Posted on 04/09/2005 5:24:42 AM PDT by madprof98
The Catholic Church is the world's largest Christian denomination, with at least a billion members. But much of its ritual, history and doctrine remain a mystery to non-Catholics.
Why, for example, do Catholics need a pope? Why can't women be ordained as priests? And why is contraception wrong, particularly in the age of AIDS?
In an effort to answer those and other questions at the heart of this ancient tradition, we talked with two authorities on Catholicism.
[snip]
Why can't women be priests, especially since the Gospel stories show women being leaders and teachers in the early church?
This is a church law, not a biblical injunction, [Thomas] Flynn [professor of philosophy at Emory University and an authority on Catholicism], says. It could be changed as the law of abstaining from meat on Fridays was changed a few decades ago. A number of married ministers from other denominations, having become Catholic priests, have been allowed to continue to live as married men.
[Theology professor and author of "The A to Z of Catholicism" William J.] Collinge adds that Catholics also see priests as the successors to Jesus' apostles. They say that all of Jesus' apostles were men --- an assertion that Collinge concedes is challenged among biblical scholars. Other Catholics invoke tradition, saying priests have always been men.
"Tradition isn't just the way we've always done everything," Collinge says. "It's often considered to carry the will of God for the church.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Interestingly, the AJC staff writer who put the piece together specializes in tributes to the gay-friendly policies of the Episcopal Church. His articles on Bishop Robinson really gush.
"And why is contraception wrong, particularly in the age of AIDS?"
I didn't know that monogamous married couples were at risk of getting AIDS if they didn't use condoms or the pill.
Actually, I've never understood why the Catholic church has priests, male *or* female. I have only ever seen the word "priest" used in the Bible to refer to the leaders of the Jewish people. Of course, the New Testament refers to Christians in general as a royal priesthood in 1 Peter. But, then we're all priests by that definition.
Does anyone know why the Catholic church uses the term "Priest"? And is there any correlation between the role of the priest in the Jewish faith and the role of the priest in the Catholic faith? I know that the Jewish priests presented sacrifices for the sins of the Jewish people. Is there some kind of similar role for Catholic priests?
Maybe someone can refer me to a website that has this info.
Thank you!
Candi
LOL! Good point! What a stupid thing for the author to say about contraception, lol.
LOL! Good point!
OK...I refreshed this page about five times and didn't see my post, so I reposted it and then my original one shows up. UGH!
The Presbyters of the bible were the functioning priests. Also according to the bible some priests converted to the new faith and would have continued in their capacity as the new faith regarded itself as a correction, a reform of Judaism.
It gets people in trouble, can be an occasion of sin, can be a sin, can be a mortal sin. Is the Catholic religion the only one that believes this? Is that why so many non-Catholics don't understand the position?
Priests (presbuteroi) are also known as "presbyters" or "elders." In fact, the English term "priest" is simply a contraction of the Greek word presbuteros. They have the responsibility of teaching, governing, and providing the sacraments in a given congregation (1 Tim. 5:17; Jas. 5:14–15).Of course, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church makes clear, the central liturgical celebration of Catholicism, the mass, is regarded as
The Holy Sacrifice, because it makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the Savior and includes the Church's offering. The terms holy sacrifice of the Mass, "sacrifice of praise," spiritual sacrifice, pure and holy sacrifice are also used, since it completes and surpasses all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant.The priest, representing Christ, presides over this liturgical sacrifice.
The author has an agenda, and it is not the Catholic Church's agenda.
Good point. Consider also that the birth-control pill offers absolutely no protection against AIDS.
But hey, what the author really wants here is endorsement of promiscuity; once the Church "loosens up" on that "issue", they can start handing out condoms at Sunday Mass, and thus gain the approval of the MSM. After all, isn't public approval what morality is all about? /s
I don't trust this author.
Thank you! Your exerpt was excellent and very helpful. I will look at the link you gave me, too.
Candi
Thank you. I'll have to do some reading on this. It's not something I ever picked up on in my reading. But, that's the neat thing about the Bible--you can read it for years and years and still find things you've never seen before. Of course, whenever I share these "new" things with my husband, he has always seen them, lol.
Stupid, ignorant, journalist ERROR CLANG!
Pope John Paul II taught irrevocably and infallibly that since the priest is acting in persona Christi as the celebrant of Holy Mass, that women are not possible for the role. The case closed, permanently, when the Pope orderd all Catholics to assent to that dogma.
I ask why journatorialists can't find truly knowledgeable theologions or canon lawyers to explain the facts, except that they aren't really interested in facts.
What the heck does "contraception" have to do with "...the age of AIDS...", unless this author is too stupid and/or poorly eductated to know that prophylactics are not the only means of contraception??? And that even they are not completely effective against the transmission of the AIDS virus.
Maybe Flynn is an expert on something but it certainly isn't Catholicism.
| ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS |
| Pope John Paul II |
| Apostolic Letter On Reserving Priestly Ordination To Men Alone 1. Priestly Ordination, which hands on the office entrusted by Christ to his Apostles of teaching, sanctifying, and governing the faithful, has in the Catholic Church from the beginning always been reserved to men alone. This tradition has also been faithfully maintained by the Oriental Churches. When the question of the ordination of women arose in the Anglican Communion, Pope Paul VI, out of fidelity to his office of safeguarding the Apostolic Tradition, and also with a view to removing a new obstacle placed in the way of Christian unity, reminded Anglicans of the position of the Catholic Church: "She holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church."[1] But since the question had also become the subject of debate among theologians and in certain Catholic circles, Paul VI directed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set forth and expound the teaching of the Church on this matter. This was done through the Declaration <Inter Insigniores>, which the Supreme Pontiff approved and ordered to be published.[2] 2. The Declaration recalls and explains the fundamental reasons for this teaching, reasons expounded by Paul VI, and concludes that the Church "does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination."[3] To these fundamental reasons the document adds other theological reasons which illustrate the appropriateness of the divine provision, and it also shows clearly that Christ's way of acting did not proceed from sociological or cultural motives peculiar to his time. As Paul VI later explained: "The real reason is that, in giving the Church her fundamental constitution, her theological anthropology—thereafter always followed by the Church's Tradition—Christ established things in this way."[4] In the Apostolic Letter <Mulieris Dignitatem>, I myself wrote in this regard: "In calling only men as his Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In doing so, he exercised the same freedom with which, in all his behaviour, he emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women, without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time."[5] In fact, the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles attest that this call was made in accordance with God's eternal plan: Christ chose those whom he willed (cf. <Mk> 3:13-14; <Jn> 6:70), and he did so in union with the Father, "through the Holy Spirit" (<Acts> 1:2), after having spent the night in prayer (cf. <Lk> 6:12). Therefore, in granting admission to the ministerial priesthood,[6] the Church has always acknowledged as a perennial norm her Lord's way of acting in choosing twelve men whom he made the foundation of his Church (cf. <Rev> 21:14). These men did not in fact receive only a function which could thereafter be exercised by any member of the Church; rather they were specifically and intimately associated in the mission of the Incarnate Word himself (cf. <Mt> 10:1, 7-8; 28:16-20; <Mk> 3:13- 16; 16:14-15). The Apostles did the same when they chose fellow workers[7] who would succeed them in their ministry.[8] Also included in this choice were those who, throughout the time of the Church, would carry on the Apostles' mission of representing Christ the Lord and Redeemer.[9] 3. Furthermore, the fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, received neither the mission proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that the non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them. Rather, it is to be seen as the faithful observance of a plan to be ascribed to the wisdom of the Lord of the universe. The presence and the role of women in the life and mission of the Church, although not linked to the ministerial priesthood, remain absolutely necessary and irreplaceable. As the Declaration <Inter Insigniores> points out, "the Church desires that Christian women should become fully aware of the greatness of their mission; today their role is of capital importance both for the renewal and humanization of society and for the rediscovery by believers of the true face of the Church".[10] The New Testament and the whole history of the Church give ample evidence of the presence in the Church of women, true disciples, witnesses to Christ in the family and in society, as well as to total consecration to the service of God and of the Gospel. "By defending the dignity of women and their vocation, the Church has shown honour and gratitude for those women who—faithful to the Gospel—have shared in every age in the apostolic mission of the whole People of God. They are the holy martyrs, virgins, and the mothers of families, who bravely bore witness to their faith and passed on the Church's faith and tradition by bringing up their children in the spirit of the Gospel".[11] Moreover, it is to the holiness of the faithful that the hierarchical structure of the Church is totally ordered. For this reason, the Declaration <Inter Insigniores> recalls: "the only better gift, which can and must be desired, is love (cf. <1 Cor> 12 and 13). The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not the ministers but the saints".[12] 4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. <Lk> 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful. Invoking an abundance of divine assistance upon you, venerable Brothers, and upon all the faithful, I impart my Apostolic Blessing. From the Vatican, on 22 May, the Solemnity of Pentecost, in the year 1994, the sixteenth of my Pontificate. NOTES 1. Paul VI, <Response to the Letter of His Grace the Most Reverend Dr. F. D. Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, concerning the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood> (30 November 1975): <AAS> 68 (1976), 599. 2. Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration <Inter Insigniores> on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood (15 October 1976): <AAS> 69 (1977), 98-116. 3. <Ibid.>, 100. 4. Paul VI, <Address on the Role of Women in the Plan of Salvation (30 January 1977): <Insegnamenti>, XV (1977), 111. Cf. also John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation <Christifideles Laici> (30 December 1988), 31: <AAS> 81 (1989), 393-521; <Catechism of the Catholic Church>, No. 1577. 5. Apostolic Letter <Mulieris Dignitatem> (15 August 1988), 26; <AAS> 80 (1988), 1715. 6. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution <Lumen Gentium>, 28; Decree <Presbyterorum Ordinis>, 2b. 7 Cf. <1 Tim> 3:1-13; <2 Tim> 1:6; <Tit> 1:5-9. 8 Cf. <Catechism of the Catholic Church>, No. 1577. 9 Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church <Lumen Gentium>, 20, 21. 10 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration <Inter Insigniores>, 6: <AAS> 69 (1977), 115-116. 11 Apostolic Letter <Mulieris Dignitatem>, 27: <AAS> 80 (1988), 1719. 12 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration <Inter Insigniores>, 6: <AAS> 69 (1977), 115. |
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Good find.
Don't forget that Jesus Christ is our only necessary high priest.
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