“Celibacy is a virtue that can be lived by every human being,” said Father Justino Sarmento Rezende, Brazilian expert on indigenous spirituality.
On October 17, 2019, the Salesian intervened at the daily briefing of the Synod on the Amazon, where the question of the Ordination of married men (viri probati) was the object of reflections. Mentioning before the press the inability of indigenous peoples to understand celibacy, he noted that it ”was not born with the human person” but “was established in the course of history.”
“No one is ready to live celibacy,” he added, because it is “a gift of God,” that people “can live,” regardless of their culture, when they choose it “freely.”
People of indigenous tribes “have difficulties,” but “I do too,” confided Father Sarmento, because I’m a normal person,” trying to live this state ”with prayer” in the “most balanced way possible,” he continued.
“If one day I realize that it’s not made for me, I’ll leave,” he added. “I decided that, but if I suffer a lot with that, if I can no longer be a witness of life, that makes no sense.”
