Posted on 05/22/2007 10:38:17 AM PDT by NYer
Where is a MAN that is a DEACON???
The two parishes closest to us each have permanent deacons.
Our parish has a working, part time deacon. He, his wife and his son are very greatly involved in the running of the parish. The next parish over has a retired engineer who is the full time deacon and parish coordinator. He is also the chaplain of our local Knights of Columbus council.
There are many male deacons out there and the number appears to be growing.
So why doesn’t this parish name a deacon instead of a nun.
The announcement of her new job, she acknowledged, is bittersweet. While it's a wonderful opportunity for her, she said, it's a disappointing reflection on the state of the priesthood.
"If there were enough priests, then they wouldn't need this position," she said. "The fact that they do is a wake-up call for us as Catholics to pray for vocations and encourage vocations in the priesthood in young men. One of the things we will do here is form a vocation prayer group.
"It's sad that it has to happen. I was talking with some people the other day, and they were saying how it used to be a big thing to have a priest in your family. Now, I don't think people look at it that way."
It seems that she really does understand that this is not normal nor desirable and even is willing to try to take steps to do a small part to turn things around for the Pittsburgh Diocese.
That said, I too think it would be better for a deacon to be named (and from what I understand, Pittsburgh has had permanent deacons for some time). Also, I hope that this never comes to pass in my (neighboring) diocese. As a seminarian, the proposition of it even scares me a little.
Good question. There ought to be at least one real man willing to shoulder this duty for the good of his parish.
Of course, cranking up the feminisation of the Church makes it increasingly unlikely that men will hang around long enough to discern a vocation.
Pray for vocations to the Priesthood!
**Sacramental duties — such as saying Mass, hearing confessions, and performing baptisms and weddings — will be performed by the Rev. James A. McDonough of St. Regis Parish in Oakland.**
I’m surprised that the Bishop doesn’t allow her to do baptisms and preside at weddings!
Sad, if they only had 24/7 Adoration — they would be blessed with priests!
Good one!
Good question. Where is the deacon?
Agreed. However, she is as much a victim of the 'planned priestly obsolescence' as are we. She has a good heart and is willing to do what is best for these parishioners. Sadly, I have met some very orthodox young men who were turned away from the seminary by our local ordinary. In their place, he chose gay men or those who subscribe to his 'view', anticipating that one day the Catholic Church will approve the ordination of women. Sister is doing her best, as are we. The big problem looms down the road when another more orthodox bishop replaces the lay ecclesial minister with a validly ordained priest, as pastor. You would think the parishioners would be overjoyed, wouldn't you. On the contrary. After years of running 'their' parish, they view themselves as the leaders and the priest as a temporary appointee. I've seen this and it's an ugly picture. Recently, a member of our Parish Council, a man whom the pastor truly believed to be a dedicated member of the parish, suddenly turned on the priest. He began shouting at him in a most undignified display of rage, because the priest would not spend money the way he would. (The priest, he claimed, was wasting time shopping the best price! I'm not kidding)
During Advent, our parish 'choir' (all 4 people) were invited to join several other choirs for an Advent concert of Lessons and Carols. It was held in one of the priestless parishes and the LEM (lay ecclesial minister), a woman, led the entire service, sitting as an equal with the visiting priests. She chose all the best readings for herself, assigning the short ones to the ordained priests. She processed in with them and recessed out with them. It's a tough pill to swallow, watching these scenarios play out in a Catholic Church.
Alaska has had priestless parishes ever since the days of Archbishop Francis T. Hurley, who pulled the rural priests in to Anchorage and gave them desk jobs in the chancery, then sent nuns to “administer” the parishes. He then made a big thing about the “shortage of priests.”
Castrated? Reduced? The ministration of those sacraments is the most hallowed role a human being could aspire to. It is not a reduction to be liberated from the bureaucratic responsibilities of the world. Being allowed to focus on the matters of eternity is a great thing for a priest. May this new freedom increase their holiness.
Pray for them all! As noted above, this is a very painful fate for a priest. Our Blessed Mother has asked us to pray for her Son’s priests and leave the judgement up to God.
PLEASE SISTER TELL ME:
Curious George: I know that nuns cannot marry, but I could never understand why not.
Sister Bobbie: Well I’m not sure but that’s the way it always has been.
Curious George: But weren’t there women followers of Jesus who were among his disciples? And I’m sure that many of them must have been married.
Sister Bobbie Well, of course there were many women disciples of Jesus and many of them were married.
Curious George: So then why aren’t nuns allowed to be married.
Sister Bobbie: Well first of all there isn’t enough room in the convents for women and their husbands. And think of all the children that would be there. And who is going to support all of them?
Curious George: Well isn’t it true that most nuns don’t live in convents these days and that they have their own apartments?
Sister Bobbie: Well yes. But who is going to feed all those mouths.
Curious George: Don’t most nuns these days have jobs – they work as teachers, nurses, parish administrators, all sorts of social justice organization, they are writers for newspapers like the National Catholic Reporter and Sojourners, the UN, Planned Parenthood and all kinds of organizations – even the USCCB. They must make more money than most people who have to support families.
Sister Bobbie: Yeah, but do you know how much it costs to have your hair permed and dyed every two weeks. That gets expensive.
Curious George: Well if it’s against the Church rules for nuns to be married, and it’s not God’s rule but man’s, why don’t they just change the rules.
Sister Bobbie: Because the Church is run by men who are against marriage. They don’t even like to admit that their own parents were married.
Curious George: Well what’s to stop the nuns if they want to get married? It should be their choice. If some of them don’t want to get married, then they don’t have to. But they needn’t spoil it for everyone else. It just seems to me that if a nun wants to be married, she should be able to.
Sister Bobbie: Well you do have a point there.
Curious George: It just seems to be that so many nuns are involved in parish ministry and they could relate a whole lot better to married people, if they were allowed to be married. They would seem more normal. Besides, they would know firsthand what it’s like to face such issues as contraception, abortion, and divorce.
Sister Bobbie: Well you’re making some really good points there.
Curious George: And isn’t it true that the number of nuns has fallen off by the tens of thousands in the last forty years? Isn’t there a shortage of nuns in the Church? Couldn’t the Church always use more nuns to do all the kinds of things nuns are doing?
Sister Bobbie: Well of course. For years nuns were the backbone of the Church. They helped spread the faith tremendously.
Curious George: Well doesn’t it make sense that if nuns were allowed to be married, that many more women would want to be nuns? And isn’t it true that it really doesn’t make a difference whether you’re single or not in order to do the work a nun does?
Sister Bobbie: Right again. I’ve never given these things any thought. I am going to have to speak to my spiritual advisor, Reverend Mary Jones from the Evangelical Church of Christ for All Peoples and get some direction on all this. I will also have to walk the labyrinth and commune with the Goddess Mother of the Earth.
Curious George: Oh. One last question. How come only women can become nuns? Can’t a man do all the things nuns do?
I don’t know.
The church really hasn’t pushed hard up until recently for permanent deacons; I think that they were more interested in getting men through the diaconate into priesthood.
But in this case? Not sure.
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