REPORT: Key Bishop Expresses Support for ‘Amazon Liturgy,’ Stresses ‘Openness’ to the Idea of Married Clergy

Archbishop Jaime Spengler, the president of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM), confirmed that the Amazon rite and Indigenous inculturation of the liturgy are taking place in his native Brazil. In addition, Spengler urged the church to remain “open” to the idea of married clergy.

Senior Vatican Correspondent for LifeSite News Michael Haynes asked Spengler about the “Amazon rite” or “inculturated liturgy,” as many of its proponents refer to it, during a synodal press conference on Tuesday.

“At the moment, we are talking about the possibility of an Amazon rite,” Spengler said.

According to Father Agenor Brighenti, head of the Theological Team of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM) and advisor to the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), the Amazon liturgy will begin a three-year trial period later this year.

“We have communities in several areas where it takes days, weeks, even months or years without people being able to celebrate the Eucharist,” Spengler explained.

“On the other hand, there is also something that says the following guidance: today in the Latin Church, we have the Roman rite, and the Roman rite must be inculturated in the different realities.”

The “different realities” involved in celebrating the Amazon rite could include adopting practices and rituals that directly conflict with church teaching and doctrine. For example, Bishop Raimundo Vanthuy Neto of São Gabriel da Cachoeira in Brazil says that the Amazon rite could include elements of Indigenous and even pagan worship.

“In several regions, indigenous groups use a kind of clay bowl instead of a thurible and burn their usual resins inside of it,” he told Crux. “Those are examples of cultural and identity elements of such peoples. So, we won’t create anything. We’ll just build a new rite according to already existing practices.”

Of course, as critics claim, the adoption of “cultural and identity elements” could begin with clay bowls but then quickly grow to include other, more obvious signs of pagan worship that diminish Christ and elevate Indigenous deities.

In 2023, the Pachamama, a pagan idol, appeared in Brazil at a Mass for the Regional Assemblies of Latin America and the Caribbean. Pictures show the pagan idol Clearly and prominently placed in front of the ambo as the bishops said mass.

In what has become a pattern for Amazon rite proponents and Pope Francis supporters in general, Spengler declined to shoot down the possibility of married clergy, one of the key topics to come to the fore in the Querida Amazonia that emerged from the 2019 Amazon Synod. Instead, he insists that the matter requires a mindset of “openness.”

“I don’t know if the possibility of having married men who would play the role of presbyters would be the best solution or not,” he said. “However, I believe we do need openness and honesty to address this issue.”

The large, formal Synod on Synodality meeting is set to conclude near the end of this month. However, the ten “working groups” established by Pope Francis have mandates, some extending into 2025.