Posted on 09/17/2004 8:36:25 PM PDT by Land of the Irish
Bishop Donald Wuerl is calling on the people of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh to prepare for a future with fewer priests.
"Fewer priests does not mean less ministry," Wuerl wrote in a pastoral letter in this week's Pittsburgh Catholic.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Yes. But Christ never mandated celibacy for his apostles.
Chastity is not celibacy. Even married people are called to chastity.
"....Bringing married Protestant convert priests into the Catholic priesthood has enriched the Church. "
But what that really means is that married Protestant priests (oxymoron) involved in a Catholic priesthood, makes the Church no longer Catholic, but Protestant.
Convert priests, ordained to the Catholic priesthood, are Catholic priests.
Is that pretty clear?
Are you saying you're going to leave the church? Leave the Eucharist? I love this sacrament too much to leave it for the sins of its leaders.
I am speaking only for myself, I would never leave the church, even if most of its hierarichy turned corrupt. God said that he would never leave his church, even if the Gates of Hell came upon it, and if God will always be with His church, I'll never leave.
I'd like to say something else, and I apologize if I sound like I'm lecturing, I don't mean to, I'm just passionate. I believe there is an intense spiritual battle going on, and I mean with angels and devils.
These bishops have big fat bullseyes on their backs. And the rest of us will never know the spiritual warfare they battled or what they went through till probably we're on the other side. Its easy for us to sit back and judge when I know that I will probably never be attacked like that. The devil knows each of us and all of our weaknesses, and boy does he go after them.
Have you ever heard of the battles that Padre Pio or Saint John Vianney went through with these spirits, its frightening.
I want to post something that I sometimes put on threads like this:
"It is said that one day having celebrated the Holy Sacrifice, the aged Pontiff Leo XIII was in conference with the Cardinals. Suddenly he sank to the floor in a deep swoon. Physicians who hastened to his side feared that he had already expired, for they could find no trace of his pulse. However, after a short interval the Holy Father rallied, and opening his eyes exclaimed with great emotion: "Oh what a horrible picture I was permitted to see!" He had been shown in spirit the tremendous activities of the evil spirits and their ravings against the Church. But in the midst of this vision of horror he had also beheld consoling visions of the glorious Archangel Michael, who had appeared and cast Satan and his legions back into the abyss of hell. Soon afterward he composed the well-known prayer.
The Church is going through a terrible tribulation, and we should be praying FOR our bishops and priests.
God bless you Publius6961 and your journey!
Christ never mandated celibacy, He just taught us it was prudent and the path our clergy should take, and said so Himself in the Gospels many times.
We as a church correctly defer to Him and His divine wisdom, as opposed to other expedient and worldly best laid plans.
1 Corinthians 7: 32-33 But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord: how he may please God. But he that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world: how he may please his wife. And he is divided.
Mosot important is to institute 24/7 Adoration at your church. Then there will be plenty of vocations in your area.
It needs to happen and there is statistical proof that dioceses with the most vocations are coming from dioceses with the most 24/7 adoration opportunities.
Pray!
**Not a chance.**
I don't understand your unwillingness to pray for vocations. It's the most important thing we can do.
You don't say one word about the quality of priests. What you are suggesting is a recipe for more of the problems we've been plagued with the last few years.
No, that isn't pretty clear.
Catholic convert priests cannot be married and still be Roman Catholic priests.
Anybody out there able to confirm this for me? I never heard of any dispensations that allow convert priests to be married.
If I am wrong, I graciously stand corrected.
There are two married priests (maybe more) in the Portland, OR Archdiocese. They were formally Anglican priests who converted to the Catholic faith. Perhaps one was a Lutheran. (It's been three to five years ago that this happened so I'm a little fuzzy on the details here.
From what I understand, if lets say, an Episcopalian who is married decided to be a catholic priest, the church would let him. If he was unmarried and became a priest, he would not be allowed to marry afterwards.
My very informed dad told me this.
I believe St. Anthony does. There is always someone there when I go.
Fewer liberal novus ordo priests won't hurt the Church especially now that all their parishioners are dying off.
Many of the newchurch "priests" today are nothing more than sodomite draft-dodgers, and many of the rest don't believe in the Real Presence. Here's just another example...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3653784.stm
"During holy mass we need to drink wine as a symbol of the blood of Christ," one of the priests told the newspaper.
Could you explain to me, perhaps, what it is that has suddenly caused a shortage in celebate males to the priesthood? It seemed to work quite well for quite a long time. Actually, come to think of it, traditional seminaries are overflowing with celebate male candidates for the priesthood.
So, again, the question must be posed. Why is the novus ordo system lacking what the catholic faith had for nearly 2,000 years: men willing to renounce everything to serve God?
It is well established that it worked prior to the "Great Council" quite well, it is well established that it is working even today in traditional orders. Is there something about the Novus Ordo, or a message the average person in the pew gets from attending the novus ordo, that discourages self-sacrifice for the sake of God?
It's all about the leftists, their flimsy mainline Protestant Theology that gets passed off as Catholic teaching and (in some cases) outlandish homosexuality that turns off men.
The priestly vocations crisis mirrors the married vocations crisis. People are just not going for it and sticking with it.
Let us not adopt more Protestantism and be led to believe the Church was invented in 1965 as some portray. It is the poison that has sickened us for 40 years. In 2000, you find out what works, we have the tools, we just need to get off our lazy butts and do it.
O Come, Holy Inquisition!
"There is no shortage of married men willing to serve the Church. There is, however, a shortage of celibate men willing to serve the Church.
What am I missing?"
The married men who are serving the Church need to get out there and recruit more celibate men to serve the Church.
Being a Deacon, a husband, a father, running a business, trying to put kids through education, and repaying a mortgage, can be a very good witness to single men as to why they shouldn't even think of attempting to combine marriage and priesthood - even if the Church were to allow it!
If one more parishioner writes to the bishop asking him why he can't ordain me as a priest I am going to start coating the hosts with chilli powder!!!
Widening the number of candidates from which to choose by ordaining married men would definitely improve the quality of priests.
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