Tag Archives: secular clergy

Why can’t we get the Sacraments ?

19 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in Ordination, Religious

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As we know hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world cannot receive the Eucharist or have a sacramental life. This is because most of us receive the sacraments from the secular priest, celibate and supported by a parish, and the secular priesthood is a thing of the past. The bishops won’t listen to the Pope’s invitation to discuss extending valid ordination to parish members.
Let’s boil this down a bit. The bishops are denying us the Eucharist and the other Sacraments. And many priests seem to agree with them- qui tacet consentire.
It’s as simple as that .
We can only speculate as to why this is. And believe us, we will, over the next few weeks. We’ll skip the obvious images, like doctors ignoring the sick, lawyers truanting court, etc. We can adjust without them .And here in Scotland we’re used to that kind of remarkably difficult adjustment when considering the local ecclesiastical crisis.
One of us was asked, when bringing up the subject of extended ordination, if “we fancied putting on the collar, then.” That is an actual statement. It’s true. We’ll get to that attitude later. Oh, we will, we will.
But the bottom line is: why won’t the secular clergy give us our Sacraments ?
Suggestions, by the way, are welcome. We’ll take our theories in no particular order, although the first one is rather important.
Here’s a statement from a newly ordained priest in an American diocese in 2008. It is quoted from a US blog, details available if required. He is transparently sincere, which is the problem, of course. It is his priestly education which is at fault.
“A priest is most a priest in the quiet, hidden moments of his day when he is confident in his identity as
alter Christus, consoled by his sacramental proximity to the fountain from which graces flow, and
humbled before the God who chooses men to be His representatives and instruments in the world.”

Well, there you are. If you think you’re an alter Christus, why should you listen to anybody else ? Even if there are people all over the world who would like access to the “fountain from which graces flow” , but can’t get this, because of the secular priesthood system ? By definition, if you’re an alter Christus, everyone else is wrong. This does make it difficult to get things changed.
But there are other reasons . As they used to say, watch this space.

Group Silence

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

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We’ve wondered why we’ve only had two acknowledgments from all The Bishops of England Wales and Scotland , and two from all the Scottish priests contacted.
As the “Tablet” (November 15 2014) pointed out:
“Pope Francis has indicated that he is prepared to lift the obligation of celibacy for candidates
for the priesthood in response to a plea from an individual diocesan bishop or from a bishops’
conference. As far as is known, no such dispensations have been applied for or granted.”
We simply asked the Bishops to respond to this, if not necessarily to us, although it’s nice to be nice.
We tried to think what might produce such unanimity of non-response.
And, of course, they’re almost entirely one group, i.e secular clergy.
So we took a look a group psychology, and suddenly everything clicked into place.
They don’t want to deny the Flock the Eucharist although the secular clergy can longer effectively provide it.
They are simply trapped in what is known as “groupthink”.
I.L.Janis In “Victims of Groupthink” outlined beautifully the problems this brings
40 odd years ago.(the fully detailed description is on Wikipedia) and we’ll go into them in the next blog.
But let’s look first to see how the secular priesthood as a group got the way it is ,
using Janis’s terminology.
First of all, there is:
1. “ High group cohesiveness”
(can you think of a tighter and more cohesive group, than the secular priesthood even with a semi-private language i.e. Latin ?)
2.” structural faults “
(i) “insulation”
( has any Catholic newspaper ever been known to firmly question a bishop? )
(ii) “lack of norms requiring methodological procedures “
(the mitre indicates the power of the Holy Spirit but that doesn’t surely mean
simply assuming one is inspired. The first four gifts of the Holy Spirit
are wisdom, understanding knowledge,and counsel,which doesn’t suggest
that a methodological procedure is excluded from running the Church and
taking into account what is happening to it in 2014)
(iii) “ lack of impartial leadership “
(bishops are chosen since 1917 by Papal Delegates.
Are their policies likely to differ from the Curia in any way ? )

3.” situational faults”
(i) “ stressful external threats “
(St John Paul II may well have a place here as a man not to upset)
(ii) “recent failures”
( in Scotland,there’s Cardinal O’Brien. Also the Vatican financial peccadilloes,
and above all paedophily and the cover up)

3. “excessive difficulties in the decision- making task “
(the secular priest is part of the fabric of our post-Trent Catholicism.
Being replaced by a group of validly ordained parishioners might be much
more counter-intuitive than for parishioners, especially when
the latter realise that there will be no more Sacraments.

4. “moral dilemmas “
( The problem of “Are We Doing The Right Thing ?”, one solved by considering
Christ’s Eucharistic imperative and the Holy Spirit’s gift of fortitude,
as well as what will happen to the Church if things stay as they are.

Next time we will look at the effects these have on a group.
You will find them quite remarkable.