The present policy of closing parish communities because of the shortage of priests and gathering them into larger conglomerations destroys those communities, with an inevitable loss of members, and is based not on the needs of the faithful but on lack of priests.
In every parish community there are faithful married men who are well versed in their faith, often with theological qualifications, who could, after a short time of preparation, be ordained to the presbyterate. This would ensure the celebration of the Eucharist in their community and its continuance. If the community were too small to maintain its buildings, these could be disposed of and the community could still meet in a local church of another denomination, a hall or whatever.
Our people are well used to married priests now, so that they would have no problem in having one, especially if it would save their community. Moreover, what we are suggesting would involve no financial burden on the community since these candidates would be either working or retired with a pension and they would already have their own accommodation.
We feel sure that this would be a right pastoral approach and that our people would support such a move by our bishops. Maybe they have already approached Rome on this subject in the past and received a negative response but the situation is now more urgent and this seems an obvious solution to at least one of the problems which presently face our Church, and we feel the time is ripe for such a request to be made.
(Fr) Derek Reeve, (Fr) Nicholas France, (Fr) Tom Grufferty, (Fr) Vincent Harvey, (Fr) David Sillince, (Fr) Paul Townsend
Portsmouth