"In Defense of the Clergy"

There is an article/essay making its rounds around this "Orthodox Underground" which I thought I should post here. It is somewhat long, but it goes quickly. Due to its length, I will post it in segments. Here is part one:

Few questions addressed to the Church attract as much debate and division as does this one issue. The people who seek to “preserve the status quo” are labeled as bigots, targeted by “reformers” and “progressives” and find themselves berated by those who say that having a priesthood of unmarried men is neither Traditional nor Scriptural. Primarily, let me say that defending the Church’s teaching does not make one a bigot, nor does it show a narrow-minded approach to Catholicism. On the contrary, it shows that one has found the richness that is the Church of Rome. No other religious institution has such a concrete and absolute foundation as do we. Our pope is a direct and palpable descendant of St. Peter, the first pope of our Church. These people who assist the Church in presenting accurately and precisely Her teachings are worthy of praise, not persecution. As was once said, “to be truly Catholic is to be counter-cultural.” How much more “counter-cultural” can one be than to reject gay “marriage,” married priests, female priests and a “more inclusive Church?” If public opinion is to be the thing which steers the Church, then what place does the Holy Spirit have in the matter? In deifying ourselves we strangle the Godliness out of the Church. Without God there is no Church. With no Church, there is no longer any hope in the world.
The manner in which our current-day “reformers” speak and preach is almost apocalyptic. They forecast a complete dearth of vocations if we don’t ordain married men and women to the priesthood. They proclaim that Jesus would want women to be priests. They explain that “orthodoxy is inappropriate.” If these people had any true sense they would see that the true beauty in the Church is not found in the ornate architecture and sculptures, but rather, in the splendour of Her Sacraments. They were crafted by Our Lord during His short life amongst us. He ordained eleven men to be priests and bishops for His Church. The Last Supper marked this as an absolute truth. No women were present in that Upper Room, not even for a moment. While there were many saintly women who followed Our Lord as disciples, none were invited or called to follow Him in ordained ministry. That is final. Jesus Christ Himself decreed in deed rather than overt word that men were called to ordained ministry, and I believe that we all know that in this age of relativism, deed is vastly more important and binding than word.