The Pan-Amazon Synod of bishops is going to be a very important milestone in Church history. And maybe world history. We will be mentioning it frequently
As you may know, it is about extending ordination to viri probati in areas particularly short of priests and therefore of the Eucharist.
As always, some elements of Catholic opinion are beginning to panic in case the acceptance of this becomes a precedent. (translation : more people may receive the Eucharist)
The elements of the Tridentine priesthood thought to be in danger are:
Celibacy
Lengthy theological education
General Absolution
Priesthood Image.
We will comment on all of these while we can-I remind you that we are all 80 plus, bar one.
Let’s have a quick look at compulsory celibacy first. To get it out of the way , everybody knows it is a church regulation not a doctrinal blasphemy, and it could be rescinded tomorrow, even by email.
Some random points :
(a) It’s amazing how many people want other people to be celibate. There’s old priests, who seem to feel that if they could handle it, everybody else should and so there.
(b) Dr Halliday Sutherland, probably the third best Catholic writer of the Thirties , and a best seller in his own right, became a well-known travel writer. In his ‘Irish Journey’, he recalls meeting someone who left the Church for several years on hearing that priests and nuns used the toilet

(c) There’s priests who have made being celibate a kind of religion in itself.
(d) At a point even farther away from Christ’s message than the Communion Hymn and with it some of the other contents of hymnals is church property. Gibbon mentions one of the early popes having been found guilty of everything but piracy, but even the latter didn’t put the safety of church property at the hands of a priest’s family being one of the reasons why celibacy became obligatory .Look at the many heaps of ruined masonry to be found all over Europe ,now used as a free masonry supermarket or a urinal, and wonder if Pope Gregory VII ever thought- really thought- about what he was doing to the hundreds of thousands of priests who have had to struggle since.
(e) There are many who fear that the Eucharist is being disrespected in some way by ordained celebrants. They either can’t read newspapers, watch television, or don’t know about paedophile priests being put back into parishes having been found out. They are –apparently- impressed by celibacy. This is possible and Christ did not , of course, forbid it. But celibacy is much more impressive when accompanied by poverty and obedience, as in the religious orders. Somehow it is not quite so impressive when accompanied by golf club membership and an annual change of car.
( One has to wonder if there is a psychological factor in the horrendous levies placed on parishes run by religious orders by their dioceses. One Glasgow parish has to pay £40000 a year for the privilege of providing the Eucharist.)
(f) And what about the Curia in all this, that institution once praised by ‘Time’ magazine for its Prussian efficiency and the business competence of General Motors ? The magazine has not yet, to our knowledge noticed that Hitler was a product of the Prussian ethos or that General Motors has since gone twice bankrupt..They see Pope Francis daily. Have they responded in any way to his observations?
(g) Compulsory celibacy will be a problem. A bigger one, we venture , will be General Absolution.
More. we assure you, to follow.