Father Tom Reese's Prediction for 2019: Catholic Church Will Loosen Celibacy Requirement for Priests — My Response

The series that Religion News Service is now running with predictions of what will happen in the world of religion in 2019 from various religion gurus in the U.S. has a statement by Father Tom Reese entitled "Catholics will loosen up on clerical celibacy — but for real thi …" Father Reese notes the growing shortage of priests in Catholic communities around the world (a problem that has been with the Catholic church for quite some time now), and predicts that there will be a loosening of the requirement that priests vow themselves to celibacy as a way of addressing this crisis.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Requiescat in Pace, Ban on Giving Platforms and Honors to People Who Hold Views Contrary to Church Teaching

In a just-published essay at National Catholic Reporter, Father Thomas Reese calls on Catholic colleges and universities to bury the ban on inviting graduation speakers who espouse positions contrary to Catholic teaching (read: the ban on inviting Democratic speakers). As he notes, this ban emanated from the U.S. bishops, and has resulted in a significant diminution of the academic credibility of Catholic institutions of higher learning. It has signaled that "our" moral positions on issues like abortion, women's rights, and same-sex marriage are weak, since we expect to enforce those teachings by coercion and do not expect to persuade the larger culture of their truth by means of respectful conversation or rational argument. We do not, in fact, respect academic freedom when we choose the route of coercion rather than the route of persuasion.*

"There Is Almost Complete Silence on Homosexuality" in Amoris Laetitia: There's Silence and Then There's Silence — Interpreting the Silence of Amoris Laetitia About LGBTQ Lives

So, silence. What to do about silence? Massimo Faggioli writes about Amoris Laetitia, 

Father Thomas Reese on John Paul II As a Loving Grandfather: Whose Experience of the Church Counts, As Pope Francis's Exhortation on the Family Is Published?

Father Thomas Reese thinks John Paul II came across as "a loving but benighted grandfather." And as I read that baffling observation, I try to place myself inside the circle of experience of those Catholics for whom John Paul II appeared to be loving.

Douglas Laycock on U.S. Catholic Bishops and Marriage Equality: "Being on the Losing Side of a Revolution Can Be Very Dangerous for Churches" (the Continuing Ruse of U.S. Catholic Centrism)

Father Thomas Reese reports today at National Catholic Reporter that University of Virginia professor Douglas Laycock thinks "being on the losing side of a revolution can be very dangerous for churches." Reese is summarizing points Laycock made recently in a presentation at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and in an article in the University of Illinois Law Review.

Tom Reese on Not Hinging Everything on the Pope: "There Is No Room in the Church for Passive Observers" — My Response

Pope Francis's fellow Jesuit Father Tom Reese writes in the National Catholic Reporter this morming about how the Catholic church is more than the pope, and how Catholics deceive themselves when they place all their hopes and dreams for their church on the shoulders of the pope. He concludes,

Jerry Slevin and Tom Reese on Synod on the Family: Shaping Up to Be Disappointment to Those Hoping Laity Will Be Heard

Tom Reese, one of the pope's fellow Jesuits and his usual strong supporter, says it flatly:

What Do You Do When Everyone Else Throws a Human Rights Party, but Your Church Leaders Pitch a Fit Instead?

What do you do when you belong — when you chose to belong — to a church which preaches that every human being deserves human rights, including the right to work, to adequate medical care, to shelter, to freedom from discrimination in the workplace, housing, and in healthcare, but which waffles on all of those rights when the discussion of human rights turns to you? Which, when the discussion turns to you, waffles simply because you're gay.

Fr. Tom Reese on Need for Preferential Option for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Fr. Tom Reese of Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown, former editor of America magazine, has just made an outstanding address to the Clergy Abuse Conference at Santa Clara University.  America's "In All Things" blog has helpfully made the text of the address available online.