Archbishop Castillo then said, “This is what I’m trying to do right now, I went to Rome, I was there a long time, a month. I am encouraging them to give me permission for various things that are not allowed, right? ”
“For example, for them to give me permission for families, or couples, or groups of married couples or older lay adults to take over parishes because it’s better to send priests to study a little, right?”
The Archbishop of Lima proposed “that the laity act as pastors or heads of churches, keeping the communities up and running as they do when they [the priests] go to Europe.”
“In Europe, there are many things in churches in Paris, for example, that laypeople have gotten up and running, and they keep the Christian community going without the need for priests.”
“Then there’s a priest who celebrates Mass for them once a week or twice on Sunday, whatever it may be; but we have to think of more egalitarian ways, closer to the people,” he said.
Moments later, Archbishop Castillo said that this is what “synodality” refers to and that “we did that in the consultation we made in the synodal assembly” of the Archdiocese of Lima.