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A Priestless People

A Priestless People
By Vincent McLaughlin
Canterbury Press. 164 pages. £7.99

This is not simply one more book on the state of Roman Catholicism at the present time. It is a cry from the heart for reformation.
The author served as a priest for 12 years and clearly his resignation was deeply painful. A major strength was his marriage to a gifted woman who not only shared with him on their theological search, but ministered to him when he developed cancer. She completed the book after his death and I must say I found her personal contribution deeply moving.
A major theme was the issue of celibacy but as he wrestled with that issue, he found that it led him to the whole issue of transubstantiation and the nature of priesthood. He ultimately came to see what is patently clear in the Bible - Peter was married; Paul insisted on his right to marry (1 Corinthians 9.5); in 1 Timothy 3.44, the bishop, the overseer, is a married man! While a Christian may remain celibate by choice, it must never be imposed.
The inconsistency of the papacy today is reflected in the fact that while Roman Catholic priests must remain celibate, clergy from the Church of England going over to Rome are permitted to retain their wives. This led him to examine church history, which in turn led him to conclude that compulsory celibacy only became established at the second Lateran Council in 1139 AD. So it took more than the first millennium of Christian history to get this aberration imposed.
But dealing with celibacy inevitably leads to a consideration of the mass and the nature of the so-called sacrifice of the altar. This has been accentuated by the disastrous de-cline in priestly numbers. 'No priest, no mass' means that in Brazil today, the celebration of the mass has to wait perhaps for months.
This unhistorical and intolerable position led him inexorably to question the nature of priesthood itself. This drove him back to the New Testament with its clear teaching of the priesthood of all believers. It led him further to query the notion of papal rule.
The book must not be misused to register a Protestant triumphalism. There is too much pain in it for that. Rather, it is a call to pray for many priests struggling with painful consciences.

Herbert M. Carson