It’s not just “To Feed The Flock” that’s on about extended ordination!
Bishop Helmut Kratzl of Vienna has called on his fellow Bishops to take up
the Pope’s request “to make courageous suggestions” to stop the Eucharist
from drying up. We take the liberty of quoting him from last week’s “Tablet”:
“We are silently accepting a scarcity of the Eucharist, which is already to a
certain extent perilous,because we are not prepared to change admission to the
priesthood. We must open new doors,including that of priestly celibacy.”
In this,of course,he joins a growing number of Bishops, some in England
recently, as well as the many in South America and Asia who have been
making the point for years.
Of special significance for Scotland this year was also his point that
“The Eucharist should be available where people lived”, a point which is
worth remembering as a policy of closing churches is enthusiastically under way.
To Feed The Flock’s belief is simple. The secular priesthood is the
traditional method of providing the Eucharist. It no longer works.
So we must try another method. Can we hear from the secular priesthood as
to why this is not acceptable?
And we’ve got to face the fact that some lay people don’t like the extension
of ordination either. Do tell us why! Do they really deny the validity of
ordination and the acceptance therefore of the Apostolic Succession ?
It’s as simple as that.
But the Scottish Bishops are not just sitting about. The seminary in Spain is
going to be re-opened.
What can one say?