Is the male-only priesthood a discipline or essential to the nature of being a priest? Sr. Vassa (again unflinchingly taking up a contentious topic by climbing up the ladder to the highest platform and then jumping into the deep end head first) dives right in and says there is no reason beyond personal preference to not have female clergy. You know, when people ask me about women in priesthood, they say, 'Sister, why can't women be priests?' And I say, 'Women CAN be priests. We don't WANT them to be priests.' Because you see, God can do anything, and the Church, by divine authority, uh, can do anything, but, the Church doesn't want to - and that's a legitimate reason. What I don't like is when we TRY to pretend that there are other reasons for this, because it's legitimate not to want something, and there are reasons not to want this - right? - but, we shouldn't pretent that there's some... reason, that, for example, the maleness...
This is amazing! I've never seen more than a photo of a meeting. I enjoyed this very much.
ReplyDeleteIt does bother me that the priests kissed the pope's hand. I hope I don't do the same if I ever meet the bishop of Rome!
Well, in the old days it was expected that one would kiss his foot. So it could be worse.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that the Russian Orthodox Church is doing the most it can do, in an effort to befriend Pope Benedict XVI and to encourage him to meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
ReplyDeleteSuch a papal-patriarchal meeting would be beneficial for both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, in that it could well serve as a harbinger for Christian unity.
Metropolitan Hilarion was interviewed by Vatican Radio following his Sept. 29 meeting with the Pope. Here is a link to the Catholic News Agency account of some of the interview:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/orthodox-archbishop-were-internally-divided-on-question-of-primacy/
And here is the actual interview:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=524758