Priesthood-Males Only-Question

[Le_Cracquere]

An old (well sick and late-middle-aged) man holds his head in his hands and says, “Oh God, oh God, I can’t believe they are contemplating making women priests. I can’t even stand them as altar servers. Please make this go away. It is such a painful thing for me to contemplate that I think I will go to the extremest length available to me, even though it is a matter of neither faith nor morals as defined by Vatican I. Yes, I will attempt to bind my succssors’ hands forever by using those magic words ‘magisterium’ and maybe even ‘infallible.’ All for the greater good, not to mention the repose of my own soul, of course.”

I won’t say that’s an illegitimate way of looking at it. I would say that, if it’s a scenario you think possible, then welcome to the Protestant fold, and please update your profile at the earliest convenient moment.

 

[Lrning]

There is plenty of mystery in the truly dogmatic teachngs of the Church wihout someone having to go into the depth of–what is it–the 500 or more pages of the CCC. I have to wonder whether it ever occurred to Benedict XVI that the average person across the world can barely manage ten pages of indoctrination, let alone a tome of that scope. I realize that many people here are proud of observing to the last syllable, even when it may present moral contradicitons. May you all have the pleasure of meeting one another in the audience hall in Vatican City, shaking hands across the empty seats in between. “Ordinary” educated observant Catholics know the difference between loyalty and brown-nosing, and exercise their God-given critical faculties because that is actually the morally courageous way to go, where extreme fundamentalisim and an ultra-orthodox position is a moral cop–out that boils down to people giving up their moral autonomy to take the easier road. Except that I don’t believe for one minute that all these posters are in such a state that butter would not melt in their mouth.

Wow.

This post left me speechless for quite a while. It’s hard to know even where to begin…

I have dearly loved family that feel a similar way. It’s heart wrenching to me.

Perhaps it’s time to step back to the basics. Why would anyone do anything the Catholic Church says? Why would anyone worry about understanding the CCC and applying it to their lives?

Well, if you believe that the purpose of life is to know, love, and serve God with all your body, mind and soul… and you believe that Jesus laid down for us the path to salvation…and you believe that He started a Church and gave that Church authority…then ultimately the reason we should pay attention to what the Catholic Church says is because… it is pleasing to God. It’s all about God. It’s not about “giving up their moral autonomy to take the easier road.” It’s not about “brown-nosing”. It’s about knowing, loving, and serving God.

Whenever my family starts spouting the “why should the we…” stuff, I recognize it for what it is… an attempt to justify their will, their way, versus God’s will. And this is so much easier to do if you separate God from His Church.

 

[Randy_Carson]

Lastly, I would kindly suggest that women play an important role in the Church. I can rattle off many female saints who served God faithfully in a role outside of the priesthood.

Every time we try to give Mary an important role to play in the Church, we get hammered all over again!