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Derek Scally, writing from Berlin for The Irish
Times. Document shows pope once supported relaxing celibacy rules POPE BENEDICT XVI has been confronted with a powerful opponent in the campaign for the revision of church celibacy rules: himself. In 1970, Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) and eight other leading theologians signed a memorandum proposing that, to address the shortage of priests, the Catholic Church “quite simply has a responsibility to take up certain modifications” on celibacy. The document has only just come to light in the magazine Pipeline , which is critical of the church. Extracts were reprinted yesterday by Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Other signatories include Walter Kasper and Karl Lehmann, now senior German cardinals, then acting in a consulting capacity to a commission for questions of faith and morals in the German Bishops’ Conference. The memorandum states “all its authors” are of the opinion the celibacy rule requires “examination at the highest levels” in the church. “Our considerations regard the necessity of a serious investigation and a differentiated inspection of the law of celibacy of the Latin church for Germany and the whole of the universal church,” it says. The document’s authors recognise celibacy as being at the core of the priesthood, but warn that if the church did not investigate the celibacy issue it would “create the impression that it did not believe in the strength of the Gospel recommendation of a celibate life for the sake of heaven, but rather only in the power of a formal authority”. The Catholic celibacy policy is not a matter of church dogma but church law, the authors say, and suggest this law should be changed to reflect changed times. They add, however, that “celibacy should not become a fixed point of consideration around which all other church and pastoral considerations must turn”. …The letter added that adhering to the long-standing tradition could no longer be justified “in light of the dire needs of priestless congregations no longer able to hold Sunday Mass”. The bishops’ conference responded that it did not rule out ordaining married men, but said it was an issue of “global church scope that demands the corresponding formation of opinion and decision on a global church level”. ***
Leadership as service; not authority http://www.catholica.com.au/gc2/dd/029_dd_200111.php In this two-part commentary, Fr Daniel Donovan questions the model of church (ecclesiology) that seems to have developed in recent times. He goes back to Scripture, more especially the writings of St Luke, in an effort to tease out what were the views of Jesus on leadership, authority and ministry. ***This is too late for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but an inspiration nonetheless. From NCR.Catholic and Orthodox Unity: Close Enough to Imagineby Paulist Fr. Thomas Ryan
It is urgent that Orthodox and Catholic Christians find an effective way to realize our common tradition of faith together, and to present the world with a unified testimony to the Lordship of Jesus. To be what we are called to be, we need each other…. To become what we are…we cannot stop short of re-establishing full Eucharistic communion among ourselves.
After 950 years of division between us, the language is now that “it is urgent” to put an end to this. One might say that, thanks to prayer, local action, and the work of commissions like this, there’s been a sea change!
· The bishop of Rome’s “relationship to the Eastern Churches and their bishops would have to be substantially different from the relationship now accepted in the Latin Church…. The leadership of the pope would always be realized by way of a serious and practical commitment to synodality and collegiality.” · The bishop of Rome would be seen as a member as well as head of the college of bishops, the senior patriarch among the primates of the churches. His fundamental worldwide ministry would be to promote the communion of all the local churches. · There would also be some implications for the way the Roman curia presently functions. Its relationship to local bishops and episcopal conferences in the Latin Church “would become less centralized: bishops, for instance, would have more control over the agenda and the final documents of synods, and the selection of bishops would again normally become a local process.” The reader will sense some give-and-take here on both sides, but the end result would truly be a cause for celebration all-around: The Pope and the Orthodox Primates could invite all the faithful under their jurisdiction to recognize each other’s Churches as ‘sister Churches’ that fully realize the Apostolic faith in doctrine, sacraments, and ecclesial life, despite the historically different forms in which our liturgy is celebrated, our doctrine taught, and our community life structured.The fact that consultation members have reached the stage where they are concretely imagining it means that full communion between the Latin, Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches is closer than it has ever been before.
***
Elena Curti writes for The Tablet.
A unique moment: The Anglican ordinariate
History will be made today when three former Church of England bishops are ordained into the Catholic priesthood. They will become leaders of the world’s first ordinariate set up to accommodate groups of traditionalists who want to cross the Tiber while retaining their Anglican patrimony.
What was once a marathon for traditionalist Anglicans joining the Catholic Church has become a sprint, in the words of Edwin Barnes, one of the former Anglican bishops poised to join the ordinariate. Certainly the final lap has proceeded with extraordinary speed in the last few weeks. January began with three former Anglican bishops being received into the Catholic Church. This week, the "personal ordinariate" of England and Wales formally comes into existence, and immediately aftethat, three former bishops are being ordained as Catholic priests by the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols.
It was in November that 50 former Anglican priests and around 35 groups applied to join, although the numbers may have since grown.
During Holy Week, the first major wave of former Anglicans will be received into the Catholic Church and become founding members of the ordinariate, and around Pentecost, the first big group of former Anglican priests accepted for ordination will be ordained Catholic priests after undertaking a 12-week crash course at Catholic seminaries.
It is clear that the pace is being dictated by Rome, and the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales is working overtime to make it all happen on time. While attention was first focused on Anglo-Catholics in the United States and Australia when the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus was published in November 2009, it has since emerged that Anglicans in England had been petitioning the Pope for a way out of the Church of England, poised to ordain women as bishops with the likelihood of scant provision for dissenters.
Whatever reservations the bishops may have had about the invitation, they are now preparing to welcome the new Catholics. On Tuesday, Archbishop Nichols said the launch of the ordinariate and the ordination of the three former bishops was "a unique moment and the Catholic community in England and Wales is privileged to be playing its part in this historic development in the life of the Universal Church". On the same day, the Bishops' Conference's general secretary, Fr Marcus Stock, issued a 10-page document setting out details of the new structure and addressing "frequently asked questions".
On the question of why England and Wales had been chosen, he said he could only specu late on the reasons. "It could be there is recognition that the home of Anglicanism is in England and Wales. More likely the bishops here are very advanced in their preparations for the ordinariate, or the numbers who have indicated that they want to be members of the ordinariate are such that it constitutes the capacity to make the ordinariate work," Fr Stock told me.
One of the most pressing issues facing the ordinariate will be finance. The first wave of Anglican priests are expected to resign their posts on 1 March. Fr Stock made it clear that, once they have resigned, they will have to cease their Anglican ministry forthwith and begin preparing with their lay groups to join the Catholic Church.
Attitudes of diocesan bishops will vary, but it is likely that the priests will stop receiving their stipends soon after their resignations, and in some cases will need to find accommodation quickly for themselves and their families. Fr Stock said Catholic bishops were ready to make provision if necessary, and they were also trying to identify paid work for the newcomers as chaplains in schools, hospitals and prisons, as well as the possibility of supply work in local Catholic parishes. The ordinariate will have to be self-financing, though it has received a £250,000 donation from the bishops' conference as well as "substantial" donations from individuals, communities and charities.
Fr Stock is keen for the Holy Week receptions into the ordinariate to be sensitive in order to maintain good ecumenical relations."There will be no semblance of triumphalism, but what there will be is a warm welcome for people who have had a difficult journey."
A principal church for the ordinariate has not yet been found and finding suitable premises, said Fr Stock, is not easy. "It's got to be a reasonable size, it's got to be in a location where there are good communications. There have to be potential facilities for social activities and meetings, maybe even some office accommodation for the ordinariate's base, and some associated living space for the ordinary close to the principal church."
The name of the ordinary, or leader of the ordinariate, will be announced via a papal bull issued by the Secretariat of State soon, and speculation is growing that it will be the former Bishop of Richborough, Keith Newton, one of the bishops being ordained today as priests.
Ordinariate parishes will be able to use the Roman rite, but the only liturgical rite presently available that respects Anglican patrimony is one used in the United States called the Book of Divine Worship. It is not yet approved for use in England and Wales, but Fr Stock said the ordinariate was looking to a much wider recognition of Anglican patrimony.
"Rather than just a missal, we are probably looking at a sacramentary - something that would include other rites than just the rite of Mass that would respect that Anglican patrimony: things like Evensong, Morning Prayer, marriage rites, funeral rites which might have variations to what we currently use in the Roman breviary. All that has to be developed by the ordinariates themselves."
Stories have already emerged of disputes within Anglican parishes where the priest and part of the congregation want to join the ordinariate. Some priests interested in joining the ordinariate are worried about what the future holds. Fr Tim Bugby, honorary chaplain at the Anglican Church of Christ the King in Bloomsbury, central London, told a meeting for those contemplating the move that Anglican priests had been warned they risked losing their licence and their living just for speaking out in favour of the new body.
"We are aware that a great deal of pressure is being put on them - that if you declare for the ordinariate then you will have to give up your licence," said Fr Bugby. Last October, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said he was interested in establishing a pastoral group with members from the Church of England and the Catholic Church that would offer help and advice to those thinking of crossing the Tiber. Such a group existed to ease the move of Anglican priests to the Catholic Church after the Church of England voted in 1992 to ordain women priests. Such an idea might well find favour with Archbishop Nichols, who in his statement this week praised the "sensitive leadership" of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Pope Benedict on his visit to Britain told the hierarchy that the ordinariate was a "prophetic gesture" that "can serve the wider cause of visible unity between our two Churches". There are plenty of Anglicans - and a few Catholics - who do not see it that way. Sensitivity will be needed on both sides in the coming months. …
*** The following is from thewell@csjoseph.org on the “Advent of Evolutionary Christianity” Dear Friends of The Well, Some of you may have read Sr. Joan Chittister's recent article in the National Catholic Reporter in which she spoke about Evolutionary Christianity and even mentioned our colleague at The Well, Sr. Mary Southard, CSJ. The website to which she refers, Advent of Evolutionary Christianity, explores the many dimensions of the interface of faith, philosophy, Christianity and evolution. It is a tremendous resource and brings a new dimension to our understandings in all of these areas. To use Mary Southard's words "The experts involved in conversation come from a variety of entry points. There is something for everyone." Thanks to Michael Dowd who is the host of this enriching website. This is the link (home page, left column of The Well webpage: http://evolutionarychristianity.com/blog/audio-downloads/ Use the "click and explore" method. Scroll down to see the long list of experts who have contributed. You can listen to their presentations and also read and respond to their blogs. This link will keep you busy and intrigued for ages! Please spread the word of this valuable resource to your friends who share our common interest in the realities of our sacred unity with God, Earth and One Another. The Well Spirituality Center 1515 W. Ogden Ave. LaGrange Park, IL 60526
*** Interesting infographic from Fast Company.
*** The following press release questions the validity of John Paul II’s fast road to beatification.
www.we-are-church.org
www.somos-iglesia.org
Please contact / Póngase en contacto con / Contatti / Contacter /Kontakt/
Por favor entre em contato:
*** Edward Schillebeeckx: A herald of God among usMary Catherine Hilkert is professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. “That baby is God.” When asked about his first conscious memory of Jesus, the Flemish theologian Edward Schillebeeckx, who died in 2009 just before Christmas, recalled those words of his father as he pointed to the infant Jesus in the large Christmas crib in their home. Schillebeeckx, who helped to revitalize interest in Jesus and to reshape the study of Christology in the second half of the 20th century, related the family story to an Italian journalist in 1982 on the occasion of his reception of the Erasmus Prize for contributions to European culture. He was the first theologian ever to be so honored. If the graduate students at the University of Notre Dame are any indication, Schillebeeckx’s legacy continues. Just a month before his death, the students who were enrolled in a doctoral seminar on his thought, organized a birthday party in honor of the Dominican theologian who was to turn 95 the following day (Nov. 12). The participants were invited to bring a favorite passage from Schillebeeckx’s writings to share with the group. The party would have delighted the scholar, who once described Jesus as a “copious host” and who pointed to his inclusive table companionship as a sign of the kingdom of God. Given Schillebeeckx’s lifelong concern to communicate the Christian faith in terms that spoke to younger generations and to those who had serious intellectual questions about Christian belief, Schillebeeckx would have been pleased to see the range of the students’ selections, from his early, groundbreaking volume Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God, to the final volume of his Christological trilogy, Church: The Human Story of God, and his two collections of homilies, God Among Us: The Gospel Proclaimed and For the Sake of the Gospel. He might, in fact, have been most gratified by the selection of the one non-theologian in the group, who chose to read a key section from the final part of Schillebeeckx’s Christ book, which highlights a major theme in his later writings -- “God does not want human beings to suffer.” That conviction was at the core of Schillebeeckx’s massive two volumes on Jesus and salvation written in the 1970s (appearing in translation in the United States as Jesus: An Experiment in Christology in 1979, and Christ: The Experience of Jesus as Lord in 1980). Writing in the context of radical and senseless human suffering around the globe and growing ecological devastation, Schillebeeckx wanted to retell the story of Jesus as disclosing the mystery of a God “bent toward humanity” in compassion, not a God who demanded suffering and death as recompense for sin. In one of his memorable ways of capturing this mystery, Schillebeeckx wrote: “God’s cause is the human cause” (and the cause of all of God’s creation). As with his Christmas memory, Schillebeeckx traced the roots of his own Christian faith to his childhood. The sixth of 14 children, Edward Cornelius Florentius Alfons Schillebeeckx was born into a middle-class Flemish Catholic family in Antwerp on Nov. 12, 1914, soon after the German occupation of Belgium. After his primary education in Kortenberg (between Louvain and Brussels), Schillebeeckx attended a Jesuit boarding school in Turnhout. Influenced by mentors there as well as by his older brother, who was a Jesuit missionary in India, Schillebeeckx considered becominga Jesuit himself, but chose instead to join the Dominicans in 1934. Schillebeeckx began his studies in philosophy at Louvain under the mentorship of the Belgian Dominican Dominic De Petter, who emphasized that human knowing includes an experiential element that goes beyond conceptual formulations. Initially, Schillebeeckx had little interest in the theology he studied in Louvain in preparation for his 1941 ordination, since it was largely limited to an analysis of Thomistic texts that failed to situate Aquinas’s insights in either their own historical context or the larger ongoing tradition of the church. All of that changed, however, when Schillebeeeckx began his postgraduate theological studies in 1945 in Paris at the Sorbonne and Le Saulchoir, the Dominican faculty of theology. He credited Marie-Dominique Chenu, the Dominican medieval scholar who was also active in the worker-priest movement in Paris at the time, as having the greatest influence on his own theological work. From Chenu, Schillebeeckx learned the importance of reading texts in their historical context, of doing theology in dialogue with the social and political movements of the day, and of rooting theological claims in concrete activity on behalf of the Gospel. Schillebeeckx’s later writings on tradition as a living history of experience and his lifelong ecumenical commitments also reflected the influence of French Dominican Yves Congar, the ecclesiologist and ecumenist whose masterful classic Tradition and Traditions paved the way for the Second Vatican Council’s renewed understanding of “tradition” as the historical process by which the church hands on the mystery of Christ as living and active in every age. Schillebeeckx’s writings were investigated at three different points in his career -- his views on Eucharist in 1968 (when Jesuit Fr. Karl Rahner served as his defender), his Jesus book in a process that extended from 1974 to 1980, and his writings on ordained ministry. None of those processes resulted in a condemnation or a silencing, although an official notification on the ministry book was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1986. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, Schillebeeckx was most widely known in the English-speaking world for Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God, which made a major contribution to the renewal of Catholic sacramental theology. Concerned that many Catholics viewed the sacraments as magical rituals that “bestowed grace,” Schillebeeckx emphasized that grace is an interpersonal encounter -- a relationship of mutual friendship between God and human persons made possible in and through the Incarnation. Recasting the traditional definition of sacraments as “an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace” in personal terms, Schillebeeckx emphasized that Jesus himself is the primary sacrament in whom God’s gracious love became visible, tangible, historical and irrevocable. A fifth gospel In that early volume, Schillebeeckx likewise identified the church as a sacrament since its mission as the body of Christ in the world is to make visible the invisible love of God. He described the seven sacraments as visible signs of the church’s encounter in faith with the risen Christ. In the decades after the Second Vatican Council, Schillebeeckx continued to speak of the positive role of the witness of the church in and through communities of baptized Christians who “write a fifth gospel with their lives.” But he grew increasingly critical of the institutional church because of the failure of those in leadership to implement the renewal called for by the council, particularly in terms of the collegial exercise of authority and recognition of the diverse gifts given to all baptized Christians. When interviewed in recent years about his memories of the Second Vatican Council, Schillebeeckx highlighted the importance of Pope John XXIII’s opening address and his intervention in calling for a new draft of the document on revelation (Dei Verbum) as well as his intervention in appointing additional members who represented more diverse viewpoints to the commission preparing the conciliar documents. Schillebeeckx identified the teaching of Lumen Gentium on the collegiality of bishops as the most important teaching of the council. At the same time, he remarked that the council’s most negative moment, in his judgment, came in the week that many identified as the “black week” of the council (Nov. 16, 1964), when an official interpretation of the doctrine of collegiality by “higher authorities” maintained that the pope could rule the church either alone or together with the world episcopacy. In Schillebeeckx’s judgment, that interpretation not only opposed the thinking of the majority at the council, but also contributed to the perpetuation of a “monarchical papal regimen” rather than the exercise of the Petrine ministry within the college of bishops, as well as to the lack of reform of the Roman curia, which often blocked the proper exercise of authority by the bishops throughout the world. The central theological question of how to speak of God and salvation in a secularized and suffering world was a primary focus in Schillebeeckx’s writings since the mid-1960s. A lecture tour in the United States during the height of the death-of-God movement and discussions with university chaplains in France confirmed Schillebeeckx’s own concerns about challenges to the very possibility of Christian faith, especially among intellectuals and the young in the secularized and developed countries of the Western Hemisphere. Responding to those concerns in a series of lectures that he delivered in the United States (published in God the Future of Man), Schillebeeckx affirmed the dominant cultural conviction that human history was the responsibility of human beings and that God is not a deus ex machina who intervenes in the events of human history. Schillebeeckx argued that the Christian interpretation of the biblical “God of promise” was not a “God of the gaps” but rather a loving Creator who empowers and trusts creation, but who does not violate creation’s autonomy or the freedom of human persons. In the face of the apparent absence of God, Schillebeeckx maintained that God’s creative and saving active presence (grace) sustains and empowers human efforts on behalf of humankind and the Earth and holds open the future even for those whose lives appear to have been destroyed by sinful humanity or the destructive forces of nature. Hope for a different future Schillebeeckx’s contact with liberation theologians, especially the Peruvian theologian Dominican Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, and his growing awareness of the radical suffering around the world led to an increasing emphasis in his writings on what he referred to as “negative contrast experience” as the starting point for most people’s encounter with God. Rather than identifying experiences of radical and dehumanizing suffering and injustice as “fate” or “God’s will,” Schillebeeckx remarked that in those situations people rightly call out in protest: “This should not be.” From a theological perspective, he identified God’s Spirit at work in the powers of endurance, resistance, and the hope for a different future for those who are the victims of injustice and sin, and in the solidarity and action of all those who stand in accompaniment with them and who attempt to change the social and political structures that perpetuate that suffering. The context of radical secularization and global radical suffering led Schillebeeckx to undertake the project for which he was most widely known in the final decades of his life -- a retelling of the story of Jesus as “salvation coming from God.” Arguing that God has not given Christians a theoretical answer to the problem of evil, but rather a personal response in the life story of Jesus, Schillebeeckx proceeded to retell that story in a way that he hoped would move others to “go and do likewise.” Rather than promoting the notion that God sent Jesus to suffer and die “for our salvation,” Schillebeeckx insisted that the central theme of Jesus’s life is echoed in the Gospel of John: “I came that you might have life and have it in abundance.” It was human sin, rather than the divine will, that led to execution of Jesus. Hence Schillebeeckx wrote provocatively that “in one sense, we are saved despite the death of Jesus.” Schillebeeckx’s theology of the Resurrection has been criticized as overly subjective because of his emphasis on the Easter experience of the disciples, which he interpreted as a conversion experience (of forgiveness and renewed mission). Schillebeeckx responded that his focus in the Jesus book had been to trace the faith journey of the first disciples and that it was only through the mediation of their faith experience and testimony that later believers have access to the mystery of the Resurrection. In an early revision of his Jesus book, he emphasized that the disciples’ experience was possible only because of what happened first to Jesus himself -- his “personal-cum-bodily resurrection from the dead” and his ongoing life at the right hand of the Father. Preaching on that same mystery at a later point, Schillebeeckx admitted that he found it most difficult to speak about what Christians mean by “resurrection of the body” not because he had any doubts about it, but because it is ultimately a matter of speaking of the very mystery of God and God’s faithfulness in the face of the greatest challenges to that faith -- sin and death. As he approached his own death, Schillebeeckx continued to work on a final book on the sacraments. Coming full circle in his theological interests, he remarked that all of human life -- and especially encounters with the poor and the marginalized -- provide the opportunity for encounter with God. The final expression of his trust in the living God was a prayer he wrote on a notepad near his bed in his final days: “Loving, gracious God, it is you who lay me in my grave. (Edward)” *** John forwarded the following invitation. Let your voice be heard http://americancatholiccouncil.org/home/acc-detroit-brochure-as-of-oct10/ *** From Politico.com, the following conversation between Representative Patrick Kennedy and Politico’s Brett Coughlin. It examines the call for Civil Conversation. The POLITICO story http://politi.co/fh5Gvw 2010 Kennedy speech http://politi.co/hGf7Iu ***
The following is an excerpt from Pax Christi’s
statement on the assassination attempt on Representative Gifford: *** And a little something I found on my own. Billionaire Warren Buffett told the New York Times in 2006: "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war and we're winning." |