Word: priestly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
July 1 is a day to remember for young Roman Catholics in the diocese of Phoenix. Since that date, by order of Bishop James S. Rausch, any couples wishing to marry in the church have been required to give their priest six months' advance notice. During the waiting period they must undergo a highly structured course of preparation and counseling, complete with a written "premarital inventory" that tests the conjugal attitudes of the would-be husband and wife...
...Phoenix rationale is straightforward. Marriage is a vocation. "You cannot become a plumber or an electrician in two weeks," remarks the priest who heads the diocesan tribunal. Bishop Rausch believes that lack of mature preparation is the chief cause of trouble. "We need to move our young people beyond romance or physical attraction to the sound foundations of love." It will take hard work, he adds, for Catholics to resist the trend to treat marriage and divorce casually...
...Phoenix premarital inventory contains 143 statements, originally developed by Episcopal priests, that probe attitudes and uncertainties on things like sexual fears, finances, religion, in-laws. Examples: "I sometimes worry about my future husband's (wife's) temper"; "I worry that my husband (wife) is too dependent on his/her parents." A priest or deacon will meet regularly with the couple over the half-year, and may refer them to Catholic Social Services for special counseling. Catholics who marry non-Catholics must also follow the procedure. If a couple refuse to wait and get married by a judge instead, they...
...league last month enlisted some 100 clergymen and -women of various faiths to apply pressure by lobbying members of Congress, hoping to blunt the religious side of the abortion issue, which has long been dominated by the Roman Catholic clergy. Said one rebellious Catholic priest, Father Joseph O'Rourke, who was among the pro-choice lobbyists in Washington: "The antiabortionists are antifree, antiwomen and anti-Christian...
...very air these days, like dandelion puffballs." Recording the contagion, as one of the novel's several narrators, is the Rev. Arthur Vincent Broome, M.A. (Oxon.), dispatched from England to shepherd a Protestant flock in distant Killala but soon questioning whether he is merely a "priest to a military cult...