Lessons from "former" priests...

Dear Friends,

The Church leaders worry about the divorce rate but perhaps they ought worry more about the rate at which priests have left their ministry to marry or pursue other ways of "being priest". By some counts there are now more former priests in the world than active priests.

Dr Anthony Padovano would be classified officially as a "former priest" but, from what he discloses in his essay today one could be forgiven for believing that he continues to see himself as still a priest albeit his definition of what a priest is has changed over the decades. These three concluding parts of his exploration of post-Vatican II Catholicism — the first of which we bring you today — are most interesting written as they are from the perspective of a man who has seen the Church from both sides of the altar rails. He speaks for more than just his own point of view, this essay was originally delivered as an address to Corpus, one of the oldest reform groups in the United States and he is speaking on behalf of a sizeable community of "former" priests.

What he has to say will be of interest to former priests in Australia — does what he write 'gel' with your experiences? Perhaps we can take that up in later commentaries or discussion in our forums? — but it will also be of interest to the wider readership of Catholica. Much of what he writes fits comfortably and usefully with our own on-going discussion on the changing understanding of priesthood today. I suspect this material will help open up useful discussion in our forums on a number of fronts in the weeks and months ahead. <Read Dr Padovano's essay>

An overview of World Youth Day and its prospects… Today's Sydney Morning Herald contains a feature length overview of World Youth Day and its prospects for rejuvenating the Church. Our email commentary today extracts the views of Fr Daniel Donovan and Paul Collins, who also happen to be occasional commentators for Catholica, who present the more sceptical case but we urge readers to read the full feature article in the Herald. There are also links to two other stories in the Herald connected with WYD — one of them looking at the prospects of Cardinal Pell receiving a "promotion" for the success of WYD. <more>

Rethinking our notions of parish structure… Fr Kevin Murphy suggests the leaders in the Church need to be paying more attention to the breakdown in the geographical-based parish structure. Self-evidently it is no longer serving the needs of the people, nor of the institution… <more>

Detaching oneself from the distractions of the world… The discussion we are seeking to spark today is taken from an observation of Dr Patrick Collins in his series we published last year looking at The Spirituality of Thomas Merton (For the specific commentary see HERE). Merton, says Collins, essentially sees spirituality as "simply the journey from false self toward the True Self". In the commentary he discusses the observations Merton made of the difficulty of implementing this in ordinary life. We all have obligations, whether we're in cloistered life or earning our living or making our way in the secular world. The starting point for discussion today I suggest might be relating our own experiences as to whether we firstly agree with Thomas Merton and Patrick Collins and secondly, if we do, what are the challenges in trying to make this journey — particularly for those who have responsibilities in bringing up families, earning a living, studying or the pressures involved in running a business. <The Forum Discussion Thread> | <Dr Collins' original commentary>

Where is your brother? This week the Orthodox churches celebrate Holy Week. It is an appropriate time in which we might re-visit what is perhaps still the greatest scandal in Christendom of all time — the split which occurred between the East and the West in 1054. Dr Andrew Kania's commentary today takes us back to examine the causes of the split and argues that greater effort needs to be made on both sides to heal the split. <more>

Reasons to be Hope-filled… In this second extract from his detailed exploration of post-Vatican II and post-JPII Catholicism, Dr Anthony Padovano argues why there are good reasons for Vatican II Catholics to remained hopeful. <more>

Reflections on the nature of priesthood #13… In today's take Tom McMahon looks at what he sees as the artificiality of the seminary system of training priests. He also offers some of his own observations on the sexual abuse scandal and why sexual abuse manifested itself out of this system. <more>

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life or in our world!

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher