The Most Rev. Sithembele Sipuka, the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference,in August questioned the ongoing discussion on the ordination of women to the diaconate but proposed that the ordination of married men to the priesthood be given serious consideration.
“At this point in the life of the church, what material difference will the ordination of women to diaconate make?” Bishop Sipuka asked. “If women are doing practically everything that a deacon is doing except presiding over marriages, of which there is no abundance…and doing baptism, of which there is [also] not much demand, why clericalize them to do what they can do without being ordained? Why do we want to draw women into clericalism when we are having so many problems with it?”
He made those remarks in his opening address at the bishops’ biannual plenary gathering on Aug. 5. Bishop Sipuka went on to say that a decision to ordain women deacons “should be informed by the felt need of the church.”
He added that the theological grounds for a women’s diaconate need to be established, to be followed by a time of discernment that would include a dialogue to “avoid divisions” in the church. Candidates need to be formed, the bishop said, “because not everybody who wants to become a deacon is necessarily the right candidate.”
Bishop Sipuka said that the “focus must be on responding to a genuine need rather than pursuing it for the purpose of affirmative action because men also do not have a right to ordination. To be ordained is not a right; it is for service.”
He highlighted a fundamental challenge for the church in southern Africa (and around the world): Many Catholics in southern Africa have restricted access to the Eucharist because of the shortage of priests. “In rural dioceses, some outstations get visited by a priest once a month, which means that if [community members] are lucky, they get 12 Eucharistic celebrations a year, and when some mishaps occur and the priest cannot travel to these communities, they get less,” he said.
He said that the church affirms the Eucharist as the “source and summit of Christian life and a significant feature of our faith that is characteristically Catholic, and we wonder why our Catholics are not Catholic enough. How can they be Catholic enough when they are deprived of the major source of Catholic identity, the Eucharist?”
Bishop Sipuka believes that the question of ordaining “matured and proven married men” (also known as viri probati—Latin for “tested men”) needs to be taken up. He reminded the bishops that at the Synod on the Amazon in October 2019, the “discussions concluded with a vote of 128 in favor and 41 against” a deeper exploration of the potential of viri probati.
Bishop Sipuka said southern Africa suffers from a massive shortage of priests, adding that a “viable solution [to the priest shortage] is needed.”
In an interview following the address, Bishop Sipuka recalled that the potential of viri probati was first proposed for Africa by the missionary Bishop Fritz Lobinger, who headed the rural diocese of Aliwal North in South Africa from 1987 until he retired in 2004.
“If you read [his] book, Bishop Lobinger suggests a long, elaborate discussion—too long, I think—that involves not only the theologians but also the faithful, so that by the time it happens, everybody will have been taken onboard. I envisage it more for dioceses of rural background, both local and global,” Bishop Sipuka said.
Bishop Lobinger, who faced a shortage of priests in his own diocese, suggested that “married elders” from local communities should be ordained to the priesthood so that priest-deprived communities could have regular access to the Eucharist. The men chosen to serve would not receive a seminary education but would be guided by seminary-educated celibate priests. Bishop Lobinger has said he intends that such men would only serve the community for which they were ordained and not be transferred—unlike priests, who serve the whole diocese.
Bishop Sipuka told the assembled bishops: “While the viri probati concept is not original to us, the version Bishop Lobinger proposes is uniquely local and homegrown. It would be good to share with him as he embraces the sunset of his life that we are building on his thoughts for a possible solution to the felt pastoral need.” He went on to suggest that “providing variation,” meaning adding the option of priests ordained as viri probati to the existing priesthood, could contribute to building “a vibrant church.”
He believes that the use of viri probati would make a viable option in the rural areas of southern Africa. “Many good and capable men have retired from income-earning jobs and are back in the rural homes where they grew up,” he said. “Having retired, they would need to work in small community settings, not a big busy parish.”
Bishop Sipuka said the proposal requires thorough discernment. “It should not be done solely because of the shortage of priests.” He quoted Bishop Lobinger from his book: “If the shortage of priests were the actual reason for ordaining community leaders, then we should discontinue the practice as soon as we have sufficient priests.”
The shortage of priests in the southern African region has led to appeals for clergy coming from other African countries. “While we are grateful for the assistance,” Bishop Sipuka said, “it is only partial and is not a permanent solution.”
While cultures across the African continent have shared commonalities, they are also differentiated in many ways. “These differences, rooted in unique cultural, linguistic, national, colonial and ecclesiological contexts, must be understood and acknowledged,” he said. “They present challenges to the smooth, effective and efficient assignment of priests and religious from one African country to another.”
“Another challenge,” the bishop said, “is the stringent migration laws among African countries.” Often priests from other African countries are denied visas to work in South Africa or the length of the visas is restricted, creating serious limitations on the availability and effectiveness of nonnative priests.
Bishop Sipuka said that while his call to reopen the discussion on viri probati is triggered by the shortage of priestly vocations, “it also seeks to explore possibilities of varied forms of ordained priesthood that would better serve the church today in a mutually complementing manner.”
But he was clear that his call for “varied forms of ordained priesthood does not include consideration for women’s ordination.”
“There is a lot being discussed about the role of women in the church, including the opening of ministries hitherto closed to women and consideration for women’s diaconate ordination,” he said.
He suggests that church leaders should “consider these first [forms of ordained priesthood] and see how they evolve into further considerations,” counseling, “we should take this step by step and slowly.”
