text: The main block is the 'custom' of restricting ordination only to 'clerics'.
  
  According to Vatican 2. a 'priest' is simply someone whom the Bishop (THE Priest of the Diocese) delegates to extend his functions and responsibilities.
  
  If the Church so wished, we could 'ordain' and appoint 'lay' people to cary  out the functions the Bishop wishes.
  
  That's the direction we have been moving. And it is the right direction. Let the person be delegated (by ordination if required) to carry out the assigned task as long as he or she is willing, able, and capable. It does not really have to be 'forever'.
  
  The real lack is not of 'vocations'. It is lack of vision and imagination.