Sunday, December 12, 2010

Commentary: Will the Roman Catholic Church one day ordain female priests?


From Wisconsin-

In October, Archbishop Jerome Listecki ordained Russell Arnett, a married former Episcopal priest, to the deaconate.

Next spring, Arnett will be ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. I am confident he will be as effective in his ministry as a Catholic priest as he was as an Episcopal priest.

Such ordinations are no longer unusual. Since the 1980s the Catholic Church in the United States has ordained more than 100 such married men — all clergy from other denominations: Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist and Presbyterian.

This welcome development in acknowledging the possibility that the Holy Spirit can call an individual to both marriage and priesthood begs the question as to why this dual vocation is not possible to a man who is born and baptized as a Catholic. I wonder.

Celibacy for clergy began in monasticism, as men and women took vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience in order to give themselves completely in a life of service to Christ and his Church, while forming religious orders (communities), like our beloved Capuchin brothers and priests, and Agnesian sisters. Celibacy was mandated for secular (diocesan) priests in the Middle Ages.

More here-

http://www.fdlreporter.com/article/20101212/FON0603/101210118/Commentary-Will-the-Roman-Catholic-Church-one-day-ordain-female-priests-

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