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Curb on ordaining deacons
Vatican concerned about preparations
Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the troubled Mexican state of Chiapas, has announced that—at the request of the Vatican—he will stop ordaining members of local Indian tribes to the permanent diaconate, until some Indian men become priests.

The San Cristobal diocese has seen dozens of Indian men ordained as permanent deacons, in a campaign that former Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia saw as an effort to “put a native face” on the Church. The Vatican had expressed misgivings about the number of Indian deacons, noting that there had been no priestly ordinations from these ethnic groups. The large number of deacons, Vatican officials worried, could create the impression that a new clerical class was being created. There were also some concerns about the extent to which the Indian men had been adequately prepared for their ministry.

Bishop Arizmendi emphasized that the new policy—which calls for a halt to the ordination of permanent deacons—is not intended to discourage Indian men from priestly vocations. On the contrary, he said, “we need more priests . . . from all the different ethnic groups existing in the diocese.”

On April 6, Bishop Arizmendi ordained a priest from the Tzotzil tribe, and conferred the temporary diaconate on another Indian candidate for the priesthood. He remarked, “They are men belonging to their own people; they have not renounced their blood, their communities, or their traditions.”
Bishop Arizmendi promised that “once we have a significant number of native vocations for the priesthood, we will resume ordaining permanent deacons, because there is nothing wrong with that.” But he reminded the people of Chiapas that “to this date—even with the new priest—we only have two native priests.”