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
Reviews of Christendom and the West: Essays on Culture, Society and History... Catholic Thought Since the Enlightenment: A Survey... Search and Rescue
More was an orthodox stalwart willing to die in a “battle to preserve England’s thousand-year communion with the see of Peter.”
Reviews of Women Against the Good War: Conscientious Objection and Gender on the American Home Front, 1941-1947... What Went Wrong With Vatican II: The Catholic Crisis Explained... How Far to Follow?: The Martyrs of Atlas... A Thread of History... Parochial and Plain Sermons...