The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy conferences continueth.
Today we have as our speaker His Excellency Most Reverend Augustine DiNoia, OP. He is speaking on … wait for it… priesthood. He is a gifted teacher.
UPDATE
The talk about priesthood we just heard was outstanding. I took quite a few notes.
One serious flaw in this conference is that, for the Q&A periods, the questions are being filtered through designated reps of the CCC. We can’t raise hands and be called on. This is a negative. It suggests an attitude of mistrust on the part of the organizers. On the other hand… to be fair… it could also be an attempt to make sure that the time spent on Q&A isn’t wasted on stupid questions or on speeches. As a frequent speaker, I can attest that – often – people don’t ask questions. Rather, they make speeches or ramble.
BTW… a couple of journalists (a well-known layman and a woman I didn’t recognize) slid in as Q&A started. They were politely invited to remain on the other side of the door. This is not an open forum. This is for clerics who are registered. It is, after all, the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, not of Anyone Who Wants To Show Up. This is also why I am not adding content of the talks.
One thing that I can say to my priest brothers out there is that, during the last two days, it is evident that we must… must… all review Inter insignores.
UPDATE:
As I have been thinking about this, I believe Archbp. DiNoia meant to reference the interdicasterial instruction about lay people and the ministry of priests called Ecclesia de mysterio.
Meanwhile, in reference to the Inter insignores document a smart woman friend of mine wrote via email:
The #1 reason (cause?) for the “women’s ordination movement” is the modern liturgy — without that, the thought of any woman dressing in heiratic garb, chanting the Mass in Latin, not to mention bending over to lead the Confiteor (“does this prayer make my derriere look big?”) would have been UNTHINKABLE. And how about as an “equal opportunity” female deacon or subdeacon at Solemn Mass? Kissing a male priest’s hands? [For those of you who don’t know, during Mass in the Extraordinary Form the ministers kiss objects and the hand of the priest as they are handed to and taken from Father, such as the biretta or the chain of the thurible. Also, as Mass begins, during the Confiteor, the priest bends at the waist before the altar.]
No.
And even now, those women who want to “be priests” — in some through-the-looking-glass world — would they ever, EVER agree to learn the TLM for their parishioners if a “coetus” [the stable “group”] approached them with the request?
No.
It’s the Novus Ordo, and that alone — the undemanding rubrics, the vernacular, the mumus, the face-to-face format of communication that is favored by women of all cultures (vs. side-by-side for men) — that has triggered this.
Trenchant comments from a woman about women. I think she is on to something.
At Ship of Fools you find a “review” of an experience of Holy Mass at a parish in England where the Extraordinary Form is celebrated. The parish was threatened with closure but it was turned over to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. St. Walburge’s is now open every day.
George and Barbara Bush celebrate 70th wedding anniversary
