Messori: Married priests no remedy for “vocations crisis”

Catholic News Agency ^ | Jan 18, 2007 | Vittorio Messori (via CNA)

[sitetest]

Dear FormerLib,

Then it seems that Orthodox parishes can be very, very small.

If there are 100 MEMBERS (not families) in a parish, and two-thirds of those aren't active (often the regrettable situation in Catholic parishes), that means that there are priests who have a single parish for which to care comprising perhaps 35 active members?

That wouldn't be typical at all in the Catholic Church.

My own parish is far more typical, where there are perhaps 650 or 700 registered families, but where perhaps 200 families are active, with a single, full-time priest dedicated to our parish, assisted by one deacon. Our parish used to be larger, with over 1,000 families, and perhaps 300 or more active families, but then, we had two priests and two full-time deacons.


sitetest

[FormerLib]

Then it seems that Orthodox parishes can be very, very small.

And that we have a lot more priests in comparison and no laity serving the Eucharist.

[sitetest]

Dear FormerLib,

"And that we have a lot more priests in comparison and no laity serving the Eucharist."

It would be interesting to know, in the United States, how many folks are counted as Orthodox, how many are active, and how many priests there are.

Also, it would be interesting to know these statistics in the rest of the world at large. I remember looking a couple of years ago about Orthodoxy in the Republic of Georgia. There were around 600 priests, if I recall correctly, for several million nominally-Orthodox persons. But it seems that at least in that country, the ratio of active believers to the entire number of nominal believers is quite low.


sitetest

[SQUID]

Yes, this is a bit off the topic but it's on purpose. We can talk about what is wrong with the Eastern Church and use it as an example of how the Western church shouldn't be all we would like, but it doesn't matter.

Married priests in my opinion are indeed a remedy for homosexual priest in the West. FAMILY, is the backbone of society and the Church should be encouraging this as it leads by example. Not only that marriage is a sacrament for a reason.

Also, I don't care about what happened centuries ago, I am seeing the world as it is today where homosexuality is far more prevalent and poised to make the church work a little harder in saving souls. So, it seems that most of the assumptions made here are based on the idea that the social climate is the same then and now. The Church must make adjustments that do not favor those who seek to diminish it's purpose.

Look, the fact of the matter is, Christianity is being slowly torn apart by Islamic forces pushing their way West. I can point to many parts of the globe, mainly in the East, where Christian places have become Islamic and all we can talk about is the Western Church vs the Eastern Church. Does it bother the Western Church that thousands of Orthodox churches have been destroyed in the last 10 years? It should!

Additionally, today there is a powerful hedonistic moral relativism sweeping across the globe. It's the worship of self, accomplishments, power, and wealth. This is what has taken the place of spiritual fulfillment, love and Christ. Again, adding to the work that the Church must do.

Marriage is under attack from all sides and I would strongly recommend Christianity to take that into consideration when leading the people to their salvation. A married man is not less pious because he is married. A single priest is no more pious because he is single. Both are however equal in their chances for salvation through Christ. However, the married priest certainly has more experience in raising children and has much more understanding of how to deal with todays challenges in relationship to the teachings of Christ than a single priest.

[Salvation]

Bump for later.