Dumb and dumber

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Coadjutor Bishop Arnold Orowae of Wabag, Papua New Guinea, who favors ordaining married men as priests, questioned whether it was necessary for a priest who had to serve poor, often illiterate people in remote areas to have "years of intellectual formation in philosophy and theology."

He stressed ministers would have to have the proper and "necessary training required," but that they would be ordained for the task of only celebrating the Eucharist.

Let me get this straight. The bishop is saying that we need to dumb down the priesthood because, after all, poor, illiterate people don't need much other than someone to perform "the task of only celebrating the Eucharist."

The problem with this is that it reduces the priesthood to a mere function and completely overlooks the munus docendi (the power to teach) conferred by ordination to the priesthood. Furthermore, it truncates the priestly munus sanctificandi (the power to sanctify) by reducing the priest to the level of a mere functionary who is ordained solely to confect the Eucharist. And what about the Sacrament of Penance? How can one fruitfully participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass without confession? And in order to faithfully carry out this "ministry of reconciliation" a priest must have a certain level of learning in the Sacred Sciences as well as in other disciplines.

It seems to me that the Church must make it a priority to form holy and learned priests. There are far too many "HACKS" in the priesthood and lowering the standards will only make matters worse.