Posted on 05/25/2005 10:35:49 PM PDT by sinkspur
THE leader of Scotland's Catholics has risked reigniting a row over married priests by predicting the Vatican will eventually relent and allow the practice.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said the success of married deacons in the church means the change is likely.
The church leader has upset traditional Catholics in the past with his views on celibacy, homosexuality and the priesthood.
His latest comments were made in an interview with the Catholic Times, which will be published on Sunday,
Asked if he believed married priests will become a reality, he said: "Having seen something of the apostolate of married deacons, I can foresee the day when there will be married priests."
The Cardinal has angered conservative Catholics in the past with his acceptance of gay priests, as long as they remained celibate.
However, since being elevated to the College of Cardinals he has espoused views more in line with Vatican teachings. Cardinal O'Brien's latest comments drew criticism from the right-wing Catholic Truth movement.
A spokesman for the group said: "He is trying to say that he is not necessarily personally in favour of this but we can debate it. It's a sleekit way of trying to have his cake and eat it."
However, a poll of 80 Catholic priests in Scotland conducted only last month suggested 40 per cent believed they should be allowed to marry, but the issue remains thorny to many conservative Catholics.
Cardinal O'Brien gained a reputation as a liberal after he said in 2002, before he became a cardinal, that he saw no end to theological argument against celibacy within the priesthood.
A day later he issued a joint statement with Mario Conti, the archbishop of Glasgow, in which the pair said: "While no-one would suggest clerical celibacy is an unchangeable discipline, we believe it has an enormous value."
The following year he risked angering conservatives again when he broached the subject of married priests.
He said in a thanksgiving mass that the church should have "at every level" a discussion about clerical celibacy.
He said the argument for married priests was supported by the case of married Anglican priests who have converted to Catholicism and been allowed to continue their ministries.
However, at the ecclesiastical senate in Rome in October 2003, he made a statement at the end of the Nicene Creed in which he affirmed support of the church's teachings on celibacy, contraception and homosexuality.
It was claimed at the time, but denied, that the added words were said under pressure from the Vatican.
Since then the Cardinal has been careful not to speak out on any of the issues that caused so much controversy.
A spokesman for the Church said today that the Cardinal's comments were not incompatible with his profession of faith in 2003.
He said: "It is a neutral comment on the issue, it is neither a ringing endorsement of the concept, neither is it an outright denunciation."
Agreed. But the error that one can fall into is to lose faith in the Sacraments as performed by these priests. My mother used to say that no matter how inane the priest's homily is, no matter how ugly the wreckovated church is, no matter how hypocritical you think the priest is, the Eucharist is still there!
Thank you, dear FRiend, thank you.
This ought to do it...
Now I am ROTFLMYKWO! Excellent, JP!
I'm still laughing at the "this ought to do it" post. That was classic!
Me too. BTW, y'all did GOOD today. I just finished reading the thread from where I left off.
That's her:
Our Lady of the Perpetually Big Guns
God forgive me for that one!
OF course you know, someday Jesus is going to ask you "what did you say about my momma"
Now I'm REALLY in trouble...
Now we know that you're the draw here! Oh popular one. LOL!
JP is awful and sometimes wicked, but I'm almost addicted to his humor...lol.
Incidentally, I think that Donatism is loosely related to Luther's apostacy in that it encourages clubby churches of the "saved" htat are at the same time frightened of the sacraments. But I don't see a straight link to the pederast priests scandal.
Me too!
Ohhhh...Pshaw!
I know you're smiling!
Yes, that makes a lot of sense. As for any connection to the pederast priest scandal, you're right it has no direct link. It's more of a personal thing. It's easy to become discouraged by this filth that seems to have infested even some of the highest levels of our Church leadership. People claim to have "lost their faith" over this. But how can one lose faith in the Sacraments?
No, really. I've very discriminating with my praise, but I believe in lavishing it where it's due. Please take a bow for Post #433!
[cyberbow]
I'm still laughing "this ought to do it.." LOL-LOL-LOL
I have studied too much history. Priests, Bishops and even popes have let people down by giving into sins of the flesh or sins of greed or whatever. This is just the latest round.
But Jesus still is in the tabernacles, the sacraments are still the sacraments, and the Eucharist is still something that should call us, feed us, and lead us to where God wants us to be.
And that is the good thing that gives me hope.
Scroll....same ol' same ol'
Scroll....ah yes
Scroll....yeah, yeah, yeah
Scroll...."TEXTBOOK projection case" LOL.
Thanks for providing the scroll payoff. :o)
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