Scottish bishops are once more in the news internationally. No, it’s not a paedophile/homosexual thing, since it’s outside the Glasgow-Edinburgh Axis . This time it’s Bishop William Nolan of Galloway and Bishop Stephen Robson of Dunkeld on Scotland being a mission country..
They appear in an article on vocations in the US ‘National Catholic Reporter’, in an article by Robert Mickens on vocations. He makes the very perceptive observation that ‘For every new novena or eucharistic adoration scheme launched to stimulate vocations, two or 10 more parishes are being closed or merged.’ To the average reader who still believes that we should be allowed to receive the Eucharist , that would be worth reading the article for alone, or getting the NCR every Friday on line or otherwise.
But he goes on to point out that the Episcopal Dynamic Duo from Scotland have invited the Heralds of Good News, a society of apostolic life from Southern India , to take over parishes in their diocese. Both stated that Scotland is now a mission country. Bishop Robson felt that “The people who are coming here are the ones whose faith and devotion will sustain us.”
As Robert Mickens says,” What he really meant- and what bishops from all over the world mean, too- is that these ‘missionaries’ will sustain the bishops who embrace the status quo concerning ministries in the church’.
Well said, Robert Mickens.
Why go to Southern India, when you can ask your fellow Scottish bishops to accept Pope Francis’s invitation to extend ordination , and as a result help to begin a movement which will ultimately bring the Eucharist and the Sacraments to so many who are dying – as we read and type this-without their consolation ?
We ask again- what is the problem in the valid extension of ordination to parishioners ? At the –well, risk- of moving back into the dynamic argot of preachers from our youth like the Redemptorists and the Passionists, it’s time our bishops said ‘Why don’t we..’ before all they have the breath to say is ‘Why didn’t we.. ?’