・「既婚者の司祭叙階」と「女性の役割」が主要テーマに-アマゾン地域シノドスの議長が表明(CRUX)

Chair of pope’s Amazon summit puts married priests, women squarely on the table

 Cardinal Claudio Hummes, General Rapporteur for the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, left, shares a word with Pope Francis on the occasion of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology, in the Vatican gardens, Friday, Oct. 4, 2019. The ceremony took place two days before a Synod of bishops on the Pan-Amazon region opened at the Vatican to address the ecological, social and spiritual needs of indigenous peoples in the Amazon. (Credit: AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino.)

 

(2019.10.7 Crux  Editor John L. Allen Jr.)

 ローマ発ー時間を無駄遣いにはできない-6日始まったアマゾン地域シノドスの議長、クラウディオ・フンメス枢機卿が7日、全体会議初日の冒頭、教会関係者の間で激しい議論を呼んでいる「既婚者の司祭叙階」と「教会における女性の役割 」を議題に載せることを明らかにした。

 さらに枢機卿は「アマゾン地域の小教区で奉仕をする司祭の不足、ミサや他の秘跡をするのにも事欠いている問題も取り上げたい… 日々の司牧が十分にされず、時々の司祭訪問しかされていない問題です」とも語った。

 信徒1300人に1人の割合しか司祭がいないとして、米国や欧州のカトリック信徒たちは不満を漏らすが、ラテンアメリカ全体の平均では7800人の信徒に司祭が1人、アマゾン地域の中には1万5000人を超える信徒に1人というところもある。

 枢機卿は「少なくとも日曜日にミサに参加できることが、教会共同体が十分に成長し、人々の暮らしに神の言葉が真に体験できるようにするために欠かせません… 将来に向けた新たな道を設定することが必要なのです」と、今回の会議で具体的な対応をまとめることができるよう、強い希望を表明。

 具体策に関連して、「会議の準備段階で聞き取りをしたアマゾン地域の地域の現地教会、宣教師、原住民の人々のほとんどが、司祭の独身制の重要性を認識しつつも、地域共同体に所属する既婚者に司祭叙階の道を開くよう強く求めています」と語り、このような対象は、既婚男性(の叙階)にとどまらず、「アマゾン地域では今や、数多くの女性たちが教会共同体のリーダーとなっている現実から、共同体に属する女性が、彼女たちに合った奉仕ができるようにとの要請が出ており、実際に試みられている」と指摘し、会議場にいた人々の喝さいを浴びた。ただ、「女性に合った奉仕」の具体的中身については言及を避けた。

(以下の続きは英語原文)

In 2016, Francis established a commission to examine the possibility of women becoming deacons. That commission presented a report without apparently reaching consensus, and in May Francis said, “I am not afraid of studying, but up to this moment it does not proceed.”

In the run-up to the Synod on the Amazon, the question of married priests – the so-called viri probati – has been among its most debated points. Critics see such proposals as a Trojan horse that could lead to the abolition of clerical celibacy everywhere, while advocates tend to style it as a realistic response to the pastoral exigencies of the region.

In a 2017 interview, Francis said he’s open to the idea of ordaining viri probati to serve isolated rural communities, and has also mentioned their possible use not only in the Amazon but also on Pacific islands.

Drawing applause from the synod hall, Hummes began by announcing he would speak in Portuguese, the language of Brazil. In broad terms, he urged participants in the Amazon synod not to be bogged down by “traditionalism.”

“Traditionalism, which remains linked to the past, is one thing, but true tradition, which is the Church’s living history, is something else,” he said, arguing that each generation in the Church “enriches this tradition in current times with their own experience and understanding of faith in Jesus Christ.”

“God always brings newness, and demands our complete trust,” he said, quoting a homily of Francis.

Hummes also called on the synod to issue a strong defense of the roughly 400 native and indigenous communities of the Amazon.

“It is necessary that the right to be the leading players in their own history be returned and guaranteed to indigenous populations, as the subjects and not objects of the spirit or the victims of anyone’s colonialism,” he said.

In keeping with the “green” ethos of the synod, Hummes urged a strong ecological stance.

“Ours is a Church that is aware that its religious mission, in keeping with its faith in Jesus Christ, inevitably includes ‘care of the common home’,” he said. “This bond also proves that the cries of the land and those of the poor in this region are one and the same.”

“This synod is held within the context of a serious and urgent climatic and ecological crisis, which involves our entire planet,” Hummes said. “The planet is experiencing galloping devastation, depredation and degradation of earth’s resources, all fostered by a globalized, predatory and devastating technocratic paradigm.”

“The earth cannot take this anymore,” Hummes said.

The Brazilian cardinal, who was seated next to Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina during the 2013 conclave and suggested that he take the name “Francis,” listed several specific threats facing the Amazon today with which he suggested the synod will have to reckon:

  • Criminalization and assassination of leaders and defenders of the territory.
  • Appropriation and privatization of natural goods such as water itself.
  • Both legal logging concessions and illegal logging.
  • Predatory hunting and fishing, mainly in rivers.
  • Mega-projects, such as hydroelectric and forest concessions, logging for monoculture production, construction of roads and railways, or mining and oil projects.
  • Pollution caused by the entire extractive industry that causes problems and diseases, especially among children and young people.
  • Drug trafficking.
  • Resulting social problems associated with these threats such as alcoholism, violence against women, sex work, human trafficking, loss of original culture and identity, and conditions of poverty.

In light of all that, Hummes finished by ticking off several “core issues” for the meeting.

  • An outgoing Church and its new pathways in Amazonia.
  • The Church’s Amazonian face: Inculturation and inter-culturality in a missionary-ecclesial context.
  • Ministries in the Church in Amazonia: Presbyterate, diaconate, ministries and the role played by women.
  • The work done by the Church in looking after our “shared home”; listening to the earth and to the poor; integral environmental, economic, social and cultural ecology.
  • The Amazonian Church in the urban reality.
  • Issues concerning water.
  • Others.

Prior to Hummes, Italian Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the secretary of the Synod of Bishops provided a lengthy overview of the meeting’s history and procedures. Baldisseri said the ultimate purpose of the gathering is to focus on “this garden of immense wealth and natural resources, the motherland of indigenous peoples with an unmistakable history and face, and a territory that’s threatened by the runaway ambition of human beings rather than being taken care of.”

As Baldisseri presented it, the synod will alternate between general sessions in which participants can speak to the entire assembly and smaller working groups organized by language that allow for freer discussion. The first meeting of those small groups is scheduled for Wednesday.

In a nod to the 21st century, Baldisseri also told participants that while they’re free to give interviews and discuss the synod publicly during their free time, he’d ask them not to take to social media to share impressions during the actual working sessions.

Follow John Allen on Twitter: @JohnLAllenJr


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2019年10月8日