A group of 112 Cincinnati diocesan and religious priests have written a group letter calling for married and female priests. Okay, we can discuss the suitability of a married priesthood in the Latin rite, and whether it’s a practical exercise. But for them to be challenging what has been established as infallible doctrine and not discipline in women’s ordination is beyond the line. My question is what Archbishop Pilarczyk is doing to ensure that his priests actually understood the Church’s teachings and preach it. After all, if the priests aren’t believing it, then the people certainly aren’t.
One of the reasons given for this change in ordination discipline and dogma is that closing parishes and making “mega-parishes” hurts formation of community. Baloney. What it means is that you have a larger pool of people to draw on with which to form relationships. Nobody’s going to get to know everybody in a parish anyway, unless we’re talking parishes of less than 100 people. So make the parish larger, and you have more resources to draw on, more talent, more donations, more everything.
