real internet:)

OK so I have real internet now and don't have to use Panera's anymore, which was good for surfing but not so much for posting. :) So let's get a few things going on....

From yesterday's Dayton Daily News , a letter to the editor about something we've covered a million times, but should probably do again because apparently no everyone got the message.

This letter writer thinks that if we let women and married men into the priesthood, we would not have any more problems with sexual abuse in the church and everything would just fan-tastic.

(Banging my head against the wall)

OK, let's review: first of all, someone show me a denomination that hasn't had a minister abuse a child. You can't do it. Child abuse, as abhorrent as it is, happens across all religious lines, all marital lines, all gender lines. It can happen anywhere and the perpetrator can be anyone. you're telling me that women and married men have never abused a child? Not to be really rude, but have you been living under a rock? You can't tell me that if we added married men and women the problem would magically vanish.

As for married men--that is a choice made by the Western Church. Men in the Eastern churches are allowed to get married. If, however, the U.S. decided to lift the ban on celibacy, that doesn't mean that all priests would get married. They would have to choose if they wanted to get married while in seminary, and if they chose to get married, they would not be eligible for positions in the hierarchy (meaning that those who were bishops, cardinals, and, bien sur , the Pope, would remain celibate). Read Catholicism for Dummies for more on this--a great book. But with priests still been killed and tortured and found "missing" in many parts of the world, celibate priests are a good thing to hold onto, since they don't have to worry about their wives or children been taken hostage with them, or worry about their families welfare if they are killed. It's dangerous to be a priest in many, many parts of the world today.

And women? Never gonna happen. Stop wishing for it. Jesus did not pick any female Apostles. He could have but He didn't. If women wish to serve God in a consecrated way, become a nun. Besides which, the sacramental character of the church forbids women to be priests. The priest stands in persona Christie (a fancy way of saying 'in the place of Christ' or 'in the person of Christ') in the Mass. A woman can't do that. it's not a question of qualification or worthiness or whatever. It's just the way it is. And if you really wanted to be a priest, which requires obedience to the Church, then you're not being obedient right here, are you?

But enough on this...let's just hope that some people get this stuff...eventually...