Wise Advice From a Vocations Director
Fr. James E. Mason is a priest in the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is Vice Chancellor of the Diocese and Director of Vocations. In an article in Homiletic & Pastoral Review (May), he says it’s a “rare seminary or diocese that will recognize the vice…[of] effeminacy.” St. Thomas Aquinas said that effeminacy is the vice of delicacy and is opposed to perseverance.
Says Fr. Mason: “Many bishops, seminary faculty and priests…suffer under this vice and are therefore unwilling or unable to recognize it as a vice and address it…. Does the seminary deal with a seminarian that sways when he walks, who has limp wrists, who acts like a drama queen or who lisps? It must.”
Says Fr. Mason: “This is not just distracting to other men but I know my sisters will roll their eyes when a Liberace-like priest celebrates himself while celebrating the Mass…. This may be one of the reasons why the church has a difficult time attracting men to Mass….”
Fr. Mason says, “I remember in my first year of seminary how I was shocked when I came across an ordained cleric in the seminary who was wearing a gold ankle bracelet and matching gold earring.”
You May Also Enjoy
A Catholic might say that Graham is avoiding "occasions of sin."
To the list of things Jesus could have been but wasn’t, there is now one more to add: A new movement would recast Our Lord as a transgender woman.
Fr. Ron says that Jesus Christ missed the mark when He called God His Father.