Tuesday of Holy Week
Tonight, in many dioceses, many of the faithful will gather at their cathedrals for the Chrism Mass (although the traditional day for this is Holy Thursday morning), the liturgy at which the Holy oils used for anointing the sick, the newly baptized, and the conformandi over the course of the next year. It is at occasions like the Chrism Mass where the need for more Holy Priests becomes obvious. If there are no priests in the future to anoint our sick, baptize our children, and most importantly, consecrate the Eucharist, how will the Church survive?We know it will survive because our Lord promised us that it would. While others want to blame the issue of priestly celibacy and the recent scandals in the Church as the reason for the shortage, it bears noting that the Western Church has had celibacy for a millennium and a half, but the priest shortage is a recent development. Scandals far worse than the one currently rocking the Church in America have yielded no shortage of priests in the past. Instead, we are failing to look at an obvious culprit: birth control. In our day and age, even so-called "good Catholic families" are violating Church teaching by contracepting using artificial means. That means that they are having fewer children, and are thus placing increasing pressure on their sons to marry and provide them with grandchildren. Giving one of your sons to the service of God and His Church is no longer seen as an honor and a privilege, proof of one's goodness as a parent. Until we rid ourselves of our present "contraceptive mentality," neither will we be rid of a shortage of priests.
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 11:52 AM
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