So… would St. Peter and St. Paul be ordianed today?
Posted by JohnG (June 21, 2006 at 12:45 pm)
Think about it. Would these two men be deemed worthy of seminary? Would they make it through the psychological testing, the classes on pastoral care?
Paul assisted in the murder of St. Stephen, insulted his congregations in writing, preached to the point where those he was preaching to took him to court, was taken outside the walls to be stoned (several times), and he was imprisoned.
Peter denied Christ three times, cut a guy’s ear off with a sword, he was locked up in jail, was on the Rome’s Most Wanted List.
As we approach the Feast of Peter and Paul, let us think about the Holy men who were called to the Priesthood in the past, and ask ourselves if the Church, today, would ordain them?
How about some of our other Fathers in the faith?
St. Ambrose?
St. Athanasius?
St. Augustine?
St. Basil the Great?
Would they be ordained? Or would they be kept away from the seminary because they weren’t “pastoral” enough?
What we need today is priests who are willing to die for the faith, we need them to love us enough to piss us off, they need to exhort us to live the faith rather than just coast along.
Today we need the likes of Ambrose, Athanasius, and Augustine. We need more Basils, we need Nicholas, we need their faith, we need their fire, and we need their sacrifices.
You can’t have renewal without passion. We need men who are passionate, and on fire for the Lord, we need our Church to be willing to ordain men who have these attributes.
Now we’re talking. Where are the bishops who are on fire for the Lord and will challenge us to be better than we are? Where are they? Where are the bishops who will ordain more men with the fire and intelligence to lead us into growth and holiness? What is needed aren’t company men? God knows there are plenty of people who would rather die with a “whimper” rather than a “bang” as Eliot said. But what we desparately need are bangers. Where are they?
CDL
Comment posted June 21st, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Amen! Carson, Amen!
Comment posted June 21st, 2006 at 5:15 pm
I agree with the article and Carson. None of those great Saints are PC nowadays, they wouldn’t have been ordained. I pray for our metanoia!
Dr. Eric
Comment posted June 21st, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Here, here! What do we read about nowadays but the feminization of the priesthood and the Church. At the risk of sounding irreverant, what the Church needs now is some “Cojones for Christ”!! If us lay folks can see the foolhardiness of this PC, inclusive language, pastoral sensitivity path we’re on, why can’t our shepards?
Sam
Comment posted June 25th, 2006 at 7:52 am
You folks and the Pope don’t want homosexual men as your clergy (oops, look around right under your noses and you might not like what you find). Our bishops don’t want married men. Who exactly shall be left? Hopefully (and I say that without any judgment) those tiny handful enrolled in Pittsburgh as eparchial presbyteral candidates meet all your and the bishops’ criteria. Oh, wait, I think there’s one that doesn’t. Do he and his bishop (who has ordained a married former RC man to the priesthood) have an understanding that he is eligible to be a presbyter? Or do only non-cradle BCs who have come over from the Latin Church have that privilege?
Comment posted June 28th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
RDC,
Ah, you have a burr in your bonnet. What is causing it we won’t guess. However, while there seems to be a great resentment by some against converts, I’d just like you to know that I was never Latin Catholic. I am, however, a convert. I’m grateful that the cradles and former converts kept the Church alive for us.
CDL
Comment posted June 28th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
I wonder why there is such a strict requirement for education in order to be a priest or deacon in the Church.
I am a convert to the Faith and an older man. My needs are small, my family is grown, and I am pretty much free to do what I want to do.
And what I want to do with all my heart is to serve the Lord.
I do have the priviledge of being an altar server at this time, and I am blessed to be allowed to do this, but it has only whetted my appetite for more.
Look, I’m 57 years old. Even if I get the Biblical threescore and ten years, I only have 13 years left!!!!
What do I want to spend my time doing….wasting time chasing the vanities of life, accumulating riches that will not go into the grave with me, pampering myself in a self-indulgent frenzy called “retirement”?
No…..death awaits us all and life is like the dew in the morning which is quickly gone with the first rays of the sun.
As a convert, I had to study — and I mean STUDY HARD — to overcome my prejudices against the Church and understand the Faith so that I could make that decision to enter Her 5 years ago. I have been told my a couple of people that I know more about the Bible and about the Faith than 95% of the parishoners in our parish. God has given me a good mind and I like to use it. I love reading, studying, and learning.
But because I don’t have a BA from some secular college, I can’t even enter the seminary. That means that I would have to wait almost 10 years before even thinking of becoming a full fledged priest.
I’m sorry if this is offensive, but in light of the terrible shortage we have of priests I can only think of one word —
S*T*U*P*I*D!!!
Should a secular education be the only frame of reference for the priesthood? What of a life which eschews sin, a life which is faithful to the Liturgy and the Sacraments, an ability to defend the Faith against heresy? What about the ability to teach others? (I have been told that I can take complicated subject matter and make it understandable).
If God would call me, I would put the house up for sale tommorrow and GO!!!
But I’m not qualified :-(
Brother Ed
Comment posted August 11th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Brother Ed,
We have a seminary filled to the brim with more faculty than students. I think our priorities are screwed up. I’m 59 with a BA, MA, MDiv, ABD, and 27 years of pastoral experience. Yet, I think you to be as qualified as I am.
I don’t know why our heirarchs don’t want our Church to grow; don’t want new churches planted; don’t want more clergy. I just don’t understand it.
I just shrug my shoulders and keep plugging along.
CDL
Comment posted August 15th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Continued,
I don’t know what happened to the edit feature but I entered this before I was through and now can’t edit.
In all fairness, I do have an application but I too find it hard to imagine that I must spend the rest of my active life getting more education. There are several things I need to learn but three more years at the seminary seems a bit much.
The seminary will probably adjust this for my case but I don’t know.
Not to be maudlin but in a few years our bodies will be dust. Our ordinations won’t mean anything anymore.
CDL
Comment posted August 15th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
You know, Carson, it seems that our Church has become enchanted with higher edjeecation, just like the world has. Anymore, all you get is the idea that without a sheepskin that cost you over $100,000, you ain’t going nowhere in this world. This is, of course, a farce on the face of it. I have a high school education and yet, from all I have heard and read, not only am I more literate than a great number of college educated kids, I am making a ton more money as a skilled craftsman.
College isn’t everything!
What happened to finding a person of good repute in the parish, one who lives the Faith in numerous ways (giving, deeds of charity, participation in the Sacraments, etc.) and interviewing that person with the eye to ordination?
I’ll tell you something, Carson. If I wanted to, I could write a doctrinal dissertation right now that would look like I have been through 4 years of seminary. I think a good idea for this would be “Theosis in East and West — A synthesis of Western Covenantalism and Eastern Hesyachist praxis”
It would be good, I tell ya!!
Anyway, we lost Fr. Mike today. He feel asleep in the Lord this afternoon.
Now what?
I get the feeling that he had been a burr under the saddle of the bishop, and I am concerned over what the bishop’s plans are for St. Ann’s.
This could git ugly before it all shakes out.
Brother Ed
Comment posted August 17th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Brother Ed,
God’s will is everything. Just seek the Lord and His righteousness. Offer your will. If He asks you to do
anything, it may include giving up all.
The priesthood is something that flowed out of prior Christian living, often in a monastic or community experience, usually unsought because the fear of God in them knew that they were absolutely unworthy.
Try the monastery first, or some thoroughly dedicated community living. Its available. “If you build it, they will come!”
God bless you.
Comment posted November 9th, 2006 at 1:40 am