Like us, the sacraments are sexual, filled with the exhilarating creative energy that brings and enlarges life that touches, now softly and now transcendentally, the strings of every human sensation. Should we be surprised at the passions put to use in God’s giving himself for us in the sacraments, would we be dismayed -- although neither John of the Cross nor Teresa of Avila -- were, at the ecstasy, at least partly sexual, that exploded out of their wholehearted surrender of themselves to God or in his response to them? We humans are never moved thoroughly without, even outside our awareness, being moved sexually. We can never create anything without engaging our sexuality in the process. We, and the sacraments, in the curious but commonplace harmony of all things human -- more often like the disjointed everydayness of Charles Ives than the melodic high tides of Ludwig van Beethoven -- are thoroughly spiritual as well.This rather lengthy rant basically says that the author loves the Eucharist so much that he wants anybody to be ordained a priest (not just celibate males) so that he can go to daily Mass.
I think, this dude is not telling the whole truth. I doubt he cares about daily Mass.
The tag, “Vatican III,” is purely utilitarian. Obviously the sessions ought to be held in cities large and small throughout the developing world, with perhaps the final session held in Rome. This council, realistically, ought to be Haiti I, or Calcutta I, or Benin City I or World Church I.There are many, many more NCR-style "nuggets" in there. Click the link and look for yourself, if interested :)
Preamble
The editors undertook this project because we believed there was a compelling need to gather the people of God around their shared views as we look to the future. With the clergy culture and hierarchy in disarray, there is a growing yearning for shared leadership and vision.
It became evident as the e-mails began to arrive that the respondents see a Catholic church straining to move away from its Western and Eurocentric model to a regional and inculturated local church with collegial connections to the center. This is in the face of the current Rome-based Vatican leadership’s determination to retain its 19th-century European structures and models of church.
What impressed us in this Blueprint project was the range of responses to the editors’ request. The volume of returns from the worldwide church was reassuring -- some 60-plus from an estimated 300 people contacted. The respondents were in thirds -- about one-third women religious, one-third laity and one-third priests. There was at least one cardinal, and at least three bishops.
About 40 percent of the respondents seemed to be Americans, most either in developing countries or returned from mission work there. Critics might contend that the issues raised in the Blueprint are foregone conclusions, given who asked the question. That is a little simplistic if they do.
Man-made rules can be changed. We immediately need a married clergy to make the Eucharist available to everyone, to help make priests more human in how they relate with people, to make a more horizontal and less hierarchical church, to make a greater understanding of women and elimination of discriminatory practices and attitudes, and to eliminate unnecessary conflict in those who want to be priests, to eventually open the doors to women priests.
I would like to see a discipleship of equals. The issue goes to the heart of the patriarchal and hierarchical structure of the church and the false holding of one person above another. It means opening all church offices to women. It means shifting the weight of power away from Rome and church pulpits to the people of God. It means getting rid of all parent-child terminology like “Father” (Holy and otherwise), and attendant behaviors.
Council Preparations
It is vital to the respondents that the laity has an equal presence, voice and vote with the hierarchy at the council on the reforms and direction of the church. One cardinal from the developing world suggested all religions be invited to the council, “and with the right to vote.” Another writer suggested the council should be planned jointly with the World Council of Churches and have all Christian denominations represented. Writers felt keenly the isolation of Catholic Christians from the community of faiths worldwide. With no sense of sacrificing what is unique to Catholicism, many decried the lost opportunity to grow with, as we learn from, other Christians and other believers in the world religions.