Cranmer ran a serious piece yesterday on the issue of ordination. His immediate concern was with the comments in the Guardian by Vicky Beeching to the effect that were it not for the concern for her own well-being and the homophobic attitude of many Christians, she would like to be able to lend her talents (which are considerable) to the service of the Church:
For me, as an openly gay Christian who disagrees with enforced celibacy and believes priests should be able to marry, I fear I’d simply be opening myself up to further damage, discrimination, and heartache.
She is not the only woman I know who is in that situation, and it is easy, perhaps too easy, in asserting the primacy of Church teaching, to forget the pain felt by people who feel called but know the Church will not take them. In the Catholic Church there are, of course, also those who feel called to the priesthood who are women, but they know that the Church has always said it simply lacks the power to change what was inherited from the Apostle; each generation is the steward of what it has received, not the owner.
To be called to the ordained ministry is, Cranmer reminds his readers, to be called to a life of self-sacrifice and service, and if one is not prepared to make the sacrifice the church asks, then it is in all truth hard to see how that person can make the others which a life of service will surely demand. As he reminds us all”
to live Christianly is to die to self; to live and participate in the church community of the centuries, not to chorus the fleeting fanaticism of the present.
There is here something that is at the heart of divide which is often (wrongly I think() characterised in terms of ‘left’ and ‘right’. How much weight to we give to our ancestors? We are not the ones who will pronounce that all things are made new, and certainly for the Catholic Church, we have to acknowledge and give weight to what we have have received. That is not so say there is no development – all things that live develop, but it is to say that when we see purely secular arguments deployed, we might rightly conclude that we are hearing the words of the lords of this world. Those who think the priesthood is about power, prestige and position, will employ the arguments from the secular world about equality for women and for gay people in terms of these things, because they are seeing through the eyes of the world. They work themselves up into thinking that there can be only one reason the church rejects their vision – the one the world gives. Perhaps they cannot think with the mind of the Church, and perhaps for them the settled conclusion of its teaching is just a further sign of the correctness of their position; it would certainly explain the vitriol with which some of them assail those who are simply faithful to the teaching they have received.
We are far, now, from the days when the views of the laity were ignored, but we need to remember that the Body of Christ is not a democracy, and that even if 99% of Catholics thought Christ was not the Word Incarnate, it would change nothing. We are, in this society, uncomfortable with the notion of immutable Truth; all things are relative. But they are not. The Church has received a charge from its founder, that charge is to be the steward of the faith once given; it does not own it, it cannot change what the Lord has set in stone. If the world dislikes that, so much the worse for the world.
The catholic church is a rotten sinking ship.
Me and my blushing bride have gone down the street to the New and Improved Church of England, where we plan to get hitched….pardon the pun.
A openly gay Anglican Bishop has agreed to officiate the marriage of myself to my one and only love….Flicka
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“Those who think the priesthood is about power, prestige and position,”
Now what on earth would give anyone that idea?
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A worldly spirit.
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Yes, the Devil makes people think evil of the CCs clergy. That nasty ol Devil shouldn’t have outta done that.
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What else would he do?
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“the Church has always said it simply lacks the power to change ”
I wish I had a nickel for everytime the CC has flip flopped.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine is predicting that the Roman Catholic Church may eventually change its opposition to gay marriage.
Kaine is a devout Roman Catholic as well as a U.S. senator from Virginia and a former governor of that state. He told the Human Rights Campaign during its national dinner Saturday in Washington that he had changed his mind about gay marriage and that his church may follow suit one day.
“I think it’s going to change because my church also teaches me about a creator who, in the first chapter of Genesis, surveyed the entire world, including mankind, and said, ‘It is very good,'” Kaine said. He then recalled Pope Francis’ remark that “who am I to judge?” in reference to gay priests.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/kaine-says-catholic-church-might-change-gay-marriage-022931358–election.html
If the Holy Father got rid of all homosexual priests, he wouldn’t have any priests
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Not sure of your point – If I had a dime for every Catholic who said the church was going to follow the fashion of the age, I’d be rich.
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The point is….it cant and hasn’t stuck to its prehistoric claims that it doesn’t change…just one claim amongst many. Its not baffling to me why people still believe this obvious false sham. When I was unsaved I was prone to almost anything.
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The point is it is the church Jesus said that even the gates of hell would not prevail against – I believe Jesus.
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If you say so my brother.
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Jesus said it would prevail. I believe him – do you?
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Instead of getting rid of gay priests, the CC would rather get rid of young students who are gay. No catholic school for them. Haha.
The Catholic Diocese of Little Rock has a new plan to keep LGBT issues out of Arkansas’ Catholic schools: Keep LGBT students out of Arkansas’ Catholic schools. Last week, the Diocese issued a new addendum to the student handbook used by all Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the state with strict new prohibitions on LGBT identities. The guidance outright rejects the legitimacy of non-heterosexual orientations and transgender identities and requires that students who express such identities be expelled.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/ad0ab8fc-b56b-3654-9049-60cd7c7073ca/ss_arkansas-catholic-schools.html
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If you were capable of thinking whilst you write, it might help. Are you suggesting that the church should not take the action it is taking with the children because some priests lies about their sexuality and break their oath? How would that make sense? Your prejudice makes you sound like a fool.
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That’s exactly what im suggesting. Why make those children feel unwanted ? God will deal with them. The Vatican is run by a gay Cabal….so why persecute gay youngsters?
Why not remind us all how the CC is a hospital for sinners?
Me , personally, im glad the catholic school is showing no mercy to those kids.I hope they realize they need a real relation with Christ, not a religion that lets them down and persecutes them.
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