Good News from The Times

That's not a phrase I get to use every day. That younger priests are often more conservative these days is discussed regularly. And now the Los Angeles Times has recognized it so it must be official. This generous article (in fact, for The Times this may even count as gushing) begins:

It's hard to miss Father Marcos Gonzalez, who wears an ankle-length black cassock every day, a garment most priests tossed out decades ago. But it's not just his clothes that bespeak an older, more traditional era of his Roman Catholic Church.

When some priests spoke in favor of optional celibacy at a Los Angeles priest assembly last year — a position supported by most American Catholics today — Gonzalez booed in dissent. In premarital counseling, he tells couples to remain chaste until marriage, plunging into delicate territory some priests prefer to avoid. Gonzalez also believes artificial birth control and gay sex are always a sin and opposes women's ordination.

Such stances conform with Vatican teachings, he says, but are at odds with many American priests and lay people.

Yet Gonzalez, an associate pastor at St. Andrew Church in Pasadena, is hardly a relic from a fading past. At 41, he offers one glimpse of the future as a member of a new breed of younger priests ordained during the 25-year papacy of Pope John Paul II and passionately committed to the pope's orthodox teachings.

The remainder can be found here. As has been mentioned before, don't lollygag. If you want to read a Times article on line you need to do it right away. This came out on Saturday, 31 July. It'll be up for a week. By Saturday 7 August it'll cost you $2.98 to read.