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Mass confusion is still extant pertaining to three key Christian words -- each related to "ministry" and those who serve God: "priesthood" "saints" "ordination" Each of these words have, unfortunately, been largely skewed by the historical Church: The first two by Roman Catholicism; the latter by Protestantism. 'Holy Priesthood...Royal Priesthood' No New Testament-based Church can neglect 1 Peter 2:4-9 and Revelation 1:5-6 plus Revelation 5:10 in its definition of "priesthood." In 1 Peter 2, the "holy priesthood" (verse 5) and the "royal priesthood" (verse 9) are described as a privilege presented to those who... ...come to Christ (verse 4); ...are...

Father Wissam Akiki with his wife and daughter, Perla, at her first Communion. ST. LOUIS — Surrounded by his wife, daughter and the bishops of his Church, Father Wissam Akiki made history in February as the first married man in 90 years to enter the priesthood for the Maronite Catholic Church in the U.S. Kp> But for Catholics of most Eastern-rite Churches in the U.S., including the Maronites, the fact the priest is a married man isn’t that extraordinary: What’s extraordinary is that they have to ask the Vatican for permission to ordain married men in the first place. snip...

Next Thursday, April 10, a key event will take place at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany: the ordination of Bishop-elect Edward B. Scharfenberger as the new Bishop of Albany. The event will be broadcast live on EWTN and Time Warner Cable News and on the internet via the Diocese's website, www.rcda.org (see sidebar). A brief guide to the long and complex liturgy can help us to understand what happens during an ordination Mass, and also help us to reflect on the role of a bishop. All the gestures, actions and words in any liturgy - whether...

So says my colleague at The Week, Damon Linker, in an essay predicting that all churches would need to change doctrines to keep up with the modern world, especially the Catholic Church. Refusing to adapt doctrine to modern thought will force an exodus of people from their faiths, Damon writes, especially the Catholic insistence that ordination is limited to men: By contrast, the majority of Catholics who support women’s ordination are confronted on the altar with the all-male priesthood every time they go to church. At the moment, frustration about the issue is muted because Pope Francis has inspired so...

Q: I have been discerning my vocation, trying to determine whether or not I am called to be a priest. I happened to find a commentary on canon law in my school library… it says that a person is barred from being a priest, permanently, if they have ever been a heretic, apostate, or schismatic. I was baptized outside the Church (Lutheran), and professed agnosticism for a time before converting to Catholicism around the time I was 17. Does that make me incur the irregularity? –Alex

Ordination Debate

It is a common notion that the number of priests has plummeted in this country. Many speak of the halcyon days when there were four and five priests per parish, and the seminaries were packed. And while some of these memories are accurate, they are drawn from a time in this country that was very brief.The fact is, the number of priests per parish spiked sharply after 1950 and has now leveled back to the levels of 1950 and before.Note the graph at the upper right from the Center for Research in the Apostolate (CARA). It depicts the number of...

A Priest for Forty HoursBy Thomas Peters This incredible story came to me first via family.St. Joseph Parish in Maumee, Ohio posted this note to their Facebook page on Wednesday (it has already been viewed and shared thousands of times since then): As many of you know, our seminarian Deacon Scott Carroll has been battling cancer for some time. Although Scott looked forward to joining his classmates for ordination on June 22, 2013, it became clear this week that an earlier ordination might be prudent.On Wednesday morning, Bishop Blair ordained Fr. Scott to the Order of Presbyter. The ordination...

In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.

The very first newspaper op-ed article I ever published, way back in 1984, was about All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, which has long had a reputation as a leading “progressive” parish. I wrote about attending a meeting where a group of parishioners were reporting back on a recent visit to the newest workers’ paradise, Nic . . .—now just wait for it!!—yes, indeed, it was Nicaragua (or “KNEE-car-AHHH-gua,” if you’re really au courant). Since this article was published in the pre-Internet age, I can’t link to it, so here’s the lede from my hard-copy archive:

Delicts include the desecration of the confessional and sexual abuse of people in confession. When I think we are grouped with the abusers, I wonder how much all of this is upside down. They say we seek to fit ourselves into a role we are not entitled to. We say: the question is whether the clergy are not being presumptious when they take the distribution of the Sacrament on themselves. In addition, we will soon no longer have enough clerics. At that stage, we will have had to have thought about how we should deal with the problem. derStandard.at: The...

Joanna Manning December 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - For over three decades Joanna Manning, a former nun turned lesbian feminist pro-abortion activist, plagued faithful Catholics, causing scandal, embarrassment and much frustration.  On November 27 Manning was made a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, a Church which has openly accepted homosexuality and abortion.  It was a day when, as her friend and fellow dissident Catholic Ted Schmidt wrote, “I am sure God smiled and the angels danced.” It’s a rare occurrence when I’m able to agree with Schmidt, but on this occasion, I do, and not for the reasons many...

The woman next to me loved the title: Pink Smoke Over the Vatican. I know, because she said, "Great title!" with a knowing laugh. There were a lot of knowing laughs in the theater Saturday morning, when the one-hour independent documentary about women's ordination had its Cincinnati debut. Perhaps the biggest came when the narrator explained that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the modern day name for The Holy Office of the Inquisition—which, though true, does sound a bit over the top. But not as over the top as clandestine ordinations on ships by incognito...

Vatican City, Jun 13, 2011 / 02:56 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican issued a statement June 6 explaining the Church’s teachings on bishops ordained without the Pope's approval.The statement points out that illicit ordinations cause “scandal and confusion, which must not be underestimated and that require—on the part of the bishops involved—the need to recover their authority through signs of communion and penance that can be observed by all.”The statement was published by the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano.The statement does not refer to any specific country, but offers an overview of possible extenuating circumstances that relate to episcopal ordinations carried...

Wichita, Kan., May 22, 2011 / 01:05 pm (CNA).- Five men will be ordained next weekend by Bishop Michael O. Jackels at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Wichita, Kansas. Four will be ordained to the priesthood and one to the transitional diaconate.David M. VossDavid M. Voss from Wichita will be ordained to the transitional diaconate at a Mass on Friday, May 27. He is finishing studies at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.Voss said as he looks forward to his ordination as a transitional deacon he is filled with gratefulness to God, Bishop Jackels, his seminaries, and his family.“One would...

The Vatican has threatened a bishop with excommunication after he was ordained by China's state-backed Catholic Church without papal approval. Pope Benedict XVI had learned of the ordination of Rev Joseph Guo Jincai "with deep regret" as it constituted a "grave violation" of Church law, it said.The Vatican also accused Beijing of "grave violations of freedom of religion and conscience" because it forced Vatican-approved bishops to attend the ceremony.China's estimated 10 million Catholics are split between followers of the Pope and members of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.The association is not in communion with Rome and refuses to accept the...

A total of 56 men began training for the priesthood in September this year, the National Office of Vocation said. That was up on the 49 who started the process to become priests in 2009. The rise coincided with the four-day visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain. Catholic leaders put the rise in applicants down to outreach programmes which were leading young men to ask questions about what was important in life to them. Many dioceses and religious orders now run discernment groups for young men and women where all vocations are discussed. Fr Christopher Jamison, Director of the...

Just in time for the observance of World Priest Day this weekend, a reader from Milwaukee sent me the video below, of this year's ordinations of priests. It's artfully produced, and carries a beautiful message. Take four minutes to watch it and feel inspired, and grateful.  (And just try to watch it without weeping.  It's that good.)     The celebration of ordination to the priesthood is composed of three parts: The first part comprises the liturgy of the Word, during which God's Word is proclaimed and explained.In the second, we participate in the ordinarion to the priesthood.The third part...

Mary Magdalene: Will be attending... Despite their claims to the contrary, organizers behind Sunday’s scheduled world-wide protest ”A Sunday Without Women” are promoting women’s ordination and the boycotting of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass within the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon. Promotional material for the event reads: Catholic women of the world unite. September 26 is the day to boycott Mass and pray for greater inclusion of women in the Catholic church. In her misguided call to empty pews in the hope of ”making the powers that be think again”, Irish convert and instigator of the protest, Jennifer Sleeman...

Given that a tiny group of ecclesial dinosaurs here in the U.K. are plastering London buses with pro-WO ads, I thought it might be time to revisit the issue in some detail. Below is a piece I posted back in 2008 at the request of a young Dominican friar who was asked about the Church's teaching on the impossibility of women's ordination to the Catholic priesthood. It's long, but I promised detail, right?! ________________________________________________________________ First, notice the origin and ground of the objections. All of them are based on one or more of the following mistakes: a) Priesthood is about...