Married Catholic priests would ease shortage

By Roger Chesley
The Virginian-Pilot
November 3, 2007

God bless our overworked Roman Catholic priests. Their ranks keep thinning, the pews keep filling and dioceses across the nation are scrambling to meet the needs of the faithful.

Whether it's having one priest serve several "clustered" parishes, recruiting more permanent deacons, or increasing the roles of the laity, the Catholic Church hierarchy is struggling to find the right combination to minister to an ever-growing number of parishioners. Especially in this country, single Catholic men aren't seeking the often-austere, task-laden lives of the priesthood.

An article this week by The Pilot's Steven Vegh discussed the push by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond to boost the ranks of deacons, the ordained male clergy who can administer some sacraments but cannot do all the functions handled by priests. Deacons can be married.

A suggestion, one I've mentioned before: Allow married priests. (Though I'm a married Catholic, it's not something I'd seek personally.) A majority of U.S. Catholics favors the change, according to surveys.

I know, I know, the church is not a democracy. And the priest shortage in the United States is not as acute as in other countries, such as Mexico and in parts of Asia and Africa.

Nor am I referring to the handful of priests who were married when they converted from other faiths - mainly Episcopal or Lutheran - to Catholicism. They number only about 100, said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

But it's clear the Catholic Church needs additional help on the altar. In 1975, there were 58,900 diocesan and religious priests in the United States, according to the nonprofit Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. Today, there are 41,449. Meanwhile, the number of Catholics has exploded, from 48.7 million in 1975 to 64.4 million today.

Priests who have left the active ministry to marry, or those married Catholics who want the option of becoming priests, could do a great service for the faith. They would gain spiritually, and they could ease the workload of current priests.

At least the possibility of married priests was discussed two years ago, shortly after Pope Benedict XVI's tenure began, during the Synod of Bishops. The advisory body grappled with the worldwide priest shortage and whether celibacy was necessary.

In the end, church policy was not altered, but "the fact that [open discussion] even happened is significant," said James D. Davidson, sociology professor at Purdue University and one of four authors of the recently released book, "American Catholics Today."

"The idea to expand the pool of people eligible for the priesthood" has gained in intensity in recent decades, he told me by phone Thursday. "Catholics put a value on the sacrament. They see the decline of priests as a potential threat to their ability to get communion or last rites," also called anointing of the sick. Priests, not deacons, must administer the anointing and consecrate bread and wine for Holy Communion.

I might not see the change in my lifetime - the Catholic Church moves glacially. But married Catholic men should have the option of becoming priests.

Roger Chesley is associate editor of The Pilot's editorial page. Reach him at (757) 446-2329 or roger.chesley@pilotonline.com.

Don Sante - suspended "a divinis"

Yesterday's newspapers -- we're summarizing here from his hometown paper, Il Mattino di Padova -- brought the unfortunate news that Don Sante Sguotti has been completely suspended from all his priestly functions indefinitely by the bishop Mons. Antonio Mattiazzo. Don Sante is declining to appeal the suspension, describing this as a waste of time. Don Sante views the suspension as a merely bureaucratic step, not unexpected. "Nothing in my life has changed", he says, "I am still a priest." He continues to insist that his relationship with his lady friend has been chaste, that her baby is not his child biologically, and that the burden is on the Church to prove that he violated his celibacy vows. He maintains that he loves the woman and her child and does not see this statement as incompatible with being a priest.

Don Sante left the parish residence after 40 signatures (5% of the inhabitants of the community) were finally collected on a petition for his removal. The vast majority of the faithful continue to side with him.

Meanwhile Don Sante continues to work on a conference planned for November 16-18, "On the Road to Reconciliation" about the relationship of divorced, remarried and cohabiting Catholics to the Church.

Vanity Uncovered

The Suffering Servant

9x11 collage

In my vanity, I tried to collage a perfect face of Christ. I hoped for a Jesus with a beautifully serene expression and eyes full of love. Instead, after many tries and frustration, I ripped back the paper, and gave up. I waited some time, and when I finally gave myself permission to go back to the piece, there he was the Suffering Servant looking into my eyes. When I let go, and accepted my honest abilities, the process, and the outcome, I received more than I hoped for.
I feel that the Holy Spirit was guiding the creation of this picture.

Is it our vanity that tries to make the church perfect? Or is it the vanity of church leaders that causes them to turn their faces away from the real people who are battered and torn? The church was never meant to be a great imposing Vatican structure. The church was not meant to be a white robed pontiff floating around somewhere in a pope-mobile away form the people and sprinkling rose petals at Marian shrines. The church is certainly not red robed men who live in luxurious homes protecting their images by covering up abuses. The church is people with messy lives filled with battering and suffering. I believe that the Holy Spirit is trying to guide the church to accept, and serve all the people. All of us, married priest, wives and children of priest, illegitimate children of priests, and abandoned women who have loved a priest, all belong to the church.


Marcella Paliekara

http://dailypaintingsbmp.blogspot.com/ or email me at myvisionsandvoices@yahoo.com

Don Sante's new digs -- poor but free

Some photos showing how Don Sante's getting along since being kicked out of his parish home. Actually the photo series on his removal and the arrival of his successor, Don Brusegan, in Il Mattino di Padova is very interesting. Don Sante welcomes his succesor warmly and looks confident and slightly amused while Don Brusegan looks increasingly uncomfortable. The photos also show Don Brusegan celebrating Mass with very few parishioners in contrast to a packed parish meeting with Don Sante. Don Sante's new digs -- labeled Chiesa Cattolica dei Peccatori on the outside -- are spartan but judging from the other photo with his supporters, he's a happy man. Don Sante is asking the Pope for dispensation from his celibacy vow but wants to remain a priest.

Speaking out in Spain

Wonderful article from El Mercantil Valenciano, 10-24-2007. English translation below:

Un cura de Girona pide en la hoja parroquial que los sacerdotes puedan casarse

El cura de la parroquia del Carme de Manresa, Màrius Masoliver, pide en el suplemento de la hoja diocesana de esta semana que los sacerdotes puedan casarse y también la igualdad entre los hombres y las mujeres en el seno de la iglesia. Unas peticiones revolucionarias teniendo en cuenta que el obispado de Vic no pertenece a las tendencias progresistas de la Iglesia.

Masoliver da estos consejos al obispo, esperando que tenga el «coraje decidido y valiente» de hacer estas propuestas a Roma «con la actitud y el convencimiento de los auténticos profetas de siempre y sin miedo». Sobre la primera, el sacerdote pide «comprensión» por la opción personal de escoger el sacerdocio no célibe, ya que asegura que «son dos realidades que no siempre han ido juntas» y que no seria un « obstáculo» desde el punto de vista teológico.

Según el cura Màrius Masoliver, sería bueno que el sacerdote pudiera escoger «con plena libertad de espíritu, entre una de las tres opciones: celibato, matrimonio o soltería» .

Con igual contundencia asegura que no se ha de continuar situando el papel de la mujer en segundo término y que «es menester una reconsideración real y práctica» de esta igualdad, «incluido el acceso al ministerio» .

ENGLISH:

A pastor in Girona asks in the parish newsletter for priests to be allowed to marry

In the supplement to this week's diocesan newsletter, Màrius Masoliver, the pastor of Carme de Manresa parish, has called for priests to be allowed to marry and also for equality of men and women within the Church. These are revolutionary demands given that the bishop of Vic does not belong to the progressive wing of the Church.

Masoliver is giving this advice to the bishop, hoping that he will have the "decisive and valiant courage" to carry these proposals to Rome "with the attitude and conviction of the authentic prophets of all time and without fear". On the first question, the priest calls for "understanding" for a personal option of choosing non-celibate priesthood, since he states that "they are two separate situations that have not always gone together", and that there would be no "obstacle" from a theological perspective.

According to Father Màrius Masoliver, it would be good if the priest could choose "with complete spiritual freedom between three options: celibacy, marriage, and single life."

With equal force, he asserts that the role of women should not continue to be second place and this equality requires a real and practical reconsideration, including access to the ministry.

Where are All Our Letters?

Joan Of Arc, One Betrayed and Abandoned By The Church

I contacted this site long ago and asked where all the women married to priest were, and where were their voices. I did not get any answer. Reading the article “Fala Brazil! An Open Letter to Pope Benedict XVI” renewed my question. Good for these committed Catholics in Brazil. Where is our (concerned Catholics of the U.S.A.) letter to sign to send to Pope Benedict XVI?

I am a woman married to a priest who longs to be reconciled with the church. If I knew of a way to contact all the children, wives, and relatives of married priests, who were forced to make a choice between the priesthood and marriage, I would ask them to write a letter. I would ask them to write about how being a child, or a wife to these men has impacted their lives. I would ask them to write about how they feel that their father or husband would have to abandon them in order to be reconciled with the church. How would a choice such as this impact their lives? What do they long for, and maybe more importantly, what do they fear? What are the lives like of illegitimate children and women who have lived in the shadows abandoned because of a priest’s choice? I would include pictures of everyone along with signatures.

What a dreamer I am, but it would be great to have a group of these people go to the Vatican and present the letters. Let the pope look into their faces and say, "no, you are not going to be recognized, or reconciled", and turn them away. It is easy for the church to ignore people when they are signatures on a piece of paper, but a real face of a child, a wife, or a mother may have a greater impact.

I would be willing to do what I could to organize, write, contact, or what ever else it would take to get a letter together. You can find out more about me and reach me through my blog http://dailypaintingsbmp.blogspot.com/ or email me at myvisionsandvoices@yahoo.com .
Marcella Paliekara

Fala Brasil!: An Open Letter to Pope Benedict XVI

The following letter about married priesthood and Church reform written by 110 committed Catholic lay men and women in Brazil was published in Folha de S. Paolo on 9/28/2007 with an introduction signed by Carlos Alberto Roma, a former Franciscan seminarian. The text of the original in Portuguese can also be found here.

I want to add that it's interesting how lately the issues of priestly celibacy and the participation of divorced and remarried Catholics in the Eucharist have been united in the struggles for church reform around the world. This is one more example. And, by the way, the link mentioned at the end of this letter doesn't work.

As lay Catholics, our disatisfaction with the insensitivity of the hierarchy of our Church – that is, the Vatican – is growing.

The basic problem is the explicit lack of courage to take the necessary steps towards moving the Church into the 21st century, especially opening it to lay people.

We are taking a theological formation course. We are 110 lay people. After reflecting on Jesus’ courage and actions in the face of the religion of his time – using Br. Carlos Mesters’ book “Com Jesus na Contramão” as a basic text – we have decided to draft a letter to Pope Benedict XVI and the entire Roman Curia:

We are ever more motivated to serve God through our Church. In spite of this, we are suffering a lot because successive priests who function in our parish have a serious problem: As much as they try to motivate the young men of today, they are not inspired to enter seminary to serve as priests. We have also noted this problem in the old continent and have found that the situation there is even more dire.

We lay people ask forgiveness for daring to send this letter directly to Your Holiness, without going through the proper channels. It’s a very delicate matter and local [church] authorities do not have permission to discuss it. We are asking for this discussion to begin. During our Sunday celebrations, we have asked brothers and sisters in the parish and have found that over 95% understand that the Church needs to take new steps.

Brazil has the lowest ratio of Catholic priests in the world, according to the Centro de Estadística Religiosa e Investigações Sociais. Whereas in Brazil there are 18,685 priests (1 for every 10,000 people), in Italy there is 1 for every 1,000. In [the rest of] Latin America, the problem is also obvious. Argentina has 1 priest for every 6,800 people, and in Colombia there is 1 for every 5,600 people. The average for Mexico – the second most Catholic country in the world – is the one that comes closest to Brazil’s: 1 priest for every 9,700 people.

With the huge scarcity of priests, confirmed by studies in every country in the world, we are asking ourselves: why not admit married men and women into the priesthood and readmit married priests into service in the Church?

We know there have been 39 married Popes historically. The first was Peter the Apostle (Luke 4:38-39).

According to research by the Centro de Estadística Religiosa e Investigações Sociais (CERIS) published 1/31/06, there are about 5,000 married priests in Brazil who cannot exercise their ministry. Most of these men feel the vocation to the priesthood beating strongly in their hearts. Isn’t this an act of violence against the Lord of Life who sent missionaries for the labor?

Catholic priests were permitted to marry in the first millenium of the Christian era. It was the first two Lateran Councils in 1123 and 1139 that instituted priestly celibacy and abolished marriage for priests. The current times call us to make a courageous review and change our paradigms. We are asking Your Holiness to create a commission that also includes lay men and women to study and resolve four issues:

1) The development of two models of priesthood: a) celibate and b) married, with specific canonical norms for each state.

2) The development of a female priesthood with two modalities: a) celibate and b) married with specific norms for each state.

3) The reintegration of married men who still have a vocation into service in the Church.

4) Review the problem of Christians in second marriages and their participation in the Eucharist.

With respect to the above reflections, we feel called to an egalitarian participation in the journey of Church life, especially its future. We want to express our thoughts and expectations, stating that it is essential that the Church hierarchy hear our cry.

Will the hierarchy of our Catholic Church continue to be indifferent? Or will it be open to the Holy Spirit and step up? We cannot go backwards anymore in this debate. Are we perhaps lacking “ecclesial will” or “political decisiveness”?

We are proposing that all the cardinals, bishops, priests and lay people who work in the pastoral movements initiate this debate in their areas and have a thorough discussion of the issues above. Our group of lay people has a Web page:

www.softline.com.br/leigoscatolicosnacontramao

We invite all lay people who feel prophetic strength into this debate.

Vatican Official Insists He's Not Gay

We're hesitating between "no comment" and "oh, puhleeze!"....

by Nicole Winfield
Associated Press
10/14/2007

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican official suspended after being caught on hidden camera making advances to a young man says he is not gay and was only pretending to be gay as part of his work.

In an interview published Sunday, Monsignor Tommaso Stenico told La Repubblica daily he frequented online gay chat rooms and met with gay men as part of his work as a psychoanalyst. He said that he pretended to be gay in order to gather information about "those who damage the image of the Church with homosexual activity."

Vatican teaching holds that gays and lesbians should be treated with compassion and dignity but that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."

The Vatican said Saturday it was suspending Stenico after he was secretly filmed making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful during a television program on gay priests broadcast Oct. 1 on La7, a private Italian television network.

While Stenico's face was blurred in the footage, church officials recognized his Vatican office in the background and suspended him pending a church investigation.

There have long been allegations that there are gays in the Roman Catholic priesthood, but the Stenico case is unusual because he is a relatively high-ranking Vatican official. He heads an office in the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy — the main office overseeing all the world's priests.

The case comes at a particularly sensitive time, just two years after the Vatican issued tough new guidelines effectively barring gays from the priesthood — seen in large part as a response to complaints about a "gay subculture" in U.S. seminaries.

The guidelines say the church cannot admit men to the priesthood who practice homosexuality, or have "deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support so-called gay culture." However, the document said that if the gay tendencies were just a "transitory problem," the men can be ordained deacons if they successfully overcome those tendencies for three years.

In the Repubblica interview, Stenico said he had never been gay and was heterosexual, but remained faithful to his vow of celibacy. He said he expected to be fully exonerated after a review.

"It's all false; it was a trap. I was a victim of my own attempts to contribute to cleaning up the church with my psychoanalyst work," La Repubblica quoted Stenico as saying.

Stenico said he had met with the young man and pretended to talk about homosexuality "to better understand this mysterious and faraway world which, by the fault of a few people — among them some priests — is doing so much harm to the church," La Repubblica quoted him as saying.

Italy's Sky TG24 said Stenico had written a letter to his superiors with a similar defense.

Calls placed to Stenico's home and office went unanswered Sunday.

In 2006, the Vatican denied Italian newspaper reports that an official in the office of the Secretary of State had been involved in a fight with police after he was stopped in a neighborhood frequented by transvestites and male prostitutes.

In 2002, a former official in the papal household, Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, resigned as archbishop of the Polish city of Poznan over accusations that he had made sexual advances toward young clerics. He denied the accusations.

Married priests and pensions

Meanwhile from Manizales, Colombia, comes this interesting story courtesy of La Patria (10/7/2007). Titled "Es papá, y dos veces sacerdote" ("A father and twice a priest") it tells the story of Bernardo Pino Ocampo (photo).

Fr. Ocampo was ordained to the priesthood in the Catholic Church in 1988 and served in a number of parishes and academic institutions. He was also spiritual director of the local Cursillo movement. He fell in love with a woman and they had a daughter.

In April of this year, having grown tired of living a double life, he left the Catholic priesthood and married the mother of his 7-year old daughter. In the article he says he knows of many other priests who have children, some by several different women. He says: “Soy uno de los que propongo celibato opcional. Soy sacerdote hasta la eternidad, pues el sacerdocio es divino. Me retiro del ejercicio público, pero sigo siendo sacerdote. Descubrí que puedo amar a mi esposa, a mi hija y a la Iglesia. Eso es posible” ("I am one of those who proposes optional celibacy. I am a priest forever, because the priesthood is divine. I have retired from public practice but I continue to be a priest. I found that I was able to love my wife, my daughter, and the Church. This is possible.")

This month, Fr. Ocampo was admitted to the priesthood of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Latin America along with another former Roman Catholic priest who has children, Helio de Jesús López Soto. This Church follows the Roman rite and most Catholic teachings but is not under the Vatican and it admits married men and women to the priesthood.

But Fr. Ocampo has unfinished business with his former employer. He has gone to court to claim the pension he believes he should receive from the Archdiocese of Manizales for his many years of service. The Church is denying him a pension saying that this is only granted to priests who retire while still in the Roman Catholic priesthood.

At the end of the article, La Patria publishes various comments from citizens about the Ocampo case. Most support his appeal for a pension and the option of a married priesthood. "Deberían pagarles porque están cumpliendo una labor, y más que se trata de las cosas de Dios." ("They should pay them because they are performing a job, and more because we're talking about works of God.") "Sí, deberían estar casados porque desde el principio la familia fue constituida por Dios; no dijo hombre y mujer sola, jamás. Según el Nuevo Testamento un sacerdote debe ser esposo de una sola mujer, con hijos bien criados." ("Yes, they should be married because the family was created by God from he beginning; He did not say man or woman alone. Never. According to the New Testament, a priest should be the husband of only one woman, with well brought-up children.")

Stay tuned...

Out...and out...at the Vatican

By David Willey
BBC News, Rome
10/13/2007

The Vatican has confirmed local newspaper reports that a high-ranking Catholic priest has been suspended.

The man, who works in the department in charge of clergy around the world, appeared on Italian TV earlier this month admitting that he was gay.

The unnamed prelate or monsignor was suspended pending further investigations, said chief Vatican spokesman Father Frederico Lombari.

Monsignor is the title normally given to senior Vatican officials.

Father Lombardi said that although the case was being treated as confidential, the priest had clearly acted in a way that was incompatible with his status inside the world headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

The unnamed prelate appears to have acted ingenuously by appearing on an investigative programme about gay priests on an Italian commercial TV channel.

He allowed a TV camera to film him inside his private office in the Vatican. Although his voice was disguised, colleagues and friends easily identified him as a monsignor who frequently used to appear as anchorman and even celebrate mass on a well known local Catholic TV channel.

The monsignor told his interviewer that he did not regard himself as being in a state of sin because of his homosexual activities but was forced to keep them secret because of the church's teaching on the subject.

The Vatican rarely comments on sexual scandal involving priests and the prompt admission of this priest's suspension is unusual.

NOTE: For those who read Italian, a more detailed account is available from La Repubblica or L'Unita. Although these newspapers give only the initials of the self-outed cleric, the combined biographical data and screen shots from the "Exit" TV program lead here. Thank you for your courage, brother T.S., and don't forget these words from your own site:

Sotto la Tua protezione
ci rifugiamo,
santa Madre di Dio.

Non respingere le preghiere
che Ti rivolgiamo
nelle nostre necessità,
ma liberaci da tutti i pericoli,
Vergine gloriosa e benedetta.

Don Sante é mio padre

"Don Sante é mio padre" ("Don Sante is my father") read the t-shirts of many young people in the tiny Italian parish of Monterosso. And Don Sante is fighting orders for his removal as pastor solely due to his profession of love for a woman parishioner and the still unresolved question of whether he is or is not the father of her child.

Don Sante and his supporters have started a Web site, http://www.chiesacattolicadeipeccatori.it/, to tell their side of the story. It leads with a wonderful Flash movie illustrating Don Sante's point that only those without sin should cast the first stone. One segment of the new Web site -- Out from the Shadows -- is particularly interesting. Don Sante is keeping track of how many communications he has received of priests and women (and sometimes men) confessing their love for each other; others telling incidents of pedophilia, sexual abuse, and fathering of children by priests. The idea is to reveal what the Vatican had hoped to keep hidden, in the belief that through solidarity and openness, change will have to come.

Don Sante has stated that he will fight for the right of his parishioners to choose who will be their pastor and that he will continue to be their "moral pastor" regardless of who is officially presiding in the parish. This statement seems to be validated by news accounts that Mass attendance has been scant since Don Sante was forced out.

Don Sante is also fighting for the right of separated, cohabitating, divorced and remarried Catholics to be in full communion with the Church.

Priest Who Declares Love for Woman Removed

Don Sante's case gets stranger and stranger. He can celebrate Mass but he can't hear confessions??

Associated Press
10/9/2007

PADUA, Italy (AP) — An Italian priest who publicly declared his love for a woman has lost his job, the diocese said Tuesday.

The Rev. Sante Sguotti can no longer work as pastor in his Monterosso parish and cannot hear confessions from the faithful, the diocese of Padua said in a statement. Sguotti remains a priest and can celebrate Mass, however.

Sguotti made headlines in August when he went on national television to say he was in love with a woman and wanted to be her boyfriend publicly while remaining chaste.

The case reignited the debate over priestly celibacy, particularly because the woman in question has a young son, whom Sguotti said he had helped name. He dodged direct questions about whether he was the boy's father, saying only that he cannot have a child according to church law.

Bishop Antonio Mattiazzo issued a decree on Monday removing Sguotti from his pastoral duties, saying he was doing so because Sguotti "had been linked for some time to a woman and had asked for a dispensation to go out with her."

Men in the Eastern rite of the Catholic church who are married can become priests, and the Vatican has accepted into the priesthood some married Anglican priests who converted to Catholicism.

But the Vatican has constantly refused to relax the celibacy requirement for Latin rite priests. The Vatican reaffirmed that last November, when Pope Benedict XVI convened a summit of clergy who rebuffed a crusade by Emmanuel Milingo, the renegade Zambian archbishop who was excommunicated last year after marrying a woman and launching a campaign for the Vatican to allow priests to marry.

Married priests, Conservative views

This posting on the Commonweal magazine blog (9/11/2007) by David Gibson is very interesting. It essentially confirms what we already know about the Pastoral Provision -- that while it is a foot in the door for a married priesthood (which is why I blog perhaps excessively about it), it is also moving the Catholic Church more firmly into the socially conservative camp. The counterpoint to this is that our more liberal priests are becoming married priests too...in the Episcopal Church. I think it is so ironic that these Pastoral Provision guys oppose a married priesthood. Perhaps they regret being married???

D. Paul Sullins, a sociologist at Catholic University of America and himself a married priest-convert from the Episcopal Church, has a new survey of married convert-priests that shows they are generally as conservative as we suspected--only more so. As summarized in the September issue of ReligionWatch (not yet on-line), Sullins' survey of many of the 70 married men who have become priests in the U.S. since 1980 under the Vatican's special exception shows that they are consistently more conservative on sexuality issues than celibate priests. Some 84 percent of convert-priests said sex before marriage is "always" a sin, as opposed to 57 percent of other priests, and 89 percent said homosexual behavior is always sinful, versus just over half of other priests.

Interestingly, married convert-priests were far more likely than other priests--61 versus 29 percent--to oppose allowing priests to marry. Hypocrisy, some may say. Or maybe they know something we don't? Also, a whopping 97 percent of the converts describe themselves as "somewhat" or "very" conservative, versus under 30 percent of celibate priests who self-identify as conservative. Also, married convert-priests are more likely than other priests to view ordination as giving them "a distinct and permanent status in the church" (92 v. 77 percent).

Something tells me this story is more about conversion than optional celibacy.

Eden Prairie woman ordained as priest

I normally don't blog about the women's ordination movement but this woman's story and perspective is interesting.

By John Molene, Correspondent
Prior Lake American
September 28, 2007

A mild-mannered former librarian, former nun and self-described “cradle Catholic,” Judith McKloskey is an unlikely looking revolutionary.

Judith McKloskey (l) at ceremony with Patricia Fresen and Alice Marie Iaquinta

But in mid-August, in a controversial ceremony in Minneapolis, she officially became one.

The Eden Prairie resident and another woman say they were ordained into the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. It’s a claim church officials vigorously dispute, but one the women and their supporters deeply believe.

Some 60 women in the United States, and many others outside of the U.S., have been ordained in similar ceremonies.

The Roman Catholic Church as a whole, church law and traditions, and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis specifically, say that only baptized males can be ordained.

“[The Church] holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons,” wrote Pope John Paul II in 1994. “These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his church.”

Dennis McGrath, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, echoed that statement.

“The Roman Catholic church continues to hold — as it has for centuries — based on the example of Jesus himself, that only men may be ordained into the priesthood, so that any ‘ordination ceremony’ is not valid, in spite of their claims,” said McGrath.

The women’s argument that women were ordained as priests in the early days of Christianity also doesn’t hold water, McGrath said. And even if they did, McGrath argued, “so what?”

“The church’s stance on the subject of female ordination has been clear for centuries — it is not permitted,” he said. “It’s not really a valid argument.”

Despite such pronouncements, McKloskey believes she was indeed ordained a Catholic priest.

“In all good faith I believe my ordination was valid,” said the 60-year-old McKloskey.

The women’s ordination movement first gained public notoriety in 2002 when seven women were ordained on a boat on a river in Austria. The “Danube Seven,” were subsequently excommunicated by the Catholic Church. None of the women since ordained has been officially excommunicated, although it has been threatened for several.

With the shortage of male priests growing, many Catholics feel the church will eventually allow women to become priests. A recent Associated Press poll found that 60 percent of U.S. Catholics think women should be ordained.

“All I know is the movement [to allow the ordination of women] is growing rapidly,” said McKloskey.

The Minnesota ordination ceremony — the second in the state following one in Red Wing in 2006 — was organized by Roman Catholic Womenpriests, a group of communities in the United States, Canada and Europe representing an initiative within the church to ordain women without the blessing of Rome. The group’s bishops, including both men and women, have ordained about 25 women as priests since 2002 and another eight as deacons, including the two in Minneapolis on Aug. 12.

A Web site for Roman Catholic Womenpriests notes that more than 130 people — including a few men — are now either clergy or candidates in their preparation program, and that 80 of those are from the United States.

The group advocates changes in the church far beyond women’s ordination, calling for a church that would be “non-hierarchical and non-clerical.”

McKloskey has been advocating for women priests ever since she discovered in fourth grade that girls couldn’t be altar servers. A longtime member of the Women’s Ordination Conference, she has been active in Women’s Worship Circle and Never On Sunday, a group studying lectionary references to Biblical women.

McKloskey attended a Catholic high school and college and managed library networks and religious organizations earlier in her career. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Dayton and a master’s degree in library science from Case Western Reserve. After college, she felt drawn to a religious life and became a member of the Marianist nuns.

“I thought my call was to be a nun, and the vocational call was secondary,” McKloskey said.

That experiment ended in the late 1960s. “I concluded celibacy wasn’t really my bag,” she said.

She switched gears, going to graduate school and then working in libraries and moving to Minnesota to help a hospital set up a library. In Minnesota she met and married her husband Dan Shaw, a pediatric dentist.

Active in parish ministry for many years, Judith prays with several small faith communities, including a national Marianist Lay Community, which has been gathering for retreats since the 1960s. While continuing her theological studies, she has served as a hospice volunteer and a gatherer and encourager of those who hear calls to ministry.

She has been a member and a lay parish minister at Pax Christi in Eden Prairie, and at one time ran the church’s national office for the National Association of Lay Ministers.

On Jan. 9, 1994, however, McKloskey said she had an epiphany. On that day she discerned she should become a priest.

“I look back on that now as my private ordination,” she said. “It was so clear, so specific. It changed my life. Every day since then I’ve lived as a priest in every way I could. It’s turned my life upside down. It made it clear that this was my call from the beginning.”

A lifelong Catholic, McKloskey well knew she was swimming against church orthodoxy.

“It was the forbidden dream in my church, and I was a compliant and loyal member,” she said.

McKloskey and others would argue that women were ordained as deacons, priests and bishops in the early days of the Catholic Church. Evidence exists of women bishops and until at least the ninth century, the church gave women the full sacramental ordination of deacons, they say. Women priests existed in the West during the fourth and fifth centuries, according to Roman Catholic Womenpriests.

Far from being revolutionary, McKloskey views the women-as-priests movement as a return to the earliest traditions of the church.

“I see it as we’re returning to the way Christianity was lived in the early days,” she said.

With the decline in male priests reaching critical mass in many parts of the world, McKloskey also believes the time is right for church leaders to consider ordaining women.

“I ask that question all the time,” she said. “Especially with women who have been serving. There is no priest shortage — only a shortage of recognition in priestly service. And it’s not funny anymore because they’re closing parishes right and left.

“We believe all baptized people are called to a common priesthood,” McKloskey said. “Priests are culled from within the community to serve the community and not to dominate the community of faith.

She also believes time is on her side. “In 100 years, people will be asking, ‘What was the fuss about?’”

She added: “We believe God calls women. That our baptism gives us the right and responsibility to God and Jesus ... and that our physical appearance doesn’t really matter.”

She will minister to those who ask for her guidance.

“I will do that when people approach me and when a community invites me,” she said.

McKloskey lives in Eden Prairie with her husband. The couple has one adult daughter.

She no longer is a member of Pax Christi, or indeed any recognized parish, choosing instead to worship and pray with several small communities.

“I stopped because of the women’s issue,” she said. “Many, many people from Pax Christi can accept me. But officially they [church leaders] would consider me outside the bounds.”

Despite her obvious disagreement with current church teachings on ordination of women, McKloskey considers herself a practicing and faithful Catholic. She certainly has no plans to convert to any denomination that does allow women priests. Even excommunication wouldn’t shake her beliefs, she said.

“Yes, I’m a faithful Roman Catholic,” she said. “And yes, the sacraments are very important to me. A piece of paper wouldn’t do it.”

And in the North, the priest shortage continues...

Also from Canada, we want to share this excerpt from an article by Ramon Gonzalez on Bishop Denis Croteau of the Mackenzie-Fort Smith diocese, Western Catholic Herald, 9/24/2007:

...One of the biggest challenges for Croteau is that he has never had enough priests to minister to the nearly 20,000 Catholics in the diocese. So how has he managed? With the help of some volunteer priests from the South and a lot of help from the laity.

In the mid-1990s Croteau made a national case out of the fact he only had a half-dozen aging priests to cover Mackenzie, the world's largest diocese geographically with 1.5 million square km and 40 parishes and missions. He got a few priests from the South and some dioceses committed themselves to man certain parishes.

But it was never enough, so at one point he divided the diocese in five regions and appointed a priest in each region. Some regions have seven or eight missions so the priest goes one Sunday here, the other Sunday there. When the priest is not there, the lay people run the service.

When Croteau came north in 1960 the diocese had 62 priests, but that number declined steadily over the years.

After his plea for help, he reached 10 priests, then eight. Today he has seven, including two diocesan priests he recently ordained, a former Anglican pastor and a priest from Nigeria.

Educating the laity in the art of running parishes and missions on their own has always been one of Croteau's main priorities. To make it happen, he built a spirituality centre 11 km out of Yellowknife called Trappers Lake soon after he became a bishop. The goal is to give Christian formation and discover possible leaders.

"So we have given sessions of all kinds in the last 20 years, I would say - in Bible, in leadership, in liturgy, in Church music and in healing," Croteau said.

"The diocese has spent a lot of money and a lot of effort trying to develop the religious leadership among the native people. That's been the big challenge."

As a result of Croteau's efforts, today in Mackenzie, lay people are basically in charge, leading services, giving Communion, marrying and burying people.

The diocese is said to have a list of almost 20 people, mostly women, who can perform weddings, funerals and Baptisms. They serve communities such as Norman Wells, Fort Simpson, Fort Providence, Deline, Tulita and Fort Good Hope.

"I think his main contribution to the Church in the North has been educating the people, the church workers," Loomis said. "He is always updating us."

One reason native people don't line up to become priests is the celibacy requirement. "In the native culture family is extremely important and to sacrifice family is not very easy for the native people to do," Croteau said. "So I don't think we'll ever get a big number of native vocations."...

Married man ordained a priest for Victoria diocese

By Jeff Graham
The B.C. Catholic
September 24, 2007

Photo: Father Dean Henderson blesses his son Dominic after his ordination at St. Andrew’s Cathedral.

"How can you be a married man and a Catholic priest?" is a question Father Dean Henderson is asked frequently. Father Henderson, ordained this summer by Bishop Richard Gagnon for the Diocese of Victoria, is married to wife Linda and has four children, and is a former Anglican minister.

"It's exceptional," said Father Henderson about being a married priest. "It's complicated, and it's impossible apart from the grace of God and the approval of both the bishop and the Holy Father."

For Father Henderson, complicated has been the best word to describe the process of becoming a married Catholic priest. His application had to go all the way to Rome for evaluation, and in it was a 13-piece dossier of information to demonstrate satisfactory theological and liturgical knowledge, along with a comprehensive psychological assessment.

There are important conditions placed on Father Henderson, the most notable being that he is excluded from "the ordinary care of souls," which he says essentially means that he is "not meant to be a parish pastor."

Instead of being the pastor of a parish, Father Henderson is an assistant at St. Andrew's Cathedral and the Pastoral Care Co-ordinator at Mount St. Mary Hospital. He said those two postings have kept him on his toes so far, and he explained he is "both busier and happier than I can express."

Father Henderson's ordination is just another plot twist in God's plan for his life and the life of his family.

"In 1999, after a lengthy process of thought, prayer, study, and discussion, my family and I were received into full communion with the Catholic Church at Christ the King Parish in Courtenay. What makes my story of ongoing Christian conversion somewhat different from the other candidates and catechumens in RCIA programs throughout the diocese is that I was an ordained Anglican minister in active ministry on Vancouver Island."

The precedent for ordaining married former Anglican ministers goes back to 1980, when Pope John Paul II granted the bishops of the United States approval to ordain married former Anglican ministers who had entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. In 1986 Canadian bishops were given similar permission.

Although he is married, Father Henderson has deep admiration and reverence for priestly celibacy. "I would like to especially acknowledge the diocesan priests whom I join in a unique way," he told his brother priests after his ordination in Victoria. "Thank you for your example of holy self-offering in a society that needs your Christ-like witness of joyful and sacrificial celibate life."

Father Henderson also recognizes the role his wife and children will play in his priestly ministry, and is thankful for the role they played in helping him get to where he is today.

"My own family obviously shares in this exceptional sacrament in a special way," he said. "Without the support of Linda, with whom I share the sacrament of marriage, I would not be here."

And Spain stays busy...

In the Archdiocese of Oviedo, an Asturian pastor has been separated from his parish when it was discovered that he had a woman partner and son. However, the Vicar General, Fr. Juan Antonio Menéndez, was careful to explain to the press that paternity was not the determining factor in the decision. "Por tener un hijo no se aparta a un sacerdote del ministerio sacerdotal. No está bien, pero no es la causa. Sí lo es el mantener una relación estable con una mujer, ya que va contra la promesa del celibato." ("One does not separate a priest from his priestly ministry for having a child. It's not good, but it's not the reason. What is a reason is maintaining a stable relationship with a woman, which goes againt the promise of celibacy.")

So an unstable relationship would be preferable??? It's more acceptable for the child to be brought into an UNSTABLE family situation? Dios guarda!

Anyway, the father has been given time off to reflect on his choices.

Meanwhile, five Mallorcan priests have recently asked for dispensation in the last couple of years -- all but one in order to get married...And, according to sources quoted in the article, "if celibacy were optional, half of all laicizations would not occur."

The Irish ask: "Should priests be allowed marry and raise a family?"

Carlow People
Wednesday September 12 2007

Twenty years ago, the Parish Priest was the backbone of every Catholic parish in Ireland. His position of power made him a figure to be revered and respected.

But the Emerald Isle in the late 20th century had a rapidly changing society, one that would change even further when the foundations of the Catholic Church were shaken by an onslaught of scandal.

Revelations that two darlings of the people, Bishop Eamonn Casey and Fr. Michael Cleary, both had relationships with women and both fathered children furthered damaged the people's faith in the Catholic institution.

This issue of whether priests should adhere to their vows of celibacy was re-ignited last week with the showing of RTE 1's programme, At Home With The Clearys', which showed footage of Fr. Cleary's bizarre home life.

So, should priests adhere to their vows as they're supposed to? Or should they be allowed to marry and raise a family?

Olivia Jenkinson points out that marriage and family life wouldn't take away from a priest's duties to his parishioners.

There are plenty of men out there who have good faith, who could get married and still be a good priest,' she reasons. It's human nature, men are men. Look at the 12 apostles, they were married. Eventually it'll be that women will have to be the priests.'

Eileen O'Leary was upset by RTE's programme about Fr. Michael Cleary. To her, he was a man who wanted everything.'

I was sick looking at that programme,' she told the Carlow People. I think it's awful that he didn't recognise his son, Ross.'

Eighteen-year-old, Thomas Hickey, is of an age where he has only ever seen scandal in the Catholic Church.

The church needs to reform itself to attract the younger people,' he says. if it modernised itself and allowed priests to be married, they'd get a lot more respect.'

The notion of celebacy for Tina Fennelly in the first place isn't natural' and she, too, thinks that marriage could only add to a priest's life.

A priest's job is like any other,' Tina says. A good settled background would only add to it.'

Raymond Mahon is a father himself and he argues that if priests were allowed to marry, the church wouldn't be in the crisis that it's in now about falling numbers of vacations.

If they were allowed to marry, we'd have a lot more priests here in Ireland,' he speculates. The way it is now is that if a priest wants a relationship, then he has to leave the church. That puts a lot of pressure on them.'

Not allowing priests to get married causes more problems than if they were allowed to have sexual relationships, according to Jenny Sheil.

It just creates problems if they don't marry,' Jenny explains. Any trouble in the past, like (sexual) abuse, has stemmed from the current situation where they're not allowed to marry. It's just too old fashioned. A priest should be allowed to have a private life.'

The final word on the subject goes back to Thomas Hickey.

Raising a family is one of the most God-given things in the world to do,' he concludes. I don't see why priests should be denied that.'

The Curia: "We're shocked, shocked..."

(We're not, not...)

Dominicans surprised at Dutch proposal for priestless Masses
By Carol Glatz
9/19/2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The general curia of the Dominicans expressed surprise over a booklet published by its order in the Netherlands recommending that laypeople be allowed to celebrate Mass when no ordained priests are available.

In a written statement released by the Vatican Sept. 18, the Dominicans' Rome-based leaders said that, while they "laud the concern of our brothers" over the shortage of priests, they did not believe "the solutions that they have proposed are beneficial to the church nor in harmony with its tradition."

The statement, dated Sept. 4, acknowledged the Dutch Dominicans' concerns about the shortage of vocations to the priesthood and the difficulty in offering the faithful in the Netherlands a wider celebration of the Eucharist.

But while the statement said Dominican leaders shared those same concerns it said they did "not believe that the method they (Dutch Dominicans) have used in disseminating" a booklet to all 1,300 parishes in the Netherlands was an appropriate way to discuss the issue.

An open dialogue about the availability of the Eucharist and the priestly ministry should be carried out through a "careful theological and pastoral reflection with the wider church and the Dominican order," the statement said.

"The booklet published by our Dutch brothers was a surprise to the general curia of the Dominican order," it said.

In late August, the Dominicans in the Netherlands distributed a 38-page booklet, "Church and Ministry," that proposed parishes in need of an ordained priest choose their own person to become the Mass presider. The parish could then present such candidates -- "women or men, homo- or heterosexual, married or single" -- to the local bishop to ask that they be ordained, according to the booklet's summary on the Dutch Dominicans' Web site.

However, basing its recommendation on practices within the early church, the booklet said if the bishop chooses not to ordain the candidate -- for example, because the person cannot meet the requirements of celibacy -- then the elected candidate and the congregation could speak the words of the consecration together.

"What is important is an infectious attitude of faith," the booklet said.

Because of the priest shortage in the Netherlands, some parishes have a Liturgy of the Word and a Communion service with preconsecrated hosts. In some cases, local church officials advise Catholics to drive to a nearby parish that has a priest.

In an interview posted on the Dutch Dominicans' Web site, Dominican Father Harrie Salemans, one of the booklet's authors, said: "The church is organized around priests and finds the priesthood more important than local faith communities. ... This is deadly for local congregations."

The issue of priestly celibacy and the potential role of married priests came up at the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in late 2005. Both synod participants and Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the obligation of celibacy for priests in the Latin rite.

The pope's 2007 apostolic exhortation, "Sacramentum Caritatis" ("The Sacrament of Charity"), and his special November 2006 meeting with top Vatican officials reaffirmed the value of priestly celibacy.

Dutch Dominicans call for laity to celebrate Mass

William Jurgensen

THE DOMINICAN Order in the Netherlands has issued a radical recommendation that lay ministers chosen by their congregations should be allowed to celebrate the Eucharist if no ordained priests are available.

In a booklet posted to all 1,300 parishes in the country, it says that the Church should drop its priest-centred model of the Mass in favour of one built around a community sharing bread and wine in prayer.

"Whether they are women or men, homo- or heterosexual, married or single, makes no difference. What is important is an infectious attitude of faith," said the brochure, which has been approved by the Dutch order's leaders. However, the Dutch bishops' conference promptly said that the booklet appeared to be "in conflict with the faith of the Roman Catholic Church". It said it had no prior knowledge of the project and needed to study the text further before issuing a full reaction.

The 38-page booklet, Kerk en Ambt ("Church and Ministry"), reflects the thinking of the Belgian-born Dominican theologian Fr Edward Schillebeeckx. In 1986 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger warned Fr Schillebeeckx that his views on the Eucharist and lay ministry were "erroneous" but took no action against him.

The booklet was written by four Dominicans including Fr André Lascaris, a theologian at the Dominican Study Centre for Theology and Society in Nijmegen. Fr Lascaris was involved in peace work for Northern Ireland from 1973 until 1992 and has published numerous articles and books on conflict, violence, forgiveness and reconciliation. The other authors are Fr Jan Nieuwenhuis, retired head of the Dominicus ecumenical centre in Amsterdam, Fr Harrie Salemans, a parish priest in Utrecht, and Fr Ad Willems, retired theology lecturer at Radboud University, Nijmegen.

The booklet says that many Dutch Catholics are frustrated that combining parishes and closing churches is the main response to the challenge of a dwindling clergy. "The Church is organised around priests and actually finds the priesthood more important than local faith communities," said Fr Salemans in an interview posted on the order's Dutch website. "This is deadly for local congregations."

Using the early Church as its model, the booklet said a congregation could choose its own lay minister to lead services. The minister and the congregation would speak the words of consecration together. "Speaking these words is not the exclusive right or power of the priest," the booklet said. "It is the conscious expression of faith by the whole congregation."

The ranks of Dutch Dominicans have thinned along with those of other clergy, and now number only 90 men. Since 2000 around 200 parishes in the Netherlands have been closed due to the lack of priests and the fall in church attendance.

Internet enhances traditional worship

By William Loeffler
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 9, 2007

Can we get an e-men?

Skeptics said that folks would never give out their credit card numbers to buy a pair of shoes on the Internet. Others sneered at the prospect of obtaining a college diploma from an online university.

With those realities as ho-hum as e-mail, could online churches be far behind? Will Catholics eventually confess their sins to a priest via videocam? Will Baptists log on for Sunday services?

Church authorities and some local parishioners say no. But with church attendance among young people declining, some Internet entrepreneurs and evangelists are stepping into the breach.

Many churches now host Web sites where parishioners can find Mass schedules, birth announcements, death notices, inspirational messages, even the "saint of the week." Web sites outside mainstream religions include www.rentapriest.com, which lists 300 married priests across the country who will perform wedding ceremonies for couples who can't be married in the Catholic church.

Then there's www.GodTube.com.

The nondenominational video-sharing site has received nearly 3 million visitors since its official Aug. 8 launch. GodTube.com claims more people visit the site on an average Sunday than attend the largest mega-church in America, televangelist Joel Osteen's 35,000-member Lakewood Church in Houston.

"The church is having difficulty reaching the 20- to 30- (year-old) generation," says founder Chris Wyatt, a former television producer who attends Dallas Theological Seminary. "They've kind of lost touch. They don't respond to direct mail as their parents did. They don't respond to e-mail solicitation. We created GodTube.com to cast a much larger net -- to speak the language, if you will, of the younger generation."

GodTube.com members can participate in video discussions of Christian theology or watch videos of Christian hip-hop. Video testimonials include that of a mother who was reunited with her estranged daughter. Point and click, and you can watch a video sermon from Crossroads Christian Fellowship in New Jersey or view a bible study in Mandarin Chinese.

"It's our hope that we will be holding regular bible study and services in a virtual environment," Wyatt says. "We'll even be having a video confessional."

Ken Barner, associate pastor at Crossroads Ministries/Library Baptist Church, an independent church in Finleyville, Washington County, has uploaded several videos to GodTube.com, including one of a missionary trip to Mexico. His church's Web site, www.crossroadsministries.com, also features links to GodTube.com.

"I believe that the church has to use the current means to communicate to the next generation," Barner says. "The church must choose its children over its traditions. Methods change, but our message doesn't."

The Rev. James Wehner, director of the St. Paul Seminary, understands the appeal of the Internet for those who might want to search outside the boundaries of traditional church teachings.

"They're interested in their belief in God, but they might have difficulty with institutional religion," Wehner says. "People are looking for an alternative way to practice their faith."

The Archdiocese of Pittsburgh has its own Web site that it uses to inform parishioners and spread the word of God. Former Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl used his Sunday morning television show for much the same purpose, Wehner says.

But the Internet is no substitute for the fellowship of church worship, Wehner says. A church is its people, after all.

"The Muslim, the Jew, the Christian -- all believe that God has revealed himself to the community," Wehner says. "To believe in God or worship apart from the community is a deficient approach to faith. Me sitting behind a computer trying to appeal to my desire to know God can be -- at least -- dangerous."

The Rev. Robert Lubic, 41, launched his own Web site, www.thepunkpriest.com, more than two years ago. Now pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Perryopolis, Lubic says he has counseled people via e-mail who click on the "Ask" link of his site. The questions range from matters of sex to church policy regarding tattoos. One 15-year-old correspondent was going to be baptized as a Christian but wanted to know more about the Catholic church. Lubic also has spoken with people via instant message.

"Sometimes there, you get people dealing with very delicate things," Lubic says. "They were happy with the anonymity of being behind the computer screen."

Visitors to his site will hear Christian rock bands, such as The Vandals, which covers the traditional church hymn "Here I Am, Lord."

"People do ask from time to time if they can get a confession over the Internet," Lubic says. "I say, 'No, can't do that,' because ... the church emphasizes the importance of human interaction. Even if you're behind a so-called screen, it's a physical interaction."

Megan Boerio, 21, of Latrobe, will begin her senior year at the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland. She grew up attending Holy Family Parish and now attends Mass at St. Paul Cathedral.

"I'm not surprised," she says about the creation of GodTube.com. "You can find anything online right now. Half of what you can find online right now you can't trust, either."

She says she can't see genuflecting in front of a computer.

"I think that some people feel that it could be a replacement," Boerio says. "People already go online instead of actually going physically to school."

GodTube's Wyatt, himself a Baptist, says he wants to use GodTube.com to steer people back to the physical church.

"It really is no substitute for the community of church," Wyatt says. "What we're trying to do is reach the young generation using the tools they understand."

And the winner is Amore by 200-17!

This story gets curiouser and curiouser...and, for the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that in the Italian press the jury is still out on whether this Father is the father of his beloved's little boy...For those who speak Italian and want details, Il Gazzetino Online provides a summary timeline of the main developments titled "La Telenovela"...And did we mention that Don Sante has started his own Web site, Chiesa Cattolica Dei Peccatori ?

Rome, Sep. 6, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The Italian news agency ANSA is reporting that on September 4, a parish priest who had declared his love for a local woman and is alleged to have fathered her child held a vote to determine whether his parishioners support his intention to remain at the parish in Monterosso, Italy.

While 17 parishioners agreed with the local bishop’s statement that Father Sante Squotti should resign, more than 200 others voted in favor of the embattled clergyman.

Before the vote, Father Squotti announced that he had expelled a parishioner from the church for having exposed his romantic interest. The priest admits to being in love with a woman in a "chaste way," but denies fathering her child. He and the woman, whom he has known for 8 years, are to be engaged in a ceremony this December. According to the priest, "Canon law does not forbid a priest to fall in love or become engaged in a celibate manner. I want to remain in the Church and so I will obey the celibacy rule.”

"I believe falling in love is a fundamental stage in life. A person can't be a good priest or nun or anything else in life unless he has experienced love at least once," he said.

The priest argued in a press conference last month that the Church's celibacy requirement meant that "only the most closed and narrow-minded priests, the least humane ones, get ahead".

That's Amore!

Fr. Sante actually wants to formalize his relationship with Laura on December 2nd at the beginning of Advent, if she agrees, according to other Italian news stories. Blessings to both and to little Pietro too.

Italian priest admits publicly to being in love, but says he still wants to be a priest

The Associated Press
Published: August 28, 2007

ROME: An Italian priest acknowledged on national television Tuesday that he was in love with a woman — renewing in a very public way the Roman Catholic Church's debate over celibacy for priests.

Rev. Sante Sguotti, parish priest in Monterosso, near Padua, said he had not violated church law or his vow of celibacy, and wanted to continue working as a priest. But during a lengthy news conference in his parish church, he professed his love for the woman, and said he wanted to publicly be her boyfriend while remaining chaste.

"I cannot have a child. I cannot get married. But I can fall in love, because the Code of Canon Law doesn't provide for any sanction if you fall in love. And I do what the Code of Canon Law says," Sguotti said.

Sguotti acknowledged that what he was doing was "a bit on the limit" of what Canon Law allows for, but stressed that "I hope not to pass the limit, but to stay within."

The case of Sguotti has again reignited the debate over priestly celibacy, particularly because the woman in question has a young son, who Sguotti said he had helped name. He dodged direct questions about whether he was the boy's father, saying only that he cannot have a child according to church law.

Sguotti urged other priests who are living in intimate relations with women to "come out of the shadows," and said he hoped to meet with Emmanuel Milingo, the renegade Zambian archbishop who was excommunicated last year after marrying a woman and launching a crusade for the Vatican to allow priests to marry.

Padua Bishop Antonio Mattiazzo said he was profoundly saddened by Sguotti's comments, and that he shared the suffering of the faithful as well as Sguotti's parents. "Mercy is a great Christian virtue, but it doesn't remove the need to shine light on the truth," he said in a statement, according to the ANSA news agency.

Men in the Eastern rite of the Catholic church who are married can become priests, and the Vatican has accepted into the priesthood some married Anglican priests who converted to Catholicism.

But the Vatican has constantly refused to relax the celibacy requirement for Latin rite priests. The Vatican reaffirmed that last November, when Pope Benedict XVI convened a summit of clergy who rebuffed Milingo's crusade.

Thunder from Down Under

Two interesting items coming out of Australia this week...

Australian bishop backs reconsideration of celibacy, women's ordination

Canberra, Aug. 23, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Bishop Pat Power, an auxiliary of the Canberra, Australia diocese, has indicated his support for an end to mandatory clerical celibacy, and suggested a new discussion of the possibility of ordaining women.

In a public response to a campaign by Australian Catholic activists to end the celibacy discipline, Bishop Power said that while Vatican leaders are unwilling to reconsider the issue, among "ordinary Catholics" he has found both support and "a sense of urgency" about the need for change.

"Where there is the conviction that the Eucharist is at the heart of Catholic belief and practice, there must be questions asked about disciplinary laws in the Church which have the net effect of denying many Catholics regular access to the Eucharist," the Australian bishop wrote. He said that by limiting priestly ministry to celibate men the Church was in effect restricting access to the Eucharist "because of the scarcity of priests."

Bishop Power went on the praise Australian activists for raising the question of ordination for women. The bishop said that he recognized "the sensitivity to the question at the level of the Vatican," but called for "a more open and thorough examination of the issues around the ordination of women and the whole structure of the priesthood."

Pope John Paul II closed the discussion of women's ordination with his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (doc). Pope John Paul wrote: "I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

The Australian bishop said that he had often suggested changes in Church teaching and discipline regarding the priesthood, but found little support for his proposals. He blamed the problem on the opposition of Vatican officials-- whose attitudes, he said, have produced "a greater encroachment on the life of the local Church" in recent years.

Pope has too much power, says bishop
Linda Morris, Religious Affairs Reporter
Sydney Morning Herald
August 25, 2007

The Sydney bishop who helped write the Catholic Church's sex abuse policy in Australia has urged a fundamental reshaping of the church's power structures, warning papal authority has gone too far and calling for a review of compulsory celibacy for priests and the church's teachings on sex.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who retired three years ago and who was once touted as a possible candidate for the job of archbishop of Sydney, says the church has to get more serious about confronting clerical abuse and change must start at the top.

In an explosive critique of the church to be published tomorrow, he has directly criticised both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI for Rome's reluctance to take stronger action to tackle sexual abuse.

The breadth and scope of his stance is extremely unusual in the Catholic Church, where bishops usually observe an oath of silence in retirement.

Bishop Robertson said he did not expect immediate change but wanted to start a robust "conversation" in the church about the need for reform of power structures and sexual ethics.

He also says in his book that he was the victim of an abusive stranger, not a priest, as an adolescent. The experience shaped his response to abuse victims and led to significant disenchantment with the church.

In the book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, Bishop Robinson says papal authority has gone too far, local bishops have been marginalised and the faithful of the church rendered powerless.

John Paul II had left the church to deal with "one of the ugliest stories to emerge from the Catholic Church" without appropriate levels of direction or guidance.

Pope Benedict's failure to even consider a review of priestly celibacy was to "lose credibility even before the discussion has begun".

There was a need for the church to review its commitment to priestly celibacy and its "extreme" teachings on sexual ethics, in which the church treats as a sin sex before marriage between committed couples.

And the attire of bishops and priests needed to be modernised - the bishop's mitre abandoned because of its "bad body language" and the priestly collar replaced in some circumstances with a distinctive tie.

Priests and bishops should be appraised every five or six years, as was normal in every workplace, and parishes would get a say in the priests appointed.

Specifically, Bishop Robinson has called for an elected parliament of bishops to be established, from which properly representative church leaders would elect future popes.

The tradition in the Eastern Catholic Church of appointing patriarchs to lead national churches could be adopted by the Roman Catholic church to remove hierarchical confusion.

But Bishop Robinson's powerful case for reform was likely to be resisted by those with a vested interest in not seeing any radical change within the church, said Father Michael Whelan, the principal of the Aquinas Academy and a founding member of the group Catalyst for Renewal. The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, declined to comment.

There is no 'cure' for priest with child, archbishop says

"Impaired personality constructs"? "Cured"? "Rehabilitated"? I thought the desire to be with a woman and father a child was natural and normal...Am I missing something here? -- RG

8/20/2007
UCANews

MANILA, Philippines (UCAN) – The head of the Philippine church's marriage-appeals court disapproves of priests continuing in the ministry after fathering children and rejects efforts to "cure" these priests instead of "disciplining" them.

According to Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen-Dagupan, head of the National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal, a priest who sired a child cannot be rehabilitated. "No matter how you assist this priest, that child remains and he has a natural obligation towards the child."

He stressed that parenting was "not only giving food, shelter or clothing, as people do with pets, but teaching, formation, education" as well. He believes "impaired personality constructs" cannot be "cured."

In Archbishop Cruz's view, bishops who "overlook" or "just forgive" misconduct by their clergy face problems. If one priest is "allowed to misbehave" and continue in the ministry, "there will be more," the prelate warned, expressing concern about tolerance sending a "wrong signal" to seminarians.

In the northern Philippine archdiocese he has led for 16 years, "about 17 priests have left because there's a woman, there's a child or there's a boyfriend," the prelate said Aug. 3 at the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) headquarters in Manila.

The former secretary general of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) spoke with UCA News as Asian bishops prepared for an Aug. 27-Sept. 1 seminar in Thailand on "Caring for Priests - Especially Those in Difficult Situations," sponsored by the FABC Office of Clergy.

"Caring for priests, for me, is seeing to it that my priests live their priestly commitment," he said. Priests who are "fooling around" should "just leave."

His tribunal reviews all decisions of lower church tribunals on cases related to matrimony. In 2000, he opened a section to help dioceses process dispensation cases for priests with children or partners.

Archbishop Cruz, however, said he could "only guess" the total number of priests with children. In the Catholic Directory of the Philippines, the former CBCP president noted, most dioceses list inactive priests who have fathered children among priests "on leave," "with no assignment" and other categories.

The 2006-2007 directory lists six priests as having "left the ministry," five with "no assignment," and two "on renewal." Another 685 are listed as being on leave for studies, on "sabbatical," "abroad" or away with no specified reason. It has 5,834 diocesan priests listed in 85 geographical church jurisdictions and 122 in the military ordinariate.

One priest spoke with UCA News before leaving to serve in a parish in the United States. His bishop disallowed him from saying Mass and administering sacraments upon learning he had children. However, he did not file papers for dispensation.

When he was "reduced" to selling "all sorts of things door to door," he applied for incardination in another diocese. He said the bishop asked him to "break off" relations with his children's mother, set up a system of financial support for his offspring and "re-enter active ministry far" from his family.

He served as "guest priest" in Manila in 2000 and took part-time jobs to earn extra money for his children until his acceptance in the United States. He is not listed in the latest directory.

Archbishop Cruz stressed "most" Philippine priests are "good priests."

Meanwhile, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila, chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Clergy, has acknowledged most bishops are "not of the punitive school of thought."

At the Aug. 15 inauguration of John Mary Vianney-Galilee Development and Retreat Center southeast of Manila, he told UCA News: "Thank God the bishops of the Philippines did not advocate the 'one-strike-you're out' policy." Instead, the CBCP "accepted" the position that the church should give "fallen" priests "help" to "repair the man (and) help him repent."

The commission maintains a priest with one child can undergo "curative measures," the cardinal said. "Singular events" may spell a "weakness" that can be treated "pastorally," and which can be healed through "a program that encourages a person to be better rather than just punishing him," he elaborated.

However, he stressed, a priest with more than one child is helped to leave the ministry. Moreover, "the church is very strict about those who have abused, who repeatedly hurt or take advantage of people."

Priest jailed for murdering son

Some stories are just too sad for words...For the record, the boy carried his father's name, Oscar Emmanuel Valle. His mother is María Félix Hernández. Doña María, le queremos expresar nuestro más sincero pésame.

BBC News
8/9/2007

A Catholic priest in Mexico who killed his son so the Church would not know he had broken vows of celibacy has been jailed for 55 years in Mexico City.

Dagoberto Valle Arriaga had confessed in 2005 to killing his son, Oscar.

State prosecutors have not released the boy's age nor any details about his murder, but local media are reporting that he was 16 when he was killed.

Mr Valle, who was a priest in the city of Texcoco, on the outskirts of the capital, was arrested in 2006.

He was accused of kidnapping his son in September 2005 and bringing him to the central state of Guanajuato before murdering him.

The authorities released no details of how the boy was killed, but it appears that his father dumped his body in the outskirts of a city called Acambaro.

Officials said he was afraid the Church would find out about the boy's existence and remove him from the priesthood for breaking his vows of celibacy.

Celibacy is considered obligatory for Roman Catholic priests, although some Church officials have said it is not prescribed doctrine.

Roughly 150,000 men worldwide have left the priesthood to marry. The Church considers them outcasts.

"Life, Love, Joy": Married priest and author Carl Pfeifer passes away

This obituary tells a beautiful love story and answers the question of how these relationships happen, why they are fruitful for both parties, and the trials clerical couples endure. We extend our deepest sympathy and prayers to Janaan on the loss of her husband. For those who want to know more about this couple, there is an excellent in-depth profile on the Talbot School of Theology Web site, from which we shamelessly stole this photo.

Carl J. Pfeifer, 78; Helped Update Catechism Education

By Matt Schudel
Washington Post
Saturday, August 4, 2007; B06



Carl J. Pfeifer, 78, who resigned from the Catholic priesthood to marry his co-author, with whom he wrote a series of influential textbooks on Catholic education, died of Alzheimer's disease July 12 at Stonehill Care Center in Dubuque, Iowa. He lived in Arlington County until last year.

In 1968, Dr. Pfeifer was a Jesuit priest working at Catholic University when he and a Franciscan nun published the first of a series of textbooks for elementary students on Catholic education and catechism. The series, called "Life, Love, Joy," represented a dramatic change in the way Catholic schoolchildren learned about their faith.

Over the next 30 years, Dr. Pfeifer and Janaan Manternach revised their textbooks, wrote widely and traveled across the world to lead seminars on Catholic education. Their books and other classroom materials, published most recently under the title "This Is Our Faith," were used in Catholic schools in all 50 states. They replaced the old Baltimore catechism, a system of learning by rote, with a dynamic storytelling approach drawing on examples from everyday life.

"What Carl and I did, which was seen as a real change, was we introduced life experience to catechetical education," Manternach said yesterday. "If we're going to find God, we're going to find God in life."

After collaborating for 10 years, Manternach and Dr. Pfeifer felt a growing attraction that went beyond their shared work and faith. In their 40s, they went through the formal process of resigning from their religious orders. He had been a member of the Jesuits for 29 years; she had been a nun for 27.

Only then did they go on their first date. They had never so much as held hands before.

"We absolutely were in love with each other, there's no question, before that first date," Manternach said.

They were married Nov. 20, 1976, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown. Four priests officiated at the ceremony, and the 300 guests gave them a standing ovation, but their decision to marry was not warmly received by all.

One priest wrote a letter branding their actions "evil." Manternach's sister refused to attend the wedding, and a nun who had been a close friend said Manternach was now "dead" to her.

"Before that, I had a community," Manternach said yesterday. "Now, I had a community of one."

With little money and uncertain job prospects, the newly married couple settled in Arlington and returned to their mission of Catholic education. When the archbishop of Baltimore invited Dr. Pfeifer to speak at conference on Catholic liturgy, they knew they had found official acceptance.

Dr. Pfeifer and Manternach revised their "Life, Love, Joy" series, wrote for magazines and published books for teachers. They taught courses on Catholic education and doctrine to seminarians and, from 1967 to 1992, appeared as panelists on the weekly "Bauman Bible Telecasts," a nationally televised college religion course based in Washington.

They answered questions from religion teachers in a monthly newsletter from 1987 to 1998 and collected their columns in a book, "How to Be a Better Catechist." In 1987, they published "People to Remember," a book about inspirational Catholic figures, and they often spoke to groups of teachers, priests and parents.

From 1970 to 1979, Dr. Pfeifer wrote a weekly syndicated column, "Know Your Faith," for the National Catholic News Service. For several years, he wrote a second column, "Photomeditations," linking religious themes with photographs he had taken. He also wrote the "Core Beliefs" and "Did You Know?" columns for FaithWorks magazine from 1998 to 2002.

He "enjoyed audiences," Manternach said. "He liked to address the spirits of people, and their spirits often responded."

Carl Jacob Pfeifer was born June 22, 1929, in St. Louis and lived above his family's bakery, which was across the street from a Catholic church.

He graduated from St. Louis University and received a master's degree in philosophy from the university in 1954. He taught Latin and Greek at his alma mater's Jesuit high school for several years and continued his studies at Georgetown University, Laval University in Quebec City, Austria's Innsbruck University and St. Mary's College in Kansas before becoming an ordained priest in 1961. He received a doctorate in ministry from St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore in 1985.

While teaching a course on the Psalms at Catholic University in the early 1960s, Dr. Pfeifer met Manternach, who had taught in Iowa and Chicago for 11 years. One day after class, she remarked that his classroom style was all wrong.

"Over the weekend, he changed his way of teaching the Psalms," she recalled. "He brought into play poetry; he added music; he brought in photographs he had taken. He used humanizing elements in his class."

Invited to work on a new model of religious training, they became assistant directors of the National Center for the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine at Catholic University and began their lifelong collaboration.

"It was an unexpected path," said Manternach, of Arlington, who survives her husband, along with one of his brothers. "Carl expected to be a professor at St. Louis University and go up the ladder from there. His career path was geared toward being a theology and Scripture professor."

To commemorate the textbook series that brought them together and formed their life's work, Dr. Pfeifer and Manternach had their wedding rings engraved with three words: "Life, Love, Joy."

In Tyrol, parish rallies in support of priest who says he's a dad

Another news item from EUX.TV (8/2/2007) which demonstrates yet again that the laity are way ahead of the Magisterium on this issue. The banner on the right was painted by the parishioners and says "Let our priest stay."

Vienna (dpa) - In Leutasch, a small village in the Austrian alpine province of Tyrol, residents have manned the barricades in support of their Catholic village priest who has outed himself as the father of a three-year-old boy.

The boy's mother is the local parish assistant, Austrian media reported on Thursday.

In last Sunday's sermon, Father Roland Walch, 46, informed his parish that he now faced a choice of between church and family.

Far from being outraged, Walch's parishioners have rallied to his support, putting up posters and signing petitions asking the diocese to let him remain in office. Many voiced their opposition to the Catholic Church's rigid rules on celibacy for priests.

Catholic priests with a secret family are not all that rare in the western Austrian alpine province.

Herman Steidl, a diocese official, told the Austrian Press Agency that he knew of "five or six" priests in the district who were also real-life fathers. In the last 40 years, 25 priests decided to leave the church for that reason.

Being a father in the purely biological sense is not an unsurmountable obstacle for remaining a priest, Steidl said. However, not being celibate is. Ex-priests can still find employment as laypersons or teach religions instruction.

The specific case of Father Walch and his family will have to be decided by the Holy See. A new parish priest was to arrive soon in Leutasch.