- Feb 5, 2002
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The declining number of priests poses an acute threat to pastoral care. Creative solutions are now needed from the bishops and in Rome, demands theologian Ulrich Lüke.
The Luther of Reformation 2.0
With ever-new euphemistic magic words – currently the slogan is "expand pastoral spaces" – the reduction of parishes and the closure of churches, primarily oriented towards the declining number of priests, is being hyped up as a concept. Eucharist-free zones are the result, even though, according to the Council, the Eucharist is the "source and summit of communion." The Diocese of Aachen, for example, is to be reduced to eight parishes.
What would happen if ten German bishops, in their pastoral duty to care for the Eucharist, were to ordain five married, theologically well-trained men each to the priesthood on the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul in 2027? According to canon law, the candidate for ordination must be a "vir baptizatus," a baptized man. These 50 married priests would then be ordained "validly, but not legally." Would Rome dare to remove the ten bishops and the 50 married priests from their office? And on what theological grounds would it be, if married Protestant pastors who have converted to Catholicism were ordained as Catholic priests? This Church is blocking itself if it lacks the courage to embrace different speeds of development.
The author:
Continued below.
cathcon.blogspot.com
The Luther of Reformation 2.0
With ever-new euphemistic magic words – currently the slogan is "expand pastoral spaces" – the reduction of parishes and the closure of churches, primarily oriented towards the declining number of priests, is being hyped up as a concept. Eucharist-free zones are the result, even though, according to the Council, the Eucharist is the "source and summit of communion." The Diocese of Aachen, for example, is to be reduced to eight parishes.
What would happen if ten German bishops, in their pastoral duty to care for the Eucharist, were to ordain five married, theologically well-trained men each to the priesthood on the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul in 2027? According to canon law, the candidate for ordination must be a "vir baptizatus," a baptized man. These 50 married priests would then be ordained "validly, but not legally." Would Rome dare to remove the ten bishops and the 50 married priests from their office? And on what theological grounds would it be, if married Protestant pastors who have converted to Catholicism were ordained as Catholic priests? This Church is blocking itself if it lacks the courage to embrace different speeds of development.
The author:
Continued below.
German proposal for ten bishops to defy Rome and ordain 50 married men as priests
cathcon.blogspot.com
