The (old) New Priests

Laurence 'Bones' has a post featuring an article by a retired priest expressing his distress at the cruel trick played on him by the Vatican Despots.

It is worth reading on many levels, not least because such men are worthy of our pity and needing our prayers.

The saddest line of all, perhaps, is also the most revealing: 'We changed from being priests called and consecrated by God to being presbyters called and ordained by the Church – the People of God. '

In addition to Laurence's observations, a couple of things leapt out at me: the self-contradicitons contained in this sad outpouring.

One was: 'We realised that clericalism was an evil, not a good, and discarded it with its style;' followed by: 'The celebration of the importance of priests in the church is belied by the contempt with which they are treated. ' Is there just a hint of double think here - and of wounded vanity?

And likewise: ' We ran highly successful and active parishes;' and 'Today the ranks of the priesthood are depleted due to low recruitment over the last forty years.' So how successful where these parishes in fact?...

But go and read the whole piece and draw your own conclusions.