Beyond Priests - 9798881802608

Paul Collins

Beyond PriestsThe Future of Ministry in the Catholic Church\nAuthor(s): Paul Collins\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, United States\nImprint: Sheed & Ward,U.S.\nISBN-13: 9798881802608, 979-8881802608\nSynopsis\nBeyond Priests contends that the requirements of the clerical priesthood of the Catholic Churchthat all priests must be male, and that all priests must be celibateis a gross distortion of scripture and the churchs early history that must be changed. While the roots of the modern priesthood go back to the fourth century and even more remotely to the presbyters or elders who advised local bishops in the early church, the contemporary priestly model is very much the product of seventeenth-century French reformers acting to apply a 1563 decree on the priesthood of the Council of Trent. The present-day priestly model has increasingly become harmful, even toxic, not only to priests themselves, but to the ministry and the Catholic community. Based on the h.