The Tablet: Belgian bishop plans to ordain married men to fulfil Synod vision
21 March 2026, The Tablet
Link to article: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/belgian-bishop-plans-to-ordain-married-men-to-fulfil-synod-vision/
‘The initiative is now in the hands of local bishops,’ Bishop Johan Bonny wrote in his pastoral letter, noting that the Antwerp diocesan synod had proposed several reforms.
Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp has challenged Rome to push forward with synodal reforms by announcing changes including the ordination of married men in his diocese by 2028.
Carefully quoting guidelines for the Synod on Synodality’s implementation phase (2025-2028), his 11-page pastoral letter proposed the viri probati reform alongside the naming of woman pastors, a new understanding of parishes, welcoming new Catholics and updating the Church’s message.
The document answers urgent pastoral realities with reforms Rome has considered but not taken. Without them, the bishop says, he does not have enough priests to do the tasks the synod documents call for.
“The initiative is now in the hands of local bishops,” Bonny wrote in the letter published on 20 March. Noting the Antwerp diocesan synod had proposed several reforms, he said: “What should be done can no longer be postponed sine die.”
He would “make every effort to ordain married men as priests for our diocese by 2028,” he said. “The consensus on this question is almost total … It is an illusion to think a serious synodal-missionary process in the West still has a chance without also ordaining married men.”
There are “almost no domestic candidates … for ordination” now but many lay Catholics who would make good priests, he said. Priests from abroad are a temporary answer, but “they come to help us, not to replace us”.
The sexual abuse crisis haunts Bonny, a former spokesman on the issue for the hard-hit Belgian Church. “Trust in the Church and its ministers has been severely diminished … How do we rebuild that trust?”
Bonny dismissed arguments against women’s ordination as “theologically weak and anthropologically outdated”. Since the answer cannot be only “non-ordination”, he proposed as an interim step a “sacramental” act opening the ministry of pastor (parish priest in Flemish) to lay people.
Recognising this would meet demands for a new ministry role for both sexes and “honour the vocation that women recognise in themselves”, he said, but women’s ordination would remain “a thorn in the flesh for the Church”.
Among other reforms, consolidating small parishes into ever larger units requires a mission station in each area to bring pastoral agent together in a synodal way. The bishop hoped to see this by 2030.
The wave of new Catholics being baptised is a challenge that requires synodal discussions “to discern together which path these ‘newcomers’ can take with us, and we with them”, Bonny wrote.
Antwerp synodal meetings also asked what spreading the Gospel means today. “The meaning of symbolic gestures reaches further than words can say … ‘They simply did it’ is so much stronger than ‘they said it well’.” The diocese will strive to put words into action.
“The synod must end where it began: in every diocese or in every local church,” Bonny wrote. Admitting tensions were inevitable, he continued: “Local bishops are churches are responsible for this implementation [of synodality]. They must not continue looking around and deferring.”
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