Ministers of Christ

In this book, Peter Kwasniewski takes us back to the principles by which this messy set of problems can be disentangled: how the human body and sexuality have personal meaning, and therefore moral, theological, and liturgical meaning; the connection between the Incarnation, the male priesthood, and male sanctuary service; the blessing on womanhood conferred in and through Our Lady, Virgin Mother of God; the Old Testament background and New Testament roots of the diaconate, subdiaconate, and minor orders, seen as radiating outward from the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and the solemn tradition behind this ecclesiastical hierarchy; the proper role of the laity in the great world outside the churches, where they exercise their primary responsibilities. Kwasniewski then argues, with a refreshing lack of political correctness, that the Church must discontinue false practices that entered in after the Second Vatican Council--above all, the habitual use of female lectors and altar servers, and the multiplication of "lay ministries" in general--and must reestablish the subdiaconate and minor orders (which, contrary to popular belief, have never been abrogated and remain in use to this day), revamp the entire approach to attracting and nurturing priestly and religious vocations, promote the wearing of veils by women in church, and reject the heresy of activism that works as a universal solvent of prayer and contemplation, the Church's highest and most important occupation. Filling a serious lacuna in recent decades, Ministers of Christ speaks to three categories of Catholics. To "liberal or progressive" Catholics, it proves that the limitation of ministries to men (and, ideally, ordained men) is not an outdated piece of misogyny but a necessary conclusion from the premises of divine revelation.