Lisa Frey has two contradictory visions of the future Roman
\nCatholic Church.<\/p>\n
In one, a priest shortage means Catholics often stay home
\non Sunday because Mass is a rarity. But in Ms. Frey’s preferred vision, Mass
\nis said frequently because the priesthood has been expanded to include women,
\nlike her, and married men who aspire to ordination.<\/p>\n
“I actually have begun to think if it’s open to me, I would
\nseriously consider seminary,” said Ms. Frey, 38, a leadership council member
\nof FutureChurch, a group working for grassroots Catholic acceptance of a priesthood
\nnot limited to unmarried men.<\/p>\n
Philosophically, FutureChurch has much in common with the
\nbigger, Chicago-based Call to Action.<\/p>\n
Much in common? That is an understatement.<\/p>\n
Ms. Frey, who is single, already has a feel for what life
\nmight be like in the priesthood: She serves with a priest and a nun as part
\nof a three-member team running a suburban parish. A former teacher at a Catholic
\ngirls’ high school, Ms. Frey has preached at communal penance services at the
\n1,200-family Church of the Resurrection in Solon, a Cleveland suburb. Sometimes
\npresiding at weekday prayer services, sometimes distributing communion, Ms.
\nFrey also directs youth ministry and social justice programs at Resurrection.
\nThe priest in the trio handles liturgy matters like the Mass, but “we all sign
\nchecks,” Ms. Frey said.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, “signing checks” is just so much more important
\nthen “matters” like the Mass.<\/p>\n
“The Eucharist is at the core of everything we are about
\nas a Catholic community,” said Sister Christine Schenk, executive director
\nof FutureChurch. “We think the gender or marital status of the presider is
\nnot nearly as important as having Mass available.”<\/p>\n
The Lutherans and the Episcopalian Churches both allow married
\nmen and women, why aren’t they growing in leaps and bound if it is only a matter
\nof infusion into the ranks from other sources? Of course they don’t have a
\nvalid priesthood or a valid Mass. The Orthodox Churches allow
\nmarried priests (not married Bishops), they should also be growing if their
\nsolution was true. I almost wish these people would just leave the Church and
\nstart up their own flavor of a church. Unfortunately our rats don’t seem to
\nleave the Church anymore but just try to gnaw it to death from within. I am
\nalso really beginning to dislike the word "presider", it seems to have taken
\non a political meaning which is used to reduce the importance of the priesthood.
\nI don’t remember reading "You are a presider forever according to the order
\nof
\nMelchizedek."<\/p>\n
She is encouraged that Cleveland Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, Nice of him to support the “Vatican’s Lisa Frey has two contradictory visions of the future Roman Catholic Church. In one, a priest shortage means Catholics often stay home on Sunday because Mass is a rarity. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-punditry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\npresident of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, has declined to condemn
\nthe efforts of groups like FutureChurch. (To avoid conflicts with critical
\nbishops, some of her speaking engagements have been scheduled away from church
\nproperty.) Pilla, who will preside over the bishops’ Nov. 16-19 meeting in
\nWashington, responded to a request for comment on FutureChurch with a brief
\nwritten statement saying that the group isn’t a diocesan organization, doesn’t
\nhave his approval and is responsible for its own programs. He has said he supports
\nthe Vatican position limiting the priesthood to unmarried men.
\n[Full Story<\/a>]\n<\/p>\n
\nposition” though. Women’s ordination is not a Vatican talking points memo but
\npart of the deposit of the faith. Of course this is not surprising from a diocese
\nthat has this
\nspiffy rainbow colored page<\/a> on their web site. If you dig far enough you
\ncan find the reference on their site from the “Current
\nCatholic Catechism statements on the topic of homosexuality:”<\/a> on what the
\nChurch teaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"