Posted on 04/13/2005 8:24:06 AM PDT by marshmallow
A generation of seminarians expects to continue a conservative approach that was the signature of late pope
ROME - Just as Karol Wojtyla came to Rome to study before taking up a post in his first parish in Poland, so thousands of hand-picked young seminary students and priests from all over the world come to Rome to continue their theological educations.
They are the elite. They may not become pope, as Wojtyla did in 1978, but many will likely go on to become bishops and cardinals, as the schools' graduates have in the past.
And if the graduates stick with their current convictions, the future Roman Catholic Church will likely be as conservative as it has become under John Paul II. This generation of young men is part of his legacy. They are his spiritual and philosophical sons and disciples, and with many, even the introduction into conversation of some of the issues raised by reformist members of the church produce unease sometimes bordering on hostility.
One young deacon, from Ireland, forcefully told a reporter that he didn't think an interview should focus any longer on the issue of condoms and HIV. At another point he demanded that a reporter read back from his notes the deacon's comments about why women should not be ordained as priests.
In interviews with students from Argentina, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Angola, Ireland and Sudan over the past few days, eight young men in four colleges spoke almost as one about key topics they will face in their careers: the future direction of the church, the kind of man they would like to see elected pope, and the controversial topics of sexuality, personal morality and the role of women in the church that have many Catholics concerned that traditional stances will alienate existing and potential Catholics.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Right on, deacon!
Can we now begin to question reporters' obsession with making anal sex 'safe'? What's up with that? Is that all you think about? It's never gonna happen, reporter dude!
What person in their right mind imagines that HIV victims were obedient on condoms but not disordered sexual relations? Completely insane!
"I heard with my own ears someone say the pope was a thief because he didn't fight AIDS," Dobos said. "But if everyone lived the way a Catholic should live, there would be no AIDS."
A good example of today's young priests are on EWTN everyday.
A Roman Catholic seminary is the only institution in the world that can take in a man and turn out a boy.
Pastoral experience will change these young priests. They will also be serving under pastors who are tempered by life, and human encounters.
Maybe the delivery, but hopefully not the message. Bending the Truth to meet "realities of the world" is one of the reasons we have so many problems today.
The essence of the Christian message has to be presented in a way that ears will hear.
The model here is John Paul II, right?
The article is pointing out that these young men are inspired by him and seek to model themselves after his example.
We don't want pastoral experience to change that, do we?
The late Pope showed us that piety and contemplation are compatible with pastoral zeal. The whining of the seminary faculty is essentially the "Martha" complaint of the gospels. They seem convinced that too much prayer and communion with God will ruin these young men.
It is they who are out of step.
Pastoral experience and prayer will temper the dogmatism and infuse it with the sensitivity that JPII exhibited in his writings.
I had lunch with a nun about a month ago from a local parish. Her general comment, when we were talking about the young priest who joined her parish last summer was,
"These new priests coming out of the seminaries are 'so conservative, just so conservative!' Even some of the other priests are complaining about them."
It took all I had not to spew my ice tea and howl with laughter.
It was then, I knew that this was good news.
Sounds wonderful to me!
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Can we borrow him for a few years?
I was really struck at Anna Quindlen's editorial in Newsweek this week. She makes it clear she is catholic, and then finishes up her article on Pope John Paul II like this:
"When the pope appeared to be channeling Leviticus, standing for orthodoxy simply for orthodoxy's sake, he appeared less like a spiritual leader and more like an ecclesiastical politician. seeing only the trees and not the forest."
She admires him for being a good man, but chastises him for not being in the current thought of liberal philosphies.
Quindlen continues to get wrong. (She also exclaimed a few weeks ago, during the debate over Terri Shindler Shiavo, that there is no such thing as a culture of life.) These "Catholics" don't seem to want to conform to the teachings of the Catholic faith. We need to continue with the education of our faith, with men who are going to remain faithful to the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Keep those seminarians coming.
One of Justice Scalia's sons is a young parish priest in the Arlington diocese, as well. i am kinda betting he is conservative ; )
This is good news, my friends.
Loverde squashed the supply, but the priests that made it through the system before he (fully) took over are excellent. Also shows that orthodoxy (Keating) begets vocations, squishyness and modernism (Loverde) do not.
I pray the next Pope will continue his legacy. This is one of the things about the Church people tend to forget. The 2,000 year old Church reacts slowly because it thinks in terms of generations. A corporate CEO would have responded in Trump-like manner ("You're fired!") to the recent scandals. The Church, it appears, has decided to let the liberal priests and bishops die-off and have more conservative priests in training to replace them. Not the immediate response people want, but a long-term solution nonetheless.
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