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The Question of Priesthood
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
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The large number of conferences, books and articles that now centre on the nature of the priesthood seem proof of a general disquiet on the part of both priests and laymen. From the Netherlands comes the edition of the papers on this subject given at a congress in Lucerne in 1967 (News Bulletin of the Institute for Inter-European Sacerdotal Exchange at Maastricht, April, 1968, Vol. 2, Nos. 1/2); the March number of Concilium, also emanating from Holland, is devoted to the subject. It has even been suggested in certain quarters that a campaign of agitation is being organized by a small group of rebellious priests and theologians operating from the Netherlands, which is responsible for the open letter signed by 260 French priests last November and for the resignation en bloc of the twelve executive councillors and regional representatives of the Mission de France in March this year. Both events are concerned with the same problem and reflect ideas aired at the Lucerne Conference. The 260 priests state that they have come to believe that the clerical status imposed upon priests with the style of life and human relationships which it implies is one of the biggest obstacles to the revelation of Christ in the modern world. The worker-priests, for their part, have resigned because of the failure of the French bishops to recognize that the role of the Mission de France implies a third form of pastoral ministry different both from that of the religious orders and that of the secular ministry.
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- Copyright © 1969 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
page 529 note 1 Courrier Hebdomadaire de Pierre Debray. No. 126, 4th, Avril 1969. A polycopied sheet issued from 18 rue des Quatre Vents, Paris 6e.
page 529 note 2 See Informations Catholiques Internationales 325, p. 6; 329, p. 10; Herder Correspondence, January 1969, p. 16.
page 529 note 3 InformationsCatholiquesInternationales. No. 333, p. 7. The Tablet, March 22nd, 1969, p.303.
page 530 note 1 See e.g. Dr Joseph Blank, ‘The Priest in the Light of the Gospel’, in the News Bulletin mentioned in the opening paragraph, also Schelkle, Karl Hermann, ‘Minister and Ministry in the New Testament Church’, in Concilium, vol. 3, No. 3, March 1969, p. 5.Google Scholar
page 530 note 2 Porter, H. B. Jr., The Ordination Prayers of the Ancient Western Churches, Alcuin Club Collection No. XLIX, London, S.P.C.K. 1967Google Scholar.
page 530 note 3 Hippolytus‘s prayer (New Rite) asks that the one whom God has chosen for a bishopric 'may exercise high priesthood for thee without rebuke’ (Porter, p. 6). In the old Roman prayer, bishops are referred to as ‘thy servants whom thou hast chosen for the ministry of the high priesthood’ (ibid., p. 21). The Gallican rite refers to the bishop as ‘priest’ (ibid., p. 42), and prays that God may adorn him with the high priesthood (p. 43). It is also asked that the presbyter may obtain the sacerdotal gifts of the Holy Spirit (p. 51). The constant use of the term ‘high priest’ rather than simply ‘priest’ is perhaps an indication that the authors had not forgotten that only by an analogy with the Old Testament could the term priest be applied to the ministers of the Church.
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