Posted on 08/02/2004 8:21:41 AM PDT by CatherineSiena
Edited on 08/02/2004 12:08:38 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
It's hard to miss Father Marcos Gonzalez, who wears an ankle-length black cassock every day, a garment most priests tossed out decades ago. But it's not just his clothes that bespeak an older, more traditional era of his Roman Catholic Church.
When some priests spoke in favor of optional celibacy at a Los Angeles priest assembly last year — a position supported by most American Catholics today — Gonzalez booed in dissent. In premarital counseling, he tells couples to remain chaste until marriage, plunging into delicate territory some priests prefer to avoid. Gonzalez also believes artificial birth control and gay sex are always a sin and opposes women's ordination.
Such stances conform with Vatican teachings, he says, but are at odds with many American priests and lay people.
Yet Gonzalez, an associate pastor at St. Andrew Church in Pasadena, is hardly a relic from a fading past. At 41, he offers one glimpse of the future as a member of a new breed of younger priests ordained during the 25-year papacy of Pope John Paul II and passionately committed to the pope's orthodox teachings.
As the health of John Paul — now 84 and the third-longest serving pontiff in history — continues to falter, men like Gonzalez stand ready to guard and propagate his legacy. They represent a global trend toward Christian orthodoxy, in contrast to a generation of more liberal priests ordained during the 1960s reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
"We are very, very faithful to the Holy Father and not in any way dissenting from the teachings of the church," Gonzalez says of like-minded colleagues.
The emergence of these young conservatives has set off a flurry of studies, books and debate about what effect they will have on the nation's 62 million Roman Catholics, its largest religious denomination.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"They aim for nothing less than to reshape the face of the American Catholic priesthood."
The same could be said about the SSPX - except they're less liberal than Pope John Paul 2 - and are reshaping not only the American priesthood, but every other continent as well.
As to Gonzalez, I notice he's a priest in Los Angeles.
Ordained by that mean old lefty, Roger Mahoney.
**When some priests spoke in favor of optional celibacy at a Los Angeles priest assembly last year — a position supported by most American Catholics today — Gonzalez booed in dissent.**
This man is a tall man in my mind! Think of it -- in Los Angeles!
Will it be OK with you if I add the words Catholic List to the keywords?
That is the new way that FR is tracking articles now...........always needs to be included on any Catholic Article!
Thanks for the article- Wonderful- I am looking forward to the next generation of Bishops and Cardinals.
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Catholic Discussion Ping List.
**I am looking forward to the next generation of Bishops and Cardinals.**
I'll second that idea!
I think the
Catholics-In-Name-Only
should be known as
"catholics Without Borders"
due to
the seemingly limitless girth
of the aging boomer membership,
and to their
"no bondaries" attitude
regarding doctrine.
ARTICLE: "...however, the "John Paul priests" are less supportive than older colleagues of optional celibacy, women priests, the democratic elections of bishops and greater lay leadership."
IN PLAIN ENGLISH: these priests are not heretics
Sounds great, and I can cheer this priest and those like him! Wish there were more of them and that they were further up in the hierarchy!
If a priest is a "meanie" for denying Our Lord's Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, to a unrepetent public sinner of ANY sort, then we need more "meanies!"
Indeed we need more of these priests, and will have many more of them in the future soon, as the liberals die off. The problem these younger ones have now is that of having to skirt the liberal superior they deal with, in order to properly say mass, teach the faith, etc. They have a valiant struggle.
"The problem these younger ones have now is that of having to skirt the liberal superior they deal with, in order to properly say mass, teach the faith, etc. They have a valiant struggle."
Sadly, you are correct. Fr. Stravinskas had an editorial in one of his last issues of "The Catholic Answer" chronicling just this fact. Some of these young men are LEAVING the priesthood after five years or so because of the Fr. Groovies and Sister Issues they have to deal with.
Sad.
And more to come!
Cardinal Arinze - "Youth will embrace religious life with right role models"
Today's seminarians reflect growing trend
Number of Seminarians Increases - Please Decipher This!!!!
In Seminaries, New Ways for a New Generation
Seminary Springtime: Father Darrin Connall s Big Success
EVIDENCE GROWS OF DIRECT DISOBEDIENCE TO VATICAN IN MAJOR AMERICAN SEMINARIES
Pope to Church: Risky Seminarians Must Go
U.S. Priests and seminarians survey: more vocations in orthodox dioceses
Vatican Announces Surge in Seminaries during JPII Pontificate
Seminary Reform Needed in Wake of Sex Abuse Study ["the crisis in the Church is ... homosexuality"]
Homosexuals in seminaries? The latest.....
Bishop urges gay ban in clergy; presses for overhaul in screening priests
I have repeatedly heard on EWTN, similar stories from young men who were "called" to the priesthood during the pope's visit to Denver.
God has carefully watched over, nurtured and fed this new crop of priests. To Him be the glory now and forever, Amen!
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