Fr. John Zuhlsdorf has a item on his blog linking to a segment on CNN with Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Msgr. Charles Pope.  The discussion centered on whether women should be allowed to be priests.  Fr. Bourgeois advocates such an action–to the point where he faces ex-communication.  Msgr. Pope–a priest in Washington, who oversees the teaching of the traditional Latin Mass for the archdiocese–disagrees. 

Fr. Bourgeois seems to think the Catholic Church is a democracy, where everyone has a right to have his or her views heard and placated.  Sorry Fr. Bourgeois, but the Church a autocratic institution (I mean that in a good way).  If one is truly a faithful Catholic then you believe Jesus established the Church and gave the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter and his successors.  If the Church says only males can be priests, you must accept that.  If you believe this to be wrong (i.e. not allowing woment to be priests) that is fine, but you should not try to undermine the authority of the Church.

One comment Fr. Bourgeois made was if women were allowed to be priests the Church would not have faced the sexual abuse scandals of recent years.  Really?  For this to be true he must believe women do not commit sins.  Does he believe that with women as priests, the bishops would have done a better job in screening potential deviants for entering the seminaries? 

The first thing that troubled me was Fr. Bourgeois said he became a priest 36 years ago–which mean he took his vows in 1972.  In other words he is a product of the late 1960s seminaries, the ones which instilled in many priests that their primary roll is to be social workers/peace advocates/union activists etc. and not to assist people getting into heaven.  The problem for the Church in the United States today is those priests who came through the seminaries at that time are now becoming bishops and other leaders within the Catholic Church.  I have a feeling there are going to be more and more Fr. Bourgeoises in the coming years because they know they have the support of their fellow liberal bishops. 

Thankfully we have younger priest like Msgr. Pope who understand tradition matters.  Remember, there have been thousands of secular societies/countries/rulers which have come and gone since the Catholic Church was founded 2,000 years ago.