Letters to the Editor
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Oh for Pete's sake, just be a Protestant
Really. We're fine.
Sure, we're not the ONE TRUE CHURCH, but they don't want you anyway. We do.
You know, if you disagree with them on so much maybe they AREN'T the ONE TRUE CHURCH... huh.
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At Least These Priests
won't be buggering altar boys. The RC should consider it a win.
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not quite...
If those women are priests, then that guy on the bus with the aviators cap and goggles really is the governor.
I agree that they should just call themselves protestant and see to their congregations.
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No Sects in the Communion Room
The Catholic Church: love it or leave it?
Hey, every religious sect needs its heretics. In fact, were there no heretics, there'd be no sects.
I say, more power to them.
The Catholic Church offers a unique path to God not found in Protestantism: the pope as a leader of structured hierarchy, the emphasis on Mary and the saints, a heightened sense of mystery, and a rich art and cultural heritage. You can want to retain some of these unique aspects while being disappointed by and working against others. That just makes you a thoughtful and questioning believer.
So long as your requested changes don't contradict the core of the faith (Jews for Jesus? Um, that the Messiah has NOT yet come is kinda a big difference), I say go for it.
You'll be belittled, dismissed and/or expelled. Just like all of the other great church leaders.
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I'm an athiest, and I think this is profane.
I'm an athiest, and I think this is profane. You can think what you want about catholic teachings, but it is the perogative of the Church to define what they are. For somebody to usurp the Church's right to define what it means to be catholic is to deliver grave insult to catholics everywhere. It attacks the legitimacy of the papacy, and everybody who supports it.
From a religious perspective, it is certainly a sin. From a secular perspective, it is terribly rude and inconsiderate. From a human perspective, it is selfish and egotistical. I'm not disputing that these women might make fine priests, but to put their own desires in front of the wishes of an organization with a nearly 2000 years of history is presumptive to say the least.
When will American catholics learn - the church isn't a democracy. If you want an organization that listens to you, and is responsive to your desires, you need to form your own church. That was the whole point of the Protestant reformation. If you don't like the sexist doctrine of the Catholic church, please stop sending them your money!
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Tradition
In the good ole days, priests and even the popes, married, had kids, mistresses, just like the rest of the flock. To put it simply, The Church was worried about all those offspring making inheritance claims on Church property and The Church then decided that priests and popes were to abstain when it came to sex. Made it sound like it was one of God's edicts and not the materialistic worry of the largest corporation in the world.
So the tradition of abstinance? It changed once, why not again.
As far as women in power? That is a true "tradition" and the philosophy behind that far outdates the creation of The Church and the birth of Christ.
The Church should recognise its stance on women is based on the thought process of people from a time before Christ, the same people who believed in slavery, and stoning, and a few other things The Church no longer believes in.
The New Testament rewrote the contract between God and People - the subjugation of Woman as Property should have been left in the Old Testament along with the stories of the Angry Vengeful God.
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Reform is barely Jewish, for what it's worth
Reform doesn't express any requirement to even wear a kippah so I'd be shocked if those Unitarians bothered. I can sort of understand the RCC's position filtered through the experience of Judaism. You give an inch they take a mile. There's no such thing as a formal or strict Judaism that admits woman on an egalitarian basis for the most part, in Reform. In Masorti or Conservative there is, more or less but for the most part once you bend in one area you have to bend in all of them and in short measure religion takes a back seat to the ASPCA, save Darfur, divorce workshops and the whole self help Oprah-fication of everything, to the detriment of the very religion that hosts it.
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@You with the Latin netname
That was a despicable statement about Reform Judaism. The community in which I grew up in Ohio goes back to the 1860s. It's a strong and vibrant tradition.
Reform Jews died in the Holocaust just like what you might even be chutzpedik enough to call "real Jews."
Personally, I think your comment is a "schande fur die Goyim," which I would be happy to translate if you need help with the hard words.
As a woman and a feminist, I hope that Catholic women can be ordained: it's not as if vocations are easily found or the priesthood's numbers are increasing.
I suspect that this particular piece of ecumenism may prove a mixed blessing, although I admire the new priests for having achieved their goal.
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Bless them.
calcareous says <<For somebody to usurp the Church's right to define what it means to be catholic is to deliver grave insult to catholics everywhere.>>
No, it denies a single person the "divine" right to define the legitimacy of another's faith.
<<It attacks the legitimacy of the papacy, and everybody who supports it.>>
Well, it certainly attacks the papacy's claim to sole intellectual and moral supremacy.
<<From a religious perspective, it is certainly a sin.>>
No again. A sin is an action that separates humans from God. Would you say that the action of these women is more likely to cause more separation of people from God, or reconciliation, warmth, and greater openness between people and God?
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Saving Catholicism?
Women like Rose Marie Hudson and Elsie Hainz McGrath could see themselves as saving Catholicism, not profaning it.
The U.S. Catholic population has grown to keep pace with the overall U.S. population (holding at 23% since 1965). However, even though the Catholic population has grown numerically, the number of priests and seminarians have plummeted. Currently, over 3,000 Catholic churches (17% of parishes) don't have a resident priest! And Mass attendance is dropping. To survive, the Catholic Church needs more priests to minister to their flocks and perform the sacraments.
http://cara.georgetown.edu/bulletin/index.htm
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Greeneyedkzin
So what? Your point? My former shul goes back even further. Reform is a lot of things, but it's Judaism like Joel Osteen is evangelism. More like self help than religion. Religion AS religion clearly takes a back seat to all the Tikkun Olam activities. And those are fine to do but let's just not call them religion. Not when all the children can't read a Siddur, don't have Bnai Mitzvah ceremonies, don't learn much of anything about Judaism and don't make it an issue to even have much in the way of faith. Call it Unitarianism, call it modern neoQuakers, call it a community center but since it tosses out nearly as much of the covenant as Jesus did then it's not really Judaism per se. It's something else. See Judaism already had its Protestant Reformation with Mendelsson's invention of Reform Judaism. But it should tell you something that NONE of his descendants were practicing Jews at all. Most converted to Lutheranism. The very fact that this Reform shul hosted this event where none of the local Protestant churches would should tell you that Reform is more interested in everything non Jewish than in anything Jewish. And again, that's fine. They could host whatever they like but it has nothing to do with Judaism. All the assimilation in the world, all the ecumenical conferencing didn't save your relatives, did it? No at the end of the day it meant nothing. There were two broad classes of folk who perished in the Shoah: the poor pious ignorant of the shetl who didn't know any better, and the rich assimilated German intellectuals who thought that they knew more.