Breves, Brazil, Oct 17, 2019 / 02:12 am
A retired bishop from Brazil has spoken out against the claim that married priests are necessary in the Amazon region because the indigenous people do not understand celibacy.
"It's not the indigenous culture that finds insurmountable difficulties in understanding celibacy. It's that there was not a real inculturation of the Gospel among them," said Bishop emeritus José Luis Azcona of Marajó, Brazil.
"For many reasons, there has been a transmission of the faith that was not transformed into culture, a faith that was not completely received, not thought out completely, not lived faithfully."
Therefore, he said, "the first step in solving the problem of celibacy is not the abolition of it" but to work toward a more authentic incultration of the Gospel.