Madam, - Shane Halpin and David Rice (Letters, Rite and Reason, July 8th) are right to emphasise the changes occurring in the Catholic Church because of the shortage of priests.
Many would argue that there is no shortage of vocations to priesthood in the Catholic church - only restrictions on who may serve as priests due to the canonical discipline of celibacy (made an absolute requirement for priests early in the 13th century) and the faulty anthropology underlying the ban on ordaining women.
Married men and women - as well as priests who have opted out of ministry to marry - are available in large numbers to serve and in this country and others. Some, in all three groups, are already doing so.
In the earliest years of the Christian church the right of the community to celebrate the Eucharist was taken for granted and the leaders of the community also led in celebrating the Lord's Supper. No rite of ordination was required. Recognition by the community was paramount. In some house churches, women probably conducted the service.
In 2007 a group of Dutch Dominican priests (following the scholarly research of Edward Schillebeeck and others) proposed in a document presented to 1,300 parishes in the Netherlands that where there is no priest to serve in a community the people themselves should choose celebrants from within their numbers. The candidates chosen should be presented to the bishop for his approval but, if that was not granted, the community and chosen leader should proceed to celebrate the Eucharist.
The lay persons chosen should undergo training and be versed in Scripture, the Dominicans argued; but it was irrelevant whether the chosen candidates were men or women, homosexual or heterosexual, married or unmarried.
However heterodox this may appear, it follows the practice of the early church and there is ample precedent in history for movements "from below" being incorporated into mainstream practice at a later date.
Readers may find more on the Dutch Dominicans' suggestions in the Furrow, March 2008, in a piece by the undersigned. - Yours, etc,
PAUL SURLIS, Crofton, Maryland, USA.