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Recent Comments

1. I believe that this so-called theory of 'filling the gap', because of shortage of locally-born clergy, is an excuse, on the part of the Australian Hierarchy, to not allow laicized priests, to whose ranks I belong, to be invited to carry out full/part-time priestly duties in the parishes in which we live.
   Although I was ordained 'A priest Forever',on 15th July, 1961, I was dispensed from my commitment to celibacy in 1977, married, and I have now lived the sacrament of marriage for 35 years.
   In each of the parishes in which I have lived since, the parish priests have often wished they could invite me to offer a Sunday Mass when they needed a holiday.
   I pray that wisdom and common sense will ultimately reign over this whole issue, and laicized priests, who wish to do so, can be invited to fulfill their priestly duties when needed to do so.

   Posted By: John Spora

2. And what of all the women who discern a call to priesthood, inspired in them by the Spirit?

   Posted By: Josie Gregory

3. OMG: a disaster waiting to happen in the Philippine Catholic Life!
   I can just see Filipino priests running fast to register themselves to move to Australia. Please.
   Not only that our doctors, nurses and teachers are leaving the country en masse due to the glitters of the west, we also have our community leaders poached because of the insufficiencies and problems of the west.
   Leave us alone! For a country close to 90% Catholics, priests are an important aspect of the society where people are happy despite of the poverty of the country.

   Posted By: Erwin

4. Priests from Asia will fill in the gaps left by our much-loved Irish clergy as they go to God.
   I grew up in an Irish mission area of Gippsland. Now we have Indian priests who try very hard and make real efforts to be with their people, but have thick accents which our largely elderly congregations cannot decipher. Maybe they could be excused a homily? Or it could be delivered by a parishioner?
   In one diocese in Victoria, a Philipino priest refused a funeral (waiting at the church) because he had not booked it in.
   The Sisters in charge of the appointments book had done the booking as usual.
   So, yes, priests from Asia. But they really must undergo some inculturation first, and speak the language fluently and clearly.

   Posted By: MaryAnne Needham

5. Sometimes I do despair at the leaders of our Church.
   They go off to other countries when they could fill the ranks of the Priesthood here and have people who actually understand the ethos of this country.
   Instead we have any foreign-born priests they can pick up, who simply do not understand this place when with a little forward thinking and willingness to change we could fill the ranks ourselves.
   After all, it's only 1000 years since priestly/celibacy was not really required.
   I have come across young men who actually love their Church but when they come to the point in late teens/early 20s must make a decision - Church or Marriage with wife and family.
   What a choice when with some flexibility the position could be rectified. After all, if we can have married Anglican/Luthern Ministers - we can't we have married Catholic Priests?

   Posted By: gloria healey

6. Cultural issues are certainly an issue.
   However, to think these 'imports' should then be 'parked' in remote Australian locations maybe a bridge to difficult to cross in a foreign land where distances are extreme.
   In many of those communities, there maybe simply no ethnic communication for these men in these remote locations.

   Posted By: peter, Melbourne

7. I am with Gloria! I too despair at the leaders of our Church.
   If our priests are meant to be pastors of the people, they must first understand the culture in which they work.
   Unfortunately the action of the Philippino priest referred to by MaryAnne is not an isolated incident.
   However if what is required are men to say the Mass, with pastoral interaction not so important, well just keep doing what you are doing!

   Posted By: Kevin Langley

8. It is all very well to import priests from overseas, but think of the issues around language.
   Even if these priests do speak English, so often it is well nigh impossible to understand the accents. Again, inculturation can be an issue. There needs to be an organised period of inculturation into Australian society and to ensure their theology is up to date.

   Posted By: C.Skehan

9. Over the years I have happily attended Masses in Australia celebrated by priests from Australia, Colombia, Croatia, India, Ireland, Italy, the Philippines, Poland, Vietnam and maybe some other countries I don’t remember. The only problems I’ve ever had were with some of the Australians.
   

   Posted By: Denis Goodwin

10. We should have many more Asian priests; most Australian priests are Anglo-Celtic which jars against the ethnic makeup of the practising laity.
    But not from the Philippines, which has one of the world's highest Catholics per priest ratios.
    By world standards, Australia is well off for priests; the ratio of practising Catholics per priest is about the same as 50 years ago. Encourage young men to practise their faith, if we increase those numbers, a proportionate increase in priestly vocations will follow. Shortages of priests in some areas of Australia could be overcome by transferring priests from our relatively priest-rich dioceses.
    John Spora, the removal of obstacles to your resuming practice of the priesthood seems to lie entirely in your own hands.
    Mary-Anne, the priest's race has nothing to do with the failure of the office staff to ask him beforehand if he would celebrate a funeral.
    No priest could do this on the spot without warning. It's not just about booking. The priest must prepare and make enquiries - for a start, was the deceased even a Catholic.
    For grave reasons, a deacon can deliver a homily if the celebrant can’t, but a layman cannot.
    The implied racism of some of the comments here is troubling. The role of our priests is not to reflect back the ethos of this country (apparently very narrowly defined) but to relate us to Christ and His Universal Church which precedes and supercedes all petty distinctions of nation, race, language and culture.
    

    Posted By: Peter G

11. Encourage young men to practise their faith, if we increase those numbers, a proportionate increase in priestly vocations will follow.
    I agree, Peter G. This is the elephant in the room.

    Posted By: Trish

12. It's time our bishops bit the bullet and look to ordaining simplex priests to overcome the shortage of diocesan priests in the short to medium term. A simplex priest solves the problem of celibacy and male only and conforms to the direction from the Pope.
    Who is a simplex priest? A simplex priest is a single person (either widowed or a life time bachelor) who has lived in the parish for a great number of years and is known for their devotion to the Mass and sacraments.
    Before Trent, this was how priests were selected by the bishop anyway. You, the reader, could possibly bring to mind someone in your own parish who could fit the bill!

    Posted By: Gerrard O'Rourke

13. Call upon a married priest if you are without a priest.
    World-wide, we have a severe priest shortage-twice the number of Catholics we had in 1970 being served by the same number of priests we had in 1970.
    But Catholics - each of us and all of us - have a canonical right to call upon a married priest in the absence of sufficient celibate priests.
    See Canon 1335 - “Prohibition [against married priests] is suspended whenever it is necessary to care for the faithful in danger of death. If a latae sententiae (excommunication) censure has not been declared, the prohibition is also suspended whenever a member of the faithful requests a sacrament or sacramental or an act of governance; a person is permitted to request this for any just cause.”
    Canon 213 - "The Christian faithful have the right to receive assistance from the pastors out of the spiritual goods of the church, especially the word of God and the sacraments."
    Canon 1752 - “The salvation of souls is the supreme law of the Church.” Salvation of souls is a Divine law and it over-rides any man-made law like the celibacy rule in the situation in which there are not enough celibate priests to provide salvation to all souls.
    Blessings to you!

    Posted By: rosanne santos

14. Amen, Josie! Please, members of the hierarchy, listen to your people. Trust us as adults who are committed to and serious about the reign of God in our land. We are capable of suggesting a range of solutions.

    Posted By: vivien

15. I wonder whether the orthodoxy and orthopraxy of many of the non-Anglo visiting clergy is a challenge to the praxis of the Australian church.
    And whether the appeals to 'inculturation' are a convenient device.
    And whether, as Peter G suggests, that despite the claim to being a multicultural society, we actually are not.

    Posted By: Peter in Canberra

16. The analogy with Irish priests is incorrect.
    The situation was entirely different as they were largely serving their own countrymen and women and shared a common culture.
    But the real issue is the moral one: stripping poorer countries of their trained people.
    This way we save money on training our own people but, more importantly, the bishops avoid having to face up to fundamental issues about married priests and female priests and deacons.

    Posted By: conor bradley

17. Gerard O'Rourke: Priests have never been simply 'selected by the bishop'. A man must first of his own free will offer himself as a candidate for ordination. A widower or lifetime bachelor who has lived in a parish for many years and is known for his devotion to the Mass and Sacraments, would be an ideal candidate.
    There is nothing currently stopping such men from asking their bishop to ordain them.
    Indeed many such men have been ordained in recent years. As they also promise to remain celibate, this has nothing to do with celibacy, which is not a 'problem'.
    If you have evidence that any bishop is refusing to ordain such candidates, please present it.
    Please also refer us to any supposed 'direction from the Pope' which directs that such priests need not be celibate or male only.
    Simplex priest is an unofficial term for a (celibate male, of course) priest (of any age and background) whose bishop has granted him permission to celebrate Mass but not to perform one or more of the other priestly functions which he has the power to do through his ordination, such as to hear Confessions or preach homilies.
    This is because his theological education is regarded as insufficient for such mentally complex tasks. St John Vianney was such a priest for the first few years after his ordination, then after he was allowed to hear confessions he became one of the greatest confessors in history.

    Posted By: Peter G

18. My ability to understanding native English-speaking priests or deacons seems no different to understanding priests and deacons who are not native English speakers.
    They all, like any of us, can mumble, speak too quickly, or have turns of phrase that we could not catch. They can all have issues with the microphone, or their own voice projection abilities.
    In any event, it really matters little what language background such priests or deacons have, as we don't really go to listen to their grandiloquent words, but simply to worship God. Lets face it, in the big scheme of things, it matters hardly anything as to what language or language proficiency the Mass is said in. We are there to worship God, and we can tell just from body movements alone where the priest is up to in the Mass, and we can still know what and when to respond unless the majority of the congregation is responding in a different language than a language for with which we know the responses. The mystery of Christ physically and visibly present in the Eucharistic species, and the ability for us to physically receive Him into our being, as well as to unite with the sacrificial reality that is manifested before us at Mass ... infinitely makes up for any language issues we might have from time to time.

    Posted By: Quentin Schneider

19. To Peter G: It appears that you are not really interested in reading other people's opinions since hou have misread my comment twice.
    In fact bishops - before the Council of Trent - did select their priests. When the parish priest died, the bishop went out to the parish and 'selected' the next parish priest from that particular parish.
    Trent created the seminaries that we now have; the only theological and ecclesial training before Trent was in the monasteries.
    Thus the parish priest before Trent was known as a 'simplex' priest. They lacked the faculty of hearing confessions and preaching unless given by the bishop.
    Up to 1912, a newly ordained priest was given the faculty to hear confessions by his bishop - it was not automatic as is now.
    Secondly (just in case Peter G has not heard this before) John Paul II's 1994 Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis stressed that catholic priestly ordination was for men alone.
    I never said anything contrary to celebrate and male only.
    In all my research, I cannot find that St. John Vianney was ever a 'simplex' priest by not having the faculty to hear confessions.
    The problem that faces the Western Church at least is the number of priests.
    The 'simplex' priest can plug the gap until numbers are again sufficient to fill all parishes with proper priests.
    Without the Mass, there is no Catholic Church! A simplex priest can celebrate the Mass - and consecrate the bread and wine!

    Posted By: gerrard O'Rourke

20. Those who 'despair at the leaders of the church' need an understanding about the parameters that our bishops work within.
    They do not have the authority to do the things many of you suggest. Another 'angle' to this discussion is, how many Aussies are encouraging members of our families to serve within the church.
    Lastly, I don't believe in married priesthood because it takes a tremendous toll on a marriage.
    I also don't believe in women being priests because the way a woman ministers is different to a man.
    The feminine ministry is everywhere in the church. The ministry of men is different and desperately needed in our church, and brings balance to the feminine ministry.
    Finally, I believe that the relationship of a male priest to his Bride - the church - is a manifestation of the love between God and his Beloved: us.

    Posted By: Cath

21. Gerard: I apologise if I have misunderstood or misrepresented your comments but if so, I really cannot see how I have done so.
    In fact, the ability to validly hear confessions and absolve sins, to celebrate Mass, to anoint the sick, to preach homilies, to celebrate marriages and funerals, to confer confirmation, and every other priestly function is and always has been automatically received by every priest on his ordination.
    However the faculty to lawfully (as distinct from validly) exercise any of these priestly powers is not and has never been automatic; it is conferred only by the priest's bishop or his religious superior giving his specific written permission.
    An infamous case occurred in the middle of last century when, because of a dispute between the two, Cardinal Spellman of New York withdrew the faculty for his auxiliary bishop Fulton Sheen (the greatest English-speaking Catholic orator of the 20th century!) to preach homilies (though he was still allowed to celebrate Mass etc.)
    The bishop of a neighbouring diocese then gave Bp Sheen the faculty to preach homilies in his own diocese.
    Even a bishop cannot perform any priestly function outside of his diocese without written permission from the local bishop.
    The only exception (apart from life and death emergencies) is in the case of Cardinals, who are allowed to celebrate any of the Sacraments anywhere in the world without permission from the local bishop.

    Posted By: Peter G

22. The problem (or is it a crisis) is a lack of priests here in Australia (other Western countries also have this problem).
    We cannot have married priests nor will the Church ordain women. The 'simplex' priest concept plugs the gap until the seminaries can produce enough priests.
    It is up to the diocesan bishop to work out the 'nuts and bolts' - what faculties to give etc. But there are parishes out there which need a priest to celebrate the Mass!

    Posted By: gerrard O'Rourke

23. There are two important issues in bringing Priests from Asia to fill the gap.
    First the Priests in these countries, particularly the Philippines of which I have personal experience, are needed to serve their own communities.
    In one instance, the PP of a Parish in Illocano dialect district was replaced by a Priest speaking Cebuan from the Visayas (Central Philippines) because the local Bishop could not recruit a local priest.
    The appointment caused problems for that community as he did not speak the local dialect. There were cultural problems to boot!
    The number of people in parishes in Asia, particularly the Philippines and India is actually much larger than in our parishes.
    They need their priests and we are stealing them and their costly education for free because we do not train our own.
    I have personal knowledge of an Indian Priest who was sent to serve in a remote Queensland parish, before transfer to a coastal parish.
    The cultural divide and isolation proved to be too much for him and he left the priesthood.
    As many respondents have mentioned, importing priests is simply not the answer.
    Why not call back to service our priests who left to marry (often out of lonliness??)
    Ordain married men whose children have grown up or who are widowed.
    I have seen the dedicated service married clergy in the other donominations provide their flocks.We can learn from their example.

    Posted By: Gavin

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