A bishop in Pope Francis’ home country is decrying how the Amazon Synod accomplished nothing for the sacramental crisis in the region. The bishop, who’s been a missionary in Bolivia’s Amazon region since 1991, lamented that there are communities unable to hear Mass for more than a year at a time. Church Militant’s William Mahoney looks at the crisis and the synod that has left that crisis intact.
Bishop Eugenio Coter is one of only 12 priests in a vicariate where roughly 60,000 people live in rural areas, rendering regular access to the sacraments impossible. The bishop warned, “The sacraments of reconciliation and anointing of the sick will disappear due to the lack of ordained ministers.”
While the Amazon Synod’s final document included a vote in which the majority (128–41) proposed married men who are permanent deacons be ordained priests “in extreme situations and with conditions,” Francis did not include this in his follow-up apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia (“Beloved Amazonia”).
In that exhortation, the pontiff often used words like “cultural,” “ecological” and “dialogue,” but offered nothing to help Amazonian Catholics, leading Coter to conclude, “The sacramental situation was not resolved in the synod.”
Recognizing there is no Church without the Eucharist, the prelate remarked the shortage of ordained priests “makes us become a ‘Protestant’ Catholic Church because we lack the Eucharist and the other sacraments.”
Though there was much talk about the Eucharist and the role of the sacraments in saving souls during the synod, Coter observed, no answers were given.
Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the Amazon Synod ends with a prayer to the “Mother of the Amazon region,” which, to be clear, does in fact address Our Lady and not Pachamama.
In October 2019, without any actual evidence, Francis’ fellow Jesuit James Martin claimed hatred for the Amazon Synod inevitably leads to violence. In July 2020, with massive riots, acts of arson, and even deaths, Martin was quiet, claiming Black Lives Matter was just a way to focus on systemic racism and White supremacy.