Married Priests Now!

31/05/2007

Archibishop Milingo's Letter: Dear Italian Married Priests

31 May 2007

Dear Italian Married Priest,

Happy Easter. I hope that Don Giuseppe shared with you my Lenten Letter, entitled:

Our Lenten Thought.

In this Lenten letter, we are not accusing any body about what has happened to us. We acknowledge our sinfulness, and together with the whole Catholic community, we repented, and renewed our priesthood. We are doing what we are doing, not because we are better than others. We only want to be once more on the road in the Imitation of Christ, but doing our role as Community leaders, chosen by God. Call the priests: Elders, Presbyters, or priests, but with a chosen role and appointment by God, for which they are anointed and consecrated.

We have seriously analyzed and proved that the Catholic Church has been wrong “To Laicize Priests.” A priest cannot be reduced to a lay state, that to a state of a common citizen, who cares only for his own faculties. The common word which makes a short synthesis of his status is that “a priest is a common bread.” It is from this status that he is not only a man of sacrifices, but he himself is a sacrifice for his community. He is to be called upon, to be referred to, to be consulted, and to be all to all. Hence different from Jesus who does not expiate His own sins in the sacrifice He offers Himself, while a priest being a common bread, he shares in this same bread of his own life, because he expiates for his own sins as well.

The Word “Priest”

We are the New Israel. Our breviaries, the Rosary, Roman Missals, all that makes a Catholic life is so connected with priesthood that we cannot avoid the word priesthood and priest. With regard to sacrifice, we date back to Abel. God inspired Abel to show gratitude to God as creator of all that is good, and to bring back to god by offering. Abel did it his way, and it was God’s joy to receive what he offered. Traditionally the one who presides at offerings to god, or to any divinity has a special name, and in some traditions, they devised what to wear during the ceremony. In the case of Aaron the High Priest, the ceremonial gowns were all approved by God.

After Abel then, the Jews, out of all the nations were chosen to properly organize themselves, when it came to worshipping God together. But the offering of Abel was revived by Noah as he came out of the Ark. We read the following: “Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh and choosing from all the clean animals and all the clean birds he presented burnt offerings on the altar.” (Genesis 8:20).

The action of Noah, not only did he thank God, and adore Him as the Creator of all creatures; in gratitude he thanked God on behalf of humanity and all creation. Let us see the joy God receives from our sacrifices. “Yahweh smelt the pleasing smell and said to Himself, ‘Never again will I curse the earth because of human beings, because their heart contrives evil from their infancy. Never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done.’” (Genesis: 8:20~21).

Call Abel whatever you want, give Noah whatever name you want, but they stand in for what the Catholic Church call: “PRIEST.”

This Priesthood in St. Peter’s letter extends to the whole Christian Community. Since everyday, life being problematic, a Christian solves the riddle of life by learning from Jesus whose whole life was a holocaust. He did not offer His life only when He was on the cross, when He said “In manus tuas Domine commendo spiritum meum,” but just as well when He said: “ I came to give them life, and life in abundance.” All His actions were channeled to a sacrifice, not only in one action, but the whole of His life. St. Peter in his first letter says this to us all: “He is the living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to Him; set yourselves close to Him so that you too may be living stones making a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer the spiritual sacrifices made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter: 2:4~5).

The word “Priest” here means someone, who stands in for others, and for his own needs, as the Bible says, to differentiate us from Jesus, who totally stands in for us, without expiating for His sins, because He has none. St. Peter makes us all, as Christians, imitators of Jesus; we have one thing in common with Jesus: “To offer sacrifices and to expiate for our sins.” All these actions are directed to God. As we offer them to God we are doing priestly actions.

Priesthood Continues With New Israel

It dates back, as I said, with the existence of Abel. Later on the Lord, through Moses said: “The burning offering: He will then slaughter the bull before Yahweh, and the priests descended from Aaron will offer the blood.” (Leviticus 1:1~9).

The Catholic Church cannot do away with priesthood. It means what it is meant to be. It is a community appointment, from the people and for the people.

Strange that priesthood will live on, even in the new and the new Heaven. Here it is: “Yahweh says: ‘Like Israelites bringing offerings in clean vessels to Yahweh’s House. And some of them shall make into priests and Levites, Yahweh says.” (Isaiah 66:20~21).

Priesthood designed and planned as it works in the Catholic Church has to follow the will of God, as Jesus says: “You have not chosen me, I chose you.” Unless you are going to prepare a community of faith, grounded in the love of God and neighbor, you cannot leave the choice of a priest to any Jim and Jack. It is always called the Holy Priesthood, not as it was been presented by the Roman Catholic Church, as taking the holiness from celibacy. To choose Matthias to take place of Judas Iscariot, they had to go into prayer and leave the choice to the Holy Spirit. A presbyter to be taken among the people, without involving God, will be popularly chosen man, but not necessarily approved by God. Neither should this dependence on God take this occasion of the rottenness of the Catholic Church, and hence bring in all sorts of categories of those who have ever dreamt to be priests according to their human concept of priesthood. Those who stick to power today, some of them got what longed to have: Glory, Power, Prestige, and all that their priesthood had given them, and they are happy today. But they were not God’s priests; they came in the church through freemasonry.

The Married Priesthood

Ours is the original priesthood. We are not necessarily to compare ourselves with married priests or other churches. We want to be truly married priests of the Apostolic times. The church was found and built on and by the married priesthood. There is no doubt at all that a structure will be made, just to have a format, where we can be acknowledged as priests deriving their priesthood from the Apostles. We are not half-church, the other half being the celibate priesthood. We are fully priests, planned by God, married as Adam and Eve, bringing forth Holy children, as was Abel, from the renewed and repent family, Adam and Eve.

We, who are now receiving the stones thrown to us, do not want to monopolize the work of redeeming our Mother Church. She cannot see nor feel the sorrow that Jesus feels from the priestly crimes. We have received different punishment, but as long as obligators celibacy lasts in the Catholic Church, the degrading kind of sins will continue.

We shall need new vigor and vision to confront, to live once more the Holy, Apostolic Priesthood, sanctifying matrimonial union, and elevating it to the standard God wanted it to be.

How Do I See Our Church?

First of all, I want to share with you how I have watched the actions of our Mother Catholic church. You may differ from my view-point; praise the Lord, let it be so without condemning me. The rationality of the Catholic Church has won predominance in the governing of the Catholic Church. It is not the Pope who governs the Catholic Church; it is “Curia Romana.” But who is Roman other than the one whose opinion supersedes the groups’ opinion. I may be wrong; I never assisted at the procedure for making decisions.

This disease to over-reasoning and reasoning is taken from the reasoning of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and so on. Though we attributed to theology which is believed to pave the way to our faith, even our faith is a rationalized faith, which did not accept Joan of Arc, Savarola, and many founders of religious congregations condemned for their mysterious experiences and were sent out if their own congregations to die as nobodies.

The Curia Romana claiming to have the spirit of discernment, we see now through Mass media what the conquistadores did in the name of the church to the people of Latin America. They did the same for the Black People of Africa. Working hand in hand with the Explorers and their governments, they did what was certainly not from the discernment of the Holy Spirit. The Church had a MIND not a HEART.

Will the church recuperate the HEART? Excommunication, interdicts, suspensions, and many other ways, as you say what the ex-sisters have suffered, you and I tend to hide our heads in the sand. They are shameful crimes of our Mother Church. But if we too go alone, we may make as many resolutions as we want, we shall never succeed to renew the church.

First of all we must change our attitudes towards life. It is not only reasoning, which solves human problems. Today the world needs a lot more the act of the heart, than those of the mind. If the mind believes that it can go alone, making precipitous decisions, however logically they may be right, we shall not serve humanity the better.

St. Paul, Colossian 3:16: “with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs to God.”

St. Ambrose: “Oh Jesus, in the perfection of your beauty fairer than the children of men, wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin (Ps 51:2), so that purified by you, I may be able to come to you, who are yourself most pure, and that I may be found to “dwell in” your Heart “all the days of my life” (Ps 27:4), to behold you, and to be strong to do you will.”

St. Raymond of Penyafor (1175~1275): “Your purity of life, your devotion, deserves and calls for a reward; because you are acceptable and pleasing to God. Your purity of life must be made purer still, by frequent buffetings, until you attain perfect sincerity of heart.”

If faith, acquired through intellectual perception in theology, it has to be moderated by the perception of the heart in which love resides. And love is the only virtue which will remain after faith and hope have done their job on earth. The disappearing of devotions in the Catholic Church, for instance no respect for the Eucharist, and other traditional devotions, have spiritually emptied the souls of those simple devotees, whose God spoke to them as they sat before Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

Rev. Moon

Just as the old Catholics, the Lutherans, and now strongly the Orthodox feel free to work with me, so are the Moonists, happy to work with me. They see that I have no Catholic pomposity, superiority complex, but guided by prudence and love, I never have offended anyone of them in my behavior. They see in me their own expansion, and that I am a ladder to reach the Catholic Church. It is beyond doubt that Miliongo is Catholic bone, blood, and water, and all that makes him who he is.

Many human beings have played tricks on us, promising financial help, but to no avail. Only Rev. Moon has taken interest in our case and has helped us to move up to where we are. But he does not promise that he will keep on supporting us. The wealth of Rev. Moon is no more in his power. It is his wife and children who are now owners of all that he built up.

Our movement is officially registered, but it was no tax exemption. People are interested in tax exemption in order that one way or another they get back their money. However, it seems that those who are now inviting us to go to their countries will take as well the travel costs and accommodation and food. We hope that does not just remain a dream, but a reality.

Our Prelature

We will deprive you nothing of who you are. None of us will establish a Kingdom out of Married Priest Now! You have already suffered more than enough. We count on your good will and honesty and sincerity. There is none among our Bishops who is power-hungry. Our Kingdom is in our own families, where we display a total freedom and confidence. Nor are we expecting honors and decorations, patting us on our shoulders. We are simply family priests. At our meeting s our wives have all the freedom to say what they feel, and we all pay attention to what they say.

I personally see the Prelature expanding through units. This means the priestly family units which will be formed in different countries. In my concept I see our Prelature enlightening the units and diffusing the wisdom which comes from these units and share them with everyone. The picture I have may not be adequate to demonstrate what I have in mind. Much of what I see is the Holy Spirit coming down on each Apostle and on Mother Mary on Pentecost day, giving each one of them all the graces needed to carry out the mission God had decided upon. The Prelature should be looked at as a communication channel that continuously refreshes the units in order to go into action and activity.

If ours is a mission for the church today, the Holy Spirit is not going to limit Himself to those who are administrators or the councilors of the Prelature. There will be a reciprocal sharing of Spiritual experiences, of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul says to the Ephesians: “And to some, His ‘gift’ was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers, to knit God’s Holy people together for the work of service to build up the Body of Christ, until all reach unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and for the perfect man, fully mature with fullness of Christ himself.” (Eph 4:9~14).

I am certain that all your questions are answered. Do not look at us from a distance. The game we are playing is as well yours.

God Bless.

Yours Sincerely,

Archbishop E. Milingo

Author Nickname: marriedpriests date time 08:20 | Permalink | commenti (1)
categories:circular letter, theology, celibacy

10/05/2007

Origins of Married Priesthood (Archibishop Emmanuel Milingo)

17th April, 2007

Ours is not a publicity advertisement which we are exposing to the possible buyers of the story of married priests. We are aiming first of all at convincing the priests themselves of their dignity and responsibility before God. We believe that we are in a second stage of our moving towards married priesthood. We first struggled to convince them that no power on earth can undo the priestly character of ordination to priesthood, which, as they were consecrated and anointed, has remarried and will remain indelible. The church itself repeats the words to each priest being ordained; "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek." These same words are applied to the priesthood of Jesus. So we priests, being "other christs," as the church herself calls us, we embrace the duty and responsibility of the saving work of Jesus. A privilege, but a serious responsibility at the same time.

Hence in our celebration of Mass during the married priests' convocations, we spiritually and morally struggled to convince priests that they should have no grudge against those who maltreated them. Among these are those superiors, bishops who invoked from the church a punishment on married priests who gave up a celibate life. Many priests did not suddenly come to the decision to give up celibacy. They took the normal procedures of dispensation, which did not satisfy them. They did not mean to give up their pastoral work as priests. They just come to the conclusion that this was not their life to be single. That is why in some countries more than 50% of married priests still want to come back to their pastoral activity.

In my contacts, I have come across married priests who have still felt being in contact with people. They are counseling, teaching, or back to the parish work as assistants to the celibate priests. That means that they have been forced to accept anything which satisfies their vocation to serve people. Ours is to claim back all that belongs to priesthood. Because there is no sound reason whatever that celibacy takes an upper hand over priesthood. It is a church precept, made great by its punishments, which make an impression when waved off as if one has committed a spiritual suicide. The punishment is not proportionate to the crime. Even those who have been dispensed still have no right to their priestly ministry. To marry, as a late second choice is a priest's right. Since it is a precept, and by asking dispensation, the priest declares publicly that this is not his life. He would have left during his formation years. However he put it to trial, and found out that this celibate life could not stick to him. His conscience should be respected. The mistake is of the church who bonded celibacy with priesthood, and attributed the great works of the church due to celibate priesthood. Throughout church history celibacy was not accepted, but imposed. And now nature itself and human community cannot any longer tolerate it, due to shameful crimes which have their origin "celibacy." One American lady has written a book on celibacy, entitled; "Cursed celibacy in the Catholic Church." These women talk a lot about the priests access to religious women, commonly known as "Nuns or sisters."

Absolution from suspensions, interdicts
and excommunications

On the authority of Jesus, who spoke of the sin against the Holy Spirit as the only one which may not be forgiven. But it was a warning not to undervalue God's gifts, or attribute them to the devil, as they said Jesus sent away the demons from people by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus was the son of God! "I came to do the will of my Father." He said. And of course we all know how He was full of the Holy Spirit as He was being baptized in the river Jordan.
It was our joy to absolve each and every priest who has been punished in whatever form for having opted to marry rather than to remain celibate. Such married priesthood already exists in other Christian churches, and they incur nothing, as they make their own choice.
Recently, on 7th April, Holy Saturday, we celebrated mass, which they called the "Alleluia mass." I still stuck to my Catholic Tradition of putting off the ring till mid-night of Saturday. So on this 10:00 A.M. mass, I sung alleluia, while on the other hand, I was mourning Jesus from Good Friday.
However, we started the Mass, till at the offertory the priest reminded me; "What about absolution?" We had said the penitential "Confiteor," and "Lord have mercy." What absolution? I said to myself. Some of these priests have been at our priests' convocations in U.S.A and they remembered this special absolution. So, in order not to disrupt the celebration of mass I said; "My dear brothers and sisters, just as we are now going to offer the Host and Wine, which will soon become the body and blood of Jesus, let us recall the words of Jesus." Before you present your gift on the altar, and you remember that you have a grudge against your brother or sister, go back home, and reconcile with your brother and sister, and after that come back to present your offering on the altar." Then I went on appealing to all present to forgive one another, and particularly married priests who have become a public ridicule in the Catholic Community. So I stretched my hands on all the people and the priests saying." By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Angels and Saints, I absolve you all from all sinful entanglements, interdicts, suspensions and excommunications of whatever sort they might be, in the Blood of Jesus Christ be you all cleansed, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

On Easter Sunday, we came back to St. Paul, Brazil. We had a healing session after mass. We had 1,700 people in attendance. To impose hands, with four priests anointing the sick. That is a sight to observe. Having so many people in one place, the doctors were available in case of an accident. To their surprise there was such calm and peace, nothing happened which needed ambulances, and came up to line up with the sick. So they too were anointed. In the end I had to ask the service people to put a block, when I saw that the lines were coming to an end. So they did bock those who might have come back the second time. This is what happened in Zaire Congo Democratic, some years ago. They went home and collected their brothers, and sisters, and we would never see the end of the healing session. They come in, they come in…. Only late did we know that not all those who presented themselves for the anointing were present throughout the mass. Nothing evil in wanting to get something for our own relatives. It is wishing good for our brothers and sisters.

After The Healing Session!
Usually we should speak less after mass, since people have been patient enough to listen to long homilies. But sometimes the audience itself attracts the speaker to say the bits, which he did not complete in the homily. But this time, it was not only myself to once more address the people, but rather the concelebrants did add more savour to the conclusion of the class. One married priest, a professor in the University of St. Paul made the audience so happy to hear him speak of his wife, hi children and five grand-children. He was so free, and joking as he spoke to the delight of the whole assembly.
Then came one of the married Bishops. He opened his concluding words by saying; "Already we have witnessed miracles. Some married priests, who had lost hope to celebrate mass, have now begun to do so. It is so consoling to see such a response, "We have had three previous meetings with the married priests. Now at St. Paul this was our last tap before coming back to Korea. So on Monday, 9th April, in the afternoon we left for Korea, embarking on a long journey, they say 27 hours in the air.

The Roots and Origins of Priesthood

There are many reasons why priesthood should suffer such draw-backs. One would ask; "How is it that such a gift of God to mankind should be treated as it is by the beneficiaries?" One would dare say; "What is it that man has not tarnished on earth?" if we were to see one another's sins, we would be the more angry against one another, pointing fingers at one another, saying; "How dare you offend God so much?" The one blamed would say the same thing; "And you, you are not better."
It is said that before receiving an official dispensation from celibacy, one had to write the following:
1. I am a fool, an idiot, the precise word.
2. I am sexually weak. I can't carry the burn of celibacy.
3. then the scandal he would continue to give in the Christian community if he went on with celibacy.
But how many of those in authority are not in the same bag with the condemned. It is easy to see a beam in a friend's eye, without seeing that which is in one's own eye. "Take up your stone," Says Jesus, "and throw it on the adulteress, if you never committed adultery." "One by one," the Bible says, "they left the adulteress alone, throwing away the stones as they left in shame."
Priesthood has profound roots in marriage. God knew that it was the only way to maintain it, and to keep its luster and splendor. We read from Pope St. Clement I to the Corinthians; "For it is from Jacob that all the priests and Levites who minister at God's altar have since descended. From him, too, according to the flesh, has come the Lord Jesus." (St. Clement I; to Corinthians; No.31-3). Remember, Jesus is the Eternal Priest. He too takes His priesthood from the family of Jacob, which carries on its blood lineage into the family of Juda. To complete His proper human education He had to be born in a family, of two holy parents, Joseph and Mary. Since by God's appointment Jesus was born a priest, the two parents were prepared by God to have all the necessary qualifications to carry out their duty as parents of the Son of God. So Jesus, the Eternal priest deserves what Psalm 132:9 says; "Your priests shall be clothed with holiness, your faithful shall ring out their joy." This generosity of God is not limited to Jesus, the Eternal priest, "To clothe His priests with holiness," this applies to all the priests.
I am afraid I may be confusing my readers. What I am driving at are two most important points connected with priesthood.

1. Priesthood has its origin in a chosen family. Justifiably so do we call Joseph and Mary, the holy family into which Jesus was born. They too shared the priesthood of Jesus, and so as a family they also shared the Holiness with which Jesus was robed.
This fact must distinguish us as married priests now by the holiness of our priestly life, and that of our families. The whole family "should be clothed in holiness."
2. Personal Holiness of a Priest
Let us start from Jesus again, as the church teaches us in the Vatican Council Document: Priestly ministry and Life."
We derive our holiness from the anointing and the consecration of Jesus Himself. Here then is what the Vatican Council says: "Christ, whom the Father sanctified, consecrated and sent out into the world; gave Himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and purify for Himself a people of His own, zealous for good deeds." Thus through His passion He entered into His glory." (Vat. Council II: Ch. 3:12)
What is encouraging, as one reads this particular document for priestly ministry, is the level to which the church raises priesthood. The church, as she applies the mission of Jesus as a continuation through priesthood, repeats that what she says of Jesus. Hence the church continues to say: "Similarly priests, consecrated by the anointing of the Holy Spirit and sent out by Christ, must practice mortification and give themselves entirely to the service of mankind. In this way, enriched by holiness in Christ, they can achieve perfect manhood."
3. "Robed in Holiness";
This language hurts the ears of those who have missed the way, and connected priestly holiness with celibacy. What I am saying is simply truth. A priest is a divine person. I cannot imagine the return of our married priests without renewing and reviving the naked truth of their call to priesthood. We may be as many as we are in the world, priesthood remains ever a unique call to holiness, or privilege for which we cannot sufficiently thank God.
Let what St Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) help us to look into ourselves; "What a deep thought that God Himself is the very life of our being. He dwells in the soul of each one of us as in His own element." Just imagine what more we would say as priests, who handle Jesus during the consecration and call Him to come down and dwell with us on earth. Then we share His being as we receive Him in the Eucharist. This is more than just a small matter.
So continues St Elizabeth Ann Seton: "Oh my God, my blindness has been truly great to have though of you so little through my life, though living wholly in you."
We too like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton reminds us of the presence of God in us, as I too have said earlier on, the church tells us how to live our priesthood. She says: "A priest's personal holiness helps to make his own ministry more fruitful. Although unworthiness in the priest is no obstacle to the flow of sowing grace, it is nevertheless God's way to work wonders of grace.
Only through those who are more docile and sensitive to the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. These are the priests who through their union with Christ and their holiness of life are able to say with the Apostle: "I live, yet not I live, but Christ lives in me."
In order to bring to death the historical and institutional lie that celibacy is the "factotum" of priesthood, one has to study deeply the Vatican Council document on priests' perfection and ministry. I would not like to prolong this argument. However there are those invested with ecclesial power and authority, who will not believe what I say. till like Thomas the Apostle, they will not believe till they read directly from the sources of the document. Here we are then to satisfy them: "Each priest is enriched with a particular grace because in his own way he assumes the person of Christ Himself. This enables him to serve his own flock and the whole people of God." (Decree on Priestly ministry and life: Vat. Cou. II)

Part II

Testimonies and actualities
More documentaries are on the way to humiliate the more our mother church. The people are fed up with the Roman Catholic pomposity and superiority complex. It is good to admire the mysterious construction of an Egyptian Pyramid from hearsay, than when we actually see it with naked eyes. One reads about the detailed construction, and the years it took to be built. One must always remember that one is reading what "was; and what is not today. In that context one has a reason to admire the magnitude of a pyramid.
The Catholic Church has been admirable. I mean the Roman Catholic Church. But its intimidation policy and the multiple ways to punish its own subjects is what is on the way to be revealed. What is forth- coming is not something that is pleasing to us as the subjects of the Roman Catholic Church, the fact remains that time has matured to restore to the church its original luster and beauty. Those engaged in the exposition of the evils which have embedded the Catholic Church are themselves Catholics, working in the same Catholic Church.
There are three reasons for which they are doing such a disgusting job:
1. One reason is that they cannot stand the hypocrisy that is going on in the Catholic Church.
2. The stubbornness of ecclesial authority not to move forward when the Holy Spirit says so is the cause of the spiritual sterility being experienced now in the Roman Catholic Church.
3. To crown it all they too as children of mother church have felt the pinch of shame which has befallen their mother. In one way or another, it is good that the children themselves contribute to the cleansing of their mother church.

I personally have already been fed up with what is already coming out of the findings. I pray that the new church, renewed and cleansed will soon take a stand in the world, and will once more be the church, the Ideal Mother of humanity. I doubt as to the whether the foreseen unity will be the one conceived by the Roman Catholic Church, which has failed to put the believes together. It has been a historical failure. We count on the Holy Spirit to reconstruct the structure of the forth-coming church.

What will be our role as members of married priests prelature?
One must not take what I am saying as a joke. But it will be a fact. From our experience through e-mails' correspondence, we have experienced "oneness in suffering." Someone has rightly called our prelature the overshadowing umbrella on all the united (Branches of Married Priests' Now)."
To have a just idea concretely, one has to imagine the Holy Spirit overshadowing the Apostles, touching each one with the firely tongue overhead. That is why we have slowly to learn from the Holy Spirit as to what He wants of the married priests. I personally am certain that the intentions for which the church was established will have to be lived again. But it will not take too long before God transforms this world, which continuously vacillates. So the renewal of the church will finally sanctify the church to such an extent that the story of sin ceases and is concluded, in the triumph of the whole humanity divinised.

The Danger Is…
Like spoiled children, we have always been on the receiving side. The forth-coming change demands cooperation from the whole humanity. The danger is that we are inclined to put God in a circle, and watch Him to do the dancing, while we clap hands and enjoy ourselves. This time God will not be the lonely player. We are the sinners, God is tired of seeing evil triumphing, continuously raising its flag of evil, sending its evil stench in the midst of humanity. He will no more do it alone. He demands the cooperation of the whole humanity to willingly decide to be on the side of God. If God goes it alone, the destruction will be more disastrous than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Some catholic priests are the first to tell people that there is no more hell, because God is merciful and that the Blood of Jesus has covered up everything that would hurt God. These lies come from false priests trained in Catholic Universities to upset the church in a clever way. Now the fruit of their work can no more be hidden.

The Over-All Renewed Humanity through the Family
What has gone wrong with the formation of priests? It is said that "Good will paves the way to hell." Our seminary professors had a lot of good will. Later on some of them left seats as professors, and even left their priestly ministry. They saw their brilliant students, one by one laying aside celibacy, giving it back to the church. This was not encouraging to their professors. Today all over the world great numbers of seminaries have been closed. Some of them have been sold. I have heard of some major seminaries having less than ten students.
Fausto Marinetti, speaking in the name of married priests gives the reasons why the church has lost her priests. He speaks of the ingredients which go into the formation of a priest. He says: "Despite the affirmation of principle, there is a continuous trend to consider sexuality intrinsically dangerous, impure, bad, unsuitable for the minister of the cult. The pleasure is considered work of the devil, the woman one of the most ruinous competitor of God. There is fear of it, to the point of demonizing. We are not free from the dualism and Manichaeism, that sees the body with black glasses." What precautious we aught to take as we deal with a woman. Our celibacy is the mother of pearl, more valuable than the life of a woman who is before me, asking for advice. "Nunguam Soli," never be alone with a woman. This is our priestly formation. It does not take long when a priest begins to question himself on this spiritual discrimination against women. His own findings in the active apostolate contradict his in-bedded prejudices against women. The virtues of a woman as a mother over power him. He meets some noble women, with such decency of manners, which attract him to know more of women. They are not those depicted in the formation series for priesthood.
I am surprised that the feminine movement has not yet produced a documentary against the Catholic Church, which is the first in all aspects to discriminate a woman. It was never like-wise with Jesus. He condescended with joy and satisfaction, when a woman publicly anointed Him with aroma ointments. He stopped on the way up to Golgotha when Veronica wiped His face, full of blood and sweat. He stopped as well to speak intimately to the women on the fourth station of the cross. How He appreciated the accompaniment of women in His preaching tours.
Even in this 21st century the Catholic Church has no woman in her administrative circles in what we call Curia Romana. A woman on the level of secretary of state world be a danger to the personnel in Curia Romana. So the greatest talents hidden in women for the welfare of the universal church have never been used. What would the Catholic Church be if she put in use the feminine touch in administration of her spiritual treasury! It has been a loss for two thousand years.
Let us now hear what Pope Pius XII says of a woman, in this we see a married woman, a wife: "Yes, the wife and the mother is the radiant sun of the family. She is this sun by her generosity and gift of self, by her unfailing readiness, by her watchful and prudent delicacy in all matters which can add joy to the lives of her husband and her children." In her is the joy of the whole family. His Holiness Pope Pius XII has more to say when he sees a woman in marriage. He says: "and if you can say that a marriage augurs well, when both partners seek the happiness of the other rather than their own, this noble feeling and intention is more especially the quality of the wife, although it concerns both husband and wife. It is born of the very pulse of her mother's heart and its wisdom." (Pius XII: To newly married couples: 11th March, 1942). All the prejudices we had during our formation years as priests have to crumble before such profound expressions from the teaching of the Pope in praise of a woman. So we have to ask pardon to women in the Catholic Church as priests who looked down upon women, as says Fausto Marinetti: The woman one of the most ruinous competitor of God." We received prudent advice: "watch out as you deal with a woman."

We Married Priests, Let Us Open Our Eyes
If we have to renew the church, let us do so with our wives. This is the whole humanity on the move. We call it a family. Let our wives be completely themselves. The men have blurred the gifts of God to humanity by their selfishness, pride and arrogance. A woman was less than a companion, with equal rights. We regret and repent. Let us once more be consoled by what Pope Pius XII says: "The wife is the radiant sun of the family by her natural candor, by her simple dignity and by her Christian and decent behaviour, as much by her collectedness of at once reserved and affectionate." (op.cit.)
More than this on a woman will be too much. What a value she is in the family, adorned with human and spiritual gifts, which in many cases she too is not aware of.

Archbishop E. Milingo

Author Nickname: marriedpriests date time 15:19 | Permalink | commenti
categories:theology, celibacy