There’s No Priest Shortage
AN EXCESS OF DISGRUNTLED LAITY
The perceived scarcity of priests in the Catholic Church is called a crisis. Observers wring their hands and warn that the Church will fall apart if she can’t get more priests. This may, however, be less a crisis than a blessing.
Let’s examine an oft-proposed cure. Liberal Catholics say the Church will have to ordain married men (and women). This, they promise, will release a flood of eager, well-educated young professionals to become priests (and priestesses), thus saving the Church.
But does the Church want a flood of eager, well-educated young professionals? Let’s look at other areas which were visited by such floods in our recent past:
· A horde of young urban planners was released on our cities. The cities turned from centers of civilization into crime-ravaged wastelands.
You May Also Enjoy
Natural Law theory is resilient and patient. It is unlikely that certain people will ever slough off their conviction that unborn babies are human beings deserving protection.
An emphasis on the liturgy as something that creates a sacred atmosphere does not mean that Kwasniewski downplays actual instruction in Catholic doctrine.
Reviews of Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium... Swimming With Scapulars: True Confessions of a Young Catholic... Fully Human, Fully Divine: An Interactive Christology... Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John... Silent Music: The Life, Work, and Thought of St. John of the Cross