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British legislation menaces Church right to choose their own clergy

British Bishops have warned the Parliament that legislation that is currently before it might be used to force the Catholic Church to ordain women and married men. What protection that exists is framed as a position where the majority of work time is sacramental, ie)priest = agent of sacraments. But as a clergyman I know that the majority of my time is spent taking care of more pedantic affairs such as caring for church property, paperwork etc., or at best religious work that a lay person can also accomplish, visiting the sick, cathechetical instruction or sacramental preparation.

Given the growing adversarial relationship that exists between the forces of faith and the forces of secularism, is it wise to vest in one side or the other the right to so profoundly and directly impose their will upon the other?

Experiences in Quebec clearly demonstrate the folly of the Church accepting the promise of good faith or favorable interpretation of the language of the legislation. For issue after issue, the Quebec Bishops quietly acquiesced to one intrusion after another, only to find the "firm commitment" of politicians melt like spring ice when the climate of the times changes. Now faith is effectively shuttered within the walls of its churches as it has been excluded from every other instrument of the public square and articulate voices of faith, such as the offerings of Cardinal Ouellette in Quebec City.

The British Bishops have every reason to be worried if history is indeed a good teacher.

Comments

  1. Secular forces should have no right to direct who can be clergy but the people who make up the church should. No church should have to endure clergy forced upon them by the cabal of closeted, repressed, homosexual priests, most of whom are sexually active and some of whom share an atraction to young boys, currently in control of the Catholic Church, from Pope to Palookaville.

    The Church is not a democracy but it's time it was. Women and Gays should be able to live autonomously and participate freely in the secular and religious life of the society. They should not be forced to endure less than equal status. You say that the scripture directs their treatment so? The vast majority of Catholics says no. So it should be. God has revealed himself to the multitude. The priests are too craven with the mantle of their perversion to heed the Lord.

    Clergy resists the democratization of the Church because they know that many would be out on the streets with tin cups, first thing and the rest would have to start being accountable to the people they serve for their actions.

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