The leading theological controversy at the moment is, of course, the problem of the divorced , remarriage and the Eucharist. Let us hope their deliberations are focused clearly on the partner who is abandoned with a family but remarried, and compelled to bring up the family without the help of the Eucharist.
And the world goes on, still without any attempt by Tridentine bishops and clergy to take up the Pope’s invitation to discuss the ordination of parishioners to provide the Eucharist and the other Sacraments , thus depriving hundreds of thousands of it.
What possible explanations can they give , having dedicated their lives to providing It ?
1. Do they feel that not having five or six years of theological education is a disqualification despite any Gospel mention of this?
2. Do they assume that the sense of ‘vocation’ which would lead a parishioner to ‘stand for election’ is less acceptable than their own , especially given the spectacular failure of a clerical education to validate this, as the paedophily has so clearly demonstrated ?
3. Do they think that somehow the toxic damage done to the Tridentine priesthood , albeit by a small percentage of their number ,is ever going to go away?
4. Can they not deduce that the shortage of numbers tells us that no one wants to join them, and that the Eucharist is not being provided as a result?
5. Do they feel that they gave up a family life, and that ordained parishioners are getting away without doing this?
6. Do they still see themselves as an Alter Christus , and fail to understand that a validly ordained taxi-driver , a newsagent, or an IT technician could provide the Eucharist , as if the Apostolic Succession were in some way deficient in those cases?
To accept that a lifetime’s work –although gone into with a genuine love of Christ and the desire to do His work – is now in 2017 no longer needed or respected must, of course ,be devastating.
We must not forget in our prayers to remember them.