YET ANOTHER PREDICTION

In a recent interview with Die Zeit, a German newspaper, Pope Francis was asked to address the  lack of Priestly vocations. 

The Pope responded that it is  “a problem the Church must resolve.”

In addressing the crisis, the Holy Father recommends prayer but also, as he has explained several times, working with young people “who are the great forgotten ones of modern society as they don’t have work in numerous countries.”

However, the Pope cautions: “Optional celibacy isn’t the solution.”  Really?

Pope Francis said he is open to the possibility of permitting married men to become priests to address the serious shortage of Catholic priests in some countries.  He ruled out the prospect of allowing single men who are already priests to marry but was open to the idea of allowing unmarried laymen or men already married to be ordained.

The Pope raised the prospect in the context of allowing "viri probati," Latin for "proven men," to be ordained in the Churches remote places with a scarcity of priest.  He told the newspaper the lack of Catholic Priests was an "enormous problem" for the Church.

"We need to think about whether 'viri probati' could be a possibility," he told the German weekly. "If so, we would need to determine what duties they could undertake, for example, in remote communities."  Still, Francis said allowing Priests in training to choose whether or not to be celibate was “not the solution.”  Really!

I have commented on this crisis  in a number of my posts.  The Church needs to get serious about the catastrophic decrease in Priestly vocations.  The Church will only get serious when the Pope gets serious about it.  And it seems as though this Pope may be getting a bit serious.  Finally!

Actually, the solution is quite simple and requires nothing by way of invention. 

Rather, the Church needs to rediscover the wisdom and practice of the Apostolic Church, a wisdom it choose to either forget or ignore in mandating celibacy as a requirement for Sacred Orders. 

The Church needs to simply adopt the paradigm for Priesthood offered by Saint Paul in his First Letter to Timothy who advises that they “must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach....” (1 Tim 3:2)

This is the Scriptural basis upon which the Church resurrected the Order of Deacon as a permanent clerical state following the Council of Vatican II. 

The fact is the Church has always allowed married men to be ordained, but has steadfastly refused to permit ordained men to marry.  This is historically demonstrable and beyond refutation.

Why the Holy Father shows reluctance to apply this model to Priesthood today is understandable but not excusable.  Surely, traditional-minded Catholics and ultra-conservative factions within the Church would unleash a barrage of attacks upon him.  But his duty is clear and the pathway to resolving the crisis in Priestly vocations is equally clear. 

It seems as though Francis will most likely choose a back-door approach to the problem.  Much as he did with the pastoral approach to re-admitting divorced and sexually-active remarried Catholics to the Sacraments.

And so, I will make this prediction.

At the Synod on Youth in 2018, the Bishops will be invited and encouraged to speak to the teachings and practice of the Church regarding vocations to the Priesthood and the crisis which the Church is now facing. 

I further predict that the discussions will conclude in a proposal to have local conferences of Bishops petition the Holy See for permission to ordain married men of proven virtue (most likely those presently in the Permanent Diaconate) to the Sacred Priesthood.

This will be the first strike against mandatory celibacy’s stranglehold on Priestly vocations. 

Furthermore, I predict that Francis’ suggestion that this be a solution which the Church could apply in “remote” places will be seen for the ruse that it is:  a way of “getting the camel’s nose under the tent” so to speak.  What really does Francis mean when he refers to the “remote places” in the Church?

Seriously, is Ireland a “remote” place?  And yet, the Priestly ranks in that traditionally Catholic country are decimated.  And what about Western Europe which has become missionary territory once again.  And then there’s Latin America and South America.  Africa and India.  Are these all “remote” places.

And here’s my final prediction.  In a few short years, America will have the highest number of ordained married Priests, just as it has the greatest number of Permanent Deacons.  Why?  Because the American Church is perhaps the least reluctant and certainly the most eager to accept a married clergy.  The quickness and relative ease with which American Catholics have accepted and embraced the Permanent Diaconate is proof enough.

Finally, if anyone thinks that seminaries will not be affected by the ordination of married men, they are out of their minds. 

Once the Church allows for “viri probati” to be ordained to Priesthood, she must be willing to understand and accept the fact that optional celibacy will be the new paradigm for Priestly service. 

For a time, men who believe they are called to Priesthood but equally called to be husbands and fathers will simply delay their request for consideration until later in life.  Seminaries will dry up for lack of celibate aspirants. 

Finally, when the Church is realistic and ready to allow married men to sit side by side with celibate aspirants to the Priesthood in seminary formation, then and only then will the crisis begin to be addressed in a sane and sensible fashion.

Francis has telegraphed his intentions. 

The 2018 Synod is not that far off.  We shall see if my predictions come true.  In the meantime, prayers to the Holy Spirit for Wisdom, Counsel and Fortitude for the Pope, the Bishop and ourselves certainly would be in order.