I want to nip any Pfeiffer-inspired criticism in the bud.
If one is concerned about lack of new Resistance priests being ordained, I want to know DETAILS about men who are supposedly trained and ready for ordination, who have been refused Ordination by the three Resistance bishops.
I don't want some superficial version, either (for example, just a name, location, and maybe a single photo of the candidate looking pious in his cassock).
To properly judge the situation, we would have to know:
A) what he's like in person. To have spoken with him a bit. Does this reveal any defects? For example, is he on the Asperger's spectrum?
B) to know his academic record
C) to know the details of his training. Where was he trained, and by whom?
D) Did he receive an adequate spiritual/prayer formation, as well as an adequate intellectual formation? Philosophy, logic, metaphysics, canon law, moral theology, St. Thomas Aquinas, Liturgy, Latin, Scripture, Fathers of the Church, apologetics, etc.
E) to know any other details of his beliefs. Is he a sedevacantist? Is he a feeneyite? Is he a loose cannon? Is he mentally unstable? Is he overly emotional?
F) Has he been mixed up in any questionable groups in the past 10 or 15 years? Is he a recent convert to Catholicism and/or Tradition?
G) Is he damaged goods in any way, which might affect his future performance as a priest? Was he abused, forced to grow up without a father, etc.?
H) etc.
For all I know, the person in question is mentally unstable or otherwise inadequate, and H.E. just used a polite excuse like, "I can't ordain a man to be off by himself hundreds of miles from me or any other bishop/priest".
Remember that "he's a nice guy" might be adequate to NOT shun a man, and it might be enough to allow a man to attend Mass at a given chapel. It is NOT an adequate qualification for being raised to one of the highest dignities a man can receive (the Priesthood).
Many are simply not qualified. It's nothing personal. It's not the same as condemning a man to Hell.
If you doubt me, just think of all the people who are automatically disqualified from being a priest: all those born female. And think of all those men who don't have the intellectual or physical ability.
It wasn't the poor guy's fault he was born with a given health disorder, missing a limb, lacking eyesight or hearing, etc. Nevertheless, God has removed him from the list of candidates for the Priesthood. Blessed be His Holy Name.
Ordination is most certainly not a "right". Not by any stretch.
I've never heard Fr. Pfeiffer complain about anyone needing to be ordained that was refused. From what I understand of the current seminarians, they are all new, so none would be ready for a number of years to be ordained.
Now, if they had somebody show up on their doorstep who was a seminarian who left +Fellay's seminary only a year shy of his ordination to join the Resistance, they might have an actual need. But, at the moment I think they are quite a ways off from needing an ordination.
Topic: Whose turn to be consecrated Bishop? (Read 10506 times)