In response to the advertised discussion topic of ” Are We Killing Our Priests?” at our upcoming AGM Prof. Thomas O’Loughlin, President of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain and Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham draws our attention to an article he has published about the number of priests that are required in church.
He raises some points well worth considering and his conclusions are challenging;”it is obvious that there has been a serious crisis of under-ordination not just since the mid-twentieth century but since the mid-sixteenth century when as an effect of the Reformation debates the full-time, professionalized, seminary-educated cleric became the norm. Bringing the number of clerics up to quota would initially be a great shock to the churches: the education system of clerics would have to be altered radically, the expectation that this particular ministry would be funded by others Christians (who, incidentally, are expected to offer their ministry to the church usually without payment) would have to be swept aside, along with discriminatory canonical restrictions on who can be appointed presbyter within a given community.”
The questionnaire is important but it is skewed.
It does not allow the option of laity plus diaconate.
Graham at #1,
Good point. We tried to keep the survey as simple as possible.
The laity are always with us. The diaconate is new. And certainly the Male-Only diaconate will displace some lay parish workers, mostly women.
Question 2 completely sidesteps the historical issue as to the nature of women’s ministry in the early Church:
namely, were women ordained to the diaconate just as men were or was their service of a different and non-sacramental order? The question comes close to presenting as established fact something which is, at best, academically controversial.
@ 3
On the issue of women ordained sacramentally to the diaconate in the first millenium .
http://americamagazine.org/issue/422/article/catholic-women-deacons
http://www.womendeacons.org/index.shtml
Soline @ 4. Many thanks for these references, the first of which is particularly illuminating.
Peter