Tag Archives: sacrament

Real Men

A New Breed of Priest; My Kind of Priest

In general, … the “John Paul priests” are less supportive than older colleagues of optional celibacy, women priests, the democratic elections of bishops and greater lay leadership, according to numerous surveys. They show less tolerance for dissent against church teachings. And they are more apt to favor greater use of Latin prayers, special vestments, bells and other traditional touches to restore a sense of sacredness to the liturgy ….

Pray that more good young men like these join the priesthood.

Job Requirements

Bishop to Lay Ministers: Sign Oath

“If he (the bishop) is going to exclude anyone who has any doubt about a church teaching, he’s going to exclude 100 percent of the membership of the church, including
himself. He has to be a human being, the same as me, and I have doubts about some
of the church teachings,” Dolezal said.

I just love how dissenters put all teachings on the same level. If you have a problem
with celibate-only clergy, you’re not a heretic. Supporting homosexuality, female
clergy, and abortion are much more serious. There are also different kinds
of doubt. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Continue reading

Some Good News

Scandals abound, heterodoxy is rampant, and secularism looms menacingly, but there
is hope left in the Church. There are scores of people converting every year and
they’re not deterred by the bad press the Church often gets. Let’s pray the “immigration”
never stops.

New Catholics
not detracted by abuse crisis, say their faith is holding strong

“The Church has problems that it needs to address, but that didn’t detract me at all from joining…It was a sin committed on the part of a few priests, so we should blame the sinners but not the Church. The Church is a gift to keep us together. We need to look past this and see this as Jesus’ Church.”

[…]

“The Church isn’t the priest or the nuns, the Church is the people…It’s time to get rid of the evil and take control. It’s the people who make the Church, and there is no Church with out them.”

[…]

“Abandoning the Church is like abandoning Jesus, and He would never abandon us as much as we might sin.”

[…]

“Certainly it’s a serious issue and one that need be addressed, but you can get hung up on one issue…For me, the bigger picture is our faith and the Church itself.”

Scorecard

A question’s been nagging me of late. Has anyone attempted to keep a tally of bishops’
stances on denying communion?

I’ve also been curious to know which Christian denominations are firmly and officially
pro-life (other than Catholics and Eastern Orthodox).

Priestesses in the Church?

The aforementioned comments discussion at GetReligion is becoming a battle between those for and against women priests, or at least allowing them as a solution to the priest scandal. *rolls eyes*

I'm with this guy:

Perhaps I'm obtuse, but I'm having trouble seeing a connection between priests who participate in deviant sexual practices and the need for women priests. The latter is unproven as a corrective and lumping the two together under the increasingly meaningless rubric of "justice" does violence to common sense and church tradition….Wooderson

PRIESTESSES IN THE CHURCH?
by C. S. Lewis

"I SHOULD LIKE BALLS INFINITELY BETTER', SAID CAROLINE Bingley, 'if they were carried on in a different manner . . It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing made the order of the day.' 'Much more rational, I dare say,' replied her brother, 'but it would not be near so much like a Ball.' (1) We are told that the lady was silenced: yet it could be maintained that Jane Austen has not allowed Bingley to put forward the full strength of his position. He ought to have replied with a distinguo. In one sense conversation is more rational for conversation may exercise the reason alone, dancing does not. But there is nothing irrational in exercising other powers than our reason. On certain occasions and for certain purposes the real irrationality is with those who will not do so. The man who would try to break a horse or write a poem or beget a child by pure syllogizing would be an irrational man; though at the same time syllogizing is in itself a more rational activity than the activities demanded by these achievements. It is rational not to reason, or not to limit oneself to reason, in the wrong place; and the more rational a man is the better he knows this."

"These remarks are not intended as a contribution to the criticism of Pride and Prejudice. They came into my head when I heard that the Church of England (2) was being advised to declare women capable of Priests' Orders…"

Women, Ordination, and Angels
Michael Novak

"When Dr. George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visited Pope John Paul II in May 1992, the two church leaders discussed the probable future ordination of women priests in the Anglican Church. That, the Pope said, 'touched on the very nature of the sacrament of holy orders.' A Vatican spokesman said later that 'the Catholic Church, for fundamental theological reasons, does not believe it has the right to authorize such ordination.'

Catholicity or female priests? Must the choice be made?
Al Kimel

"Is it possible to oppose the pansexual morality of the Episcopal Church and still support the decision of the Episcopal Church to ordain women to the presbyterate and episcopate? Clearly most of those who have committed themselves to the Network and American Anglican Council believe that it is possible. But this has become now a real question for me."