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I have long maintained that this phenomenon feeds the vocation crisis by dissociating priesthood from Communion.

If he thinks that doing away with Eucharistic Ministers is going to spur a rush of new applications to the seminaries, he's smoking something. And it ain't Pall Malls.

The choices are clear. We are either going to have more involvement by laypeople at all levels and in all functions. Or accept married and women priests. Or not have a Church at all.

But what DOES spur a rush of new applications to the seminaries? I mean, look at the evidence, the actual track record.

As I understand it, for instance, in Fr. George Rutler's one parish in NYC, where everything was priestly, traditional, and beautiful, where they had male altar servers and Communion was distributed by priests and deacons only, their membership doubled or tripled and they had 12 vocations to the priesthood over the course of his pastorship. From one parish. That's more than some whole "feminist modernist" dioceses.

Look at any diocese and look where the actual vocations come from.(I mean the home-grown vocations, not necessarily the imported clergy from Nigeria, Colombia or the Philippines.) As a rule, they come from only a handful of parishes. The ones which most emphasize the traditions, and the role of the priest.

We've weathered storms before, and we're still around... I think that we ourselves, and our shepherds, too, often lack faith. Think of Abraham. God told him all that wonderful news, he and Sarah tried to have a baby, but no pregnancy. Instead of trusting God to keep His Word, well, enter Hagar and Ishmael. God, of course kept His promise, and Isaac came along eventually.

My point: things can look pretty bleak sometimes, but we still have Jesus' Promise that the gates of hell shall never prevail against us. We need to have faith, not compromise. There has already been too much of that, in the name of (unappreciated) ecumenism, when we should have remained steadfast. All it takes is two gathered in His Name. Jesus promised He would remain with us even unto the end of time- and if there is but one Particle of the Consecrated Jesus in the whole world, then He is indeed still with us- Body, Precious Blood, Soul, and Divinity! Be strong, and of good courage! God will never abandon us!

G-d ♡ bless you!
Grateful ✟ ✡

We are either going to have more involvement by laypeople at all levels and in all functions. Or accept married and women priests. Or not have a Church at all.

Baloney. Just look at the overflowing seminaries among traditional Catholic orders. I belong to a parish that has had four priests (more priests than scheduled Sunday Masses) for most of the time since it became a Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) apostolate in 2001. There are a lot of respectable Catholic men out there who have a vocation to the priesthood but couldn't be bothered with it if they end up functioning like some guy in a local bridge club.

There will never be female priests.

Just abandon the idea right now and save yourself a lot of time and energy. It cannot happen. It is impossible. A female cannot be a priest, any more than Bruce Jenner can be a woman.

If America, or the entire West, has lost the Faith, then the Church will die in the West. Jesus never said his Church would last forever in any particular place.

You will not save the Church in America or Western Europe or South America by campaigning for something that is a metaphysical impossibility, a “female priest.”