A pernicious suggestion

The Dutch trendies are back! Thirty years ago it was not possible to open a Catholic newspaper without reading about some new “radical” atrocity perpetrated by progressive theologians in the Netherlands; Pope Paul VI spent much of his papacy trying to impose orthodoxy on this most rebellious of churches. And now, after decades of relative silence, Dutch liberals have conceived another loopy plan. A group of Dominicans want lay people to celebrate the Eucharist. The reason given is that this is the only possible response to an acute shortage of priests. Hard-line liberals have wanted lay celebration for years, and the lack of priests gives them a plausible-sounding excuse to dust down the plan.
There is a tremendous amount of sleight of hand built into these proposals, which have been vigorously rejected by the leaders of the Dominican order. It is not, on the face of it, totally crazy for a worshipping community to put forward a male Catholic for ordination if a bishop is unable to supply priests. But note how the Dutch Dominicans say that women as well as men should be eligible, thus introducing women priests by the back door. The really pernicious suggestion, however, is that if the bishop does not comply, then the congregation could go ahead with lay celebration confident in the knowledge that their Eucharist was genuine.
Nonsense. The Church should not waste time on this phoney debate because it does Catholics a profound disservice to imply that lay celebration is an option. It isn’t. It will never be permitted because Our Lord instituted an unbroken apostolic succession. End of story.