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Joe sent along the first article. For the full text, go
to
NCR Today.
Cardinal sees 'no theological obstacle' to women priests by John L Allen
Cardinal José da Cruz Policarpo of Lisbon, Portugal, a veteran European prelate at one point considered a contender for the papacy, reportedly has said there’s “no fundamental theological obstacle” to the ordination of women as priests in the Catholic church.
... “There’s a fundamental equality among all the members of the church,” the cardinal said. “The problem lies in a strong tradition, which comes from Jesus and from the fact that the churches of the Reformation conceded the priesthood to women.” ...
Mark Massa, S.J., reflects on his experience with the church over the last half century. A very fine article that appears in its entirety at Mark Massa on the Catholic '60s in U.S. Catholic. The times they were a'changing: Mark Massa on the Catholic '60s
Mark Massa, S.J. was 14 years old on the First Sunday of Advent, 1964, when Catholics across the country arrived at Mass to find the priest facing them across the altar and—even more jarring—speaking in English and expecting them to respond. The disappearing Latin Mass was but the first of many old certainties that would be blown up during the next few years.
Soon Catholics would open their morning newspapers to see photos of men in Roman collars protesting the church’s birth control teaching, or burning draft records and running from the FBI. Nuns, sans habits, departed Catholic classrooms to march for civil rights or against the war in Vietnam.
Massa, dean of the Boston College School for Theology and Ministry and founder of Fordham University’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, has spent the last 10 years analyzing the Catholic experience in the United States since World War II. His latest book, The American Catholic Revolution: How the ‘60s Changed the Church Forever, explores how the upheavals of that decade unleashed among Catholics a new consciousness that everything in history could change—even the Catholic Church. The events of the 1960s, says Massa, dramatically altered American Catholics’ relationship to their church, helped along by the always dependable law of unintended consequences.
Why should Catholics today care about the 1960s?The ’60s changed almost everything in American culture: rock music, literature, the youth culture, the rise of the feminist movement, the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement. But there was also a distinctly Catholic take on the ’60s. From my point of view the Catholic ’60s are not the years from 1960 to 1970, but what I call “the long ’60s,” from the implementation of the first liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1964, to 1974, when the Jesuit Avery Dulles published Models of the Church.
The ’60s began a whole succession of events whose ripples are not just ripples anymore; they are more like tsunamis affecting American Catholic communities today. ...
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Jamie Manson, M.Div., writes on New York's gay marriage law. For the full article, cut and paste the following link into your browser. http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/catholic-hierarchs-lose-marriage-battle-catholic-laityCatholic hierarchs lose marriage battle to Catholic laity
It took nearly two days for Archbishop Timothy Dolan to comment on the historic passage of legislation allowing gays and lesbian to marry in the state of New York.
He waited until he had concluded Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s on the Feast of Corpus Christi. As chance, or the Holy Spirit, would have it, this was also Gay Pride Sunday. ...
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Anthony Kowalski writes with a special request.
Dear Friends, I am deeply concerned about the future of our Catholic sacramental and parish life. The statistics are alarming:
• Currently, 3,342 U.S. parishes do not have a resident priest and nearly half of the world’s Catholic parishes and missions do not have a resident priest. By 2019, 11,000 U.S. parishes may NOT have a resident priest. Since 1975 the number of Catholics increased by 57% while the number of priests increased by only one percent.
Please join me in signing and circulating an Open Letter to U.S. Bishops. It was devised by many laity and clergy under the leadership of FutureChurch, headed by Sr. Christine Schenk, csj. This respectful letter urges our bishops to find solutions to the priest shortage and open discussion about ending mandatory celibacy as a requirement for the diocesan priesthood and opening the diaconate to women. Re-instating these ancient practices will go a long way toward meeting the growing sacramental and spiritual needs of Catholics all over the world.
IF YOU SHARE MY CONCERN, LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD BY SIGNING THIS OPEN LETTER. http://www.futurechurch.org/fpm/optcel/openletter/ and please consider making a donation to help cover the cost of publication: https://xfuturechurch.merchantquest.net/store/joindonate/
You can go straight to the letter by clicking on the above link or by cutting and pasting it into your web browser.
You can also send an electronic postcard to Vatican officials and find other information at: |