De senaste åren (då jag har varit med och lussat för flyktingar efter ett långt uppehåll från barndomens luciatåg), har jag funderat en del över vår svenska "lucialiturgi"...
I ett "okyrkligt" och dessutom "okatolskt" land - firas ett katolskt helgon varje år med stor uppslutning av "vanliga svenskar".
Det är onekligen en religiös ritual - men utan religiösa företrädare (ingen biskop, präst eller diakon, inte ens några ministranter, har särskilda uppgifter i "tåget"). Alla som vill får vara med i ljusprocessionen och framföra högstämda andliga sånger (med ord som liknar en trosbekännelse: "Jesus Krist, vår frälsare och Gud").
Och varje dagis, skola och t.o.m. neonatalavdelningar och ålderdomshem! - i det "sekulariserade" Sverige ansluter sig till firandet.
Minst sagt häpnadsväckande! Och glädjande förstås....
Legenderna om S:ta Lucia är många - det räcker att googla på hennes namn så kan man läsa en hel del. Men vem var hon? Och hur framställer sångerna hennes person?
Ett par rader i en av luciasångerna får mig numera särskilt att haja till:
"Trollsejd och mörkermakt, ljust du betvingar, signade lågors vakt, skydd åt oss bringar. Stjärnor som leda oss, vägen att finna bli dina klara bloss, fagra prästinna."
Hon skildras som någon som övervinner mörkret med sitt ljus - och som en "prästinna".
Var kommer denna tanke ifrån?
Har lucialiturgin - den folkliga ljusfesten under den mörkaste tiden på året - det kvinnliga - och prästerliga - som ideal?
Hur vore det om även kyrkan tog bättre vara på detta?
- The new prefect of the Congregation for Clergy clarified that ecclesial authorities are not considering any changes to the requirement of celibacy for priests in the Latin-rite Catholic Church.
"This question is not … on the order of the day for ecclesial authorities," said Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, in a statement today. The Brazilian cardinal was clarifying interpretations of an interview that he had given to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.
"The Church might discuss celibacy for priests," was the headline that some international agencies highlighted from the Brazilian cardinal's statements.
In his clarification, issued by the Vatican press office, the cardinal states: "In the Church it has always been clear that priests' obligation to celibacy is not a dogma but a disciplinary norm."
"Indeed, it is valid for the Latin Church but not for the Oriental rites where, even in communities united to the Catholic Church, it is normal for there to be married priests," he clarifies.
However, the note continues, "it is also clear that the norm prescribing celibacy for priests in the Latin Church is very ancient and is founded upon consolidated tradition and upon strong motivations, both theological-spiritual and practical-pastoral, as reiterated also by Popes."
Cardinal Hummes, 72, explains that "during the recent Synod on priests, the most widespread opinion among the fathers was that a relaxation of the rule of celibacy would not be a solution even to the problem of the lack of vocations, which is, rather, to be linked to other causes, in the first place the modern culture of secularization. This is clear also from the experience of other Christian confessions that have married priests and pastors."
He concluded saying that "This question is not, then, currently on the order of the day for ecclesial authorities, as was recently reiterated following the latest meeting of heads of dicastery with the Holy Father."
SAO PAULO, Brazil – An influential Brazilian cardinal says the Roman Catholic Church should reconsider its ban on allowing priests to marry.
Cardinal Claudio Hummes, who was recently named to head the Vatican's office in charge of priests around the world, made the comment about two weeks after the Holy See reaffirmed the requirement of celibacy for priests. "Celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma of the church," Hummes was quoted as saying by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. "Certainly, the majority of the apostles were married. In this modern age, the church must observe these things, it has to advance with history."
A Vatican spokesman could not be reached for comment Sunday. But the Vatican has strongly resisted calls for relaxing its celibacy rule.
Former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo of Zambia is among those campaigning to change the policy.
Milingo was excommunicated in September when he ordained four married American men as bishops in defiance of the Vatican. He already had angered the Vatican in 2001 when he wed a South Korean woman in a group ceremony of the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
Last year, one of France's most respected Catholic figures, Abbe Pierre, wrote that he favored allowing priests to marry. In 2003, more than 160 priests in the Milwaukee Archdiocese in Wisconsin signed a letter supporting married clergy.
Early Christianity had no formal ban on marriage for clergy. The Bible mentions St. Peter's mother-in-law and many scholars suggest other apostles had wives – as well as at least some popes, such as the 9th century Hadrian II.
In the early Middle Ages, however, movements for celibacy gained momentum and it became a requirement by the 12th century.
Most groups estimate the Roman Catholic Church has lost 100,000 to 150,000 clergy around the world who left the active priesthood to marry. The church considers them outcasts.
Hummes, who heads the diocese of Sao Paulo, was expected to leave for the Vatican late Sunday to attend a ceremony naming him as the new prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy – the office in charge of priests.
The 72-year-old cardinal was seen as a potential Third World candidate for the papacy in the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI last year.
