Dear Lynette,

You are pointing to a real and pressing problem, the shortage of priests.

However, I believe the approach is what needs more thought. The priesthood is more than a position, a job, in which as long as the person has the right qualifications, gets the proper training and receives a good job-description, he or she, it doesnt matter which, can get the job done.

We are dealing here with something that transcends all our normal, pragmatic parameters. The Mass, which is central to the priesthood, is the reliving of the most unpragmatic action in history, death on the cross in order to give us life, saving the guilty by condemning the innocent. No wonder we have to remind ourselves continually that Gods ways are not our ways, and we have to learn over and over again the lesson he thought his disciples - that they must trust in him even when the storm is raging around our boat and it seems that he is asleep.

We should not be surprised that the solution that Christ offers to a problem seems to us on the surface like its not going to work in the case of the shortage of priests his limiting the priesthood to men alone. The Church does not, and cannot admit women to the priesthood because thats what God decided. Its that simple. Since it is God who freely confers the grace that transforms an ordinary man into a priest at the moment of Ordination, the transformation simply cannot happen against his will. We can go through the actions but he will not confer the grace.

However, it is not simply a question of us being passive in the face of the problem of the shortage of priests, trusting that God will solve it. No. We have to make sure we put into practice the part of the solution that depends on us.

So, what depends on us? Christ told us to pray for workers for his harvest. Do we? Are we willing to give up a son, a brother, a boyfriend who might be called to the priesthood, or we Vocational NIMBYs?

And then, are we spreading our faith, especially by example? No Christian man, woman or child can put off his baptismal commitment to be an active apostle with the excuse he is not a priest. When we live and practice and spread our faith, our prayer for vocations will be all the more sincere, and our acceptance of Gods way will be all the more humble, enlightened, peaceful and joyful.

God bless,