Daniel Avila nails it in a recent article for The Pilot, of the Archdiocese of Boston. When challenged by the teaching of an all male, heirarchichal priesthood, instead of just blindly going along with the status quo, he looked it up! In reading the document he states:
It struck me upon reading these documents just how important sexual difference, and the anthropological reality of being human through two means, male and female, are to the Church’s sacramental understanding of the priesthood. As this column has indicated in the past, the same regard for sexual difference and the male and female identities plays a central role in the Church’s understanding of marriage and sexual attraction.
One of the elements of the teaching in “Inter Insigniores” is that holy orders, being a sacrament, must contain within it a sign that is “perceptible and which the faithful must be able to recognize with ease.” The Church understands the ministry of the priest to be the unique sign of Jesus, truly present. That is, “the bishop or the priest, in the exercise of his ministry, does not act in his own name; he represents Christ, who acts through him.” To be effective as supernatural signs, the sacraments must “represent what they signify by natural resemblance.” Jesus “was and remains a man.” Thus, the presence of Jesus in the priesthood is obscured in a fundamental respect if the priest is not also a man.
Now, if we could just get people here to read the document, it would do wonders.
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3 comments:
Yes, I'm sure that there are some people that really just don't get it - why the all male priesthood (there are a number of its but we'll stick to this one). And yes, reading the appropriate documents may in fact help some of them. There are so many - the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Compendium, and several other church documents, including the one you linked to.
But, let's face it, the vast majority of people that are up in arms about this (and other issues) just don't want the answer given and are SURE that they opinion is better. And no amount of words in any number of documents will make them change - because they refuse to even look honestly. And, then, they refuse to do the honorable thing - and officially become what ever it is they are.
It's true most of them have not been well catechized BUT in this age of instant access - if they wanted the official view and explaination - it would take so little effort to find it. But the big effort comes in wanting TRUTH (which has a name - Jesus Christ) and following Him anywhere. Last I looked - He went to the cross and wanted the cup to pass from Him. So, why would we think that this journey was going to be easy and that we would always get what we want?
John from Melbourne, Australia:
I am sorry that you do not find my posts agreeable. Unfortunately, as I also do not find your writings and posting to be consistent with what I am trying to do on my blog, I felt I had to remove them.
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