Posted on 08/13/2016 11:20:54 AM PDT by marshmallow
In response to acute priest shortages around the world, Pope Francis may well decide that his next Synod of Bishops should focus on ministry -- including the question of whether married men could be ordained to celebrate the sacraments, in effect creating a parallel priesthood.
After the bruising but fruitful experience of the synod on the family, one thing is clear: Francis has created an instrument of discernment that is capable of wrestling with big issues in the contemporary Church.
The reformed synod - a global consultation, followed by two assemblies separated by a year, concluding in a major papal teaching document that resets pastoral strategy for the next generation - means that big topics can no longer be kicked into the long grass on the basis that they are just too big to deal with.
If a vast topic such as the Church’s preparation for marriage and its handling of divorcés can be discussed, it means other burning issues can be too. And top of that list are questions about ministry: access to the sacraments, the role of women and lay people, as well as the role of deacons.
Some are saying that pastoral ministries will the topic for the next synod, likely to be scheduled for 2018-19.
No one doubts the question is an urgent one. More than half of the Catholic Church’s communities worldwide have no resident priest.
The diocese of Xingú in the Brazilian region of Pará, for example, has 800 parishes or missions in a territory the size of Germany, but just 27 priests, meaning that more than two-thirds of the faithful take part in Sunday Mass just two or three times a year.
Xingú may be extreme, but across the developing world, in both rural areas and the cities, priest-to-people ratios are far lower than.....
(Excerpt) Read more at cruxnow.com ...
Deus adiuva nos omnes.
An idea whose time came a long time ago.
A whole new class of males for priests to exploit: Married males (The most sex-starved animal on the planet is the married American male.)
If you want to know God’s opinion on this, do a bibliographic search on the word “abomination”. It’s not used in the Bible very often, but when it is; it usually deals with what God thinks about topics that really irk Him.
So, if your Church is OK with homosexuality; perhaps it is time to find a new church. May I suggest one of the few that still shun this practice.
It won’t work because the Worldwide Church of OmniPerpetuoCopulationism has to totally hammer any Christ like distinctiveness out of Christianity, this is just a temporary step, when as Joseph Ratzinger predicted we will be going to church in bombed out basements or caves with priests we were hiding, these new Pope Francis priests will either come with us or with the new worldwide Church of OmniPerpetuoCopulationism.
A whole new class of males for priests to exploit: Married males (The most sex-starved animal on the planet is the married American male.)
Interesting point. Theoretically married men have access to complete sexual gratification with their wives, which theoretically could involve nightly sexual relations.
But then, I’ve also heard that the biggest group of customers of prostitutes are married men, which also would seem counter intuitive. Go figure.
For whatever reason, there has developed a confusion between men who forego sex with women as a sacrifice to the Lord and man who have no desire to have sex with women, and the price to the Church and to the faithful has been extreme.
There are already married men who are ordained and perform sacraments, aren’t there? I know 2 married men in the same church who are ordained deacons, they perform as priests.
Is this an anomaly?
There are already married priests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoral_Provision#Married_priests
And also among Eastern rite Catholics
The Eastern Orthodox Church has married priests as do most Protestant denominations. I don’t consider them to be any less Christian or less faithful to Jesus than the Roman Catholics.
There is often confusion on the part of the lay faithful about the office of permanent deacon.
Permanent deacons are ordained to the ministry of service but not that of priesthood.
Since only priests offer sacrifice, deacons cannot celebrate Mass and since only priests act in the Person of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, deacons cannot hear confession or administer the sacrament of the sick.
Deacons can administer sacraments such as Matrimony or Baptism ... matrimony since the ministers of that sacrament are the husband and wife with the deacon witnessing for the Church ... Baptism because anyone, in an emergency, can administer Baptism (although the ordinary ministers of baptism are priests and deacons).
So, while deacons have certain liturgical roles, they do not act as priests.
The priesthood has been deconstructed along with the Faith. Hence all these misguided options (married priests, female deacons, acceptance of homosexuality in male and female religious, laity as ‘ministers’) flow from a secularized view of Church as human organization to be “run” by modern principles of organizational management:
Vocations are “down” so let’s broaden our recruiting efforts? That’s fine if the Church is seeking merely community organizers and social workers. The priesthood has been re-defined per statistics and practical matters which ignore its divine (sacramental) aspect.
That is a short-term and cowardly view which desperately flees the obvious question: WHY are vocations down? Why are those now entering the priesthood almost invariably second-rate men of shallow character and simplistic intellects? Why are 35% of diocesan priests gay and 50% of religious priests gay? How has that altered the pastoral aspect of the faith over 40 years?
What makes us suppose that married priests (or female deacons) would improve the priesthood, except by numbers alone? Could the spiritual and pastoral mission actually decline? Are the faithful in need of MORE priests... or BETTER priests? Does the Church lack quantity because it lacks quality? Will married priests simply add another class of mediocrity to the current clerical crisis?
What about the historical fact that more people than ever have regular access to a parish and their own priest? Think of virtually the entire planet a few hundred years ago, including the USA. People might have seen a priest once every 3 or 6 months or a year. Only in “old Europe” was the Church part of every day life.
What motivates a man to become a priest in the 21st century? Or, has the 21st century, with its brutish vulgarity and vapid self-indulgence, made it impossible for a man to hear a true calling?
Is a protestantized, ecumenical, politicized and feminized Church ever going to have a robust, thriving priesthood that leads and sanctifies? Or is that now an irrelevant goal? So we will compromise the priesthood - founded by Christ - for one that does not require Aquinas or philosophy or personal holiness, but is big on preaching, psychotherapy and being a nice guy?
Who said the Church is OK with homosexuality?
There are already several married Roman Catholic priests in this diocese. But the local bishop has also ordained almost as many permanent deacons as he has priests which has really taken the pressure off.
They only things the deacons can’t do is 1) hear confessions and 2) consecrate the elements (although they can conduct Mass and distribute the elements previously consecrated by a priest).
Married priests can never become bishops & if widowed, cannot remarry.
Well, unmarried priests was not a requirement for the first 1,000 years of the church...
Perhaps in the East but not in the West. The idea that the celibate priesthood was an invention of the Middle Ages is a myth. As a discipline of the Church in the West it goes back to the earliest times.
According to English historians, English priests continued to have wives and even concubines in the 900’s and 1000’s.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.