Posted on 09/01/2003 4:06:40 PM PDT by sinkspur
Fr. Joseph Wilson and the "Incurably Dense"
Fr. Joseph Wilson, an associate pastor at St. Luke’s Parish in Whitestone, N.Y., has written ---forgive me--- a rather shallow and alarmist defense of mandatory celibacy in the pages of The Wanderer. The piece is full of exaggerations and alarmist non sequiturs. On the one hand, he pretends to welcome the request of the some 160 priests from Wisconsin who are asking for the USCCB to deliberate on the question of mandatory celibacy; and, on the other hand, he says, "Thank God for them. We need to be reminded that there are still people — even priests, pastors of souls — so incurably dense that they cannot see a profound spiritual crisis here..."
Because Fr. Wilson finds it (rightly, I might add) offensive that US bishops have not spoken out sufficiently about the "crisis in catechesis, religious life, priesthood, seminaries, universities and colleges, high schools, family life, moral theology, liturgy, and spirituality...," he thinks that to take up the matter of widening the pool of candidates for better propsects, real men, for the priesthood at this time, is a mere "rearranging the chairs on the Titanic".
I'd prefer to hit the lifeboats myself, because with our current Scandal, which mandatory celibacy, in case he hasn't noticed, did NOT prevent, and with a shrinking pool of priests to choose from thanks to the nihilistic zeitgeist which is our sorry lot----the problems he cites look trivial indeed. I list his anxieties:
* For one thing, Catholics would need to get used to their priests living off-campus (in the northeast at least, this is still unusual).
* Catholics would have to get used to the fact that their priest would have something approaching "business hours," and live with the consequence of troubled clergy families...
* If I were married, raising a family, and, no doubt, depending on my wife’s salary as well as mine, and her job moved her to Houston, to Houston we’d need to go.
* Most married priests would be thinking about areas with good schools, where their wives would be able to find employment
* The Priesthood Is Not A Profession. I think we’d lose something very precious, would end up "professionalizing" the priesthood, to our great loss...
Let's get real. People would prefer any possible flu to cancer. Almost any scenario ---and the Eastern church has disposed of so many of these alarmist caricatures and worst case scenarios --- is better than the lusty Scandals and utter horrors which so many (already too often absent) sexually deviant, supposedly celibate priests have brought us to, in an age of declining numbers of good priests.
Unlike the Episcopalians, the Eastern churches have not let go of their dogmatic foundations and Catholics have much more in common with the latter than the former. Honest to God.
Catholics can cope with any practical problems which changes might bring, but they cannot abide what we have been going through, and which mandatory celibacy has not prevented. To frame the proposal as a liberal conspiracy is far too simple. TCR raised the issue long before the Wisconsin priests did. It's been on the minds of many, you can be sure, since the Scandal raised its ugly head.
What Catholics want is the sacraments, daily, in abundance, from real men, secular priests, not necessarily from monastic celibates only. Very few Catholics go to the rectory after five PM anyway in my experience; and a married priest will presumably be just as available as a good doctor who will often interrupt his dinner or day off when an emergency calls for it.
Moreover, we believe that a truly optional celibacy will allow many thousands----who knows but possibly millions worldwide?---- of theologically conservative men who believe in the natural and morals laws, who believe in family values, to choose seminary and priesthood. Catholics can only benefit from this. There will always be liberals and rebels and problems to solve, but with a better and wider pool of Catholic priests and real men to choose from, those liberals may find themselves in a minority one day.
What a cruelty--- Father Healy, SJ, in the pages of The Wanderer, a man informs us, is "a voice of sanity" relative to the call to reexamine the mandatory nature of celibacy in the wake of the utter horrors of the recent scandals. In The Wanderer Healy implores:
"Further, ‘discussion’ about the issue invites an attitude of ‘reservation’ in the minds of many already committed; and it suggests a ‘tentative’ commitment to those considering a vocation. "I see nothing but further harm coming from prolonging discussion of the issue. "Quite obviously, the commitment to celibacy is, in effect, a commitment to total chastity — in deed, thought, and desire.
What a cruelty---considering the times. The eastern church has long,as stated above, disposed of this either / or absolutist mentality, though we all agree on the virtue of chastity, obviously, by virtue of our Catholic Faith.
10,000 men leaving the priesthood to get married, and, along with good priests, an incredibly powerful corruption consisting of sexual deviants which has astonished the most ideal of us, however, is what we got for such absolutism which has clearly lasted too long. But idealists prefer dreams, it seems. The Church, however, will be the one which will have to pay the terrible and unnecessary price for it.
Curtiss explained that when dioceses and religious orders are unambiguous about the priesthood as the Church defines this calling, when there is strong support for vocations, and a minimum of dissent about the male, celibate priesthood, then there are documented increases in the number of candidates who respond to the call. p4 A Man-Made Crisis, Goodbye, Good MenIf this is accurate and true, why not examine and implement what is being done properly instead of what I see as an "easy out" of married priests?
How many priests are needed in Nebraska?
You present good points. That's why a discussion is needed, not slamming the door shut on anybody who broaches the subject of married priests, especially when there are married priests in Eastern Rites, and in the Latin Rite itself.
I suspect he would say as I do, that I belong to the Latin Rite.
And, no, we're not going to shut up on a matter of discipline.
The Church must address the shortage here in the states; prayer alone is not getting it done.
One needn't be married to counter the predominance of homosexual men. Merely adhering to Church teaching on the issues of homosexuality and clerical celibacy would suffice. Mr. Hand is proposing that we surrender to the imagined inability that celibacy cannot be practiced, and/or practicing self/acknowleged homosexuals cannot be weeded out. I think those goals can be achieved without having to introduce an entirely different kind of clergy, with entirely different responsibilities.
I've always admired the celibate priest, because he has given up a part of his humanity in service to his God and his Church. I think that sacrifice is a good quality for a leader to have. Without it, he is just another guy doing a job to support his family. His commitment and faith is a lot more demonstrable being a celibate.
I'm not aware that any priest shortage is having a detrimental effect on the faithful. In this extraordinarily mobile country, the sacraments are widely available, and the number of practicing Catholics who actually believe in the grace obtained by receiving the sacraments are well-served by the number of priests actually serving presently. The lack of lines to confession would indicate that there is a surplus of priests.
Your view of life in general, no doubt.
Additionally,as others have said,repeatedly,there is much that is wrong with the seminaries selection processes as well as the training and spirituality and catechesis and environment.
Continuing on to the newly ordained priest,if he is orthodox,they throw him in with an old fruitcake and can make his life pretty miserable. Then they have all the modernists reporting that he is harsh,rigid,mean spirited blah,blah. What a bunch of diversionary tactics. Yuk,so transparent.
Half of the priest shortage is fabricated as part of the agenda for the "new church"they are trying to "sing in".
Yesterday our new,young orthodox priest talked about taking communion unworthily. For the first time in years at least one third of the persons attending Mass did not go to communion.It was much faster than usual.
The guy doing his job is usually sacrificing, Chuck.
His commitment and faith is a lot more demonstrable being a celibate.
Almost every priest I know allows himself some "compensation" for his celibate commitment.
That takes the form of patronizing lonely married women who come to him for "counseling" because their husbands don't talk to them; going to Vegas or the racetrack on a regular basis; playing golf at every opportunity; copious consumption of alcohol while hanging out in parishioner's homes because they're lonely.
Time Managment doesn't seem to be an issue with the priests I know. They've got plenty of it on their hands.
As a married man, I focus on my wife, my grown sons, my commitment to my ministry, giving my employer a full week's work, every week, and thanking God for all that He has given me, including a sexual life.
I'm sure I'll be judged on my life's choices.
That takes the form of patronizing lonely married women who come to him for "counseling" because their husbands don't talk to them; going to Vegas or the racetrack on a regular basis; playing golf at every opportunity; copious consumption of alcohol while hanging out in parishioner's homes because they're lonely.
I don't think that indulging in escapist pasttimes necessarily follows from celibacy. Plenty of married laymen also overindulge in that manner in those ways.
Time Managment doesn't seem to be an issue with the priests I know. They've got plenty of it on their hands.
If I were bishop, I would demand that all my priests recite their breviaries every day, from matins to compline.... that would keep them plenty busy and would do wonders for their spiritual temperment. They couldn't help but become holymen and their flocks would be far better off for it.
In fact, that would cure a lot of things.
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