Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood

by Wood, Susan K.

• ISBN13: 9780814629413
• ISBN10: 0814629415
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Liturgical Pr

Summary

A flowering of lay ministries is evident in virtually any Catholic parish in the United States today. While this has clearly enriched parish life, it has also led to confusion and, sometimes, conflict. The affirmation of lay ministry rooted in baptism has left many priests and potential priests questioning their identity in the Church. There are lay ministers who resent what they see as prerogatives and privileges accorded to the ordained. While some members of the Church are attempting to reclaim an identity for the ordained based on hierarchical and juridical powers, others are rejecting the very notion of a distinctive ministry of the ordained. Both lines of thinking betray the vision of Vatican II and the formative traditions of the Church. In Ordering the Baptismal Priesthood ten theologians address the theology and practice of ministry in the Church today. Recognizing that neither a theology of ordained ministry nor a theology of lay ministry can be developed in isolation from each other, they propose seven convergence points as principles to shape a theology of ordered ministries. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Susan K. Wood, S.C.L., Ph.D., is professor of theology at Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Collegeville Ministry Seminar	vii
Susan K. Wood
Ministry and Ministries
Ministerial Identity: A Question of Common Foundations	3	(23)
Michael Downey
The Ecclesiological Foundations of Ministry within an Ordered Communion	26	(26)
Richard R. Gaillardetz
Ministry and Ministries	52	(16)
Thomas P. Rausch
Canon Law and Emerging Understandings of Ministry	68	(19)
Elissa Rinere
Ordered Ministries
Priesthood Revisited: Mission and Ministries in the Royal Priesthood	87	(34)
David N. Power
Laity, Ministry, and Secular Character	121	(31)
Zeni Fox
The Secular Character of the Vocation and Mission of the Laity: Toward a Theology of Ecclesial Lay Ministry	152	(23)
Aurelie A. Hagstrom
Presbyteral Identity within Parish Identity	175	(20)
Susan K. Wood
Envisioning a Theology of Ordained and Lay Ministry: Lay/Ordained Ministry---Current Issues of Ambiguity	195	(33)
Kenan B. Osborne
Institutes of Consecrated Life: Identity, Integrity, and Ministry	228	(28)
R. Kevin Seasoltz
Conclusion: Convergence Points toward a Theology of Ordered Ministries	256	(13)
Susan K. Wood
Contributors	269	(2)
Index	271