Posted on 01/16/2017 5:04:25 AM PST by BlessedBeGod
In an open letter on the state of the church and priestly ministry in Germany, a group of 11 German priests from the Cologne archdiocese have urged the church to open the priesthood to both men and women and to make priestly celibacy voluntary.
They underline seven essential points for the future of the church, including the following:
The priests also criticized the clustering of parishes. They said that parish clusters are an "imposition" as they further the anonymization and isolation that is already taking place in society. Parish priests and their helpers must be available locally and not in some "distant center," the priests said. They should be "where the church spire is and the bells ring."
"For us — and for many others — these questions are burning issues and we know that that they are also a great source of worry for Pope Francis and [Cologne] Cardinal [Rainer] Woelki," Msgr. Wolfgang Bretschneider, one of the 11 priests, told domradio.de, the Cologne archdiocese's internet portal.
The 11 priests, who were all ordained in 1967 shortly after the Second Vatican Council, have met once a month since then, have gone on retreats and undertaken trips at home and abroad together, Bretschneider said. On the 50th anniversary of their ordination, they looked back on all they had experienced in the church and decided to publicize their views in the form of an open letter about the burning issues in today's church.
Asked what he and his fellow priests hope for as far as women's ordination, Bretschneider replied, "We hope that the issue will not be shelved. There was a time when one could not even discuss women's ordination openly. A great deal has become possible under Pope Francis, however. We are fully conscious of the fact that this issue cannot be decided overnight. There is the world church to consider and the danger of a schism. ... But increasing awareness and continually putting a finger on a problem can lead to a change of opinion over the years and to a possible solution."
One can do the statistical numbers and figure in about 150 years....there might be at best twenty priests left in Germany. So, the church can evolve or go the way of the dinosaurs.
The next outrage may be abrogating Summorum Pontificum.
Note to priests: this has been done, it’s called protestantism.
Perhaps this group of 11 German priests from the Cologne archdiocese can choose a Protestant denomination that already has an open priesthood and voluntary celibacy, and join it instead of contaminating their own Catholic faith.
“A great deal has become possible under Pope Francis...”
Yes, a great deal of damage can be done when you have a heretic running things.
The destruction of the Catholic Church proceeds exponentially.
Women priests? Not a good idea. Not because Jesus chose men to be his apostles. Because leadership is more appropriate for men than women. True in the early years of the Church, true now.
Yes to dropping celibacy, that was post schism addition to the Roman church.
Heck no to woman priests, that would be heracy, the highest level of ordination for women that is not is a deaconess.
My understanding is that in the past there were deacon Estes, but that they were not ordained ministers.
Deacon Estes = deaconesses , even spell check thinks we shouldn’t have them :).
Good grief! Prayers up for Holy Mother Church.
My open letter to German priests is simple - STFU.
+1
Well, when you don’t respect God’s authority and power enough to listen carefully and humbly to His message to mankind, anything goes.
Just like readmitting divorced and remarried to the Eucharist, this IS going to happen.
It is all being driven by numbers on spreadsheets.
Mass attendance and financial contributions are down 50% in 15 years in just my one Diocese. I don’t imagine it’s much different elsewhere on the planet.
There are too few Priests to serve the number of Catholics, and their numbers are plummeting. Brazil has 1800 Priests to serve over 100 million Catholics. Not enough to effectively minister to all of them, so many are leaving to join Evangelical churches.
As do the divorced. And when they get there they TITHE.
These decisions have already been taken and WILL be implemented. For those who object, schism will be the only option.
These douchebags need to become Protestants.
Martin is a sort of enigmatic figure and I'm still unsure what I make of him. But every time I've heard him speak I've heard nothing but solid, traditional Church teaching. He was a biblical scholar of the first rank-- educated at Louvain, Rome, Oxford, Hebrew Univ-- and did field work in caves of Israel and the Middle East and was involved in the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. After leaving the Jesuits, because he felt that they abandoned traditional Catholic teaching, Martin went to New York with nothing in his pocket and cleaned dishes and drove a taxi to survive. He earned a lot of success from the books he wrote and spent the last 30 years of his life involved in exorcisms and educating people about the real danger of the devil in this world and importance of weapons at our disposal (the Sacraments, the Rosary, prayer, and the other tools given to us).
They obviously ignored what happened to the English Anglican church after doing that.
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