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Friday, October 18, 2002

I was glad today that the Vatican spoke on the policies of the Bishop's Summer Summit [my own name, which will of course fade into immediate disuse]. Basically they said we need to think about it.

And who can blame them? For those of us in formation, the policies say, OK, we don't trust any of you, you are all a bunch of child molesting freaks and we're just gonna CYA here. So incredibly affirming.

On the other hand, the child molesting freaks need to come clean. [note: I originally said "get the hell out of the priesthood." But once you are a priest, in the new convenant of Love, you are a priest forever.] We all need to be clean and conformed to Christ.

But the way it is set up now, is that at the mere mention of abuse, the preist is dumped into the hog pile, and the accuser walks away with a new Mercedes. That does not seem the wisest setup.

There needs to be some hard ground, not the vague ground upon which we currently stand.

And there needs to be the firmness of commitment to Christ.

This is an interesting excerpt from Zenit's daily Vatican newsfeed, re: the priesthood.............

The document begins by publishing John Paul II's address to the participants in the Nov. 23, 2001, plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Clergy, which focused on the sacramental figure of the parish priest.

The first part of the instruction addresses the subject of the royal priesthood and the ordained priesthood; the key elements of the ministry; and the life of priests.

According to Cardinal Castrill�n, this part of the instruction, which is doctrinal, emphasizes that the parish priest is "the man of communion, with the particular Church and the universal Church. Hence, he must be a model of adherence to the magisterium of the Church and truly feel himself father of the community and of each one of its members. He is an authentic leader of souls."

"He does not 'practice' being a priest; he 'is' a priest!" the cardinal said, explaining that over the past 50 years a distorted image of the priest has emerged, which "ranges from the sociologist to the therapist, from the politician to the manager. It has even led to the idea of the 'retired' priest."

The second part of the document touches upon the positive challenges of parish pastoral care, and states that the "widespread secularized" culture "tends to classify the priest with its own categories of thought, stripping him of his fundamental mystery-sacramental dimension."

The document ends with a "Prayer of the Parish Priest to Mary Most Holy."


Way Cool.
posted by David Greenleaf at Friday, October 18, 2002
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