I feel sure that it is not necessary to give more reasons for the idea of accepting mature married priests to change the direction the Church is taking in regard to closing down churches and reducing congregations that can receive the Sunday Eucharist and benefit from the moral and spiritual support of an ordained man.
But the impressive growth of the Church in Kenya from half a million Catholics in 1953 to over six million in 2003 can be attributed to allowing the laity to express their love for the Eucharist. People from our home church coming back from a visit to the missions always remark on the numbers as well as the liveliness of the liturgy and congregations. What would be the secret of the tangible “joy of the Gospel”? What is the secret of the “difference”?
Certainly it is not the clergy on their own. The visits of the missionaries to many outstations are regrettably few and short. For such reasons the clergy gladly give mature catechists responsibilities for as many of their activities as possible. Where there is no church or the community is still small, churchgoers in the neighbourhood have to organise everything to be able to attract a priest. So everyone is involved in Mass preparation: providing a suitable building, cleaning the room, providing seating, readers, servers, ushers, choir, etc. It is smaller congregations and their autonomous catechists and elders who generate the enthusiasm and liveliness, the difference which is so much noticed by visitors. The laity in those flourishing missions have not been clericalised, they have been enabled to fulfil their role in the Church.
The way forward at conference level must be to empower a committee composed of representatives who share the vision of a Church relevant to the people in their life situation. Those aware of the needs of the Church in a special way are the laity with the love of God in their minds and hearts. Without involving the laity the support of our new style of priesthood will fail.
Colin C Davies, Bishop Emeritus of Ngong, Kenya, Mill Hill Missionaries
Fr Kevin O'Donnell (Letters, The Tablet, 25 July) shares his valuable experience of being a married priest. This is an experience that, I hope, will be heard by those in the hierarchy who are starting to open up this debate due to pastoral need. However, I should like to highlight the wealth of information painstakingly assembled by Gary Macy, Professor of Theology at Santa Clara University, on the tradition of women's ordination in the first millennium. In his book, The Hidden History of Women's Ordination, Macy reveals ordination rites for abbesses and deaconesses, and speaks of their roles in baptism and at the Eucharist prior to the Gregorian reform that wiped out traces of these rites. Edward Schillebeeckx and Ida Raming both identified Roman law as one of the culprits in the exclusion of women from the priesthood. This early Christian tradition also needs to be highlighted if we are to face the problems of priestless parishes and sacramental poverty and find solutions.
Katharine Salmon, Sheffield
As an Anglican, I had to address the issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood some time ago. Since most of the scars on my already rather battered soul had been caused by other women, I viewed the prospect with scant enthusiasm. These days I'm not affected by the gender of the priest. The question I asked myself back then is one I now commend to my Catholic friends. Is it possible that God, who to the shock and/or incredulity of His beloved people, became flesh and pitched His tent among us, might be doing something as radical as beginning to call women to the priesthood?
Sue Hartridge, Hassocks, West Sussex
Loading ...
