Posted on 05/11/2012 10:30:14 AM PDT by Steelfish
Married Priests? Ireland's Clergy Crisis Sparks Calls for Radical Reform By Annabel Roberts
LONDON -- A Roman Catholic Church with women cardinals? And priests who are not celibate?
That is the controversial hope of a group of priests who claim to represent the majority of Irish Catholics.
More than 1,000 lay church-goers and priests attended a meeting in Dublin this week to discuss these ideas and others they believe are essential to the survival of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
'A mere trickle' Their over-riding concern is, given the average age of priests in Ireland is 64, that in just 20 years there will not be enough priests to serve the country's congregations.
"The flood of men that used to come forward for the vocation of priesthood is today a mere trickle," Father Brendan Hoban of the Association of Catholic Priests, told NBC News. "If there are no priests, there will be no Eucharist, no Mass. We want to know what is Plan B."
The facts demonstrate that Hoban's concern is justified: 20 years ago there were 10 seminaries in Ireland training priests. Today there is only one, with about 65 residential students.
The group's bleak prediction is that, without reform, the Irish Catholic Church will virtually disappear within the next two decades. The organization currently has more than 850 members, representing about one-third of all active priests in Ireland.
Why are so few men coming forward for the priesthood?
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnews.msnbc.msn.com ...
One day the College of Cardinals will meet, do a 180 and reverse themselves on the issue of married clergy.
This will happen the day after global net totals in the collection baskets start falling.
You can report me to the Inquisition now.
In the States the radical homo/Leftist seminaries drove away good men.
Perhaps a more moderate change might be appropriate: Permitting men who are married to become priests. This is the practice in the Eastern Orthodox churches. Notice particularly that the marriage must come BEFORE the ordination; that is, those who are unmarried at ordination must remain unmarried, and married priests whose wife passes away may not remarry.
It is also the practice in the Eastern Catholic Churchs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Catholic_Churches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_celibacy_%28Catholic_Church%29#Eastern_Catholic_Churches
The College of Cardinals do not in and of themselves determine Church discipline.
Having said that, if ordaining married men; which is already the norm in 21 of the 22 Churches sui juris which comprise the Catholic Church, were the panecea that so many claim it would be, then why do all 21 of those Churches have a shortage of Priests?
“We want to know what is Plan B.”
Importing priests from abroad, twit.
The Irish missionaries evangelized Biafra, so maybe it’s time for Biafran priests to come back and re evangelize Ireland...
the Catholic church has married men becoming priests: No, not just Anglican priests who join, but in the eastern Catholic churches.
What the PC doesn’t mention is that the eastern churches let married men to become priests, but do not allow priests to get married.
And no,I'm no progressive heretic.
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