tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074361.post3006958289552508494..comments2024-01-01T14:54:26.802+01:00Comments on The Commonplace Book of Zadok the Roman: Priest shortage - what solution?Zadok the Romanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03264864126510840069noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074361.post-89029980833401114052007-08-08T15:29:00.000+02:002007-08-08T15:29:00.000+02:00It's funny how deacons never factor into the equat...It's funny how deacons never factor into the equation, especially in articles by religious order priests. Now, like lay parish life coordinators, deacons are not substitutes for priests, or mini-priests with limited faculties. However, it does bear noting that when the diaconate was restored as a permanent order, the Council Fathers had in mind those areas of the Church that were quite spread out and oftenw without resident pastors.<BR/><BR/>I do agree that a better model for a parish or mission without a resident pastor looks rather like a Eastern Rite or Orthodox Christian community who, rather than daily Communion services, daily celebrates Morning and Evening prayer. Deacons can preach at one or both of these celebrations. Sundays can be problematic and a priest should be made available to say Mass and hear confessions. Ideally, this is the pastor, or at least the same priest who knows the community and is known by the community. At least with deacons baptisms and marriages can be licitly and regularly celebrated.<BR/><BR/><BR/>There are some missing parts to Fr. Powell's post. The sad truth is that even with a resident priest/pastor many young men still don't have a model of priesthood to which to aspire, or that inspires them. Priests and bishops must assume their fair share of the responsibility as to why there aren't more priestly vocations. Where there are vocations bishops in particular make a concerted and personal effort. Bp Carlson in Saginaw is his own vocations director. In the end, I am afraid Fr. Powell's post, as well-intentioned as it is, comes across as a fear-driven take that offers no constructive solutions.<BR/><BR/>Another issue he side-steps is a canonical issue. The people have a right to the sacraments. Let's rejoice that our bishops understand this, even if the solutions aren't perfect.Dcn Scott Dodgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09994604395739905637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7074361.post-8131970496016295172007-08-08T05:28:00.000+02:002007-08-08T05:28:00.000+02:00I'll give another angle on priests and manliness.....I'll give another angle on priests and manliness....because there is no solution in replacing a woman with a feminine priest ideologically speaking.<BR/> In Sirach 42:14 it says, "the severity of a man is better than a woman's indulgence."<BR/>The passage regards relating to the children in the family and even if both parents are imbalanced...the man being too severe and the woman being too indulgent,Scripture is saying even at that...the severity of the male will conduce more to the salvation of the children since "the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom" as one of the proverbial books says.<BR/> Is it possible that amongst the clergy from the Popes down, the concept of the "pastoral" solution to this or that problem really has come to mean exclusively...the non severe, more femine, more nurturing solution....(think only of the lack of punishment that pervaded the handling of the sex abuse crisis).<BR/> In the 20th century you had Von Balthasar, Rahner and John Paul II all believing not in an empty hell per se as universalists believe but in holding out hope that maybe no one is there and that maybe all repented prior to death because they cooperated with God's antecedent will that all be saved.<BR/> The reason I see all three men being feminine therein is that it requires ignoring Scripture to even get there at that theological place: the book of Wisdom in the 12th chapter notes the condemnation of the Canaanites <A>26 <BR/>But they who took no heed of punishment which was but child's play were to experience a condemnation worthy of God. <BR/>27 <BR/>For in the things through which they suffered distress, since they were tortured by the very things they deemed gods, They saw and recognized the true God whom before they had refused to know; with this, their final condemnation came upon them.</A> <BR/> And Christ's words on Judas are totally foreboding and not things one says about anyone destined for Heaven ("it were better for that man had he never been born") and it could be argued that Christ used the prophetic past of Judas when He prayed to His Father in JOhn <B>before</B> Judas sinned.... "those whom thou gaves me I guarded and not one of them perished but the son of perdition".<BR/> This was said prior to Judas sinning and is like Isaiah speaking about Christ in the past tense in 53:2 "there is no beauty in him nor comliness and <A>we have seen him</A> and there is no sightliness that we might be desirous of him."<BR/> Polls have noted Catholic dissatisfaction with our homilies some years back and I wonder if that is not because our homilies are too often non masculine and pastoral....in this Fr. Corapi seems like an anomaly.<BR/>Christ by comparison was never dull because He did not edit out the severe side of things. He was not bound by these rules of the pastoral and we see Him rebuking a man who He has just cured in John and tells him to sin no more lest something worse befall him. That kind of talk is now a no no and that kind of talk is reminiscent of my first quote from Sirach..."the severity of a man".<BR/>Indeed when talking to the Samaritan woman Christ chides her on not having one husband for sure...but having 5...and He is not too pastoral when He notes to her... "you worship what you do not know, we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews."<BR/>Spirit of Vatican II?....or spirit of Council of Trent?<BR/> What I'm driving at is that male bodies are not enough to have a masculine ideal for young people.<BR/>Male severity, male non fear of conflict, male facing of the foreboding must be present in our sermons...and one sees it in Corapi e.g. and not everywhere...not in other sermons on EWTN at the Masses.<BR/> Being nice is very feminine and very pastoral and was in Christ in a very deep way but alongside that was a severity. He drove the money changers out of the temple with a whip and we have not had one Pope who could bring himself to act similar on behalf of children in the recent crisis. Because we convinced ourselves that to be Christian is to be always nice. Well...Christ was a man and He was not always nice in the manner in which we use that term.<BR/> Male bodies are insufficient. From Rome down there needs to be a return to imitating Christ in all His aspects....not just in His soft moments. Until that happens, the body...whether male or female...will be immaterial. Maleness unlike the feminine has to be achieved. In the Vulgate Bible in I Corinthians 16:13 there is an exhortation... "viriliter agite"....behave in a masculine manner...the NAB degenderizes the passage now...but it was noting that maleness is an achievement...not a given. We don't tell women "be a woman" because they already are. We do tell them "act like a lady"...but that is not the same as "be a man" about this crisis.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com