Chapter 7. The New Priests

To the man in the street, even the most indifferent to religious questions,

it is obvious that there are fewer and fewer priests, and the newspapers regularly remind him of the fact.

It is over 15 years ago since the book appeared with the title,

Tomorrow, a Church Without Priests.

Yet the situation is even more serious than it appears.

The question has also to be asked,

How many priests still have the faith?

And even a further question regarding some of the priests ordained in recent years.

Are they true priests at all? Put it another way. Are there ordinations valid? The same doubt

overhangs other sacraments. It applies to certain ordinations of bishops, such as that which

took place in Brussels in the summer of 1982,

when the consecrating bishops said to the ordinar, be an apostle like Gandhi, Heldr Khmera, and Mohammed.

Can we reconcile these references, at least as regards Gandhi and Mohammed, with the evident intention of

doing what the church intends? Here is the order of service for a priestly ordination

which took place at Toulouse a few years ago. A commentator starts off introducing the

ordinar by his Christian name, with the words,

He has decided to live more thoroughly his self-dedication to God and to man by consecrating

himself entirely to the service of the church in the working class.

He has worked out his pathway, that is to say, his seminary training in a team.

It is this team who present him to the bishop. We request you to recognize and authenticate his

application and ordain him, priest. The bishop then asks him several questions purporting to be a definition

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