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From: "Goanet News Service" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <goanet@goanet.org>
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 7:21 PM
Subject: [Goanet] NEWS: Holy debate: To be or knot to be
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1263248.cms
Holy debate: To be or knot to be
ASHLEY D'MELLO
MUMBAI: Should married men be allowed into the priesthood in the Catholic
Church to shore up the shrinking numbers of the cloth?
Someone should express the rationale for why not...
CHRIS VAZ: I shall attempt to...
One of the most
contentious issues to have plagued the Roman Catholic Church for more than
a
century, the married priest debate is being thrashed out again at the
current
three-week Synod at the Vatican
The Synod at the Vatican.has nothing better to do at the Vatican than
master-debating this contentious issue?
According to statistics, there is one priest for every 2,677 Catholics as
compared to one for every 1,797 thirty years ago.
Do we really need more parasites than we already have? Why don't these
priests be like everyone else and WORK for a living like their
"parishioners" do?
Some bishops believe that if
priests are allowed to marry the number of vocations will rise.
I agree with these bishops...
Catholics in
the city, from the laity and clergy, seem to agree with Cardinal
Telesphore
Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi and one of the Vatican Assembly's
co-presidents.
Archbishop Toppo told a press conference that the "lack of priests is not
the
cause, but a symptom".
This is "mumbo jumbo" without proper dissertation.
The Cardinal who is attending the Synod along with other Indian delegates
like
Cardinal Ivan Dias of Mumbai said, "The real problem is the crisis of
faith-
the priesthood is the fruit of the community's faith, without faith there
are
no priests and no vocations."
I believe the laity is fed up with the pablum being fed from the pulpit.
They tell you one thing from the pulpit and practice something else in their
personal lives. When you hear so much of the paedophilia in the Catholic
Church, what "faith" is being sought by the clergy?
Senior Jesuit, Fr Emil D'Cruz, says that the number of vocations to the
priesthood and celibacy are two unconnected issues.doesn't the Senior
Jesuit D'Cruz
This is false. Why doesn't the "Senior Jesuit D'Cruz" elaborate on the
theme that vocations to the priesthood and celibacy are two unconnected
issues?
"If you allow priests to
marry, why do you assume the number of vocations will go up?" he asks. "I
don't think it will, not in the long term anyway.
You think? So it is just your assumption/presumption What is this
assumption/presumption based upon? When God created a male, did he enjoin
that he would be transformed into an eunuch once he became a priest?
If you want more people to
join the priesthood, why not consider allowing women priests?"
Why not? Are women inferior human beings?
The Jesuits, like many orders, are facing a shortage of vocations in a few
of
their provinces but, says Fr Emil, it would be difficult to havemarried
priests in India.
Pray Fr. Emil, tell us why...
