As a sign that the Holy Spirit knows what he is doing, I have rarely been so heartened as I was by Arthur McCaffrey’s letter (“A church without priests”, 6 June) that got us away from the whining that the Western world is “short” of priests, and showed us what laity can be capable of. On a basis of priests per 1,000 Catholics, we are still in clover compared to many areas of Africa or South America; and it is high time that our people are facilitated to take their proper roles (as laity already do in many parts of such countries).
But we are still way behind the times in catechising our people so that they understand and appreciate the powerful ways that Christ is truly present in non-Eucharistic liturgies. And until they discover this spiritual wonder, communities will close and individuals lose the faith in increasing numbers. The days of “Mass with everything” are over and lay people who only “hear” Mass and never assist the running of their churches (or who occasionally dominate all the jobs) have to change if Catholic life is to go on.
It’s not all up to us priests! Our main role needs to be to encourage parishioners to be active and trust them to be the Church themselves! It is as though we were trying to work ourselves out of a job, though we will never actually do so; not least as every community still needs Mass sometimes.
I am constantly saddened when a Mass is cancelled, be it on a weekday or a Sunday, and the community then fails to meet for anything. In the vacuum of insufficient truly converted and catechised lay leaders, and as a semi-retired supply priest, I fear I am only staving off the “evil day” for many churches here in the now spiritually-thin north-west of Wales, and suspect that my spiritual direction and retreat work may be doing more long-term good.
Bob Rainbow, nr Porthmadog, Gwynedd
We need to move away from attachment to beliefs in the necessity of a priest (whether male or female) as a person set apart to mediate between humanity and God.
The notion of a priest as a man set apart is particularly corrosive. It seems to me that it is no coincidence that the two priests convicted of sexual offences with whom I studied at seminary in the 1980s were particularly attached to this idea, and among the first to wear the garb of the priesthood as a way of demonstrating this.
On an individual level, they were charming and caring individuals, but the idea that they had a calling that removed them somehow from the rest of humanity was not helpful. A Church that becomes free of these ideas would, I believe, be a Church that becomes free to live gospel values more fully and move away from beliefs that inhibit growth.
Tim Gay, Waterlooville, Hampshire
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