POPE FRANCIS' MODEL OF CHURCH GOVERNANCE

After the German Bishops’ Conference voted to publish guidelines permitting the practice “in certain cases,” a minority of seven opposing bishops led by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne appealed to the Vatican for a ruling, on the grounds that access to the Eucharist is too central a question to let local churches decide on their own.

Representatives of German Bishops on both sides of the dispute were invited to Rome to make their cases to the Vatican’s offices for doctrine, ecumenism and church law.

They were told the Pope wanted them to go back and agree unanimously on a policy, indicating that the Pope thinks the matter is for German bishops, not Rome, to decide.

It is no secret that Pope Francis is committed in his effort to decentralize the control which the Roman Curia has exerted over the governance of the Church for centuries.

In his response to the German Bishops as well as his encouragement to other national conferences of Bishops to resolve matters involving the pastoral care of souls, Pope Francis appears to have established a method by which the governance of the local churches is to be exercised.

Local Conferences of Bishops now appear to have been given the authority to resolve pastoral questions within their local churches by a discourse that leads unanimity.

Such was the way of the Church's governance prior to the Great Schism caused in part by the Bishop of Rome claiming not only a primacy of prestige among equals but rather a primacy of authority over them.

Many might consider a requirement that unanimity be achieved as the death knell for any real authority being exercised by national Bishops’ conferences. 

However, such a requirement is both reasonable and appropriate.

To avoid confusion and frustration, all the Bishops within a national conference should be in agreement regarding the governance of those entrusted to their pastoral care.

Pastoral needs and circumstances differ greatly from nation to nation.  Those differences are less pronounced within the countries themselves.  

Consequently, the Church could tolerate differences in the way different countries and regions of the world care for the faithful.  

What would be detrimental to Church unity would be disagreement and dissension among the Bishops within those countries.

At the present moment, the Bishops of the Amazon have suggested that the Church consider ordaining married men of proven virtue to the Priesthood.  

The initial response of the Holy Father has been encouraging and has signaled that such a question should be discussed at their next plenary gathering.

Should the Bishops of the Amazon unanimously agree that a married Priesthood is essential to the fulfillment of their pastoral responsibilities, I expect that Pope Francis will encourage them to move forward and implement such a plan and begin ordaining married men.

One can only imagine the outcry which the neo-conservative reactionaries will mount against Pope Francis should that occur.  

We shall see what the Will of the Holy Spirit is for the future governance of the Church.