About the author- litigation lawyer in telecoms, taxation, criminal, labor, appellate, family law and corporate; a radio broadcaster, speaker, author a husband, a father, advocate for consumers, for justice www.angkapatiran.org and a sinner who wants to
be a saint. hilman1108@yahoo.com
Archbishop John Foley, who heads the Vatican’s social communications office, said it was too soon to say whether a specific proposal on making the tribunals more efficient would emerge from the synod. But he said the seeming consensus that appeared to be emerging was a correct “reading” of the trend.
Several synod participants who appeared at a news conference Thursday concurred that the priest shortage was among the major synod issues. But they dismissed reporters’ questions about whether married priests were an option, saying a celibate priesthood was not the reason for the shortage.
“The shortage of priests is a symptom of the problem,” said Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo of India. “The real problem is the crisis of faith.”
In his summary, Scola listed 17 questions for the bishops to consider as they meet in small discussion groups to draft proposals for the pope, including how they should respond to the “urgent duty” to offer the Eucharist to all the faithful, “even in mission countries and where there is a scarcity of priests.”
Scola noted that several bishops had raised the issue, including references to so-called “viri probati” or married men of proven virtue who could be ordained.
Others spoke of the need to better distribute the priests that exist, while several bishops of the Eastern rite, which allows married priests, spoke about their experiences.
“Various Eastern fathers referred to the practice of married priests in their churches, offering each one of us elements for a further careful evaluation of the choice of the Latin church to connect celibacy to ordained priesthood,” Scola said, according to the speech released Thursday by the Vatican.
“To this proposal, some fathers … have affirmed that the hypothesis of the ‘viri probati’ wasn’t a path worth traveling.”
Monsignor Sofron Stefan Mudry, of the Eastern rite Catholic church in Ukraine, echoed this sentiment at the news conference, saying a married priesthood brings “unending problems” to the church, including housing issues and the costs involved in supporting a priest with a family.
He said of his 400 priests, 360 are married, even though in the past, the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine had aimed to keep an equal number of married and celibate priests.
___
Associated Press writer Daniela Petroff contributed to this report.
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I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape, so I got my doctor’s permission
to join a fitness club and start exercising. I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors.
I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But, by the time
I got my leotards on, the class was over.
**********
Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman:
“And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?” the reporter asked.
She simply replied, “No peer pressure.”
**********
The nice thing about being senile is you can hide your own Easter eggs.
**********
Just before the funeral services, the undertaker came up to the very elderly widow
and asked, “How old was your husband?”
“98,” she replied. “Two years older than me.”
“So you’re 96,” the undertaker commented.
She responded, “Hardly worth going home is it?”
**********
I’ve sure gotten old. I’ve had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement, new knees.
Fought prostate cancer and diabetes. I’m half blind, can’t hear anything quieter than
a jet engine, take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded, and subject
to blackouts. Have
bouts with dementia. Have poor circulation; hardly feel my hands
and feet anymore. Can’t remember if I’m 85 or 92. Have lost all my friends. But,
thank God, I still have my driver’s license.
**********
An elderly woman decided to prepare her will and told her preacher she had a final
requests. She wanted to be buried at Bunnings.
“Bunnings?” the preacher exclaimed. “Why Bunnings?”
“Then I’ll be sure my daughters visit me twice a week.”
**********
My memory’s not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory’s not as sharp as it
used to be.
**********
Know how to prevent sagging? Just eat till the wrinkles fill out.
**********
I’ve still got it, but nobody wants to see it.
**********
I’m getting into swing dancing. Not on purpose. Some parts of
my body are just
prone to swinging.
**********
It’s scary when you start making the same noises as your coffeemaker.
**********
These days about half the stuff in my shopping cart says, “For fast relief.”
**********
Don’t think of it as getting hot flashes. Think of it as your inner child playing with matches.
**********
Don’t let aging get you down. It’s too hard to get back up.
**********
Remember: You don’t stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because
you stop laughing.
**********
THE SENILITY PRAYER
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do,
and the eyesight to tell the difference.
++++++++++++He he he he –THE END – eh eh eh eH ++++++++++++++
