MaxPC wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 12:39 pm
I agree there does seem to be a lot of anger all over the world and social media may be a factor.[/color][/b]
which is irrelevant to Guatemalan parishes getting a priest to come by once a year.
I would be a bit put off if my church cared so little that the ministry was available only once a year.
It's not so much that they don't care.
It's that they have a massive shortage of priests due mostly to the church's unwillingness to accommodate married priests. There are far fewer young men, especially in Latin America who are willing to remain unmarried and celibate for their entire lives. In contrast to past centuries when the priesthood was the only vehicle out of extreme poverty for many, and the only vehicle to getting an education.
Before evangelicalism swept across Latin America they could more or less get away with only showing up on occasion. Obviously that is no longer the case. In religion and in life, showing up is often 90% of the battle.
0 x
A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
which is irrelevant to Guatemalan parishes getting a priest to come by once a year.
I would be a bit put off if my church cared so little that the ministry was available only once a year.
It's not so much that they don't care.
It's that they have a massive shortage of priests due mostly to the church's unwillingness to accommodate married priests. There are far fewer young men, especially in Latin America who are willing to remain unmarried and celibate for their entire lives. In contrast to past centuries when the priesthood was the only vehicle out of extreme poverty for many, and the only vehicle to getting an education.
Before evangelicalism swept across Latin America they could more or less get away with only showing up on occasion. Obviously that is no longer the case. In religion and in life, showing up is often 90% of the battle.
If they cared, they would drop the celibacy rule. The current model is simply unsustainable.
I would be a bit put off if my church cared so little that the ministry was available only once a year.
It's not so much that they don't care.
It's that they have a massive shortage of priests due mostly to the church's unwillingness to accommodate married priests. There are far fewer young men, especially in Latin America who are willing to remain unmarried and celibate for their entire lives. In contrast to past centuries when the priesthood was the only vehicle out of extreme poverty for many, and the only vehicle to getting an education.
Before evangelicalism swept across Latin America they could more or less get away with only showing up on occasion. Obviously that is no longer the case. In religion and in life, showing up is often 90% of the battle.
If they cared, they would drop the celibacy rule. The current model is simply unsustainable.
You know, it is a rule that could be changed.
I'm just waiting for someone to start claiming that our idea that celibacy is required for the priesthood is not the official Vatican position, and that priests can indeed be married. And that anything we might find to the contrary on the Vatican website, if read in context, actually means the exact opposite of what it appears to say.
It's that they have a massive shortage of priests due mostly to the church's unwillingness to accommodate married priests. There are far fewer young men, especially in Latin America who are willing to remain unmarried and celibate for their entire lives. In contrast to past centuries when the priesthood was the only vehicle out of extreme poverty for many, and the only vehicle to getting an education.
Before evangelicalism swept across Latin America they could more or less get away with only showing up on occasion. Obviously that is no longer the case. In religion and in life, showing up is often 90% of the battle.
If they cared, they would drop the celibacy rule. The current model is simply unsustainable.
You know, it as is a rule that could be changed.
I'm just waiting for someone to start claiming that our idea that celibacy is required for the priesthood is not the official Vatican position, and that priests can indeed be married. And that anything we might find to the contrary on the Vatican website, if read in context, actually means the exact opposite of what it appears to say.
Well, in the Eastern Catholic Churches, married priests are the norm.
So if this were actually the problem, they could just start establishing Eastern Rite parishes in Guatemala.
But Eastern (Greek Catholic) churches are suffering the same priest shortage. A rather key thing is that such priests aren’t allowed to divorce and remarry, and these days a sizeable number of them are divorced/separated. If they want to remarry they’d have to leave the priesthood.
