Any thoughts on the upcoming Year of the Priest?

[hedgehog]

Pope Benedict XVI declared a year of the priest in an effort to encourage "spiritual perfection" in priests.

In his address, Pope Benedict said the priestly ministry consists of total adherence to the ecclesial tradition of participating "in a spiritually intense new life and a new lifestyle which was inaugurated by the Lord Jesus and which the apostles made their own."

Priestly ordination creates new men who are bestowed with the gift and office of sanctifying, teaching and governing, he said.


http://thecatholicspirit.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1384&Itemid=33

[Matilda]

1. I'm sure that priestly ordination would also create new women

bestowed with the same gifts, if they were only given the chance.

[47of74]

2. My thoughts?

My thoughts would be that we remember all the good priests out there, working day in and day out in a hard and often thankless job. We need to remember that there are good priests working out there whose jobs and often lives are not made any better by the bad apples amongst them - both in the rank and file and in the hierarchy.

[hedgehog]

3. Good reminder. Thank you.

[willing dwarf]

4. It's sad that the priesthood is hardly an option

for most people of spirit in the developed world. Women are completely excluded, so there goes more than half the population. Then among men in this world where chastity is an affront to the culture of developed societies, you loose most of the rest of potential servants of the Church.

I'm afraid the priesthood has become a vestigal organ of an antiquated past.

What is God doing here? Perhaps God has abandoned the church? Or perhaps people have so betrayed the church, chosen self aggrandizement over the path of holiness that the Spirit has slipped away to be amongst her people elsewhere?

God bless the priests may they be reflections of God's love. God bless the Church, may she grow in wisdom, openess and undefended love. God bless the people who are scattered on the wind, trying to feel the breath of God blowing over them, trying to know the mercy of God, holding them close.