Posted on 01/25/2005 5:56:05 AM PST by Catholic54321
Australian Catholic priests are urging Rome to overturn its ban on married clergy as the church grapples with a chronic shortage of ordained priests.
The unprecedented submission to the Vatican directly challenges the obligation of celibacy, a prerequisite of the Catholic priesthood, and has reignited a debate within the church that has been simmering since the Middle Ages.
The National Council of Priests wrote to the Vatican's Synod of Bishops last month arguing that marriage should be no bar to ordination and asking the church to consider readmitting priests who had left the clergy to marry.
It also asked the church to extend the right held by thousands of married clergy who converted to Catholicism from other faiths to practise as priests to other married men.
About half of Australia's 1649 Catholic clergy, including 42 bishops and three cardinals, are members of the National Council of Priests, including the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell
The council's chairman, Father Hal Ranger, said the changes were necessary to ensure Catholics had continued access to the sacraments. Vast distances and cultural or lifestyle factors, combined with decreasing priest numbers, meant the opportunity for some Catholics to celebrate the eucharist was "drastically limited". It was important to take decisive action so that Sunday mass and celebration of the sacraments was reasonably available.
"We request that ... the Synod Fathers examine honestly the appropriateness of insisting upon a priesthood that is, with very few exceptions, obliged to be celibate. Priesthood is a gift, celibacy is a gift: they are not the same gift," said the statement, which was written in response to a discussion paper on the place of the Eucharist in Catholic life.
Father Ranger said Australian priests were loyal to Catholic traditions and adverse to liturgical abuse but "we are scandalised when the gnat of abuse is so carefully strained out while the camel of dying communities is being swallowed".
Last month the Sydney Catholic Diocese announced plans to "twin" more than 50 local parishes to overcome falling priest numbers. It came as a survey of more than 300 Australian priests presented to Catholic bishops showed little support for mandatory celibacy and linked celibacy with thoughts of resignation.
A Melbourne priest and statistician has warned that the Catholic Church in NSW faces a dire shortage of priests in the next 20 years as its clergy ages, retires or dies. Father Eric Hodgens predicted the church would have fewer than one-sixth the number needed to conduct Sunday Mass.
Celibacy was the single biggest obstacle to the priesthood, he said, but while admitting married men would make a difference to recruitment numbers it was not the only answer. "The package at the moment is male, full-time, life-long and celibate and I would think that whole package is difficult for most people to embrace," Father Hodgens said.
Cardinal Pell yesterday declined to say where he stood on the issue of celibacy, only that he agreed with much of what had been written by the council, but not all.
"Reflections on the lineamenta [discussion paper] are offered by the executive of the NCP as 'indications of the thinking of many Australian Catholic priests'.
"As a member of the NCP, I would agree with much of what they have written, but not all of it. There are many rooms in the Father's house," he said.
Wrong answer! Liberal dioceses have the least vocations; orthodox dioceses have the most.
But they never suggest fidelity to the Church's teaching as a solution, do they?
The beat goes on.........
The lack of a condemnation of this letter from Cardinal Pell is very telling.
Yawn... You might think the traddies have one issue, but you are really a one-issue pony, aren't you?
Yawn...
This is something that really makes no sense. Priests who are not married are giving marital and other family oriented advice to those that are? Yet, in other christian religions their church leaders do marry but still serve God as members of their community.
Just a question but you think that marriage might cut down on the bullsh*t that goes on in the church?
Yes. I am concerned about the dwindling number of priests. You should be, too.
This is something that was caused by the liberals and modernists of the past 40 years. They mentored no one because they were too busy fulfilling their sordid sexual desires with the boys they should have been mentoring. I have been "concerned about this" for as long as I have been awakened to what has been going on. The liberals/modernists caused this crisis in the Church, and NOW they will have no one to take their places for a generation or so.
There is no shortage of vocations to the priesthood, just as things stand with the celibacy discipline right now. In fact, two college-age and college graduate friends of mine left two and three weeks ago to begin seminary training because they heard God's call and responded.
The liberals/modernists/sodomite priests and bishops made their beds (literally) and now they will garner the fruits of their efforts. God always respects man's free will and his infidelity.
"This is something that really makes no sense. Priests who are not married are giving marital and other family oriented advice to those that are?"
Jesus Christ was celibate. John Paul II is celibate. They have written the most beautiful and highest level of spirituality and practicality on the sacrament of Matrimony of any men ever. Have you ever read what the Church teaches regarding this sacrament?
And "No," allowing men to marry will not cut down on the feces going on because heterosexual men are not attracted to boys. Certainly you understand this...
Nice how you conflated sexual abuse with doctrinal views you don't agree with. I guess the gay priesthood didn't exist before Vatican II.
OK. Keep telling yourself that.
So with all of your altar girls, what are you and your priests doing to foster vocations and a Catholic spirituality in young men? Anything? I certainly do not mean youth group or lifeteen.
What specific programs do you have for the young men and boys?
Let me guess...
Poor babies. I feel really sorry for the modernists who have gained NO ADHERENTS from the younger generation. Poor little babies...
Whatever you do, do not EVER address the content of the message. Just look for ways to pick one point apart which you determine to be the weakest. Don't ever address the real issues. "We have a priest shortage. We are overworked. Woe is me."
Boo hoo hoo... Go cry in your mother's milk. What a bunch of crybaby whimps.
The thing that works best is for priests to talk to young men who might be interested in the priesthood. I've talked to a couple in our parish, but they're not convinced the priesthood is not a haven for gays, and I can't reassure them to the contrary. They're taking a "wait-and-see" attitude while they get their college degrees. They also want to determine if lifelong celibacy is for them.
We've got four men in training for the permanent diaconate, however, all of whom I encouraged to check it out and consider it.
I have to chuckle when laymen come on here and dismiss the concerns of men who are actually IN the priesthood.
It's very easy to take shots at something you know nothing about.
A married Catholic priesthood would simply allow a wider pool of candidates for consideration. Those men who are called to celibacy would remain celibate and bishops would be chosen only from the celibates.
Wouldn't that make them protestant if they want to change things around? They should have thought about this before they became priests.
Hmmm.
...For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much. James 5.16
Could it be a denial of grace as a chastisement because of the rampant faithlessness and apostasy of our clergy and laity? God has a history of doing this kind of thing you know. Forty years in the desert comes to mind.
Dear sinkspur,
"Even 'orthodox dioceses' are not recruiting sufficient numbers of men to replace those who leave, retire, and die."
We are in Washington. Since the coming of Cardinal McCarrick, vocations have doubled here in Washington, going from about 5 per year (which would lead to an overall decline of priests of perhaps 20% or more) to 9 and 10 per year. Interestingly, seminary entries have increased beyond that, but the full effect hasn't shown up yet, because we appear to still be in the upswing. Even at 10 per year, we will eventually see about a 15% increase in the number of diocesan priests in the archdiocese. However, if ordinations increase proportionately with entries to the seminary, we will, in a few years, be ordaining about 15 priests per year, which will eventually result in an increase of about 50% in the numbers of diocesan priests in our archdiocese.
In the short term, though, the number of diocesan priests will fall, as we have a big bulge of folks who are approaching retirement age (or who have even exceeded it, and have not yet retired).
At least at the present time, the Archdiocese of Washington appears to be moving out of a vocations dearth.
As a side note, there were about 800 seminarians at the Mass at the MCI Center prior to the March for Life in Washington, DC. This must account, I'm guessing, for about 1 out of every 5 or 6 seminiarians in the United States. This, to me, is evidence of the growing orthodoxy of our newer priests.
Blessed be God forever.
sitetest
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.