Free Republic

Now for something completely non-political -- and really, quite inspiring. America is about to get another married priest, but one unlike any other. From the Louisville Courier-Journal: David Harris never considered his conversion to Catholicism six years ago to be a rejection of the Baptist faith that nourished him from childhood in Eastern Kentucky. But as a married man, Harris did think the switch meant he would leave one thing behind -- his status as an ordained minister. He was wrong. Early next month, he'll make history as the first married, former Baptist minister to become a Roman Catholic priest...

Pope Gives Key to Being Highly Effective Priests Says It's Essential to Define Priorities, Give Time to Prayer BRESSANONE, Italy, AUG. 21, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says the key for priests facing an ever increasing number of responsibilities is defining their priorities and sticking to them -- and making sure prayer is at the top of the list. The Pope affirmed this Aug. 6 when he met with priests, deacons and seminarians of the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone and answered in German six questions they asked him. The Holy Father was on vacation in the Dolomites, where he stayed at the...

Baptists: The Priesthood of The Believer or of Believers? "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." (I Peter 2:9) "Each believer is a priest, both before God for oneself and by caring for fellow believers and for persons in the world for whom Christ died." From We Baptists, James Leo Garrett Jr. (editor-in-chief) To say that a Baptist is a priest sounds strange to some persons. But we are. Every one of...

As a child, I heard the story of the restoration of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods this way:   In May of 1829 Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were praying in the woods about baptism and had John the Baptist appear to them, put his hands on their heads, and recite the following, currently found in D & C Section 13: Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the...

  The Restoration of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods By Historical records and the testimony of Joseph Smith’s associates tell the manner, order, and pattern of priesthood restoration and indicate that the time of the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood was probably within the 13-day period of 16 to 28 May 1829.Larry C. Porter, “The Restoration of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods,” Ensign, Dec. 1996, 30The growth of the Church in the latter days can be seen as a stone rolling forth “until it has filled the whole earth” (D&C 65:2). Even so, fundamental historical events of the decade...

Q. We were always taught that married men could not be ordained Catholic priests. How is it possible that we could have a married Catholic priest here in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee? A. Celibacy is a discipline of the Catholic Church practiced universally in the West. Although it is highly valued, Pope Paul VI states that celibacy "is not, of course, required by the nature of the priesthood itself. This is clear from the practice of the early church and the traditions of the Eastern rite churches." Much has been said about practical reasons for celibacy, such as giving the...

p>For the first time in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s history, a married Roman Catholic priest with children will be serving the faithful in southeastern Wisconsin. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan asked his priests and deacons this week which of them would be willing to accept the man - a former Lutheran minister - as an associate pastor at their parish. The priest and his wife, who have juvenile and adult sons, are moving from the Diocese of Venice, Fla. She has accepted a job here. Although no married priest has served here, about 100 married priests have been ordained in the...

A friend just phoned to tell me about a discussion on a "trad" forum.  I went there and read for a while. In this discussion some people were publicly bad mouthing priests who have been celebrating the TLM and denigrating their ministry.They claim these priests not Catholic enough, not fully or really Catholic.  Not Catholic like they are. Thus, they who have no authority in the Church, laymen who have no jurisdiction, no credentials other than that they are hobbyists of the older form of the Roman Rite (sincere as their devotion may be), they who have read some encyclicals...

Since his death on June 3, 1963, many biographies and studies of Pope John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli) have appeared. In the month of his death was the article of Roger Aubert, "Jean XXIII: Un 'pape de transition' qui marquera dans l'histoire". The same year, and revised in 1981, is Leone Algisi's John the Twenty-Third / Giovanni XXIII. In 1965 there appeared that of Edward Elton Young Hales, Pope John and His Revolution. In 1973 Pope John XXIII by Paul Johnson, and in 1979 Bernard R. Bonnot's Pope John XXIII: An Astute, Pastoral Leader. We are told the writer who had...

Monday, June 9, 2008 Americans need not, no, do not, apply. The news from Chicago reports the ordination by Cardinal George of eleven new priests for the Archdiocese, none of whom were born in this country. Fifty-one years ago, 45 new priests were ordained for the Archdiocese, virtually all of whom were natives of the Chicago area. One wag commented that “priesthood is a job Americans won’t do today.” Another replied, “Not true. Those who can’t make it in the competitive job market can become priests as late vocations and be secure for life, especially nice if they are gay“....

Vatican City, Jun 3, 2008 / 01:33 pm (CNA).- The secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Angelo Amato, said this week only men can be ordained to the priesthood because “the Catholic Church is not authorized to change the will of her founder, Jesus Christ.""Therefore," the archbishop continued, "in the participation in the life and mission of the Church, women cannot receive the sacrament of Holy Orders and therefore, they cannot carry out the functions proper to the ministerial priesthood.”In an interview with the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, regarding the recent decree by the CDF...

THE PRIESTHOOD DEBATE James AkinI. Opening RemarksWhen I was an Evangelical, I originally held the same view of the priesthood that my opponent does. I viewed it as a man-made institution which robbed the faithful of their place as God's priests. I even quoted the same verses that my opponent does—the ones about us being a "kingdom of priests" or a "royal priesthood," depending on the translation you are using.But over the course of time, I began to realize that merely quoting those verses did not settle the issue. The Bible has far more to say on the subject.An embarrassment...

Priesthood Commemoration Celebration Scheduled June 8 Genesis will not be held on the first Sunday of June, but all Genesis members are especially invited to join with other Latter-day Saints in a commemoration of the revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy males, which occurred on June 1, 1978, in the Salt Lake Temple. The revelation was ratified and announced on June 8, 1978. The celebration will be held on Sunday, June 8, at 7 p.m. in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. The doors will open at 6 p.m. Elder Sheldon F. Child of the Seventy will be the speaker...

Saturday, May 31, 2008 "He Called Them Forward" After Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles ordained the nation's largest priesthood class for the year -- 12 candidates for the nation's largest diocese -- earlier today in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, a friend in attendance sent the following brief: [Mahony] reminisced about the one thing the seminary never prepared him for all those years ago: that God is the God of surprises. He then reviewed his priestly life and spoke of each surprise and how God gave him just what he needed not only to endure but...

CNA).- Archbishop of St. Louis Raymond L. Burke will ordain nine men to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of St. Louis on Saturday at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. It is the largest ordination class for the archdiocese since 1987.Some credit Archbishop Burke for the boom in seminarians.  A frequent visitor to the seminary, the archbishop sometimes drops by unannounced for lunches with the students."He's the center and the core of this whole thing," archdiocesan vocations director Rev. Michael Butler said to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.Archbishop Burke explained that he decided vocations would be one of his priorities. ...

Vatican City, May 19, 2008 / 09:21 am (CNA).- Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has sent a letter to the bishops of the world with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI reaffirming the norms established by the Congregation for Catholic Education in the 2005 document, “Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocation with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders,” as universal and without exceptions.  In the brief “Rescriptum ex audientia” –a written response to various queries—Cardinal Bertone said the norms establishing the selection...

In May of 1994 John Paul II promulgated Ordinatio Sacerdotalis which declared definitely that the Catholic priesthood is reserved for males. That document nonetheless contained some language that was difficult to interpret. As a result, Cardinal Ratzinger made an official clarification (Responsum ad Dubium) in November of 1995, making it quite clear that the Church has taught infallibly on this matter. Hence, the question of the priesthood in its relation to sexuality - a question usually posed more simply as "Why can there not be women priests?" - has now been answered in a definitive way. There is no longer...

February 16, 2004 - Reported in Spirit Daily.com online newspaper. "In 1992 my life changed dramatically," says Father Donald Calloway. "I had a profound conversion experience after reaching rock bottom."Rock bottom indeed! Now a 31-year-old priest who serves as assistant rector at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Father Calloway had been a runaway youngster who was immersed in everything from drug abuse to theft."I had gone through all a boy could do up to the age of twenty," he says. "My mother had been married three times and we had no religion. The family...

When the Catholic Church's sexual-misconduct scandal became nationwide front-page news six years ago, the Rev. Philip Lee Erickson of the Archdiocese of Louisville was just 34. The young priest had just obtained the canon-law license that would let him function as a lawyer within the church's internal legal system when the cover-up of priestly sexual abuse in Boston and elsewhere, mostly against boys and young men, became widely reported in early 2002. "Newly ordained, as the saying goes, you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," Father Erickson told The Washington Times in a telephone interview.

Rio de Janeiro, 21 Feb.(AKI) - Brazilian priests have appealed to Pope Benedict XVI to change a church law that forces priests to remain celibate. According to media reports, a petition endorsed by 430 priests is to be sent to the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy requesting that the clergy have the right to choose celibacy or not. The document was approved at a national meeting of priests held in the monastery of Itaici in the state of Sao Paulo this week. The priests represent a total of 18,000 clergy across Brazil. The document outlines two options for priests -...

It’s Vocations Awareness Week Jan 13-19, and there is a lot of news on the vocations front. But the best news is old news: The seven sacraments are the original, and best, seven reasons to be a priest. But here are seven that incorporate recent news headlines about the priesthood.First: The World Needs HeroesThat’s the title of NYPriest.com’s new movie ad, and it makes the essential point. God has shown his love and respect for human beings by taking an incredible risk, putting the very future of his project of redemption into our hands. He has arranged things such that...

Women deacons at Bristol after their ordination in 1994 When the Rev Dr Jennifer Cooper was ordained at Bristol Cathedral a month ago, it was a moment of uncomplicated joy. "I was overwhelmed to be surrounded by so many people, sharing in this very powerful moment," she says. "I was finally going to fulfil my calling."On the surface, few ceremonies could offer more hope to a Church of England fighting for survival than an ordination. It is a sign of new life, at a time when Sunday attendance threatens to dip below a million. And, since the ordination of...

Editorial note: An organization called "Roman Catholic Womenpriests" announced, in a news release dated October 15, 2007, that it would be undertaking a ceremony on November 11, 2007, at the synagogue building of Central Reform Congregation, St. Louis, that would purport to ordain two women to the Roman Catholic priesthood. The following article serves to present briefly the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church regarding the ordained priesthood and who may be admitted to Holy Orders. The article is followed by links to some helpful supplemental resources, and a perspective on concerns regarding interfaith relationships arising from Central Reform Congregation's hosting of the November 11 event.It has been the universal and consistent practice...

"Hoc est corpus meum  ...Hic est enim sanguis meus""This IS my Body ... this IS my Blood"Saint Matthew 26.26-28 The human soul longs, craves for, blessing and forgiveness. The human heart longs to experience itself as dwelling in God's favour, being the recipient of the gift of His graces, but how often do we actually really reflect upon the beauty, the power, the mercy made manifest, freely offered to each and every one of us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation? How often do we reflect upon with gratitude those priests who have laid down their lives, to be ministers...

Send in the straightjackets - Newsweek has cracked up. Of all the stories in the entire world to cover, Newsweek's website is flagging as its "Top Story" an insane piece about a woman (complete with photo) who thinks she is an ordained Catholic priest. They found her in Missouri, though had Newsweek reporter Karen Springen walked into the nearest asylum, she would have found some who think they're the pope. Springen's discovery is Jessica Rowley. Jessica thinks she's a Catholic priest because some crackpot group said they ordained her. Springen, whose contempt for the Catholic Church is rivaled only by...

What You Need to Know: Celibacy Priestly celibacy is a Catholic tradition which dates back to St. Paul, and which is mirrored in the similar practice of persons both lay and religious who consecrate themselves to God. Celibacy, by which a person voluntarily foregoes marriage, is a sign of commitment—of living exclusively for the Other in the service of His people. The most succinct statement on celibacy we have comes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, where ecclesiastical celibacy is briefly described. The celibacy entry in our Catholic dictionary gives further background. The sexual revolution of the 1960's and...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A powerful sense of devotion overtook Michael Burbeck in a medieval church in the small Czech town of Cesky Krumlov. The way he describes it, he was praying in the lofty, 125-foot-high sanctuary of St. Vitus Roman Catholic Church, when he looked up at a life-size crucifix and was overwhelmed by a sense of peace and belonging. He realized he would commit the rest of his life to Jesus. "It was like the classic movie scene: Guy sees girl across the room, knows she's the one," Burbeck said. "I had this moment when I realized that (Jesus)...

Jason Cargo’s unorthodox route toward Catholic priesthood — which culminates in his ordination this Saturday at the Cathedral Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dallas — has led the Plano native on a less-traveled, but rewarding journey from Texas A&M University to the Vatican and back to Dallas again. Jason, a 32-year-old who graduated from Plano East High School in 1993, said being a priest wasn’t on his list of career options as a senior in high school. “The thought never crossed my mind,� Jason said. “When I was a child, I was always enchanted by the weather. When...

One of the Catholic clergy’s newest members, Michael Cassabon of Simpsonville, said he looks forward to serving joyfully, following the example of his parents, Michael and Mary Cassabon, as well as others such as Mother Teresa, who have given their lives in service to others. Cassabon, who was ordained July 27 in Columbia and celebrated his first mass July 29 at his home parish, St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Simpsonville, said he first felt the call to the priesthood during confession while he was a senior at St. Joseph’s High School. “It was in that sacrament that I really...

Metro Atlanta's Roman Catholic churches are keeping their pulpits filled better than many regions of the country.Across the nation there is a shortage of priests, but the Archdiocese of Atlanta's 95 churches and missions have 262 priests and more than 50 seminarians in training. RELATED: • More Atlanta news "We have one of the strongest vocational programs in the country," said Father Luke Ballman, the director of vocations.About 600 Serrans, lay Catholics dedicated to supporting and educating those choosing church vocations, are in Atlanta this weekend for a national conference.Serra clubs across the country raise money for scholarships, organize prayer...

You think you know what factors pose a barrier to religious vocations? Think again. A group met in Chicago last month to discuss an emerging and growing barrier to vocations — financial debt, particularly that acquired from student loans. The Chicago-based Institute on Religious Life organized — and the Arlington, Va.-based Fraser Family Foundation sponsored — a diverse gathering of grant-makers, college presidents and vocation directors at Marytown Feb. 20-22 to examine the growing problem. As most religious orders will not accept someone with debt, it places many vocations in jeopardy. Brother Matthew Ball of the Franciscans of the Immaculate...

St. John Mary Vianney was born in France in 1786. His childhood coincided with the terrible French revolution. He was devout even as a boy and quietly taught other children their prayers. He would be ordained a priest in 1815 but struggled mightily through seminary and was a poor student. He had a very difficult time with Latin. There was even talk among his superiors if he should be ordained or, if ordained, be allowed to hear confessions. They decided to ordain him but gave him one of the least desirable of assignments: to the little town of Ars. The...

“Is the candidate worthy?” intoned Bishop Patricia Fresen ceremonially, as lifelong Catholic Juanita Cordero stood before her in a pure white gown, about to be ordained as a priest. The question was asked three times during the ordination ceremony on Sunday, July 22, as one female priest and two female deacons were invested with the power to perform sacraments — a function forbidden to women under canon law. They are part of a movement from within the Roman Catholic Church that has been ordaining female priests since 2002, though those involved say that the tradition of women priests and...

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - Identical twins are among the newest priests in the Green Bay Catholic Diocese.Ben and Joel Sember were ordained yesterday along with Andrew Kyserly.James Sember, the twins' father, said he couldn't get them to apply any place else or do anything else.The twins will both serve in the Green Bay diocese, but say their ministries will be different.Joel Sember says that, although they have the same background and the same genes, they have different approach to things in general.His brother, Ben, says he hopes they don't ever get assigned to the same parish. He says it...

Saturday, June 30, 2007 A Modern Roman Rite Priest reports on Classical Roman Rite Training posted by Shawn Tribe [One of the Father's who visits the NLM recently attended the FSSP "boot camp" for priests wishing training from them as regards the classical Roman rite. The following is his report, both of what occurred and, even more interestingly, his personal experience. I've chosen to eliminate his name for the sake of anonymity. If he chooses to reveal himself in the comments, I shall leave that to him.] "I would characterize my experience as frankly stunning, and even life changing....

This is an article about a man who did not want me to write it. A few weeks ago, I gave a commencement speech at a Catholic elementary school. I received the invitation from a 13-year-old young lady, Elisabeth, who began listening to my radio show at 6-and-a-half years of age, who has now finished the eighth grade and prepares, next semester, to enter high school. Years ago, her mom wrote a letter to me. The mom drove the car one day with her daughter inside. The daughter's book about Helen Keller somehow flew out of the car window as...

CHICAGO - For more than a century, Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary has quietly prepared teenage boys for the priesthood, largely unchanged as the city transformed around it from gritty industrial center to gleaming modern metropolis. But another kind of change finally caught up with Quigley. The 102-year-old seminary _ housed in a Gothic-style building that looks like it belongs on a square in Europe instead of in a tony Chicago shopping district _ will close its doors for good in two weeks because of a shrinking student body that has seen just one graduate ordained in the last 17 years....

WASHINGTON — This year's new crop of Roman Catholic priests in the United States averages 35 years of age and includes a large number of foreign-born priests and men who entered the seminary with college degrees, a study shows.The survey, closely watched because of the country's well-documented priest shortage, was conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.Researchers gathered information from 282 seminarians, or about 60 percent of the 475 candidates for the priesthood in 2007.Although final numbers will not be available until next spring, a rise in...

Heidi Bratton  Other Articles by Heidi BrattonPrinter Friendly Version   The Adventure of the Priesthood May 20, 2007 This is the fifth column on Catholic vocations (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) and what parents can do to help children discern their vocation.  We continue this series on the role of family in the promotion of vocations by considering the priesthood.  Because the title "Father" is given to priests, we don't have to search too hard for a way to explain to our children the important role of priests within the Body of Christ or our Catholic...

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- It was during the chanting of the litany of saints -- 23 minutes of kneeling on the marble floor of St. Patrick's Cathedral -- when the Rev. Brendan Gormley asked God to help him and his sore knees make it through. "That's when I realized that's what the priesthood will be," the Grant City native and former marathon runner said afterward. "I'll be relying on God's grace." Father Gormley, 43, and the Rev. Kevin Malick, 27, formerly of New Springville, were among 14 men ordained by Cardinal Edward Egan yesterday morning. Seven priests were ordained for...

Brazil has the lowest proportion of priests to laity among all the world's Catholic nations, according to the Center for Religious Statistics and Social Testing in Rio de Janeiro. The Center found that in 2006, there were 18,685 Catholic priests in Brazil, serving a population of 140 million lay faithful. Thus the ratio of priests to lay Catholics was about 1 to 7,500. In Italy, by contrast, there is a priest for about every 1,000 lay Catholics. In order to reach that proportion, Brazil would need 140,000 priests. In other Latin American countries, the proportion is higher than in Europe,...

The nation's first openly gay governor has become an Episcopalian and been accepted into a seminary, according to a published report. Former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, was officially received into the Episcopal religion on Sunday at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York, said the Rev. Kevin Bean, vicar at the church. McGreevey has been accepted to study at the General Theological Seminary in New York, the oldest in the Episcopal Church, school spokesman Bruce Parker said Wednesday. Parker did not know whether the former governor wants to become a priest. ''Mr. McGreevey has...

PHILIPPINESFirst Mangyan priest ordained in the countrySantosh DigalA member of one of the oldest indigenous groupings in the country becomes a priest in a ceremony that draws thousands of faithful. The next day, the newly-ordained Father Oybad returned to his mountain community to celebrate. Calapan City (AsiaNews) – The first ethnic Magyan priest was ordained on April 17 in a ceremony that brought together many faithful. The new priest comes from one of the most ancient and least known indigenous groupings of the country.Although he had wanted a simple affair, Hanunuo Mangyan Gabayno Calinog Oybad’s entry into the priesthood was...

On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, the Pope ordained 22 deacons of the diocese of Rome to the priesthood at a Mass in St Peter's. The Rite of Priestly Ordination provides an optional homily that is often used, but it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that Benedict XVI laid it completely aside. The following is the Whispers translation of what he came up with. * * * Dear Brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood, dear Ordinandi, dear brothers and sisters! This Fourth Sunday of Easter, traditionally called "Good Shepherd," recalls for us, gathered here...

Seminary Applications Increase for 4th Straight Year LONDON, APRIL 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Catholic Church of England and Wales released statistics showing that the number of those entering seminary has increased for the fourth straight year. In 2003 the figure stood at 28; last year this had risen to 44, bringing the total number of men studying for the priesthood for the dioceses of England and Wales to 150. Father Paul Embery, director of the National Office for Vocations, welcomed the rise, but remained only cautiously optimistic. "After several decades of decline in the number of those training for the...

Mary Kochan  Other Articles by Mary KochanPrinter Friendly Version   The Indispensable Priesthood April 4, 2007 Today, Holy Thursday, we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist and the establishment of the priesthood.  Many people today question the necessity of the Catholic priesthood.  They may deny that it was established by Christ and claim that it is an innovation of the 2nd or 3rd or 4th century.  Or they may recognize its antiquity, but assert that it belongs to a less-enlightened age than ours.But the priesthood is an absolute necessity.  For one thing, the priesthood is necessary to the existence...

I donÂ’t want to beat this gay thing to death - though thatÂ’s certainly an idea - but I do want to complete my thoughts on the issue, the salient point of which is the in first of the March 30th posts: Why do priests from sea to sea preach about love and justice and peace and spew warm fuzzies without even a passing nod to the truth? For the same reason that the bishops of this country scrambled to proclaim with almost infallible certainty that homosexuality had nothing to do with the sex abuse crisis. ...an entire generation of...

3/30/07 - My favorite blogger (other than myself), Diogenes, over at Catholic World News, begins a recent musing with a thought by the Catholic novelist Evelyn Waugh: Evelyn Waugh once complained that his generation, in its youth, was fed an illusory image of romantic love by the fashionable novelists of the time. Themselves homosexual (Waugh was thinking of Ronald Firbank, E.M. Forster, Marcel Proust, among others) they used heterosexual couples to portray essentially homosexual courtship, with the upshot that neither male nor female was drawn with accuracy. It's an important observation which, to my non-PC, homophobic mind explains pretty much...

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is an article written by Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, on "The Importance of Priestly Celibacy." It was published in the Italian edition of L'Osservatore Romano. * * * At the beginning of the 40th anniversary of the publication of the Encyclical "Sacerdotalis Caelibatus" of His Holiness Paul VI, the Congregation for the Clergy deems it opportune to recall the magisterial teaching of this important papal document. Indeed, priestly celibacy is Christ's precious gift to his Church, a gift one needs to meditate on anew and to strengthen, especially...

Part of the background to a puff piece on the ordination of a married Anglican convert for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles: In the 12th century, when the Catholic Church adopted a celibacy requirement, it was as much about protecting property as it was committing priestly intimacy to God, said the Rev. Thomas Rausch, a Jesuit professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University. "The church was worried about church property going to the descendents of priests," he said. Historically accurate? Somehow I doubt it's the whole story. Note the topspin on the shot: the insinuation that the spiritual reasons for...