Posted on 05/18/2003 4:18:48 PM PDT by Maximilian
I'm beginning to see that is what's happening here. I hope it's just my parish but some things are getting pretty weird. They're also very highly critical of the traditional Catholicism.
At our church the Mass isn't so bad yet but the lay groups are weird ---they have these groups (holy roller types) that induce themselves into trances and hallucinations, they dance around like they're in la-la land. They cry at the drop of a hat. Something is going on and I don't think it's very good.
Chump change in comparison with some other dioceses that aren't allowing the lay people to take over.
It's good to hear that things are comparatively better in St. Louis.
My parents' parish has two who are older and neither is well and, truthfully, the church secretary sees to it that things get done and paid on time, but she's not on any kind of power trip.
Maybe things aren't so great in your diocese (or any other diocese) after all. The numbers are already in, and the population of priests is going to fall. As the bishop in the article says, even if he ordained 100 per year, it's too late to stop the collapse of the priesthood for this generation. Maybe we'll see a rebound later (let's hope and pray).
It's just like the recent article about the population of Europe. The numbers are already in and there's going to be a population decline, even if the women of Europe all start having large families tomorrow. There's already been a lost generation that did not reproduce itself, and you cannot go back into the past to correct that problem.
And we have 8 being ordained next Saturday.
I'll bet the diocese is happy about that. But the fact is that 8 is not enough to support a diocese the size of St. Louis. And that's probably the best they've done in years. And I wonder how many are traditional vocations in the sense of young guys who plan to devote their entire lives to the service of God?
Our diocese, for example, bragged last year about ordaining 5 priests, which was the best they've done in decades (and it's a pretty big diocese). But when you looked at the pictures and the bios, you could see that only 1 of the 5 was under 35 and/or a native of the diocese. The others were either late vocations or foreigners. Nothing wrong with those per se, but they do not demonsrate that the diocese is capable of supplying its own clergy, quite the contrary.
Just remember, you're not really paranoid if they really are out to get you!
That's just the point. This is not isolated to your parish or any other parish. The corruption runs from top to bottom, from East to West, from North to South. The only question remaining is not whether aberrations of heterodoxy exist, but whether any islands of reverent traditional Catholicism can survive within the New Mass structure.
What's needed in any parish are sound, balanced, properly-educated orthodox Catholics, lay and clerical. The real problem is unorthodoxy, liberalism, and the emotionally unbalanced types who are working through issues which have little to do with the Catholic faith. Once a parish sinks under the control of wacky iconoclastic libs, priestly or lay, it can take a long time to get things back anywhere to normal. I've been waiting 30+ for our local parish to score anywhere on the radar of sanity, but the "wreckovation" mafia are gearing up for more iconoclasm and ultra-minimalism. It's a ridiculous sociological process to witness. I hope the "Catholic" contractors enjoy their golf vacations in Florida with their winnings. Maybe they can build a concrete ziggurat villa vacation home for our bishop - with a chapel scrubbed bare of any distinctive Catholic artistry.
Don't be surprised if, after a universal indult is instituted, that the SSPX remains outside the Church.
It pays to be well-informed. The SSPX party line is that the novus ordo is valid - although there instances where the validity is in doubt - but presents a danger to the faith because it is not explicitly Catholic. Therefore, they ask people not to go to novus ordo services. I do not agree with their assessment for several reasons - from the fact we can't have another Missal in the Latin rite which radically diffferent from what many were used to dealing with to the fact that those novus ordo services seem to resemble Masonic services.
And as for the the Vatican II "Robbers'" Council, it was merely a pastoral council - something too many people don't understand fully. So, since it's a pastoral council, no new dogma was ever defined, so if anything was presented that went against Church teaching, anyone could withhold assent from it. Not a schismatic act, either. You may want to read on what the SSPX really says about the council which was at least partly responsible for taking away the faith and the Mass.
I don't care what the SSPX says.
You're not in union with Rome, and likely never will be.
How many celibate older men are you going to find? And if they had a call from God, why didn't they hear it during the first 50 years of their lives? There may be a small handful of older men who are living celibate lives of sanctifying grace, and who would make appropriate candidates for the priesthood, but they cannot constitute a very large population. Not enough to make a dent in the priesthood crisis.
Yes. Some parishes use the term "Reconciliation room," (yuk).
I have found some lay "clicques" try to foster a certain ritual and if some one dissents this little clicque exerts pressure and finally gets their way..That is only if there are 'lukewarm' catholics present. I think it is time that the conservatives exert their influence and get rid of the liberals, who have and are undermining the pillars of the church. Maybe liberals are donating financially, thus sustaining the church BUT is that what the church is all about, just money....if that is the case then our homeless and the down trodden are just out of luck aren't they?
I'm pretty sure there are widowers out there who may feel a calling to the priesthood. That's not something that we can assume. Tradition has it the Our Lord picked those who've been through the ins and outs of life, so to speak, rather than the younger crowd. There is a time and place for everything, so I wouldn't be so quick to question why people wait so long to do something. Some choose to do it, some actually had to wait until God desired them to go in that direction. . . who's to say but them?
I also think the shortage has been manufactured. Capping an age restriction is probably one way to do make that happen.
As can be seen by the wide variation of recuiting in the several dioceses.
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