At Mass last evening Father mentioned the Priest shortage.
My youngest son was up visiting from Northern Virginia and his comment to me was that we need a new Bishop, since "Orthodoxy creates vocations. This has been proven across denominations and religions."
My own solution to the problem is slightly different from my son's, but he has a good point. His diocese, Arlington, Virginia, has quite a few vocations and very full churches and at his parish two priests plus a part time.
In this discussion orthodoxy is about hewing to the line of the Church. Its opposite is Liberalism, which might be defined in terms of "Cafeteria Catholics".
Regards — Cliff
2 comments:
This poll only allows for one answer.
I find organized religion easiest to understand in pure economic and marketing terms, and the priesthood shortage, like any other manpower shortage in any other business, is an obvious consequence of working conditions and insufficient incentives.
Whereas, until now, apparently, implied societal status in addition to being privy to the personal secrets of thousands of people, while wielding power over their personal lives, was sufficient to offset (the obviously variably observed condition of) celibacy and other inconveniences. However, now, with scandal eroding if not outright eliminating the implied societal status, not to mention creating a de facto social stigma, coupled with fewer people thus entrusting their personal secrets and power over their personal lives, the prior basis for choosing the priesthood is entirely eliminated.
If I were the VP of HR of the Catholic Church, I'd consider this a major crisis, to be remedied by either A) extreme patience and possibly decades of short staff and the possible decline and decay of the institution past recovery, or B) expanding the priesthood to new applicants, including women and non-celibate males of all sexual identities.
Of course, many will still try to understand this in purely dogmatic and spiritual terms, and I expect their confusion as to why it's so hard to solve the problem will go hand and hand with their misunderstanding of the true elements involved. Or, put another way--the Kingdom isn't here yet, and everyone, including the Pope, is just another person, no matter how fervently they try to delude themselves otherwise.
Post a Comment