THE clergy shortage study (CL 12/12/04) should be a warning to all Catholics who believe “It is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that matters”.
This is a meeting of heaven and earth and we are privileged to attend a celebration where once again we are infused by the incomprehensible sacrifice of love. Jesus gave this awesome task to priests of all cultures.
“The incredible dumbing down of Catholics in the last generation or two” (John Thavis, CL 12/12/04) has left us with dulled and confused thinking regarding the Holy Mass, sacraments, the Real Presence and countless teachings of our faith. In our dumbed state we readily accept lay-led liturgies.
But why should we take second best when God has already presented us with the solution to our problem?
He has given us priests from other lands who can celebrate Mass and with loving help from communities, speech tuition can be easily arranged. These are not huge obstacles.
The plus side is we have Mass and sacraments celebrated by spiritually enlightened holy priests. The alternative – no priest, no Mass, no sacraments.
Our priests are an endangered species, but it does appear we do not possess enough courage or tolerance to accept the challenge to bring priests from other cultures into our parishes.
The time is closer than we can imagine when the Holy Mass is celebrated infrequently and lay-led liturgies are commonplace.
Stand up for our faith. Stand up to the challenge. Bring priests from other lands to our multicultural country.
The Holy Spirit of God shall solve the problems if we will step out in faith. Believe, pray, be humble and tolerant.
M. BARTON
North Deep Creek, Qld
