Garry Wills: "Why Priests? A Failed Tradition"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-02-13/garry-wills-why-priests-failed-tradition
Pope Benedict XVI, the Roman Catholic Church's top priest, took the world by surprise with his decision to resign. Pulitzer Prize-winning author -- and lifelong Catholic -- Gary Wills asks why we need priests and suggests Christianity would have been better off without the priesthood.
Guests
Garry Wills
professor emeritus of history at Northwestern University and author of numerous books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lincoln at Gettysburg," "Saint Augustine" and "Why I Am a Catholic."
Monsignor Charles Pope
pastor, Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian in Washington, D.C.
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Read An Excerpt
Reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from "Why Priests?" Copyright © Garry Wills, 2013.
Comments
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I thought it was a great show and if the Monseigneur couldn't come up with anything more than "it's a 2,000 year-old tradition" it shows the frailty of his position. The Church is a hierarchy and the first act of its history was obliterating the wisdom and gifts of women in that hierarchy and putting men in charge.
To be fair, this hierarchy takes an incredible toll on the priests themselves (I know, I dated a Msgr. for two years while he was on leave trying to figure out the woman question. I consider myself one of the 6 or so women (lovers) who made it possible for him to stay in the priesthood.)
That's also why you find only the Gospels included in the Bible that conformed to this expectation that believers would need an intermediary between themselves and God--someone who would "interpret" and "guide" them. Why wasn't the Gospel of Philip included (who was martyred with his two daughters in Thessalonika) or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene? Because they advocate FIGURING OUT THINGS FOR YOURSELF.
I would love to ask Mr. Wills why he has so much belief in the human capacity to think for themselves. I don't see it. Instead, I see people who prefer to be lead, like sheep, and who will sit in church on Sunday and listen to the preacher or priest instead of listening directly to God. We should all be sharing our daily revelations with each other, not waiting for someone else to tell us how to think.