text: [Continued from above].  At Masses led by a priest, Monica and the pastoral associate [a woman, also] take turns reading the Gospel and preaching the homily.  Monika does baptisms, funerals, takes care of liturgies in the old folks homes and does 'pastoral colloquies' [when people want confession---because no priest would be there for months--and for some, that would be too late].  
  
  Citing Politi again, 'questions still considered thorny in other parts of the Catholic world, such as how to deal with same-sex couples, have already been silently dealt with in many Swiss parishes.  Monika wouldn't go on record for this, but it is well known that in quite a few places,  priests and lay leaders of parishes do discretely bless homosexual couples in front of the altar." p.93.
  
  Again, the wave of the future.  Know what needs to be done and just DO IT.  When those priests 89, 91 and 92 years of age die off---Monika and others like her will completely be in charge of parishes.