Here Comes Bishop Pat Power Again

[HagiaSophia]

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Goulburn and Canberra in Australia, Pat Power, is urging other Bishops to support calls for the relaxation of celibacy rules for priests.

Australia’s National Council of Priests has asked the Vatican to consider allowing Catholic priests to marry in a bid to encourage more people to join the church.

Bishop Power says while there has been strong resistance from the Vatican in the past, it is time for change.

“To what degree are we prepared to read the signs of the times, to what degree are we prepared to listen to the pleas of our people?” he asked.

“If we’re going to continue to be blind and deaf in those areas well I think we’re heading down the wrong path.”

ABC Radio Australia

 

[bones_IV]

Those who think that the church will change its rule on celebacy is wishful thinking.

Padre Pio “The Rosary is the weapon.”

 

[Lance]

I was under the impression that JP II had put this issue to bed.

 

[fix]

What other changes does the bishop seek?

 

[Scott_Waddell]

fix:

What other changes does the bishop seek?

Ditto. Technically, I think it is fine for a bishop to call for a change in the discipline, but I’m guessing he has other axes to grind as well.

As far as “pleas of our people”, I am not aware of any significant lay movement to change the discipline. Sounds like putting words in people’s mouths.

Scott

 

[fix]

Scott Waddell:

Ditto. Technically, I think it is fine for a bishop to call for a change in the discipline, but I’m guessing he has other axes to grind as well.

As far as “pleas of our people”, I am not aware of any significant lay movement to change the discipline. Sounds like putting words in people’s mouths.

Scott

Among the trendy set personal opinions trump Church tradition.

 

[katherine2]

in my opinion, the dicipline of priestly celibacy has well served the latin Church and I would hope it would be maintained so long as present circumstances exist. i particularly feel this way within the society I live in and would be open to more doubt as to my view regarding other soceities I am not as familiar with.

But of course, lay Catholics as well as pastos of the church have every right to reflection on this and arrive at their own opinions as well as the right to share them.

 

[HagiaSophia]

More of the anti celibacy crowd in Australia are trying to set up a court of “popular opinion” in Australia as each day brings another public statement from one or more of them:

CATHOLIC bishops have been accused of creating a damaging personality cult around Pope John Paul II and being out of touch with the lay people and priests they serve.

In a strong attack on the Catholic hierarchy, Father Eric Hodgens, from North Balwyn in Melbourne, said the Vatican’s obsession with sexuality was alienating churchgoers and clergy.

“Most (of the clergy) are no longer committed to the old taboos on sexuality,” Father Hodgens said in a Catholic e-magazine, Online Catholics. “Most do not believe that couples living together are doing something very wrong. Most are happy to have homosexual couples living lives of commitment.”

He said Catholic bishops had a sycophantic style of quoting the Pope incessantly and that the Vatican had “stacked the branch” with cardinals who held the same moral outlook as the Pope.

“It is a very monochrome episcopate,” he told The Australian yesterday. “They see themselves as not bishops in their own right but lieutenants of the Pope.”

Two other Victorian Catholic priests, Father Len Thomas of Ivanhoe West and Father Peter Foley of Belmont, backed Father Hodgens’s assessment, saying the church was more authoritarian than at any time in the recent past.

“It’s the preoccupation with sexuality that has ruined this papacy,” Father Foley told The Australian.

Father Foley and Father Thomas stirred controversy late last year when they issued a statement saying the church had “suffered in heart and mind from a backlash against Vatican II” – the reforming council of bishops under Pope John XXIII that modernised the Catholic Church in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

“It seems Pope John XXIII opened the windows to a risorgimento (liberation) and this papacy has closed the windows and pulled down the blinds,” Father Thomas said yesterday.

theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12111707%255E2702,00.html

 

[Joe_Kelley]

HagiaSophia - Your reference to Two other Victorian Catholic priests, threw me for a minute. I associate Victorian with the era which does not fit their stance.

 

[HagiaSophia]

Joe Kelley:

HagiaSophia - Your reference to Two other Victorian Catholic priests, threw me for a minute. I associate Victorian with the era which does not fit their stance.

—

 

[MrS]

katherine2:

in my opinion, the dicipline of priestly celibacy has well served the** latin Church and I would hope it would be maintained so long as present circumstances exist. i** particularly feel this way within the society I live in and would be open to more doubt as to my view regarding other soceities I am not as familiar with.

But of course, lay Catholics as well as pastos of the church have every right to reflection on this and arrive at their own opinions as well as the right to share them.

Let us know when you think circumstances have changed. I am sure the Pope would be interested in your views,. smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_11_4.gif

 

[catholicwife]

fix:

What other changes does the bishop seek?

My question as well.

HagiaSophia:

“Most (of the clergy) are no longer committed to the old taboos on sexuality,” Father Hodgens said in a Catholic e-magazine, Online Catholics. “Most do not believe that couples living together are doing something very wrong. Most are happy to have homosexual couples living lives of commitment.” ?

Why am I not surprised?

 

[fix]

HagiaSophia:

More of the anti celibacy crowd in Australia are trying to set up a court of “popular opinion” in Australia as each day brings another public statement from one or more of them:

CATHOLIC bishops have been accused of creating a damaging personality cult around Pope John Paul II and being out of touch with the lay people and priests they serve.

In a strong attack on the Catholic hierarchy, Father Eric Hodgens, from North Balwyn in Melbourne, said the Vatican’s obsession with sexuality was alienating churchgoers and clergy.

“Most (of the clergy) are no longer committed to the old taboos on sexuality,” Father Hodgens said in a Catholic e-magazine, Online Catholics. “Most do not believe that couples living together are doing something very wrong. Most are happy to have homosexual couples living lives of commitment.”

He said Catholic bishops had a sycophantic style of quoting the Pope incessantly and that the Vatican had “stacked the branch” with cardinals who held the same moral outlook as the Pope.

“It is a very monochrome episcopate,” he told The Australian yesterday. “They see themselves as not bishops in their own right but lieutenants of the Pope.”

Two other Victorian Catholic priests, Father Len Thomas of Ivanhoe West and Father Peter Foley of Belmont, backed Father Hodgens’s assessment, saying the church was more authoritarian than at any time in the recent past.

“It’s the preoccupation with sexuality that has ruined this papacy,” Father Foley told The Australian.

Father Foley and Father Thomas stirred controversy late last year when they issued a statement saying the church had “suffered in heart and mind from a backlash against Vatican II” – the reforming council of bishops under Pope John XXIII that modernised the Catholic Church in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

“It seems Pope John XXIII opened the windows to a risorgimento (liberation) and this papacy has closed the windows and pulled down the blinds,” Father Thomas said yesterday.

theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12111707%255E2702,00.html

We see the true agenda.