The priest shortage is man made, and not a God ordained calamity.
Kicking the Can Down the Road is Rarely a Good Strategy
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I’ve thought about writing a letter to my Bishop on how girl altar servers, women lectors, an army of “extra-“ ordinary lay ministers and offering high school theology knowledges to only those who can afford it -are all discouraging vocations to the priesthood.
But then I thought: “why bother?” He probably likes things this way. And he probably wouldn’t have the nerve to correct things even if he didn’t.
So, while I still attend NO Mass, I try to attend TLM.
I think a significant part of priest shortage can be laid at the foot of the Lavender Mafia. They did everything they could to turn it into a “Boys Club” and turned good men away that might have otherwise become priests because they had wanted to have nothing to do with it. I do see change coming. We have no female altar servers. It’s encouraging to watch a five or six year old boy struggle to hold up the Sunday missal while Father does various prayers during Mass. God will provide.