Catholic Church in Austria falls apart - sort of

[Insula Dei]

The latest Market poll for the newspaper Standard is a devastating sign towards the Pope:

86% of Austrians favor Catholic priests getting married, just 6% are opposed.

83% say that women should become priests, with 9% opposed.

Oh, no! The Pope better watch out in the next round of Roman Catholic elections!

If these are top issues for Roman Catholics then they aren't really Roman Catholics. The poll itself admits that with 50% saying they're Catholic in name only.

Weird to find myself agreeing with Keystone Phil.

[Insula Dei]

BTW, there is a huge difference, doctrinaly, between married priests and female priests. The latter is very problematic, at best, from the dogmatic standpoint: Catholic teachings would have to be seriously affected for that to ever happen.

The former (i.e., married priests) could happen tomorrow without any problem w/ anything Catholic church believes in religiously. Insisting on priestly celibacy is purely a matter of Church organization and governance, not of doctrine.  In fact, there are numerous married Catholic priests right now. For instance, most Greek Catholic priests in Ukraine (the largest Eastern rite church within Catholicicsm) are married, as are some priests who have converted from Anglicanism, and it causes no insurmountable problem within the Church. If tomorrow the pope were to declare that vows of celibacy are no longer required for ordination, at least as long as the man to be ordained is already married, it would, probably, make those already ordained upset and would imply a major change in the canon law, but it would be perfectly consistent with the the Church's teachings.

Most relevant post in this thread easily. The introduction of a female priest would completely change the meaning of the Catholic ritus, and would frankly, just be a ridiculous gesture meaning something like 'we don't really care either.' I certainly would consider leaving the church over such moves. 

[Insula Dei]

BTW, there is a huge difference, doctrinaly, between married priests and female priests. The latter is very problematic, at best, from the dogmatic standpoint: Catholic teachings would have to be seriously affected for that to ever happen.

The former (i.e., married priests) could happen tomorrow without any problem w/ anything Catholic church believes in religiously. Insisting on priestly celibacy is purely a matter of Church organization and governance, not of doctrine.  In fact, there are numerous married Catholic priests right now. For instance, most Greek Catholic priests in Ukraine (the largest Eastern rite church within Catholicicsm) are married, as are some priests who have converted from Anglicanism, and it causes no insurmountable problem within the Church. If tomorrow the pope were to declare that vows of celibacy are no longer required for ordination, at least as long as the man to be ordained is already married, it would, probably, make those already ordained upset and would imply a major change in the canon law, but it would be perfectly consistent with the the Church's teachings.

Most relevant post in this thread easily. The introduction of a female priest would completely change the meaning of the Catholic ritus, and would frankly, just be a ridiculous gesture meaning something like 'we don't really care either.' I certainly would consider leaving the church over such moves. 

Why, exactly, does the Catholic ritus have to be discriminatory to have meaning? Or rather, why is that portion of the Catholic ritus, as opposed to that of some other church, that attracts you to the church and makes you want to be a member connected to the fact that significant portions of the priesthood of my church would be laughed off if they were lucky and excommunicated if they weren't if they tried to express their callings in yours?

Oh, you misunderstand me a bit there, I think. I'm not a catholic because I don't like gay marriage, women priests, or non-celibatory priests (,especially the last one is really not a dealbreaker for me). The reason I'm a catholic is because I find myself subscribing to Catholic dogma on just about every theologically meaningfull issue. The reason I think a female priest would be 'unacceptable' is because I'd like my church to take my faith at least as seriously as I take my own. When the priest starts the preparation for communion, he also becomes part of an entire system of semantic fields that invokes the central mystery of christianity: the ressurection. The male gender of the priest is a part of that system, invoking the son and the father. (If I really ahd a lot of time and was in a mood to be quite a bit more lighthearted and/or erudite I'd start a long explanation about the 'fallus' and its meaning to the ritus here, but I suppose you can have your imagination fill that in for you if you want). Start fiddling around with that ritual and it loses a lot of its meaning, just the same as what'd happen if you'd go and change words in a poem by a synonym. And again, I'd like my church to take itself seriously enough to not have solemn introspection replaced by gimmicks.