I read recently that Cardinal Reinhard Marx says he will allow the blessing of same-sex unions, contrary to Vatican directives. Fr. Davide Pagliarani, the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, says he intends to ordain new bishops without a papal mandate. And Luxembourg’s Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich says women’s ordination is essential to the Church’s future; “I cannot imagine in the long run how a Church can survive, if half of the people of God suffers because they have no access to ordained ministry,”
Well, as a married layman who has “no access to ordained ministry,” I can imagine it. I’ve always thought the priesthood is a special calling to service, not a position of special prestige to which people deserve to be given “access.” But Cardinal Hollerich seems to have a different point of view – perhaps because he is feted as a Cardinal.
Cardinal Hollerich’s statement isn’t really news, though. The late Cardinal Pell warned shortly before his death in an article in The Spectator that Hollerich had “publicly rejected the basic teachings of the Church on sexuality, abortion, contraception, the ordination of women to the priesthood and homosexual activity, as well as polygamy, divorce, and
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