会で既婚男性の叙階が認められていることは注目に値する。カトリック教会でも、プロテスタントからカトリックに転向した既婚の牧師を司祭として認めるケースがいくつか出ている。今回の討議要綱は、10月６日から27日にかけてローマで開かれるアマゾン地域シノドスのこの問題の討議の基礎となるものだ。
要綱では、以上に関連して、徳が証明された既婚男性の叙階について言及した箇所で、「アマゾン地域の人々の求めに効果的に対応する新しい聖職者たち」という表現をし、また、司牧と秘跡の要請に応える先住民の男女の召命を強調している。「彼らの確固とした貢献は、先住民としての（男女の）視野からの、自分たちの風習と慣習に従った本物の福音宣教への強い欲求にある」とし、「自分たちの文化と言葉に関する深い知識をもって先住民の人たちに説教をするのは、そのような先住民の人たちだ。彼らは、自分たちの文化的財産のもつ力と効果をもって福音のメッセージを伝えることができる」と指摘。
そして、こうすることで、”訪問する教会”から、「現地に住む人々から選ばれた聖職者たちによって共に歩み、その場に存在」する”とどまる教会”へと変わっていけるだろう、としている。
（翻訳「カトリック・あい」南條俊二）
（以下続きは英語原文）
A region at risk
Seeing that Francis, author of the first encyclical dedicated to the environment, Laudato Si’, has referred to the Amazon as one of the “lungs of the world,” it comes as no surprise that in various sections the document refers to the “care of our common home.”
As the instrumentum notes, the Amazon river and the rain forests in the region regulate the humidity, the water cycles and carbon emissions at a global level. However, it says, “according to international experts, the Amazon region is the second most vulnerable area in the planet, after the arctic.”
Life is threatened by “environmental destruction and exploitation” and “the systematic violation of the basic human rights of the Amazonian population.”
The document lists a series of rights of indigenous peoples that are threatened, such as the right to territory, self-determination and the demarcation of territories.
“According to the communities participating in this synodal listening, the threat to life comes from economic and political interests of the dominant sectors of current society, especially extractive companies, often in connivance, or with the permissiveness of local and national governments and traditional authorities (of the indigenous themselves),” the instrumentum says.
Those consulted through the Vatican questionnaire gave many examples of what threatens life in the Amazonian region: The criminalization and murder of leaders and defenders of the territory; appropriation and privatization of natural resources such as water; predatory hunting and fishing; mega-projects such as hydroelectric plants, forest concessions, logging to produce monocultures, roads and railways, mining and oil projects; pollution caused by the extractive industry that produces problems and diseases; drug trafficking; the consequent social problems associated with these threats such as alcoholism, violence against women, sex work and trafficking in persons.
The instrumentum also claims that climate change and the increase of human intervention in the Amazon region are driving it to a “point of no return” with high rates of deforestation, the forced displacement of the population and pollution. If the global warming threat continues, it will lead the “Amazonian biome towards desertification.”
“The Amazon region today is a wounded and deformed beauty, a place of suffering and violence,” the document says. “The multiple destruction of human life and the environment, the illnesses and the contamination of rivers and lands, the deforestation and burning of trees, the massive loss of biodiversity and the extinction of [animal and plant] species questions us all.”
“The shout of pain of the Amazon region is an echo of the scream of the enslaved people in Egypt that God doesn’t abandon,” it says.
A Church with an Amazonian face
“The Amazonian face of the Church finds its expression in the plurality of its peoples, cultures and ecosystems,” the document says at the beginning of the third chapter. “This diversity needs an option for an outgoing and missionary Church, embodied in all its activities, expressions and languages.”
To listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in the appeal of the Amazon people and following the magisterium of Francis, calls for a process of pastoral and missionary conversion, the insrumentum says, before listing a series of suggestions.
Among the suggestions, there’s a call to avoid a “cultural homogenization”; the rejection of an “alliance with the dominant culture and the political and economic power” to instead promote the cultures and rights of the indigenous peoples, the poor and the land; to overcome clericalism and instead live “at the service of the Gospel”; and overcome “rigid positions” that don’t take into account the concrete reality of the people.
At the liturgical level, the document also suggests the bishops evaluate the possibility of incorporating elements of the local cultures, including the local music and language, and even dress, into the celebration of the sacraments, particularly baptism and marriage.
“The sacraments must be a source of life and a remedy accessible to all, especially the poor,” the document says. “It’s asked that the rigidity of a discipline that excludes and distances is overcome by a pastoral sensitivity that accompanies and integrates.”
The instrumentum laboris
The document is the result of a previous document, also in preparation of the synod, and of the compilation of the answers to a questionnaire the Vatican sent to the bishops’ conferences in the region.
Even though Brazil is home to the largest section of the Amazon basin, it also touches Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
The 60-page document is divided into three subsections: “The voice of the Amazonia,” that gives a glimpse on the reality of the territory and its people, “Integral ecology: the clamor of the earth and of the poor,” that describes the environmental and pastoral challenges, and “Prophetic Church in the Amazon: challenges and hopes.”
“The listening of the peoples and of the earth by a Church called to be increasingly synodal, begins by making contact with the contrasting reality of an Amazon full of life and wisdom,” the instrumentum says. “It continues with the clamor caused by deforestation and the extractive destruction that demands an integral ecological conversion. And it concludes with the encounter with the cultures that inspire new paths, challenges and hopes for a Church that wants to be Samaritan and prophetic through pastoral conversion.”
Odds and ends
Many issues are touched upon through the 60 pages of the document, the original language of which is Portuguese, but which was released by the Vatican also in Italian and Spanish. Among them is the call for the creation of an “economic fund” to support evangelization, promote human rights and an integral ecology.
Though acknowledging that it wasn’t without flaws, the document also calls the evangelization of Latin America a “gift of Providence,” that calls everyone to salvation in Christ.
“Despite military, political and cultural colonization, and beyond the greed and the ambition of the colonizers, there were many missionaries who gave their lives to transmit the Gospel,” the document says. “The missionary sense not only inspired the formation of Christian communities, but also legislation such as the Laws of the Indies that protected the dignity of the indigenous people against the abuses of their towns and territories.”
These abuses produced wounds in the community and overshadowed the message the missionaries wanted to give, among other reasons because the announcement of Christ was made “in connivance” with the powers that exploited the resources and oppressed populations.
Referring to the Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation, the document calls for their protection, noting that they are increasingly at risk due to the increase of mining and deforestation projects. In addition, the instrumentumclaims that 90 percent of the indigenous violently killed in the region are women.
Speaking about the “urbanization” of the Amazon region, that has led an estimated 70 to 80 percent of the population to abandon rural areas to live in cities within the region, the Vatican document says that instead of integration, it has led to the “urbanization of poverty” and further exclusion.
According to those who answered the questionnaire, urbanization has introduced many problems to the region, from sexual exploitation and human trafficking, to drug dealing and consumption. In addition, it’s led to the destruction of family life and cultural conflicts that lead to a “lack of sense of life.”
The document also touches on education, the key role families play in the sharing of indigenous traditions, and calls for the reform of Catholic seminaries in the region, so that the candidates to the priesthood can be inserted in the communities they will minister.
It also urges the incorporation of indigenous theology and the region’s “eco-theology” into pastoral plans and calls on the Church to have an active role in guaranteeing access to formal education and healthcare for the local population.
Follow Inés San Martín on Twitter: @inesanma
・・Cruxは、カトリック専門のニュース、分析、評論を網羅する米国のインターネット・メディアです。 2014年9月に米国の主要日刊紙の一つである「ボストン・グローブ」 （欧米を中心にした聖職者による幼児性的虐待事件摘発のきっかけとなった世界的なスクープで有名。映画化され、日本でも昨年、全国上映された）の報道活動の一環として創刊されました。現在は、米国に本拠を置くカトリック団体とパートナーシップを組み、多くのカトリック関係団体、機関、個人の支援を受けて、バチカンを含め，どこからも干渉を受けない、独立系カトリック・メディアとして世界的に高い評価を受けています。「カトリック・あい」は、カトリック専門の非営利メディアとして、Cruxが発信するニュース、分析、評論の日本語への翻訳、転載について了解を得て、掲載しています。
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