Vatican puts brakes on progressive German Catholic movement

[Jazzy]

"The Vatican on Thursday slammed the brakes on a German progressive movement that aims to give lay Catholics a say in doctrinal matters such as homosexuality and women priests, saying this risked causing a schism in the universal Church.

The movement, a regular gathering of equal numbers of bishops and ordinary German Catholics, has been outspoken in its demands for the Vatican to let priests marry, let women become priests and for the Church to bless same-sex relationships."

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Your thoughts about this?

 

[MoreCoffee]

"The Vatican on Thursday slammed the brakes on a German progressive movement that aims to give lay Catholics a say in doctrinal matters such as homosexuality and women priests, saying this risked causing a schism in the universal Church.

The movement, a regular gathering of equal numbers of bishops and ordinary German Catholics, has been outspoken in its demands for the Vatican to let priests marry, let women become priests and for the Church to bless same-sex relationships."

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Your thoughts about this?

Married priests is up for debate but the decision about allowing it is one for the hierarchy to make. Women as priests was fairly definitively disallowed by saint John Paul II.

In 1994, Pope John Paul II declared, “The Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” The Pope said that the Church has no power or authority to ordain women: it is not about how the Church would like to act or about discrimination, but it is about capacity. […]​

Blessing same sex unions/marriages isn't really on the cards for the Catholic Church but some churches allow this and so a couple can receive a church blessing in such a church.

 

[Josiah]

1. IMO, homosexuality is a MORAL issue, not a matter of dogma.

2. IMO, woman priests is an ECCLESIASTICAL issue, not a matter of dogma.

3. In all denominations, there is dissension. IMO, the RCC does a pretty good job of handling such - better than most.

4. PROTESTANTS think it's terrible that Catholic priests can't marry (Frankly, I don't know why it's any of our business, this is up to the RCC). But in MY experience as a former Catholic and with Catholics all over my family, this isn't much of a Catholic issue. Especially among the clergy. Catholics seem pretty happy with the current policy. IMO, it DOES contribute to the clergy shortage (I personally know of FOUR guys who abandoned plans to become a priest largely because of this) but I think Catholics just accept that reality, they appreciate that this office is not for everyone.



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[atpollard]

Your thoughts about this?

“Yup, that sounds about right: homosexuality and women priest probably would cause a schism.”

 

[Albion]

It's hard to imagine justifying a blessing of s-s unions without denying the Scriptural rejection of homosexual relations; and women's ordination is also rejected by both Apostolic practice and several Bible passages. However, married (male) priests is simply an administrative decision that was made by the Catholic Church about a thousand years ago. If the Vatican decided to change the policy now, there'd be no problem for her in doing that.

Married clergy converting to the Roman Catholic church from the Anglican churches are allowed to become Roman Catholic priests at present even though they are married, and the Church's Eastern rite jurisdictions have long had married priests like the Orthodox Eastern churches have.

 

[hedrick]

As far as I can tell, they didn't slam the brakes on anything. They simply threatened to create a schism. As if they hadn't learned anything from the 16th Century.

 

[Albion]

As I read the report, the German group didn't threaten a schism and was stunned to have the Vatican condemn them for offering advice. And as for the Vatican, it didn't condemn an impending schism so much as it criticized the German bishops for setting up an advisory organization on their own initiative which takes exception to official Church policy and practice and which--in the language of the Vatican's reply--is the sort of behavior that could lead to a schism. Apparently, the Germans didn't buy into that analysis.

 

[zecryphon_nomdiv]

"The Vatican on Thursday slammed the brakes on a German progressive movement that aims to give lay Catholics a say in doctrinal matters such as homosexuality and women priests, saying this risked causing a schism in the universal Church.

The movement, a regular gathering of equal numbers of bishops and ordinary German Catholics, has been outspoken in its demands for the Vatican to let priests marry, let women become priests and for the Church to bless same-sex relationships."

Continue reading

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Your thoughts about this?

I'm surprised as I thought Pope Francis would eventually make these changes himself.

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[Albion]

I'm surprised as I thought Pope Francis would eventually make these changes himself.

Authorizing married priests would be easy for the Catholic Church; authorizing women clergy almost impossible.

That's because the ordination of women would go directly against scripture and Apostolic precedent/history, both of which are considered to be authoritative and have been cited repeatedly by the RCC when other matters of doctrine have been challenged.

Advocates of women's ordination have been helped by the shortage of priests currently existing in American parishes. For the time being, though, the Church has countered the shortage by turning more to deacons and also to priests who are members of religious orders (Franciscans, for example) and not previously assigned to parish work.

 

[zecryphon_nomdiv]

Authorizing married priests would be easy for the Catholic Church; authorizing women clergy almost impossible.

That's because the ordination of women would go directly against scripture and Apostolic precedent/history, both of which are considered to be authoritative and have been cited repeatedly by the RCC when other matters of doctrine have been challenged.

Advocates of women's ordination have been helped by the shortage of priests currently existing in American parishes. For the time being, though, the Church has countered the shortage by turning more to deacons and also to priests who are members of religious orders (Franciscans, for example) and not previously assigned to parish work.

The current Pope has said that 'Atheists can go to Heaven. ' While I get what he was trying to say in relation to God being able to forgive Atheists, the way he forgives other sinners, he could have worded it better. But statements such as that one does leave me wondering how much he really does value the teachings and doctrines of the RCC.

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