foto | Married Priests Now!

20/07/2008

http://unionesarda.ilsole24ore.com/

Author Nickname: marriedpriests date time 15:15 | Permalink | commenti
categories:foto, recent media

26/06/2008

Picture of the Second Annual Symposium of Catholicsm Today

Picture of the Second Annual Symposium of Catholicsm Today which was held at Cheongshim Graduate School of Theology in Korea. We celebrated Archbishop Milingo's 78th Birthday while we were there.

in http://www.flickr.com/

Author Nickname: marriedpriests date time 17:51 | Permalink | commenti
categories:foto

08/08/2007

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC MASCULINE THEOLOGY INTELLECTUAL IDOLATRY

Arc. Emmanuel Milingo in Korea

Archbishop. Emmanuel Milingo in Korea: June 2007 (© sacerdoti sposati)

My dear reader, have patience with me. There is nothing wrong with masculinity. If you are a man, I am in the same bag with you. I must confess that even myself have at times idolized my masculinity. I moved everywhere with my head up looking for someone’s attention. It is a lot more a man’s instinct to fight to be for what he is not. Those who have never used an introvert sense, and never looked into themselves, they have never found fault with themselves. Even some saints before their conversion were such, as natural as they were born. They believed to have won a trophy from God, as they were born masculine.

The Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church is masculine in its thinking, its planning of Christian living, its philosophy and theology. Any sensible person will agree with me. May I give one example, the thirty men saints Doctors of the Church, stand against three women saints who are also Doctors of the Church. I may lack the criteria for one saint to earn the saintly doctorate. But when I look at the age of St. Theresa of the child Jesus and her writings, she does not use the high flow words or theological terms of St. Alphonsus of Liguor, who was a lawyer. Whatever might be lacking in St. Theresa’s language, not using theological terms, in that case, we look forward that Mother Theresa of Calcutta will soon qualify to be declared Doctor of the Church. It just needs to speak something of a spiritual benefit.

If women were judged from the same criteria as men, who had opportunities to study in universities and had as well a platform to share their faith, then it was not fair to judge women by using the same instruments. On the other hand women developed their spiritual understanding of what was later on looked at as a valid theological thought; they arrived at this level through God’s inspiration and mysticism.

The theological persecution against women, and blocking them to put things as they see them as women, was proved when the theologians refused to accept what the Blessed Virgin Mary had said to Bernadette Subiro: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Why don’t we discuss the difficult definition of God: “I am who I am.” If the Blessed Virgin Mary says: “I am the Immaculate Conception,” she is stating what she really is by nature, even if it was by God’s privilege. She became it.

Here is what St. Paul says: “All scripture is inspired by God and useful for rebutting error, for guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be upright. This is how someone who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and is ready for any good work.”. (II Timothy: 16-19) Coming back to my argument, we find in the history of the Catholic Church thousands of women, be it those first women who served Jesus and the Apostles in their work, followed Jesus as He carried the cross up to Golgotha. They never feared the men around them who were insulting Jesus, ridiculing him, torturing him in all manners possible. They believed in him, and embalmed his body before he was put into the grave. The daring audacity to stop the soldiers so that Veronica had to wipe the face of Jesus. In the life of Jesus, women proved to be great contributors to the redeeming work of Jesus.

From where is this discrimination of putting on the altar as Doctors of the Church only three women:

St. Catherine of Siena

St. Theresa of Villa

St. Theresa of the child Jesus.

Against the endless list of men doctors of the Church:

St. Basil the Great St. Gregory Nazianzen

St. Hilary St. Francis de Sales

St. Thomas Aquinas St. Peter Jamian

St. Cyril of Jerusalem St. Isidore of Seville (Spain)

St. Anselm St. Bede the Venerable

St. Athanasius St. Anthony of Pocohia

St. Ephrem St. Bonaventure

St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Peter Chrysologus

St. Lawrence Brinohsi St. Bernard Abbot

St. Alphonsus Liguori St. Gregory the Great

St. Augustine St. Robert Bellasmine

St. John Chrysostom St. Leo the Great

St. Jerome St. Damascene

St. Albert the Great St. John of the Cross

St. Ambrose St. Peter Canisius

This is said undertone, when men sit together sipping their tea. They look at women as creatures made with a defect of a mental circuit. Even as they use the word “intuition” and the sixth sense of women, they do not want to acknowledge the fact, how sharp a woman’s mind is. Is she obliged to make a syllogism before she comes to a conclusion? What she makes of the children she brings up. She is more than a general of an army. At times she winks at a child. At other times she threatens with a punishment by a mere gesture of the movement of lips. And so they (mothers) have made up a man, a masculine, by filling up what God left undone, sharing with her mother-craft. So says St. Paul: “This is how someone who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and ready for any good work.” (op.cit.)

In the book of Judges there is an interesting story of Deborah who was both a prophetess and a Judge in Israel. Being a Judge then in Israel, she was the leader of Israel. The Israelites were being fought every side. The man general of the army (Israelites) called Barak was weak. He did not want to advance the army of the Israelites to face their enemies. He came to Deborah the Judge and the prophetess, she encouraged him by saying: “If you come with me, I shall go; if you will not come, I shall not go, for I do not know how to choose the day when the Angel of Yahweh will grant me success.” (Judges: 4:7-8) These were the words of General Barak of Israel. Then answers Deborah: “I shall go with you then,” she said, “but the way you are going about it, the glory will not be yours, for Yahweh will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” Deborah then stood up and went with Barak the General and the whole army to Kedesh.” Ten thousand men marched behind him (Barak), and Deborah went with them.” They won the battle. Who says she lacked something because she was a woman” She pulled the legs of Barak, when she said, “It will be a pity for you, for Yahweh will deliver Sisera (the enemy) into the hands of a woman.” Because that is what men believe that they are the natural leaders in everything, without giving a chance to women. What humanity has lost due to this prejudice of men against women.

Going back to the Old Testament, we can put up a list of courageous women, who used their feminine brains to solve the problems. While Mary was on her way at night to Egypt escaping the death sentence of her son, Jesus, from Herod, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, hid John the Baptist in a rock and leaned against it facing the soldiers as they passed by ripping babies from their mothers’ arms. On these two women, not necessarily excluding their holy husbands, depended the safety of the two most important babies in the history of salvation. So was Judith, Esther, Anna the Prophetess, etc. It was Anna the Prophetess, “at the age of eighty-four years never left the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer.” What she said to Jesus: “She came up just at that moment and began to praise God, and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:36-38) It is the Roman Catholic masculine theology which has blocked feminine contributions to the welfare of the Church, and of humanity at large. God has no discrimination. He put all that was necessary for man’s salvation into the hands of a woman: “Mary, the Blessed Virgin.”

By Archbishop E. Milingo

Author Nickname: marriedpriests date time 06:14 | Permalink | commenti
categories:news, foto, circular letter, theology

23/09/2006

Married Priests Now: one big family

MarriedPriestsNow: one big family

(foto: P.A. Beltrami)

The Married Priests Now! Convocation has just concluded but not ended. It will be continued with other convocations, newsletters and local gatherings. The focal point of the MPN! convocation were the three Eucharistic Liturgies which called the priests to celebrate the married priesthood. Priests and their wives celebrated their marriages and the priesthood. It was a celebration of love for one another and for the church. For many it was the first time they had celebrated the Eucharist for a long time, and It became an epiphany-event for many as they lifted themselves up in hope and joy to see the current and future church with a restored married priesthood.

The speakers enhanced the convocation with thoughtful and provocative lectures which encouraged the idea of a restored married priesthood. At the opening dinner, Peter Paul Brennan spoke of the need for a married priesthood and set the theme of the conference as a celebration of the married priesthood. Brennan said that the only goal of our Married Priests Now! was the restoration and the recall of married priests to full ministry in the church. He introduced Archbishop Stallings who greeted the assembly and introduced Archbishop Milingo. +Emmanuel Milingo and his wife greeted the participants and told the story of their marriage. Milingo gave an enthusiastic call for the church to recognize its own married priests and for married preists to join together in unity.

On the second day, Dr. Anthony Padovano gave a clear and practical analysis of ministry and the suitable theology of the renewed married priesthood. Dr. Leonard Swidler spoke of the way to restore a married priesthood through a change in the laws because such a change was the only permanent and long lasting method. It must be written into church law.
After lunch, Archbishop Milingo gave a spirited response to the letter of Cardinal Re which threatened him with suspension for continued work with Married Priests Now! Archbishop Milingo said that he is and remains a Roman Catholic archbishop and will always be, but that he will continue to work with married priests because the church has treated them so badly that they need to experience some Christian love and experience. If the institutional church fails to do it, he in good conscience must extend the hand and embrace of love to the married priests. He was followed by Peter Manseau who spoke of the children of married priests from his perspective of growing up in a married priest family which he has written about in his book Vows. Manseau spoke of the sense of loss that is part of the ethos of the family of a married priest and how children experience it. Dr. Sal Trozzo gave few incites into developing communities and future church forms.

In the evening Archbishop Brennan facilitated an open session for priests and their wives to tell their stories and to tell about ministries they have developed. Many of the international married priests told of their ministries and continuing work as married priests. The Independent Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil which has 5,000 married priests was represented by Bishop Edson Luis Campos da Silva, a former Capuchin priest. He was accompanied by Fr. Marcelo Pires. Pietro Ceroni and Dr. Giuseppe Serrone, with his wife Albana, came from Italy. Other international priests came from Peru, Paraguay, Africa, Mexico, and Canada.

The third day began with a special Eucharistic Celebration of Healing in which the priests and bishops extended raised hands to one another to offer healing from the injuries caused by the institutional brutality of the Church and the hierarchy towards married priests. Archbishop Milingo pointed out that the Eucharist is the heart of the priests ministry and that each priest should keep the blessed sacrament reserved in his family home chapel. He spoke of his own devotion to the Eucharist and of its role in the life of the priests, their families and the church.
The next session was an ecumenical sharing of the ministries of the American Clergy Leadership Conference, the Federation of Peace and the role of marriage and family. The convocation was funded by the American Clergy Leadership Conference and by contributions from other churches. Rev. Michael Jenkins, President of ACLC, Dr. Chang Shik Yang, and Rev. Phillip Schanker who told the story of Maria Sung Milingo's encounter with the Vatican.

The final luncheon featured Archbishop Milingo who gave a farewell comments and thanked all the priests who came to share this special celebration of the married priesthood. Brennan read the MPN response to Cardinal Re's letter, gave a few comments and invited the participants to keep in contact through the website and the E-group. Archbishop Stallings introduced Archbishop Patrick Trujillo who gave a keynote talk on the Future of the Married Priesthood and suggested conference resolutions.
The most significant benefit of this convocation was that married-priests celebrated mass together and experience priestly fellowship with their wives and with the assembled community. The exchange of experiences and the meeting of other priests and bishops brought great hope for a real change in church law and policy. Married priests ought to be recalled. The Pastoral Provision given for Lutheran and Episcopal Church ministers needs to be extended to include the Church's own married priests.

Author Nickname: marriedpriests date time 03:49 | Permalink | commenti
categories:news, foto, information, convention