BACKGROUND BRIEFING NOTES FOR "A Message to the Canadian Catholic Bishops"
OUR VISION OF A RENEWED CHURCH INCLUDES:
At the time of the actual convocation of Vatican II the previous December 25th, Pope John said: "We make ours the recommendation of Jesus that one should know how to distinguish 'the signs of the times'"(Mt. 16:4).
This vital combination of spiritual self-renewal through attentiveness, and response to the pressing issues of the day has become the hallmark of the vision of the Catholic church.
In his opening address to the Council, Pope John said: " . . .the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity. She considers that she meets the needs of the present day by demonstrating the validity of her teaching rather than by condemnations . . . the church does not offer to men and women of today riches that pass . . . she distributes to them the goods of divine grace, which raising people to the dignity of children of God are the most efficacious safe-guards and aids toward a more human life. She opens the fountain of her life-giving doctrine which allows men and women enlightened by the light of Christ to understand what they really are."
At the 1971 Synod of Bishops on 'Justice in the World,' the bishops stated: "Action on behalf of justice and participation in the world fully appears to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the gospel, or, in other words, of the Church's mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation."
This document was a direct follow-up to the thrust of the Vatican Document The Church in the Modern World which called for removal "as quickly as possible [of] the immense economic inequalities which now exist . . . if the demands of justice and equity are to be satisfied." These needs are as pressing today as when first identified.
Pope Paul VI stated in his landmark declaration on the development of peoples in 1967: "The earth belongs to all, not to the rich. These words declare that private ownership confers on no one a supreme and unconditional right.. No one is allowed to set aside solely for one's own advantage possessions which exceed one's needs when others lack the necessities of life."
In the same document Pope Paul condemns the arms race, militarism that impoverishes, and the overconsumption that underlies the ecological crisis; "Peace is not merely the absence of war. Nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies. Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called 'an enterprise of justice'."
The prophet Isaiah is also quoted in the Vatican II document The Church in the Modern World: "The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants, for they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statute, and broken the everlasting covenant." (Isaiah 24:5)
The current Pope, John Paul, has built on the efforts of his immediate predecessors: "Faced with widespread destruction of the environment, people everywhere are coming to understand that we cannot continue to use the goods of the earth as we have in the past . . . the ecological crisis is a moral one." (Pope John Paul II, The Ecological Crisis, 1989)
More recently, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska has attempted to excommunicate whole groups of Catholics who belong to organizations such as the Call to Action, Catholics for a Free Choice, or Planned Parenthood.
The Vision Statement calls the church to embrace the spirit and practice of freedom of speech which we cherish in our nation and which the Second Vatican Council endorsed in the Declaration on Religious Freedom:
"This Vatican Synod declares that the human person has the right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all people are to he immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such ways that in matters religious no one is to he forced to act in a manner contrary to his or her own beliefs.
Truth . . . is to he sought after in a manner proper to the dignity of the human person . . . The inquiry is to he free, carried on with the aid of teaching or instruction, communication, and dialogue."
Further to this, the 1971 Synod on Justice in the World, declared: "The church recognizes everyone's right to suitable freedom of expression and thought This includes the right of everyone to he heard in a spirit of dialogue which preserves a legitimate diversity within the church."
Many Catholics-knowing, understanding and respecting church tradition--exercise primacy of conscience when they come to conclusions different from positions of the official magisterium. In the area of sexual morality, the use of artificial contraception is perhaps the best example. Surveys show that Catholics use artificial contraception as often as those in other denominations.
That declaration continues: "Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a person . . . There one is alone with God, whose voice echoes in the depths. In a wonderful manner, conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbour. In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of humanity in search for the truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems which arise in the life of the individual and from social responsibilities. Hence the more that a correct conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice to strive to be guided by objective norms of morality."
The Declaration on Religious Freedom states: "Every person has the duty, and therefore the right, to seek the truth in matters religious, in order that she or he may with prudence form for herself or himself right and true judgements of conscience . . . they perceive and acknowledge the imperatives of the divine law through the mediation of conscience. In all activity, they are bound to follow conscience faithfully, in order that they may come to God, for whom they were created.
It follows that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his or her conscience . . . Nor, on the other hand, is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his or her conscience, especially in matters religious. For by its very nature, the exercise of religion consists before all else in those internal, voluntary and free acts whereby human beings set the course of their lives directly toward God. No merely human power can either command or prohibit acts of this kind." (Declaration on Religious Freedom, Second Vatican Council)
The Eastern Catholic Church still has married priests. In the Latin Rite, one may be a married priest if one is a Protestant pastor first or if one is a life-long Catholic but promises never again to have sexual relations with one's wife.
Beginning in 1990 in the United States, married Anglican/Episcopal and Lutheran pastors were ordained as Catholic priests while continuing to live a normal married life. The Second Vatican Council reinstituted the practice of a married diaconate in the Latin Rite.
"Don't we have a right to have Christian spouses with us in our travel--as do all the other apostles, and Jesus' own family members, and Cephas? (I Corinthians 9:5)
"Bishops must be irreproachable, married only once, even-tempered, self-controlled, modest and hospitable. They should be good teachers." (1 Timothy 3:2)
In North America at the ordination of a married former Anglican priest in January, 1990, Cardinal John O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, said of mandatory celibacy on that occasion: "It would be foolish to see this as a discipline that could never change . . ." Archbishop Robert Weakland of Milwaukee said in an interview with the New Yorker magazine in July, 1992 that: "Across the board celibacy works to our detriment as a Church."
Cardinal Carlo Martini of Milan, Italy, considered a leading candidate for the papacy, quoted in the National Catholic Reporter in March, 1995, stated: "The church should be open to allowing married Latin-rite priests."
Others expressing similar views include: Bishop Patrick Power of Canberra and Goulburn; Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu City, the Philippines in April 1996; Bishop Lawrence Burke, SJ, of Nassau, Bahamas at the Rome Synod of Bishops, 1990.
Bishop Roger Hollis of Portsmouth, Great Britain, stated on a Yorkshire television documentary in 1992: "The Roman Catholic church might reconsider the discipline of celibacy and, in its wisdom, decide for two kinds of priesthood: married and celibate. There is no reason why this should be impossible."
Recently, eight northern Canadian bishops, under the leadership of Yukon Bishop Thomas Lobsinger, OMI, renewed their call to be given the right to ordain married native men. (Catholic Register, Sept. 2, 1996)
These words from the 1976 statement by the American Bishops Conference, 'To Live in Christ Jesus: Pastoral Letter on Moral Values' are as true today as then. They underline and summarize the challenge to the church.
In recent years, the Vatican has become more outspoken against the rights of gay and lesbian people. In 1992, for example, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith counselled against legislation which would make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal. This stands in contrast to earlier documents (below) which, at least, at the theoretical level, defend the human rights of gay and lesbian people.
" . . .It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors when-ever it occurs . . . The intrinsic dignity of each person must always he respected in word, in action and in law . . . What is essential is that the fundamental liberty which characterizes the human person and gives her or him dignity be recognized as belonging to the homosexual person as well . . . The human person, made in image and likeness of God, can hardly be adequately described by a reductionist reference to his or her sexual orientation . . ." (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, letter to Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, Oct . 1, 1986.)
In addition, the American Bishops, in their 1990 statement Human Sexuality: A Catholic Perspective for Education and Lifelong Learning, said:
"We call on all Christians and citizens of good will to confront their own fears about homosexuality and to curb the humour and discrimination that offend homosexual persons. We understand that having a homosexual orientation brings with it enough anxiety, pain and issues related to self-acceptance without society additional prejudicial treatment"
Many parishes and worshipping communities today are welcoming the divorced and remarried. Theologians and some bishops are working to develop a theology of marriage that recognizes that humans fail, must be forgiven, and must be allowed to recover and move along with their lives.
One approach was voiced by the theologian, Bishop Walter Kaspers of Germany: "The church can admit divorced and remarried persons to the sacraments when they are sorry for any guilt that may have incurred in the breakdown of the first marriage, when everything humanly possible has been done to save the first marriage, and when the second marriage has become 'a morally binding union that cannot be dissolved without causing fresh injustice'."
Many European bishops have made similar recommendations. These are a first step on the road to a renewed theology of marriage.
'As people who have been baptized, they can, and even should, take part in the life of the church . . .' Until now, Catholics who have divorced and remarried have been regarded as sinners and barred from communion." (Ottawa Citizen)
Major theologians such as St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas, who influenced church teaching for centuries, shared this negative view of sexuality. In the twentieth century. especially with the Second Vatican Council, the church began to reclaim the biblical tradition that celebrates the goodness of sexuality. In the spirit of Vatican II, the People of God--women and men, old and young, married and single--should determine the church's teaching on human sexuality .
Vatican II, in its document The Church in the Modem World, utilized vivid scriptural passages such as the Canticle of Canticles to illustrate the goodness of sexuality.
For example, Ephesians 5 reads: “Love one another as Christ loved the church . . . Love one another as you love your own bodies. Those who love their partner love themselves. No one ever hates one's own flesh; one nourishes it and takes care of it as Christ cares for the church-for we are members of Christ's body. That is why . . . two become flesh. This is a great foreshadowing; it refers to the Christ and the church . . . love your partner as yourself, with each show in respect for the other."
The Church in the Modern World reads: "The biblical Word of God several times urges the betrothed and the married to nourish ad develop their wedlock by pure conjugal love and undivided affection . . . This love is an eminently human one . . . It involves the good of the whole person.. it can enrich the expressions of body and mind with a unique dignity . . . This love our God has judged worthy of special gifts, healing, perfecting, and exalting gifts of grace and charity . . . This love is uniquely expressed and perfected through the marital act."
Despite recent pronouncements from the Vatican attempting to seal off further discussion on the topic of the ordination of women, the issues will not go away.
One theologian put it in this way: “such a declaration not only fails to reflect consensus, it is a clear effort to stifle discussion precisely because there is a growing disposition on the other side. Such a power play in the face of growing questions can only have the effect of deepening the questions themselves . . .” (Rosemary Radford Ruether, National Catholic Reporter)
In 1976 the Pontifical Biblical Commission emphasized that there was nothing in Scripture to either support or forbid the ordination of women to the sacerdotal priesthood. Pope John Paul II has made many positive statements on the equality and dignity of women. The Canadian bishops have been supportive to the enhancements of the role and dignity of women within the church since Vatican II. In August, 1994, they stated: “We want a climate of dialogue to pervade our mutual relations on the question of ordination, as well as other questions concerning the integration of women in the structures and the very life of the church.”
In 1969 theologian Joseph Ratzinger wrote: “Criticism of papal pronouncements will be possible and ever necessary to the degree that they lack support in Scripture and the Creed. that is, in the faith of the whole church. When neither consensus of the whole church is had, nor clear evidence from the sources is available, a definitive decision is not possible.”
In a declaration dated October 28, 1995, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith attempted to say that the all-male priesthood “ . . . requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal magisterium . . .”
The questions to be addressed, therefore, are:
CAN THE CHURCH CHANGE WHAT IS PROCLAIMED AS AN AUTHORITATIVE TEACHING?
Historically, the church has made changes in what had previously been regarded as authoritative teachings from tradition.
One example in the early Jewish-Christian community was the decision not to require circumcision for Gentile converts. Later examples include changes regarding usury, slavery, the revolution of the earth around the sun, evolution, the respect due the Jewish people, the use of Latin in seminaries and for the Mass and liturgical worship.
DID JESUS ORDAIN ONLY MEN?
Most theologians would agree that Jesus didn't actually ordain anyone. In fact, priesthood and eucharistic worship did not resemble what we know until the fourth century. Worship nevertheless developed along the lines of Jewish table fellowship in house churches, often the homes of women. Both men and women provided leadership.
Women travelled with Jesus (Mary Magdalene, Susanna and Joanna as reported in Luke 8:1-3). These women supported his ministry from their own resources. That these women are mentioned by name is significant as women are not normally mentioned in ancient writings.
Mary Magdalene is mentioned in all four Resurrection accounts of the gospel. It is upon her testimony that the proclamation of the Resurrection rests. Women disciples are the last to see Jesus at his death and the first to see him risen.
Paul’s writings show women serving as prophets (Philip’s daughters), deacons (Phoebe), missionaries (Prisca), and leaders of local communities (Lydia). One is even called an apostle (Junia).
WHAT DOES OUR TRADITION TEACH?
There is significant evidence that there were churches in the fourth to sixth centuries that remained in communion with Rome and also had women priests. The fifth century Pope Gelasius sent a letter scolding bishops in southern Italy for allowing women “to officiate at the sacred altars, and to take part in all matters imputed to the offices of the make sex . . .” There is correspondence from a ninth century Italian Bishop, Atto of Vercelli, substantiating the use of the word “presbytera” to refer to women priests.
In our times, in the early 1970’s, Roman Catholic women and married men were ordained in Czechoslovakia by Bishop Felix Davidek to meet the needs of the underground church. One of these women, Ludmilla Javora, has publicly affirmed that she was ordained.
CAN ONLY MEN IMAGE CHRIST?
St. Paul says that all Christians, both male and female, share in and make up Christ’s risen body, not by imaging the maleness of Jesus, but by participating in the paschal mystery through Baptism. “In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, slave or citizen, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) Both women and men image Christ.
Romans 16:1-7 says, “I commend you to our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Canchrea . . . She has looked after a great many people, including me. Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila, they were my co-workers in the service of Christ Jesus . . . My greetings to Mary, who has worked hard for you, and to Andronicus and Junia, my kin and fellow prisoners; they are outstanding apostles.”
A proper determination process reflecting this maturity and readiness to participate should be instituted by the church.
Scripture
"But Jesus said to them, 'Earthly rulers domineer over their people . . . This must not happen with you. Let the greatest among you be like the youngest. Let the leader among you become the follower. For who is greater? The one who reclines at a meal, or the one who serves it? Isn't it the one reclining at the table? Yet here am I among you as the one who serves'." (Luke 22: 25-27)
"I shall not call you servants any more, because a servant does not know the master's business. Instead, I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learned from my Father." (John 15:15)
Theological and Historical Commentaries
"In ancient Christian times the bishop was elected by clergy and people . . . the reform movement of the Middle Ages still demanded the free election of bishops by clergy and people (so declared Pope Leo IX at the Synod of Rheims in 1049)." (Hans Kung, The Church)
"The original meaning of ekklesia (Greek word for "church") would best be rendered as 'public assembly of the political community' or 'democratic assembly of full citizens'." (Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza, "A Discipleship of Equals" in A Democratic Catholic Church; edited by Eugene Bianchi and Rosemary Ruether)
" . . .papal monarchial government not only is not based on Scripture, but also has never been uncontested in church history . . . Roman imperial bureaucracy provided the major model for papal government . . . Medieval feudalism provided the theory and imagery for the ecclesiastical hierarchy while the theory of papal absolutism both borrowed from and reinforced the growing absolute monarchies of early modern European national kings . . .
"Only with the Second Vatican Council was Roman Catholicism reconciled with democratic society, adapting its theories of human rights and consent of the governed for secular society. But it has refused a similar revision of its own structure . . . The Vatican attempts to justify this political structure as 'supernatural', denying its actual historical origins." (Bianchi and Ruether, "Introduction," A Democratic Catholic Church)
2 April 1997