Congratulations to the elder retirees of Dominican Village on organizing a petition and hopefully, this organizing will set an example so we will have more elders getting involved !!!

But I oppose the petition. Yes, there would be plenty of priests if priests could be married heteros. However, is the goal to simply have more priests or is the goal to have a Church that is holy and free of chauvinist structures? The children and grandchildren who have walked away seeking genuine spirituality will not return just because there are more priests. I walked away like four decades ago. I was DONE. Now in recent months I have declared myself a NONE. Women have second class roles in the Vatican's Church.  I do not consider myself second class. This petition, sadly, simply enlarges the male-only exclusive priesthood to include all males, furthering the oppression of all women by all men.

The bishop's letter illustrates the lack of procedures for listening to the people in the pews.