MOCEOP's Press Statement on the Pope's Decision to Continue Obligatory Celibacy

This is the press statement from MOCEOP -- the celibacy optional movement in Spain -- in response to the outcome of the Vatican celibacy "summit." I have provided a translation below. It should be noted that MOCEOP's perspective on this issue is a little different from CITI's and from some of the other American groups working on this issue but I think it helps to hear a variety of voices all speaking to the same end: freeing our brothers in the priesthood to have real choices and lead more fulfilling lives.

En la ultima reunión periódica que el Papa tuvo el día 16 de noviembre con los cardenales de los distintos Departamentos de la Curia Vaticana se hizo "una reflexión común"...sobre las solicitudes de dispensa de la obligación del celibato presentadas en los últimos años y sobre la posibilidad de readmitir al ejercicio del ministerio a los sacerdotes que actualmente se encuentran en las condiciones previstas por la Iglesia", según el comunicado que hizo público la Oficina de Prensa de la Santa Sede.

La "gerontocrática reflexión común" terminó sin novedad alguna: se sigue anteniendo la actual disciplina del celibato obligatorio y "se ha reafirmado el valor de la elección del celibato sacerdotal, según la tradición cristiana", concluye el comunicado.

Pocos cambios se podía esperar de tal reunión que terminó en poco más de dos horas y que ha supuesto una demostración más del inmovilismo y el enrocamiento en las posiciones tradicionalistas de los últimos años.

Y es que en la iglesia jerárquica hay poca misericordia, poca compasión. En la jerarquía hay mucho miedo a decidir y a avanzar. Desde el Concilio Vaticano II nos hemos quedado sólo con una cosa: el miedo. Importa más conservar los parámetros de la más rancia tradición que los creyentes y sus situaciones, como sucede con los sacerdotes secularizados.

El tema del celibato obligatorio para los sacerdotes se ha tratado en muchas reflexiones de los Papas y en muchas reuniones eclesiásticas (Sínodos, Conferencias Episcopales...), lo que hace suponer que es un tema que la jerarquía no tiene claro ni resuelto. Lo lamentable es que no se resuelve por que no hay voluntad, porque no interesa por razones inconfensables de poder. Y, aunque no sea un asunto nuclear de la Iglesia, no por eso hay que dejarlo de lado, pues en medio hay muchas personas, sacerdotes, mujeres, fieles, comunidades que sufren las consecuencias de una ley injusta y antisocial.

Una vez más hay que recordar que el sacerdocio no es propiedad del Papa y la Curia Vaticana; ni siquiera es propiedad de la Iglesia. Es un carisma libre que Dios libremente lo da para el bien de la comunidad y, por lo tanto, no se puede reglamentar.

El celibato es un valor como opción, igual que otras opciones; pero el celibato impuesto ni es opción ni es valor.

Insistentemente, oportuna e inoportunamente hay que preguntar a la jerarquía, para que respondan en conciencia:

¿Por qué no se quiere ver la riqueza que supondría unir sacerdocio y matrimonio?

¿En qué daña el matrimonio al sacerdocio?

¿Qué mal hace el sexo al sacerdocio?

¿En qué corrompe la feminidad al sacerdocio?

Ahí está la práctica de los sacerdotes católicos casados en Oriente.

En Moceop, con esto, no pedimos que se nos deje volver a subir al altar ni queremos decir que sintamos nostalgia del presbiterio. Hace tiempo que dijimos que nos considerábamos "felizmente retornados al estado laical"

Lo que queremos es lanzar, de nuevo, un grito de libertad en la Iglesia, libertad que llevamos buscando hace más de veinticinco años, como signo y como buena noticia y que incluye vivir la fe desde comunidades de iguales; colaborar en el replanteamiento de los ministerios en las comunidades, desclericalizarlas; transmitir una ilusión real, un motivo serio de esperanza de una sociedad más humana y una iglesia más cercana, respetuosa, contagiadora de optimismo; lucha por el reconocimiento de los derechos humanos dentro de las comunidades de creyentes en Jesús; ser creyentes y personas que luchan por alcanzar su plenitud humana, sintiendo que la libertad para elegir estado y hogar y la transmisión de la vida, como dones de Dios, son para nosotros derechos no sometidos a ninguna imposición de ley.

Madrid, 22 de Noviembre de 2006

EQUIPO DE PRENSA DE MOCEOP:

Andrés Muñoz.-Madrid
Teresa Cortés.-Madrid
Juan Cejudo.-Cádiz
Ramón Alario.-Guadalajara

English translation by Rebel Girl:

In the most recent occasional meeting that the Pope had on November 16th with the cardinals of the different departments of the Vatican Curia a "common reflection" was held on the requests for dispensation from the obligation of celibacy which have been presented in the last few years and on the possibility of readmitting into ministry priests who find themselves in conditions predicted by the Church, according to the communiqué published by the Press Office of the Holy See.

This "gerontocratic common reflection" ended without anything new whatsoever: the current discipline of obligatory celibacy will remain in force and "the value of the choice of priestly celibacy, according to Catholic tradition, has been reaffirmed", the communiqué concludes.

Little change could be hoped for from such a meeting which ended in slightly over 2 hours and involved one more show of defense of the status quo and entrenchment of the traditionalist positions of recent years.

And there is little mercy, little compassion in the hierarchical church. In the hierarchy, there is much fear of making decisions and advancing. Since the Second Vatican Council only one thing has remained with us — fear. Protecting the boundaries of the most rancid tradition matters more than the believers and their circumstances, as has happened with the laicized priests.

The theme of mandatory celibacy for priests has been discussed in many reflections of the popes and in many ecclesial meetings (synods, bishops' conferences, etc.) which makes one assume that it is a theme that is unclear and unresolved for the hierarchy. Unfortunately it is not resolved because there is no will, because it is not of interest due to shameful reasons of power. And, even though it is not a central task of the Church, that is no reason to leave it aside since in the middle there are many people, priests, women, faithful, and communities who are suffering from this unjust and antisocial law.

Once again it must be recalled that the priesthood is not the property of the Pope and the Vatican Curia; it is not even the property of the Church. It is a free charism that God freely gives for the good of the community and, as such, it cannot be regulated.

Celibacy is valuable as a choice, equal to other choices; but imposed celibacy is neither a choice nor a value.

Insistently, conveniently or inconveniently, we have to ask the hierarchy so that they can answer in conscience:

Why do you not want to see the richness that a union of priesthood and matrimony could produce?

How does matrimony hurt the priesthood

What harm does sexuality do to the priesthood?

How does femininity corrupt the priesthood?

And there is the custom of married Catholic priests in the East {Eastern rite churches].

In MOCEOP, with this, we are not asking to be allowed to go up again to the altar nor do we want to say that we are nostalgic for the presbytery. For a long time we have said that we deem ourselves "happily returned to lay status."

What we want to do is to renew our call for freedom in the Church, a freedom we have been seeking for over 25 years, as a sign and good news and which includes living faith within communities of equals, collaborating in the reconsideration of ministries in the communities, declericalized; transmitting a real dream, a serious reason for hope for a more human society and a church that is closer, more respectful, and more contagiously optimistic; fighting for the recognition of human rights within the communities of believers in Jesus; being believers and people who fight to achieve their human fulfillment, believing that the freedom to choose one's status, home, and the transmission of life, as gifts of God, are rights that cannot be subjected to the imposition of any law.

Madrid, November 22, 2006

The failure of mandatory celibacy

by Fr. Neil Parado

The shining examples of the utter failure of mandatory celibacy, which Jesus never intended ( Mt. 19:11-12) and the New Testament never envisioned ( I Cor. 7:7; 9:5; I Tim. 4:1-4 ), are Pope Alexander VI who had a few mistresses and several children; Cardinal Hans Groer, former Archbishop of Vienna; Archbishop Juliusz Paetz of Poznan, Poland; Bishops Symons and O'Connell, former bishops of Palm Beach, Fl; and so on and on.

As Rev. Dr. Heinz Vogels contends, in his book Celibacy: Gift or Law ? :

"The ability to live as a celibate is not given to all, as Jesus says in Mt. 19:11-12. Therefore, celibacy is not good for all, because for those priests who have not received the gift of celibacy but who, nevertheless, face the demand of the law that they refrain from marriage, celibacy becomes a suppression of their God-given disposition to be completed by a partner, which often results in neurosis. And worse still, such suppression may even lead to aberrations such as promiscuity, rape, and pedophilia."

Robert Pledl, a Catholic attorney representing the St. Lawrence Seminary victims in Mount Calvary, Wisconsin, believes that "mandatory celibacy creates a clerical world where women and children are the enemy. The accumulating scandals signal the need for reform " ( Time, June 7 /02 ).

Does celibacy make sense

Ed Snowdon
Portland, ME

If celibacy has such value, why isn't it working so well in the Roman Catholic Church?

70% of Catholics do not attend church according to CARA, a RC sociology group. Family-based churches with married ministers have much better stats to offer.

One out of 3 priests has left the corporate priesthood to enter into the more normal lifestyle of marriage. What does this say about the sexual demographics of the priesthood? Are straight priests fleeing a gay culture?

Many parishioners have a hard time contacting their priests when they need them, despite the claim that celibacy frees a priest to be available to his people 24/7.

Thousands of RC parishes across the country are without a resident priest. How can celibacy fix this worsening situation?
Father Donald Cozzens says that the priesthood is becoming a gay profession and cites a 60% prevalence of gay priests. 25,000 straight priests have left to marry. How many gay priests have left the corporate priesthood to partner with another man?

Roman Catholicism has hosted the worst institutional child sex abuse atrocity in modern history. Isn't it counterintuitive to suggest that celibacy and homosexuality have nothing to do with this reality that continues to unfold on a weekly basis?

Richard Sipe, a psychologist who has studied the priesthood for close to 30 years, states that 1% of priests achieve the total continece required of celibacy. The other 99% go through cycles of breaking their vow, confessing to another priest, short term repentance, and re-offending. Is that a good and healthy celibate lifestyle?

Perhaps mandatory celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church serves other functions that are not readily visible to the donating Catholic.

Concepts can be fascinating. Results are what really count, and the numbers don't look good to me. Faith is a completely different issue.

Fighting the Church to Lift the Celibacy Rule

By CLARKE CANFIELD, AP

BRUNSWICK, Maine (Nov. 26) - The Vatican this month reaffirmed its position that priests should be celibate. But Louise Haggett remains faithful to her belief that the Roman Catholic Church's celibacy rules need changing now more than ever. The church could grow its shrinking ranks of priests and touch many more lives by lifting its celibacy requirements, said Haggett, a lifelong Catholic who runs a nonprofit referral service for married priests.

In the decade since Haggett launched her Rent-a-Priest Web site, more than 100,000 people have been married, buried, baptized or otherwise attended to by married priests who are listed on the site.

Perhaps some day, Haggett said, church leaders will share her opinion.

"The whole issue of celibacy in the church is nothing but a farce," she said.

Haggett, 65, founded CITI Ministries - the CITI stands for Celibacy is the Issue - in 1992 after she couldn't find a priest in Maine to visit her mother in a nursing home in the weeks before her death.

Following her mother's death, Haggett discovered there were countless priests who had left the church to marry but still felt a calling. So she launched Rent-A-Priest, which bills itself as "God's Yellow Pages" and lists more than 300 ordained priests, who happen to be married, in the U.S. and abroad.

The priests perform marriages, baptisms, funerals, confessions, home Masses and other Catholic rituals for people who can't find a parish priest or don't meet church requirements to receive the sacraments. They pay Haggett a $285 annual membership fee and generally provide many services for free while charging the going rate for things like marriage ceremonies.

Because the priests are married, the church doesn't authorize them to perform any sacraments. Some people call them impostors, and Haggett's service was once called "Rent-A-Nut."

Numerous reasons have been put forth on why priests are required to be celibate, including the time and devotion required for the job. From a spiritual sense, it's so priests more closely imitate Jesus Christ, who was not married, said Monsignor Marc Caron of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

Married men who perform priestly rituals, and the people who use them, are acting in disobedience to the church, Caron said. While marriages performed by married priests may be legally recognized by the state, they are invalid from the church's point of view.

"I think it's important for people to be aware of that," he said.

Even so, there appears to be a need, said Bob Scanlan, a married priest who has presided over 23 weddings and nine funerals in the past year, and is an on-call chaplain at a hospital. Scanlan, who lives in Aurora, Ill., was ordained as a priest in 1969 and left his parish when he married in 1973.

Scanlan, 63, thinks the Vatican might lift the celibacy rules in his lifetime if the shortage of priests becomes so dire that nobody is available to deliver the Eucharist.

"It's almost embarrassing because every other religion on Earth has figured this out, how to have clergy that are married," he said. "The idea that celibacy frees priests for the people 24/7 is a myth."

The issue drew international attention earlier this month.

Pope Benedict XVI recently convened a summit of Vatican officials to discuss the celibacy requirement for clergy. The meeting was spurred by African Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who was excommunicated in September for ordaining four married men as bishops.

After the meeting, the Vatican released this statement: "The value of the choice of priestly celibacy in accordance with Catholic tradition was reaffirmed, and the need for solid human and Christian formation was underlined, both for seminaries and for ordained priests."

Milingo already had drawn the ire of the Vatican after he married a South Korean woman in a 2001 mass wedding ceremony conducted by Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church. Milingo later renounced his marriage but not his cause, and he continues to champion for married priests in the church.

Haggett wishes Milingo well, but she is appealing for change through the church laity, not the church officialdom.

"I feel the movement has to come from the bottom up. There has to be a groundswell," she said. "It'll never happen from the top down."

Haggett thinks the celibacy rules could go the way of one-time Vatican rules forbidding the use of female altar servers. Despite the rules, parishes did as they wished and used altar girls until the Vatican changed its rules in 1992.

Ed Minderlein of Marlborough, Mass., thinks the celibacy requirement hurts the church, hurts its priests and hurts parishioners. Minderlein was ordained as a priest in 1969 and was active in the ministry until 1986. He married in 1990, and continues to perform marriages.

"For as virtuous as they want to cast it, celibacy is the clay foot of the Catholic institution because you're denying people of the God-given right that is essential to human nature, the right to companionship and the right to procreate," he said.

Over the years, thousands of men have left their priest positions to marry. But many still consider themselves priests because church law says once a priest, always a priest.

There are an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 married priests in the United States, Haggett says. At the same time, there are fewer than 29,000 parish priests in the Roman Catholic church, down 17 percent from 1985, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

Haggett works out of a small office in Brunswick where she runs Rent-A-Priest and CITI.

On a wall behind her desk hangs a painting that depicts the Last Supper. But instead of just Jesus and the 12 disciples, the painting also includes the wives and children of the disciples.

Haggett says there was a long history of the Roman Catholic Church allowing its priests to be married before the celibacy requirement was enacted in 1139. It's time, she said, for the church to return to the past.

"If the church ever comes to its senses, that would be wonderful," she said. "I'd love to go out of business."

Celibacy is the source of priestly abuse

By CHANNING GREENE

Having lived in New Mexico and Vermont for 20 years, until moving to Delaware recently, I see the pattern of sexual immorality among Catholic priests repeating itself, to the detriment of the church spiritually and even financially, as insurance companies increasingly refuse to bail out dioceses.

The requirement for priestly celibacy is a major source of the problem. There is no biblical requirement, or even a suggestion, for celibacy within the "clergy." In fact, New Testament standards for elders assume a married state, and evaluates a candidate according to how well his marriage is going and how he manages his children.

As a candidate for eldership in a local church, with 10 years of pulpit experience, I was thoroughly grilled recently by the elders on this area of my life. One advantage of this particular group is their concern for mutual accountability.

Furthermore, the Catholic Encyclopedia states that celibacy, while at times encouraged, did not become a requirement until around the 10th century, although there were monasteries composed of married couples in England and Ireland for another two centuries.

Second, God has clearly decreed that marriage is normal; "it is not good that the man should be alone." To impose an unnatural requirement on candidates for priesthood goes against God's clear will, demonstrated by the pattern for Old Testament Jewish eldership.

Yes, conservative, evangelical leaders fall into sexual sin; usually it is in the area of adultery, rather than pedophilia. And it is quickly weeded out when discovered. I can't think of a situation where the situation becomes systemic, without public removal from ministry and hopefully, permanent disqualification.

Bishops from the New England area were sending pedophile priests to a treatment center in Jemez Springs, NM. In order to keep those being treated busy, the decision was made to assign them to help in local parishes.

The resulting scandal and chaos virtually bankrupted the Santa Fe diocese, and created a backlash against the New England bishops' decisions

A Vermont case was further aggravated by exposure of a number of complaints of child abuse in the mid-1900s on the part of nuns teaching in the parochial schools in the Burlington area. Those helped drain the budget and patience of the diocese.

The Catholic Church is very concerned about the increasing shortage of priests and candidates for the priesthood.

Celibacy honestly makes no sense as a requirement (I acknowledge that some will choose to remain single; God bless them).

But why impose an unscriptural tradition and eliminate possibly a large number who would be happy to serve in the married state?

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061127/OPINION07/611270325/-1/NEWS01

Compatibility Of Priesthood And Marriage - from the 1985 meeting of married priests and their wives in Europe

Statement on the Compatibility Of Priesthood And Marriage

From the 1985 Synod of married priests and their wives in Arricia, Italy

Compiled by Dr Heinz-J. Vogels

The married Catholic bishops and priests represented in this Synod and their wives, on the basis of the Church’s decisions of faith, give unanimous testimony of the following Catholic truths:

1. Since all the sacraments of the Church derive from the same source, from Christ, priesthood and marriage cannot be incompatible, but must be able to join each other in the same Christian receiving them, in the Western as well as in the Eastern Church.

2. The right of the apostles and of all those who proclaim the Gospel to take along with them into the communities a sister as wife, as formulated by Paul (1 Cor 9:5), is a complete power given to the apostles by Christ and therefore belongs to the unalterable ius divinum. It cannot be abrogated by the ecclesiastical legislator, because it is, moreover, a fundamental human right.

3. The so-called reduction of a priest to the lay state is impossible from the point of view of dogma, if it is done only because the priest wishes to receive the sacrament of marriage, it is an unjust measure.

4. Every community has the right to have the ministries necessary for itself and to present suitable candidates for these ministries. Furthermore the apostolic authority instituted by Christ has the duty to ordain by the laying on of hands those candidates whom the authority finds suitable.

5. Beside the theological reasons there are also pastoral ones for the abrogation of the law of celibacy.
I a) The priests in nearly all countries are old.
b) Seminaries remain empty, except in some few countries
c) Up to one third of Catholic parishes have no pastor of their own.
d) One In five Latin Catholic priests have married.
e) The papal dispensations for converted pastors to remain married as priests have created inequality and legal insecurity.
II a) The evidence of chosen celibacy on one hand and of matrimonial union on the other would be clearer and more striking.
b) The human maturity of priests who have no charismatical vocation to celibacy would be possible.
c) Married people would be represented in the leadership of the church, so that the interests of all might equally be respected.
d) Women could take part in the decisions of the church, as is widely accepted in secular society.
e) Priests could better take part in the life of the faithful.
f) The clandestine partnerships beetween priests and women, which are unworthy to human dignity and which do harm specially to the women, would cease.
g) The desired approachment to the other Christian confessions who all admit the married minister, would be greatly facilited.

Ariccia, 30 August 1985. Giustino Zampini, president, +Jerónimo Podestà, vice-president, Paolo Camellini, secretary, Heinz-J. Vogels, coordinator prep.comm.

Milingo nods Vatican reaffirmation of celibacy

I am passing this story on simply for information and without comment. It was e-mailed by Married Priests Now! to the Zambian News Agency and picked up by UPI. The choice to refer to themselves as a "prelature" is theirs. I would give the link to the Married Priests Now! Web site but at the moment, unfortunately, it appears to be closed to the general public:

Nov 21, ZANIS--Excommunicated former Lusaka Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo and the Married Priests Now! Prelature have concurred with Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican finding that reaffirms celibacy. According to prelature spokesman, Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan, the married priests were however against the enforcement of celibacy as a job requirement for the priesthood. "Celibacy should be a freely chosen charism and not a job requirement. Not every priest has the charism to be celibate and this is the problem because the church forces it on him or he cannot be ordained. It is a requirement that violated human freedom," Archbishop Brennan said.

"We can hardly believe that a meeting of the Cardinals who head the Dicasteries was called to simply reaffirm celibacy. The report that was not released is the important one," he added. And Archbishop Milingo accused the Vatican of being in a state of denial that it could not see the need for a married priesthood. "The Vatican 's denial of the problem confirms and encourages our mission to recall married priests to full ministry," Archbishop Milingo said. "We are the only Catholic diocese calling for the ordination of married men, and for the return of married priests to full ministry."

The two archbishops said Marriage was a sacrament of the church and celibacy was not. ''Marriage is higher calling than celibacy. The marriage vow trumphs the celibacy promise. Our prelature believes that a married priest is a healthier priest, and that a married priesthood will give priests a healthy and proper outlet for their sexuality,'' they said. They said people including priests were created by God as sexual beings and the sexuality needed to be celebrated as a blessing for husbands and their wives. ''Marriage needs to be the normal option for priests," Archbishop Brennan stressed.

Married Priests Now! Prelature will hold a conference in Parsippany, New Jersey on December 8 to10 to celebrate marriage and the priesthood. The conference will be punctuated by a Catholic renewal of marriage vows during the celebration of the Eucharist for married priests and their wives.

And commenting on a cleric who was quoted in St. Peter's Square in Rome yesterday as saying that those priests who walked away from the priesthood to marry should not be received back as priests, Archbishops Brennan and Milingo said their prelature reminded them that the Gospel of Jesus was about forgiveness. ''We remind him that the church is dying for want of priests. Recalling the married priests is a wholesome remedy to help save the church,'' he said. He said the first priests called by Christ were married and the church has always had married priests and vowed that the priests were going back to the New Testament roots of the priesthood when St. Peter and the apostles were married," said Milingo.

On Thursday, the Pope made it clear that although a shortage of priests had called for a loosening of the traditional restrictions, he did not think that opening up the Church to a married priesthood was the cure.

"A priest breaks down barriers and opens paths"

Yesterday brought a lovely story in El Tiempo Latino titled "Un sacerdote que rompe barreras y abre caminos". For those who don't read Spanish, the priest is Fr. Vidal Rivas. He was incardinated in the diocese of Zacatecoluca, El Salvador and working in the Washington, DC diocese when he was removed from ministry -- in his words "because of my revolutionary way of thinking and for having brought the message of Msgr. Romero to DC." This priest had done outstanding and recognized work commemorating Archbishop Romero and raising funds for disaster relief in his homeland.

Now he is going to be a priest in the Episcopal Church (Congratulations, evangelicos! By our intransigence, we have given you one of our finest men.) And he has just gotten married to a lovely Nicaraguan lady. Fr. Rivas was always an opponent of the celibacy regulations, pointing out that they really contradict the Bible. In this article he cites 1 Timothy 3:1-15 which outlines the requirements for bishops and deacons -- among which that they should be "married only once" and keep their children under control. So, yes, in the early church the leaders could be married.

In preparing this blog and researching Fr. Rivas, I discovered a new resource. The Diocese of Marquette (God love 'em) publishes the "Monitus" from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in their monthly "Diocesan Communicator". This is the advisory that warns against certain individual priests and religious organizations. In the issues that mentioned Fr. Rivas, I was saddened to see how many other Hispanic priests were on the advisory list. Our priest shortage is far more acute than that of the US church in general. Sometimes the Monitus will actually tell you why someone was removed from ministry.

Getting back to the article, I will end with the loving words of Fr. Rivas' new bride, Maria de los Angeles Perez. She says "some religions forget that priests are human." And she adds: "I have always admired him [Rivas] a lot but now I admire him even more because in addition to being my husband he is at the same time my great pastor and priest."

Vatican statement following celibacy summit

Here is the Vatican's complete statement following the November 16 meeting of the Curia:

In the Apostolic Palace this morning, November 16, the Holy Father
presided at one of the regular meetings of the heads of dicasteries of the
Roman Curia, for a moment of shared reflection.

The participants in the meeting had at their disposal detailed information concerning requests for dispensation from the obligation of celibacy presented during recent years, and concerning the possibility of readmission to the exercise of the ministry of priests who currently meet the conditions established by the Church.

The value of the choice of priestly celibacy in accordance with Catholic radition was reaffirmed, and the need for solid human and Christian formation was underlined, both for seminaries and for ordained priests.

There has been some discussion about the use of the term "value" rather than a
more stringent term such as "requirement" in the last paragraph -- whether this is another example of subtle ideological repositioning. Some argue that it is. Others argue that it is just Pope Benedict's way of softening a rather hard message.

Interestingly the most recent UCANews story offers even higher figures for the number of requests for dispensations granted annually than previous stories reported:

However, the Italian news agency ANSA, in a report based on Vatican sources, said the Vatican has figures only for dispensations granted, not for priests who left the ministry. Many priests who leave do not apply for dispensation.

ANSA said the Vatican has granted an average of 500 annual dispensations in recent years, but other sources say as many as 1,000 priests leave each year.

According to ANSA's information, the Vatican granted 587 dispensations in 1997, of which only 75 were to priests under 40. It granted 564 in 1998; 612 in 1999; 443 in 2000; 539 in 2001; 550 in 2002; 545 in 2003; and 406 in 2004.

Those of you who really like to look at this problem statistically should visit the Web site of the Congregation for the Clergy and click on "Statistics." They are revealing and more than a little scary -- such as they are. The problem is that they are not up-to-date and they are presented in a hodgepodge of languages so one really has to be multilingual as well as versed in oblique clerical terminology to make sense of them.

The site is also entertaining for lay people like myself who want to know exactly what the Vatican is telling the guys who stand in front of us every Sunday. The teleconferences are particularly "enlightening". Here, for example, is the teleconference on celibacy from April 2006.

The one on Women and the Church is also enlightening, if depressing. On my more mischievous days, I wonder what would happen if one of the newly-ordained women tried to sign up for the Congregation's e-mail alert service. I thought about doing it myself, but they ask for your date and place of ordination and I couldn't summon up the nerve to invent something.

The best thing that can be said about the Internet is that it has spelled an end to "Father Knows Best"!

Married Priests Summit (cont.)

Top-level Vatican consultation wrestles with issue of married priests
(By Gerard O'Connell, 11/16/2006, UCANews)

This article contains some interesting details about the substance of today's meeting at the Vatican. Inter alia (and aside from Archbishop Milingo who, as I said in earlier comments, was not really the main issue):

At the Vatican consultation, German-born Pope Benedict also wants to reflect with his senior collaborators on the seeming unending flow of requests from priests asking for a dispensation from the obligation of celibacy.

Vatican sources calculate that an average of 300 such requests have arrived annually in recent years, almost one a day. But the same sources reckon that the number of priests who actually leave the ministry each year is much higher than 300, as many do not bother to seek dispensation.

Such a dispensation means the person is released from celibacy and from the obligations of priesthood, and so can marry in the church. But unless his ordination also is annulled, he remains a priest, and canon law envisages that in an emergency situation he could still give sacramental absolution. A canon lawyer has confirmed that "the dispensation from celibacy does not imply any judgment on the validity of the ordination."

The late Pope John Paul II sought to contain the exodus of priests from the church by putting brakes on the process for granting dispensations. Some observers claim that this may explain in part why many priests no longer request dispensation.

Pope Benedict is well aware of the history and the actual procedure for the granting of such dispensations, because the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he headed as prefect for 24 years until his election as pope in April 2005, had responsibility for this up to February 1989.

After that, the task was handed over to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, until the responsibility was transferred again on Aug. 1 last year to the Congregation for the Clergy.

The consultation provides an opportunity for top Vatican officials to reflect together on the current situation regarding requests for dispensations from celibacy, and could lead to proposals for changing the procedure or even decentralizing it, as some bishops have suggested in recent years.

The third and final point on the agenda relates to requests for readmission of priests who left the ministry to marry. Vatican sources say the number of such requests for readmission has increased in recent times, and some suggest it has even reached an average of approximately 1,200 over the past few years.

It seems that while many seek permission to return to active ministry, some requests come from priests who are now old and would like at least to be allowed to celebrate Mass once again, even if they cannot return to public ministry.

The question is a very delicate one, and Pope Benedict wants to hear the views of his senior collaborators on the matter.

The issues surrounding married priests aside, there is no evidence that today's summit meeting will revisit the bigger question regarding the obligation of celibacy for priests of the Latin Rite, which was raised in October 2005 at the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.

Even though the synod fathers heard a lot about the great shortage of priests in many countries, they still voted overwhelmingly (202 in favor, 28 against and 10 abstentions) to "affirm the importance of the inestimable gift of ecclesiastical celibacy" for priests in the Latin-rite church.

They also agreed that the proposal to have recourse to the ordination of mature married men "was considered a path not to be followed," a position Pope Benedict is expected to reaffirm in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist, which he will promulgate in the coming months.

All caveats aside, this blogger smells change in the air. Don't donate your vestments, guys!

Priest not afraid to advocate change

Priest not afraid to advocate change
St. Edward's Breen presses for all to be heard
By ANITA WADHWANI, Staff Writer
The Tennessean (Nashville, TN)
11/16/2006

At 71, Nashville priest Joseph Breen doggedly continues a years-long quest to challenge church teachings he says are driving more and more of the faithful away from the Catholic Church.

Officially "gagged" once for his outspoken advocacy for married priests, Breen has remained undaunted. He hand-delivered a letter to the Vatican last month asking the pope and top officials to revisit church teachings on married priests, artificial birth control, divorce and women deacons.

All are barred by the Roman Catholic Church and have been for centuries.

But Breen says he remains driven by his belief that the teachings are out of touch with ordinary Catholics, whom he has seen leave Midstate churches for years. Stretched thin as the only pastor for his 1,100-member congregation — once served by three priests — Breen said he is also acutely concerned that a shortage of priests threatens the ability of the church to pastor adequately to those who remain.

'Ordinary' Catholics' views

"There is a serious disconnect between the hierarchy and the people," said Breen, pastor of St. Edward Church in south Nashville. "And that is causing the church great harm. These are not my views. They're the views of ordinary Catholics. American bishops need to start listening to the people; otherwise they're going to lose them."

But just this week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to affirm church teachings that artificial birth control is against God's design and sternly counseled those who practice it to refrain from Communion.

And while Pope Benedict XVI is gathering his advisers in a meeting today to discuss the issue of celibate priests, Vatican experts call any change of policy a long shot.

Click here for the rest of this article.

The US Catholic Bishops' Fall 2006 Policy Statements

The outcome of the US Catholic Bishops' Fall meeting could be summarized as follows:

1. If you are a sexually-active homosexual, you cannot take communion.
2. If you are an unmarried sexually-active heterosexual (or someone who is remarried without annulment of your first marriage), you cannot take communion.
3. If you are a married heterosexual who uses artificial contraception, you cannot take communion.
4. If you are a generally faithful Catholic who disagrees with the Church in some areas of Catholic doctrine like the above-mentioned policies, or whether married men and/or women can be priests, you also should refrain from taking communion.

We know that the Bishops are just restating existing policy in these three documents (Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination, Married Love and the Gift of Life, and "Happy Are those Who Are Called to His Supper") but if you do the math, the Bishops are really reminding us that in their opinion very few of the faithful are welcome at the Lord's Table.

It's sad and self-defeating. Sad, because we learn in catechism that the institution of the sacrament of the Eucharist was the Lord's Supper where Jesus offered the Bread of Life (His Body) and the Cup (His Blood) to all who were present, including the man who would betray Him (Judas) and the one who would initially deny him (Peter). The Communion Table was open to all -- sinners and saints. How far our shepherds have strayed from the Master's example!

I worship in a Latino community and there the self-defeating aspect of the policy is most apparent. Latino and Anglo Catholics differ significantly in their approach to the Eucharist. Most Anglo Catholics take Communion automatically, whether they are really prepared to receive it worthily or not (I'm thinking here of the low percentage of Catholics who comply even with the annual Confession guidelines). Most Latino Catholics assume that they are not entitled to take Communion but do not or cannot take steps to restore their status. In both cases, the end result is cynical indifference and loss of the centrality of the Eucharist in our faith. Once the centrality of the Eucharist is lost, it becomes very easy for evangelical churches to lure Latino Catholics away from the fold. Music and preaching become the center of the liturgical experience and your typical Latino evangelical pastor can outpreach your typical priest just about any day of the week!

So, what is the faithful response? Do we keep on taking Communion in spite of the guidelines because these guidelines do not reflect the spirit in which Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist? Do we simply dismiss the Bishops as irrelevant and grasp the Eucharist as our birthright?

Or do we stop taking Communion as a gesture of protest and/or solidarity with the millions of Catholics who are excluded from the Lord's table? Do we have to reach a point where only a handful of faithful commune every Sunday for the Church to wake up and realize it has sacrificed its Center on the altar of self-righteousness and intolerance?

With that, let the debate begin!

Pope to Hold Summit on Married Priests

The Associated Press
Monday, November 13, 2006; 11:23 PM

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI has called a meeting Thursday with top Vatican officials to discuss lifting the celibacy requirement for priests seeking to marry or who have already married.

Benedict called the summit to examine the implications of the "disobedience" of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, the Zambian prelate excommunicated in September for installing four married American men as bishops, the Vatican said Monday.

The Vatican stressed the meeting would not open a general discussion of the celibacy requirement but would only examine requests for dispensation made by priests wishing to marry and requests for readmission made by clergy who had married in recent years.

Milingo first angered the Holy See in 2001, when he married a South Korean acupuncturist chosen for him by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church. He renounced that union _ at a group wedding in New York _ on an appeal from Pope John Paul II a few months later.

Milingo disappeared from his residence outside Rome in June, resurfacing a month later in Washington, D.C., to announce he was back with his wife and was championing the cause of married priests through his new advocacy group "Married Priests Now."

Milingo said the Catholic Church should embrace more than 150,000 married priests worldwide in part to ease the ongoing clergy shortage and to elevate the sanctity of marriage.

The Vatican said in September that Milingo and the four men he ordained as bishops were "automatically excommunicated" under church law. The Vatican added that it did not recognize the ordination of the four - the Rev. George Augustus Stallings Jr. of Washington; Peter Paul Brennan of New York; Patrick Trujillo of Newark, N.J.; and Joseph Gouthro of Las Vegas - and would not recognize any ordinations by those men in the future.

Under Vatican teaching, the authority to name bishops rests with the pope. The church also requires celibacy of its priests ordained under the Latin rite.

The Synod of Bishops in October 2005 rejected suggestions that the mandatory celibacy requirement for priests be dropped. But Milingo's excommunication has brought the issue back into the spotlight.

Come, Holy Spirit

Come Holy Spirit, breathe down upon our troubled world,
Shake the tired foundations of our crumbling institutions,
Break the rules that keep you out of all our sacred spaces.
And from the dust and rubble, gather up the seedlings of a new creation.

Come Holy Spirit, inflame once more the dying embers of our weariness,
Shake us out of our complacency,
Whisper our names once more,
And scatter your gifts of grace with wild abandon.

Break open the prisons of our inner being
And let your raging justice be our sign of liberty.

Come Holy Spirit, and lead us to places we would rather not go;
Expand the horizons of our limited imaginations.
Awaken in our souls dangerous dreams for a new tomorrow,
And rekindle in our hearts the fire of prophetic enthusiasm.

Come Holy Spirit, whose justice outwits international conspiracy;
Whose light outshines spiritual bigotry,
Whose peace can overcome the destructive potential of warfare,
Whose promise invigorates our every effort
To create a new heaven and a new earth,
Now and forever. Amen.

- Diarmuid O'Murchu

Reflections on true holy communion..

by Louise Haggett

An incredible happening took place at our home about a week ago. Our dear friends Donna and Bill Podobinski came for a visit and I scheduled a home Mass among a few of the people we know in Maine. As it turned out, the only couple who were able to come on short notice were two individuals who had attended the CITI Boston Forum in November, 2005.

When Brian called to confirm their being with us, he related to me the spiritual transformation he experienced listening to the talk by married priest Ron Ingalls at the Boston Forum. I have always found Ron's knowledge and insight on the cosmic Christ and "progressive spirituality" (almost post-denominational) profound and had hoped others would experience it as well, but this was the first I had heard from anyone attending the Forum in Boston. (Ron's talk is in the current Come As You Are newsletter being mailed in a few days.) After the call from Brian, I phoned Ron and he decided to join us for the Mass.

We have a very small living room in our new home and seating was in a circle with the bread and wine on a small coffee table. Since it wasn't near where Bill (presider) was sitting, I offered to move the table to be in front of him. He said, "No. Leave it where it is." There were 7 of us.

We had a shared homily based and not based on the readings that lasted over an hour.

No one touched the bread or wine during the Eucharistic Liturgy, and we all read the words of the consecration with outstretched hands towards the table. Communion was shared one to another rather than from Bill.

Something happened and we all felt it. Because people did not focus on the bread and wine, we automatically focused on one another. We each experienced Jesus in each other. The interconnectedness of our souls became the magic of the Liturgy.

We were all in awe after the Liturgy, unable to speak. It was so powerful that we (Ron and the Podobinskis and I) discussed the "Holy Spirit" happening for two hours the following morning, later on the phone with Brian and Celeste.

Ironically, Celeste (daily communicant) was attending a Mass at her parish the following night when no priest showed up. Unbeknownst to her as she went to check with the priest at the rectory (who said, "not available. I did it this morning"), the congregants set up the altar with bread and wine. When Celeste returned to the chapel, she was wildly tempted to repeat the previous night's Mass with no priest, but was uncomfortable because the others hadn't had the same experience.

I am sharing this story with you because 1) it is Advent and 2) I want to remind you that you are not just priests, presiders, but in today's times, you are also rabbis (teachers) who can teach by doing in assisting lay groups to celebrate with a presider who doesn't necessarily have the clerical credentials but is also a person of Jesus.

I applaud Father Bill Podobinski for his courage and avantgarde priesthood.

Saints That Weren’t

By JAMES MARTIN
Published: November 1, 2006

EVEN though today is All Saints’ Day, most Americans probably don’t know the name of the newest American saint. Or that, like several saints, she was mistreated by the church that she served so faithfully.

Last month, Pope Benedict XVI declared Mother Théodore Guérin, who lived and worked in rural Indiana in the mid-1800’s, a saint. She is therefore worthy of “public veneration” by Catholics worldwide. Mother Guérin founded the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods and started several schools and a college in the region.

You would think that this would have won her favor from the local bishop. You would be wrong.

At the time, the idea of an independent woman deciding where and when to open schools offended Célestine de la Hailandière, the Catholic bishop of Vincennes, Ind. In 1844, when Mother Guérin was away from her convent raising money, the bishop ordered her congregation to elect a new superior, in a bid to eject her from the very order of nuns that she had founded.

The independent-minded sisters simply re-elected Mother Guérin. Infuriated, Bishop Hailandière told the future saint that she was forbidden from setting foot in her own convent, since he, the bishop, considered himself its sole proprietor.

Three years later, Bishop Hailandière demanded that Mother Guérin resign. When she refused, the bishop told her congregation that she was no longer superior, that she was ordered to leave Indiana, and that she was forbidden from communicating with her sisters. Her sisters replied that they were not willing to obey a dictator. The situation worsened until, just a few weeks later, Bishop Hailandière was suddenly replaced by the Vatican. From then on, the Sisters of Providence flourished. Today its 465 members work in 10 states, the District of Columbia, China and Taiwan.

Many people think of the saints as docile, but Mother Guérin is not the only saint to have found herself at odds with local bishops, church officials or even the Vatican. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake at the behest of church officials. The writings of the great theologian Thomas Aquinas came under suspicion during his lifetime in the 13th century. And Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, was jailed during the Spanish Inquisition over complaints about his ideas on prayer.

Somewhat more recently, in 1871, Mother Mary MacKillop was excommunicated — the church’s severest punishment — four years after founding a religious order for women in Australia. One biographer wrote that the bishops of the day were intimidated by Mary’s “independent spirit and steely character.” In 1995, Mary MacKillop was beatified, the final step before canonization, by Pope John Paul II.

The church’s long history of “faithful dissent” offers both hope and perspective to Catholics in our time. It echoes the call of the Second Vatican Council, which, in 1964, declared that expressing opinions “on matters concerning the good of the church” is sometimes an obligation for the faithful.

But, as some saints knew firsthand, a sincere intention is no guarantee that everybody in the church will listen — even today. Members of Voice of the Faithful, the lay organization founded in response to the sexual abuse scandals, are sometimes barred from meeting in Catholic parishes. Local chapters often gather in nearby Protestant church halls. Who knows which future saints are lurking there?

All Saints’ Day is a good time to remember that while most saints led lives of quiet service, some led the life of the noisy prophet, speaking the truth to power — even when that power was within the church.

Today the Catholic Church rightly honors all of its saints, even those it once mistreated, silenced or excommunicated. That includes Mother Théodore Guérin. It makes you wonder what Bishop Hailandière thinks from his post in heaven — or wherever he is today.

James Martin, a Jesuit priest, is the author of “My Life With the Saints.”