I was amazed to read this in the BBC news Northern Ireland concerning a shortage of priests and the consequences. Are only males still allowed to be clergy or are women allowed to ? I remember in the 50s / 60s it was entirely men, even the Altar servers was a " closed shop " to females. I,m not sure how it is here in the Catholic Church but my daughter,s neighbour is a female pastor and mother and female altar servers are quite common today. It is or should be a natural thing that females be allowed to be ordained.
Donald


A church-state dispute over the unlikely subject of drink-driving could be looming in Ireland.

Speculation that authorities might be contemplating a zero-alcohol limit for drivers has raised fears among Catholic priests because drinking consecrated wine at Masses could put them over the limit.

The Catholic priesthood in Ireland is suffering from a shortage of new recruits, meaning that some priests now have to serve several Masses a day, much more than when the priesthood was a more popular vocation.

Donald, I gave my views on this subject some time ago. But here we go again.

No, there are no female priests as yet. However, because of the shortage of priests, lay people have now taken on some of the roles formerly carried out by the clergy. Giving out Holy Communion, visiting the sick at home or in old people's dwellings to mention just a couple. We have only two priests in Lisburn Parish but other parishes "lend" us priests on Sundays or Holy Days.

Nowadays we have altar servers, as opposed to altar boys, ie. girls can now become altar servers.

I don't know what will happen in the future as regards priests being allowed to marry, if that is their wish. Personally, I think they should be allowed.

Here in Lisburn we still have a huge congregation - we have a Saturday evening Mass, and 3 Masses on Sunday morning - that is just Lisburn. As you know there are outlying churches in the Parish of Blaris and Masses are held here too, for which the Lisburn priests are responsible. Sick calls, etc. are carried out in these country areas too.

Thank goodness we have two lovely priests in Lisburn -one is a very gentle, humble soul, a real Christian. The PP hasn't been here a very long time but he is a great golfer, when he gets the time, and seems very affable and agreeable too.

Times they are a-changing.

my sis in law is visited by the priest, and me being a prod was in the house when he visited, being introduced to him,a real gentleman,a very busy guy,always having time for the inhouse people needing inhouse mass etc..Geat respect for all clergy.

My first thoughts when I read this newspaper article were, "why doesn't the Catholic Church ,like the Evangelical allow women to be ordained as an awful lot of potential is going to loss"? Like Ann said girls are now allowed to act as altar servers, hopefully this is the first step in that direction.
Donald