February 15, 2015
Struggle to find Maori priests
Maori Catholics have been asking for the church to lift the ban on married clerics as a way to address the low numbers of Maori priests.
Sister Tui Cadogan, the chair of Te Runanga o Te Hahi Katorikia o Aotearoa, says there are about 10 Maori priests, but the requirement of a religious life that the whakapapa ends there is not easy for Maori.
She says there are always some people in a whanau who don’t marry, and those people can be encouraged to consider a vocation.
There is also a wider problem of getting people to commit.
" It’s that final step of making a committment, there still seems to be some reluctance there. And a little bit more energy is going into the bringing some pressure to bear about why not married priests. Other churches do it and so forth. The Catholic church here, hasn't ventured down that path at this stage.
Sister Tui Cadogan says the pressure is also going on the bishops to push Rome to appoint another Maori bishop.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH SISTER TUI CADOGAN CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjYzMjk=
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