Thursday, June 02, 2011

A View of Priesthood

Very thought-provoking:

The second talk of the afternoon was given by Don Nicola Bux, the well-known author and professor of the Bari Theological Institute, on the Sacrament of Holy Orders in the Pontificale Romanum. Beginning with a lengthy and detailed technical explanation of the origins of the Pontifical as a liturgical book, he pointed out the particular emphasis which the ordination rites of both priest and bishop lay on the celebrant of Mass as the mediator between God and Man. This is a especially necessary role in a world in which so many people live as if God does not exist. In reference to the excessive optimism about the world characteristic of many modern theologians, Don Bux asserted that the role of the priest is to “remove space from the profane. Those who believe that ‘the profane’ does not exist are really saying that the Second Coming of Christ has already happened.” Such a notion is based on a false doctrine of the Incarnation, contrary to the teachings of the Church and the insistence of the ordination rites themselves that the teaching of the priest must be “pure, sound and true.”

That sheds a good deal of light onto the LiturgyWonkLoosey-Goosey priests, no?

HT: NLM

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