USA Today/Associated Press
5/26/2011
AUGSBURG, Germany (AP) — A year after a widespread sex scandal rocked Roman Catholics in Pope Benedict XVI's homeland, German intellectuals and faithful alike are turning their backs on the church, calling for change or simply leaving the congregation.
German theologians and others have aired their discontent in a series of petitions to church leaders calling for changes including more transparency, an end to celibacy, and women's ordination.
"After their initial horror, many responsible Christians, women and men, in ministry and outside of ministry, have come to realize that deep-reaching reforms are necessary," wrote leading German theologians in a petition to the nation's highest Catholic officials.
Germany has long been a cradle of religious thought and agitation for reform, stemming from Martin Luther in the 1500s up to today's outspoken Swiss-born Vatican critic, Hans Kung. The pope himself, before moving to Rome, taught theology at German universities.
The Vatican has not responded to the petitions, but the German Bishops Conference sought to address the issue in March by announcing a series of platforms for dialogue "aimed at giving our church in Germany a theological profile and sense of cohesion in this new century."
Many would welcome a signal from the pope that he supports such discussion, but there are no exchanges with parishioners or lay people scheduled during his Sept. 22-25 visit to Berlin and eastern Germany.
Gerhard Kruip, a theology professor at Mainz University who helped write the petition from the theologians does not expect that to happen.
"The bishops will not want to confront the pope with the problems facing Germany's church," Kruip said.
There are nearly 25 million Catholics in Germany, but numbers gathered by The Associated Press indicate a spike in people leaving the congregation last year as allegations of sexual and physical abuse of hundreds of children by clergy surfaced.
"These major abuse cases need to be taken into account by church leaders," said Rev. Max Stetter, a priest in the Augsburg diocese who formed a group calling for change.
While tens of thousands of Germans formally "quit" the church every year, 2010 saw a jump in the number of walkouts. German authorities easily track the numbers, because members pay a church tax, unless they formally leave the congregation.
Official numbers from the seven archbishoprics and 20 dioceses have not yet been released, but data acquired by AP show an increase ranging from 19% in Magdeburg, to more than 60% in diocese of Passau and Wuerzburg in the pope's homeland.
Augsburg, also in Bavaria, was among those hardest hit. Some 12,065 Catholics resigning their membership last year, compared with 7,000 in 2009, the diocese said. Fearing such a bleeding of the faithful, Stetter joined hundreds of other priests and lay people to appeal to their bishop to change.
"There is the impression that a page has been turned and things are going on, without anyone looking into the cause of the scandals and finding new structures to avoid such things," Stetter said.
Austria, which also taxes church members in a way similar to those in Germany also saw a significant drop in the number of departures. Figures published by the Austrian Bishop's Conference said 87,000 Austrian Catholics left in 2010 — a 64% increase over the 53,000 who formally had their names struck from church registries in 2009.
The Catholic church in the pope's homeland forms the backbone of everyday life, and despite the discontent, the decision to leave does not come easily to its members.
Margit Becker, who lives on the outskirts of Augsburg with her husband and two children, is one of thousands of German Catholics who feels disconnected from and disillusioned by the church. She stopped attending services months ago, but has not yet brought herself to formally resign.
"We were really born into the church and socialized in the church," Becker said of herself and her husband. "Our parents would have a heart attack if we were to leave the church. It is unthinkable."
Becker, in her early 50s, said her generation followed the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s — in which the pope, then Joseph Ratzinger, took part. The council changed everything from the role of lay people to the direction priests face while celebrating Mass and inspired a young generation with hope for a more open church.
Yet Benedict has revived some traditions and prayers that had been largely abandoned since Vatican II, disappointing many in his homeland.
"The church is no longer speaks to the people. I don't feel that it speaks to me, I don't feel comfortable with these traditions that date back centuries," said an administrator who works in the Augsburg dioceses, but refused to give his name for fear that he would be fired for criticizing the church.
Nevertheless, theologian Kruip believes the call for dialogue from the Bishops Conference shows that the discontent is being heard, and taken seriously. He concedes that change will take time, but will come.
"We wouldn't have done this if we were not convinced that we had a real chance," Kruip said.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Italy shuts out Sex and the Vatican
It promised to arouse discussion and create a bit of commotion, said a dispatch from the Italian agency, Ansa, on April 18And, indeed, that is the way it seemed when Carmelo Abbate's book, Sex and the Vatican, was published last month. The book grew out of an investigation by the author, published last year by Panorama news magazine, into the double lives of some gay priests in Rome. But Sex and the Vatican goes much further.
It looks at such taboo issues for the Roman Catholic church as the women who become priests' mistresses and the children they have (and those they abort). It details allegations of the rape of nuns by priests. And it concludes that large parts of the clergy are leading double lives because of the crushing burden placed on them by the Vatican's insistence that they lead lives of celibacy and chastity.
...The French edition shot to number 12 in Amazon.fr's non-fiction bestseller list as the initial print run sold out in under a week...In Italy, by contrast, the publication of Sex and the Vatican has been met with a wall of embarrassed silence. It is as if it had never happened...
More from The Guardian's John Hooper...
Saturday, March 26, 2011
A Swiss bishop supports relaxing the celibacy requirement
APIC/KIPA
March 23, 2011
Msgr. Markus Büchel, bishop of St. Gallen, is not in favor of abolishing the celibacy requirement for priests. But he is proposing that "one should also be able to become a priest, without having celibacy imposed." In his diocese, the pastor of Gossau has resigned due to paternity. The priest, Niklaus Popp (44), became sexually involved with the parish housekeeper who is expecting the couple's child. He has chosen to leave the priesthood and stay with his partner and child.
This support for relaxing the celibacy rule is widespread in Europe, Msgr. Büchel stated in the March 23rd issue of the daily Blick, edited in Zurich. However, he adds: "We have to admit that basically, celibacy is on a voluntary basis. Nobody is forced into it. Every man who wants to become a priest decides freely to keep this promise and bear the consequences." He himself has never regretted opting for celibacy.
In the case in Gossau, the rule is as follows: the priest involved "must decide -- either the woman and his child, or the priesthood. It's clear; he can't choose both."
Msgr. Büchel stated in the St. Galler Tagblatt: "A relaxation of the celibacy requirement could help address the problem of the lack of priests in the Western countries." In ten years, there will only be about 30 priests under 65 in his diocese. But the bishop puts the problem in perspective. "There are many countries -- like France, or in Africa or Latin America -- where there are fewer priests per number of Catholics than there are here."
March 23, 2011
Msgr. Markus Büchel, bishop of St. Gallen, is not in favor of abolishing the celibacy requirement for priests. But he is proposing that "one should also be able to become a priest, without having celibacy imposed." In his diocese, the pastor of Gossau has resigned due to paternity. The priest, Niklaus Popp (44), became sexually involved with the parish housekeeper who is expecting the couple's child. He has chosen to leave the priesthood and stay with his partner and child.
This support for relaxing the celibacy rule is widespread in Europe, Msgr. Büchel stated in the March 23rd issue of the daily Blick, edited in Zurich. However, he adds: "We have to admit that basically, celibacy is on a voluntary basis. Nobody is forced into it. Every man who wants to become a priest decides freely to keep this promise and bear the consequences." He himself has never regretted opting for celibacy.In the case in Gossau, the rule is as follows: the priest involved "must decide -- either the woman and his child, or the priesthood. It's clear; he can't choose both."
Msgr. Büchel stated in the St. Galler Tagblatt: "A relaxation of the celibacy requirement could help address the problem of the lack of priests in the Western countries." In ten years, there will only be about 30 priests under 65 in his diocese. But the bishop puts the problem in perspective. "There are many countries -- like France, or in Africa or Latin America -- where there are fewer priests per number of Catholics than there are here."
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Father Mora Got Married!
This story is extraordinary because this priest, who left the ministry in the Honduran Catholic Church because of a woman -- as he now reveals -- was Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga's right hand man before his resignation. In the original story in the photo captions, Father Mora's wife (photo right) is only identified by a pseudonym, "Paty". RGLa Tribuna (Honduras)
March 12, 2011
Father José de Jesus Mora was born in Granada, Nicaragua, but nothing reveals his Nicaraguan origins. He arrived in Honduras in 1984 when he was 15, his parents having decided to send him and his two brothers to Honduras to evade compulsory military service in the Sandinista army. In Tegucigalpa, he finished high school at the Vicente Mejía Colindres Institute, but he had begun it in the Salesian College in Granada where, at age 7, he felt called to the priesthood. He entered the Diocesan Seminary and in 1994, was ordained a priest by the then Archbishop Oscar Andrés Rodríguez.
Father Mora quickly became a confidant of Archbishop Oscar Andres Rodriguez, who appointed him Vicar of Communications of the Catholic Church and spokesman for the Archdiocese. Mora even lived in the same residence as Cardinal Rodríguez, but wasn't the only confidant in his circle and in December 2006, he resigned from his post and from the priesthood.
There were many rumors about the reasons for Father Mora's departure. He and Bishop Juan José Pineda appeared together on a television program, on which they said there were no lawsuits or grievances. The subject stopped being news and Mora disappeared from public view. He moved to San Pedro Sula to live as a layman with all that that implies: having a home, his own family, a wife, a child and another on the way, and working at the Universidad Tecnológica de Honduras (UTH). Four years later, Father Mora tells us about his new life and casts a critical eye on his journey through the Catholic Church.
Who is Jesús Mora outside the Church?
A completely satisfied person. In my current work with UTH, I am valued and held in high esteem by the president of the University, Roger Valladares, academic colleagues and the students...
Don't you miss the priesthood?
Contact with the people, yes, I miss that a lot -- the communities where I was, Ojojona, Teupasenti, San Martin de Porres parish, the Cathedral, Yaguacire, La Divanna, many communities that I served.
Are you happy outside of the Church?
As a baptized person, I'm still a member of the Catholic Church. I was definitely happy in the priesthood and now I'm happy in family life. I want to shout it out!...and how good it is that you are giving me the opportunity to do so now. I left the priesthood of my own will and chose to share my life with an extraordinary woman, with great human values and an excellent profession. She's a doctor, with a specialization, she has a dominant and attractive personality, a good sense of humor, she's very intelligent...I always say that before falling in love there was admiration for this person. She's a great wife and mother. Just as I fell in love with the ministry life, I fell in love with a person I admire and love. I made a very conscious decision...
Had you made this decision before leaving the Church or did the relationship emerge later?
It was simultaneous. It's not a situation one deliberately seeks out, but I'll tell you this: in this time that I've known her, I think I should have left sooner! (laughs)
Do you wonder why you didn't do it earlier?
No. I don't regret the ministry, quite the contrary. It's been a blessing and an undeserved grace that has marked my whole life.
I don't think God made a mistake in calling me to the ministry and I can say that I didn't make a mistake either at the point of choosing this life, so I don't feel the ministry and family life are incompatible...
Do you have any children?Yes, a boy age one year and nine months; his name is José Alejandro. The second is on the way; she will be named Valentina…
What has this meant for you?
It's indescribable, all words fall short. Through experiencing paternity and family life, one's ability to love doubles, triples, multiplies; one becomes more human, more sensitive...
How has your life changed in terms of routine?
Even though he's one year and nine months, I still don't sleep the same (laughs). One is attentive to anything he might need. Living alone is not the same as living attentive to others, the wife, a child, and now two (laughs)...Some would say that I left with much desire to make the mandate of the book of Genesis -- "Grow and multiply and fill the earth" -- come alive, but it has been a blessing from God and a decision by mutual agreement and we are both so happy...
What's it like to share a house, to sleep with someone, after so many years?
(Laughs). Before, I used to be able to get out of bed on either side, now only on one ...
It's really a strange sensation at the beginning, but that's when one becomes convinced that God gave human nature the ability to love and at the same time, complementarily, added the need to be loved.
Before, I loved weekends for the pastoral work, for contact with the people; now I love them and I want them for the time to share with the family...
Do you think that a married man can be a good priest?
Of course! It's been demonstrated in the Orthodox and the Eastern rite church where the candidate to the priesthood chooses if he wants to get married or remain celibate. I can't state that the Catholic Church made a mistake on celibacy; I think celibacy is a great resource and it is oriented towards a greater consecration to God. A priest who lives out his celibacy and directs his strength to self-giving is very useful in the service of the gospel, but a priest who has agreed to celibacy and then has to live a divided life, "playing hide and seek", doesn't have the same commitment; it's not an ideal situation in the life of the priest.
What happens is that the Orthodox Church speaks clearly of the practical advantages of celibacy, while the Catholic Church stresses that this disciplinary norm is the express will of Christ and tries to sublimate it, to contain it with angelic spirituality.
But you made a commitment...
Yes, one takes on the commitment, in writing, in a letter, and asks for ordination. I did it, I signed it by hand. I promised to live out the ministry forever. Yes, I do feel I failed in this and I acknowledge that it was a half-hearted commitment, and I'm not going to justify myself now by blaming others...
This shows that under the cassock there are just human beings...
That's the main point, one that many don't want to acknowledge. One can't deny one's human nature; you ask for celibacy as a gift from God and it isn't reduced to just the sexual aspect. Some would say that "the fever hit him just like Padre Alberto." It's not that; it's the emotional dimension. Love is greater than the passion aspect; what fulfills people is living together, companionship, knowing you matter to somebody and now the existence of children who, whichever way you look at them, are one of the greatest blessings...
It's a human need...
More than 100,000 of us priests have abandoned the priesthood and they are an underutilized evangelizing force, because that's 20% of all priests. The Fifth CELAM Conference at Aparecida, recommended that bishops seek out those priests who have left the ministry because the contribution we can make within the Church is important, but it's clearly obvious that the bishops aren't interested in this.
Where is that treatment coming from?
I'm now being treated differently by many people than when I was in the clergy. Many didn't like or appreciate me as a person, but as a priest. I'm the same, but many people aren't treating me the same...
If the Church were to abolish celibacy, would you go back to the priesthood?
Yes, I've thought about it, I think so. Obviously, my wife would have to consent...(laughs)
Why didn't you go over to the Anglican Church where you could minister and be married?
Because I love the Catholic Church; I have a lot of gratitude and affection for it.
Jesus said: "Happy are those who haven't seen and yet believe" but I would paraphrase this and say: "Happy are those who keep on believing in spite of what they have seen."
I've seen many weaknesses in the Catholic Church and I've also seen the work it does, the self-giving of some priests, the good witness of some bishops. I really feel so united to the Church that, although I would like to minister and can't because of the decision I made and the current norms, I'm not going to renounce my Catholic faith...
You prefer to be just another layman...
That sounds derogatory. It's better to be a good layman than a priest who isn't giving the witness that's expected of him. Yes, I prefer to be a layman, to not renounce my faith and love for the Catholic Church.
There's a special person who's influenced my love for the Church a lot and that's my mother; it's a love that was spread rather than imposed. I'm certain that Jesus instituted the Church; we have a great wealth: the legitimacy of the sacraments, its Biblical and theological teaching, the witness of the saints throughout the history of the Church. I can't now tell the faithful that everything I professed, lived, celebrated and taught, was a lie...
Why leave something you loved so much?
There are a lot of things. I can't deny that each is responsible for his actions, but one becomes disenchanted...Although they won't admit it or say so, there may be gradual disenchantment in the life of some priests. Though they continue to minister, they don't have the same passion and that's not due to physical, but to existential fatigue. And when there's no openness, there aren't any channels through which to express that disillusionment or disenchantent and other compensatory mechanisms are sought -- emotional, economic, psychological, egocentric ones, etc...
As long as we're more concerned with good image, control and sanctions, less effort is devoted to what's really important: evangelization.
Did you feel frustrated?
Yes, there were situations in which I felt frustrated that many things were being handled in a businesslike way, for convenience, not seeking the truth so much as drowning it. It was frustrating to know that there were things that, in my opinion, could be solved differently. But what motivated me to make the decision wasn't frustration so much, but something more beautiful: the possibility of loving and being loved, of having a family. And my heart wasn't wrong; I'm very happy. I didn't leave, running away; I left, seeking.
What's missing in the training of clergy?
I think that seminary training fails to take the bull by the horns, to talk clearly, explicitly. Sometimes they talk metaphorically and ethereally. We've had a problem in the Church: we talk more to the head than to the heart, we make rational arguments, but the human being isn't just reason. He's freedom, will, desire, he's many things...They should recognize that those of us who are called to the priestly vocation are made of the same human clay as everyone else, with qualities and defects, virtues and weaknesses. I think that there's a human aspect that isn't being given the importance it should have: affective maturity and emotional balance. But as long as an ingenuous separation is being made between "we, the good and you, the bad", dialogue and maturity aren't possible.
There's no worse hypocrisy that faked virtue and you can't fool everyone all the time...
You know Padre Alberto. Do you identify with him?
The way it came about was a scandalous situation; it offended the sensibilities of many Catholics. I contacted him; there's a relationship of friendship, and I was with him a few months earlier and knew he wanted to take that step. We talked about it; I won't go into details because I'm respectful, but I saw him making the decision ...
Did you know he had somebody?
He didn't say it, but you could read between the lines. What's more important is that he told me that he loved the priesthood so much that he decided to continue in the ministry and the closest one is the Anglican Church. He has said that it's the same and yes, there are similarities, but canonically one cannot state that it's the same Catholic Church...
He used to tape his program here on channel 48. How did he react when they closed it down?
He felt uncomfortable, annoyed, and he even said, "what about the other scandals?" But I don't share this opinion of "why me and not the others?" I don't think Padre Alberto's exit was the best and I'm not saying that he wasn't within his right, but personally I would say that if they're legitimate programs, from someone whose development or subject will do good for a lot of people, why condemn or stigmatize him?
How's you relationship with Cardinal Rodríguez?
My affection for the Cardinal is unconditional; I have a lot to thank him for. He has a difficult job in difficult circumstances. Often he would say to me half seriously half jokingly: "Son, never ask God to be a bishop." I don't know if he said it from tiredness or because he was afraid I would stir up a revolution at the heart of the Church. (laughs) I appreciate him a lot, I maintain occasional communication with him. When I made this decision, I had been living in his house four years and I certainly got to know more about his human qualities, his pastoral charity. He works tirelessly, is a man of prayer, and was so fatherly and brotherly. When I visited him after my departure, he expressed particular appreciation towards me.
Father Mora was a faithful defender of the Catholic Church, its postulates and its authorities for many years. Time and circumstances have led him to take a more critical posture.
Father Mora knows that history isn't linear and that everything is subject to change and perhaps that's why he closes the conversation with this phrase about the mutual affection that has united him with Cardinal Rodriguez: "I'll tell you later if it's still there after this interview."
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
New Ways of Being Catholic
PR Newswire
3/1/2011
BRUNSWICK, Maine, March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As Lent and Easter approach, many Catholics are finding new ways of being Catholic. Judy and David Lorenz are just two Catholics who, in the tradition of the first Christians, host Masses at home with married priest Rev Donald Horrigan. "I wanted to worship God, use my gifts," says Judy, and we wanted to "reach out to other Catholics who may have lost their spiritual connection for some reason."
Every year, many US Catholics are turning to married priests to celebrate thousands of Masses, weddings, baptisms, and other sacraments. Many of them had no spiritual place to call home -- their church was closed for lack of priests, they felt unwelcome due to divorce or other circumstance, or, like the Lorenz', they sought out a married priest affiliated with CITI Ministries/Rentapriest.com (Celibacy Is the Issue) when they felt disenchanted with the institutional church.
Judy says, "It's sad that Fr. Don's 'priestly' ministry had to be put on hold for so many years, though it is clear to me from my experience with him in Emmaus that he was as much a follower of the Lord in his roles as husband, father, and school principal. It's just a bonus that now he can minister to the rest of us again!." While Catholic priests who marry lose their clerical positions, the church's own theology and canon law state that sacraments by married priests are valid because a priest is a "priest forever" and "cannot refuse" sacraments and permission is not needed from anyone no matter where it takes place (Canons 1335, 290, and 843).
CITI Ministries is a nonprofit organization that offers free referrals to married priests in almost every state. Married priests are available for special one-time services such as Holy Week or Easter Masses, weekly or occasional Masses, first or second marriages, baptisms, Holy Communion, Anointing of the Sick, funerals, spiritual guidance or group discussion, such as those among vigiling parishes who are trying to discern their future as a congregation. The extensive theological backgrounds and experience of these priests has been invaluable to those who might otherwise have fallen away from Catholicism.
For the first 1100 years of the church, popes, bishops, and priests married and fathered children. Celibacy was made a law in 1139 to prevent priests from bequeathing their homes to their spouses and children rather than to the church.
For persons seeking a new path to reconnect with their faith, a married priest may provide an acceptable pathway. A special individual or group Lenten retreat workshop entitled "Strengthening Our Spiritual Immune System" is also available on the rentapriest.com website.
For more information: go to www.rentapriest.com; 1-800-PRIEST-9; info@rentapriest.com, or CITI Ministries, 14 Middle Street, Suite 2, Brunswick, ME 04011, 207-729-7673. See links also on YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook.
CONTACTS: David and Judy Lorenz (MD), jlorenz@verizon.net; Jerry Siegmund (SC), 843-399-8065; Louise Haggett (ME), President/Founder, 207-729-7673; Rev. Rich Hasselbach (NY), 914-804-1944; Rev. John Shuster (WA), 360-551-9982
3/1/2011
BRUNSWICK, Maine, March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As Lent and Easter approach, many Catholics are finding new ways of being Catholic. Judy and David Lorenz are just two Catholics who, in the tradition of the first Christians, host Masses at home with married priest Rev Donald Horrigan. "I wanted to worship God, use my gifts," says Judy, and we wanted to "reach out to other Catholics who may have lost their spiritual connection for some reason."
Every year, many US Catholics are turning to married priests to celebrate thousands of Masses, weddings, baptisms, and other sacraments. Many of them had no spiritual place to call home -- their church was closed for lack of priests, they felt unwelcome due to divorce or other circumstance, or, like the Lorenz', they sought out a married priest affiliated with CITI Ministries/Rentapriest.com (Celibacy Is the Issue) when they felt disenchanted with the institutional church.
Judy says, "It's sad that Fr. Don's 'priestly' ministry had to be put on hold for so many years, though it is clear to me from my experience with him in Emmaus that he was as much a follower of the Lord in his roles as husband, father, and school principal. It's just a bonus that now he can minister to the rest of us again!." While Catholic priests who marry lose their clerical positions, the church's own theology and canon law state that sacraments by married priests are valid because a priest is a "priest forever" and "cannot refuse" sacraments and permission is not needed from anyone no matter where it takes place (Canons 1335, 290, and 843).
CITI Ministries is a nonprofit organization that offers free referrals to married priests in almost every state. Married priests are available for special one-time services such as Holy Week or Easter Masses, weekly or occasional Masses, first or second marriages, baptisms, Holy Communion, Anointing of the Sick, funerals, spiritual guidance or group discussion, such as those among vigiling parishes who are trying to discern their future as a congregation. The extensive theological backgrounds and experience of these priests has been invaluable to those who might otherwise have fallen away from Catholicism.
For the first 1100 years of the church, popes, bishops, and priests married and fathered children. Celibacy was made a law in 1139 to prevent priests from bequeathing their homes to their spouses and children rather than to the church.
For persons seeking a new path to reconnect with their faith, a married priest may provide an acceptable pathway. A special individual or group Lenten retreat workshop entitled "Strengthening Our Spiritual Immune System" is also available on the rentapriest.com website.
For more information: go to www.rentapriest.com; 1-800-PRIEST-9; info@rentapriest.com, or CITI Ministries, 14 Middle Street, Suite 2, Brunswick, ME 04011, 207-729-7673. See links also on YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook.
CONTACTS: David and Judy Lorenz (MD), jlorenz@verizon.net; Jerry Siegmund (SC), 843-399-8065; Louise Haggett (ME), President/Founder, 207-729-7673; Rev. Rich Hasselbach (NY), 914-804-1944; Rev. John Shuster (WA), 360-551-9982
Catholic priest shortfall an 'imminent disaster'
Barney Zwartz
The Age (Australia)
March 5, 2011
Wednesday morning Mass at St Aloysius in north Caulfield, and barely a dozen of the faithful are scattered through the handsome old Catholic church built to house 1000, as Father Gerard Diamond celebrates the sacrament.
Two hours later, he is leading Mass again at St Anthony's in Glen Huntly for a healthier congregation of about 50. Father Diamond has no idea how many times he has said Mass but, at an average of nearly 450 a year for 44 years, he is verging on 20,000.
He has been parish priest at Glen Huntly since 1992, but in 2003 he ''acquired'' the Caulfield parish, and in 2008 the two parishes were formally merged.
Advertisement: Story continues below Father Diamond's telescoping parish ministry is a fine example of trends in the Australian Catholic church, which a new report says faces ''imminent disaster''.
The report, Catholic Parish Ministry in Australia: Facing Disaster?, is a statistical analysis by former priest Peter Wilkinson, a senior research fellow at the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs on behalf of an active lay group, Catholics for Ministry.
It shows that from a peak of one priest for every 518 Catholics in 1966, there is now one for every 1895 Catholics. But that ratio counts 1431 retired priests and those not in parish ministry - the real figure is much higher. In New South Wales in 15 years, it could be one priest for as many as 22,000 Catholics, one for every 13,000 in Victoria.
The catastrophic decline in parish priests - which will intensify as the boom clerical generation ordained between 1955 and 1975 retires or dies - comes as the Catholic population is rising rapidly, largely due to immigration. In 2010, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, the Catholic population was 5.6 million, up 470,000 from the 2006 Census.
Already one in four Australian parishes is without a full-time priest. The Australian bishops - banned by Rome from even mentioning the possibility of married priests or women priests - are trying to meet the challenge by merging parishes and recruiting priests from overseas, often on short-term arrangements - a strategy, according to Dr Wilkinson, ''of despair and desperation''.
Since 1994 184 parishes have merged. Today 1282 Australian parishes have 1523 priests but by 2025, the report says, there may be as few as 600 home-grown priests for a Catholic population estimated to top 7 million.
But Dr Wilkinson says importing overseas priests - now 20 per cent of the Australian total - is no solution. Soon recruitment countries such as Nigeria, India and the Philippines will not be able to spare priests, and those who come now often struggle to adapt to Australian life and have a different focus - they see themselves as missionaries engaged in the re-evangelisation of Australia.
Catholics for Ministry co-founder Paul Collins shares that concern. ''Many of these foreign priests are inexperienced and come from cultures that are tribal and patriarchal. They have little or no comprehension of the kinds of faith challenges that face Catholics living in a secular, individualistic, consumerist culture that places a strong emphasis on equality, women's rights and co-responsibility between clergy and lay people,'' he said.
Dr Wilkinson says the situation is far more serious than he anticipated. ''The crisis is real and the scale is huge. The question is, what are the bishops able or prepared to do, and, from what I can gather, Rome keeps a very tight rein on them.''
He said the figures showed priests would be forced to focus on the sacraments and Eucharist at the expense of other important duties such as pastoral care.
Father Diamond accepts that priestly ministry is changing, but thinks a well-run parish can still cope. In a secular job he would have his feet up already, but priests do not retire until 75, seven years away. In fact, he knows he will be needed much longer - as long as he is mentally and physically capable.
The Age (Australia)
March 5, 2011
Wednesday morning Mass at St Aloysius in north Caulfield, and barely a dozen of the faithful are scattered through the handsome old Catholic church built to house 1000, as Father Gerard Diamond celebrates the sacrament.
Two hours later, he is leading Mass again at St Anthony's in Glen Huntly for a healthier congregation of about 50. Father Diamond has no idea how many times he has said Mass but, at an average of nearly 450 a year for 44 years, he is verging on 20,000.
He has been parish priest at Glen Huntly since 1992, but in 2003 he ''acquired'' the Caulfield parish, and in 2008 the two parishes were formally merged.
Advertisement: Story continues below Father Diamond's telescoping parish ministry is a fine example of trends in the Australian Catholic church, which a new report says faces ''imminent disaster''.
The report, Catholic Parish Ministry in Australia: Facing Disaster?, is a statistical analysis by former priest Peter Wilkinson, a senior research fellow at the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs on behalf of an active lay group, Catholics for Ministry.
It shows that from a peak of one priest for every 518 Catholics in 1966, there is now one for every 1895 Catholics. But that ratio counts 1431 retired priests and those not in parish ministry - the real figure is much higher. In New South Wales in 15 years, it could be one priest for as many as 22,000 Catholics, one for every 13,000 in Victoria.
The catastrophic decline in parish priests - which will intensify as the boom clerical generation ordained between 1955 and 1975 retires or dies - comes as the Catholic population is rising rapidly, largely due to immigration. In 2010, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, the Catholic population was 5.6 million, up 470,000 from the 2006 Census.
Already one in four Australian parishes is without a full-time priest. The Australian bishops - banned by Rome from even mentioning the possibility of married priests or women priests - are trying to meet the challenge by merging parishes and recruiting priests from overseas, often on short-term arrangements - a strategy, according to Dr Wilkinson, ''of despair and desperation''.
Since 1994 184 parishes have merged. Today 1282 Australian parishes have 1523 priests but by 2025, the report says, there may be as few as 600 home-grown priests for a Catholic population estimated to top 7 million.
But Dr Wilkinson says importing overseas priests - now 20 per cent of the Australian total - is no solution. Soon recruitment countries such as Nigeria, India and the Philippines will not be able to spare priests, and those who come now often struggle to adapt to Australian life and have a different focus - they see themselves as missionaries engaged in the re-evangelisation of Australia.
Catholics for Ministry co-founder Paul Collins shares that concern. ''Many of these foreign priests are inexperienced and come from cultures that are tribal and patriarchal. They have little or no comprehension of the kinds of faith challenges that face Catholics living in a secular, individualistic, consumerist culture that places a strong emphasis on equality, women's rights and co-responsibility between clergy and lay people,'' he said.
Dr Wilkinson says the situation is far more serious than he anticipated. ''The crisis is real and the scale is huge. The question is, what are the bishops able or prepared to do, and, from what I can gather, Rome keeps a very tight rein on them.''
He said the figures showed priests would be forced to focus on the sacraments and Eucharist at the expense of other important duties such as pastoral care.
Father Diamond accepts that priestly ministry is changing, but thinks a well-run parish can still cope. In a secular job he would have his feet up already, but priests do not retire until 75, seven years away. In fact, he knows he will be needed much longer - as long as he is mentally and physically capable.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
So, the number of priests has risen…
Exactly what I was thinking when I read the news reports on the supposed increase in the number of priests but didn't have the time to do the research to refute the official conclusions. Thank you, Fr. Kelly!
by Fr. Michael Kelly, SJ
UCA News
2/21/2011
Great attention has been paid over the last week to the Vatican’s announcement that the gross number of priests in the world has risen in the last decade. On our own site, the story rated the highest number of visitors on the day of the announcement and across the world, the story gained extensive exposure.
Without being as cynical about the announcement as the 19th Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli might suggest that we be (”There are lies, damn lies and statistics”), the figures merit more considered assessment if they are to reveal what the real condition of the Church’s clergy is.
The abiding question about any claim that a number is growing is “growing relative to what?” If anyone who has a business were told their profit had grown or the owner of a piece of property were told it had increased in value, the real question for both is: in relation to what?
Has the value of the property increased ahead of or behind the rate of return on shares or money? Has the profit on the business provided its owner with an appropriate rate of return on the investment that created the business in the first place?
Simply saying that the price of property has risen or profits in a business have increased without these qualifiers is not really very helpful.
So, the number of priests has risen in the last decade. But relative to what? The number of Catholics has risen in the same time by 128 million according to the Vatican’s own figures. Even if the number of priests has risen by 50,000 (as the growth reported for the previous year suggests) in the last decade, that still represents half the rate of growth of the Catholic population the priests are ordained to serve.
Relative to the number of priests needed to serve the growing Catholic population, the number of priests has actually declined. The Church was better off, in relative terms, a decade ago.
But the questions about gross numbers need to be even more searching. Where are the large populations of Catholics and how are they faring in ordinations? What is the median or even average ages of the clergy and how do they compare with a decade ago?
Are the Vatican statistics including those priests who have left active ministry but are not laicized? Many leaving priesthood today don’t bother with applying for laicization because it takes so long and the Vatican is very reluctant to grant it. So priests leave, take other jobs, may get married but still appear in the books, misleadingly, as priests.
With a few exceptions - India, Thailand and Korea in Asia and Nigeria and the Congo in Africa - the number of priests per Catholic is going south.
The spread of the clergy worldwide is very uneven. In an aside to an Australian bishop on his Ad Limina visit to Rome, Pope John Paul II lamented that Italy alone had 35,000 priests and asked what impact they made when other countries with large populations of Catholics had so few. Italy has about nine percent of the world’s clergy for just on three percent of the world’s baptized Catholics. The Philippines has just on 2.2 percent of the world’s priests for 4.5 percent of baptized Catholics worldwide.
The Western world, as is widely known, is witnessing not just the decline in gross numbers of priests but their rapid aging as well. In Australia, the average age of priests is nearly 70 where it may be little more than half that in some developing countries.
In other words, unless figures are set in their real and relative contexts, they aren’t very helpful.
But these statistics prompt even more basic questions. What are we talking about when we use the word priest? What is at the core of a priest’s ministry? Compare that to what priests actually do. What are the things priests do that in many places around the world that are done by unacclaimed and unordained lay people? What are the terms of access to priestly ministry and why are they restricted to celibate males?
Aren’t there plenty of ministries in the Church - teaching, financial and staff administration, service of the sick and poor, introductions to the Christian faith as catechists, etc - that should have a way of being recognized, celebrated and commissioned as part of the service of the Church to the faith community and beyond?
More than 20 years ago, a priest now in his late 80s asked me a question: “Michael, do you know what the two issues were that Paul VI reserved to himself and would not allow their discussion on the floor of Vatican II?”
I replied that I didn’t know, that I was nine years of age when the Council began and 12 when it closed.
“Contraception and clerical celibacy,” he replied. “And what are the two things that bedeviled the Church since? Female anatomy and the nature of ministry.”
Celibacy was slated for consideration at the 1971 Synod of Bishops but got bumped off the agenda in favour of social justice and produced the groundbreaking document Justice in the World. It has been the fountainhead of extensive action and reflection in the Church ever since.
But maybe it’s time to put ministry back on the agenda.
Father Michael Kelly SJ is executive director of UCA News. He has worked in radio and TV production since 1982 and as a journalist in Australia and Asia for various publications, religious and secular.
by Fr. Michael Kelly, SJ
UCA News
2/21/2011
Great attention has been paid over the last week to the Vatican’s announcement that the gross number of priests in the world has risen in the last decade. On our own site, the story rated the highest number of visitors on the day of the announcement and across the world, the story gained extensive exposure.
Without being as cynical about the announcement as the 19th Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli might suggest that we be (”There are lies, damn lies and statistics”), the figures merit more considered assessment if they are to reveal what the real condition of the Church’s clergy is.
The abiding question about any claim that a number is growing is “growing relative to what?” If anyone who has a business were told their profit had grown or the owner of a piece of property were told it had increased in value, the real question for both is: in relation to what?
Has the value of the property increased ahead of or behind the rate of return on shares or money? Has the profit on the business provided its owner with an appropriate rate of return on the investment that created the business in the first place?
Simply saying that the price of property has risen or profits in a business have increased without these qualifiers is not really very helpful.
So, the number of priests has risen in the last decade. But relative to what? The number of Catholics has risen in the same time by 128 million according to the Vatican’s own figures. Even if the number of priests has risen by 50,000 (as the growth reported for the previous year suggests) in the last decade, that still represents half the rate of growth of the Catholic population the priests are ordained to serve.
Relative to the number of priests needed to serve the growing Catholic population, the number of priests has actually declined. The Church was better off, in relative terms, a decade ago.
But the questions about gross numbers need to be even more searching. Where are the large populations of Catholics and how are they faring in ordinations? What is the median or even average ages of the clergy and how do they compare with a decade ago?
Are the Vatican statistics including those priests who have left active ministry but are not laicized? Many leaving priesthood today don’t bother with applying for laicization because it takes so long and the Vatican is very reluctant to grant it. So priests leave, take other jobs, may get married but still appear in the books, misleadingly, as priests.
With a few exceptions - India, Thailand and Korea in Asia and Nigeria and the Congo in Africa - the number of priests per Catholic is going south.
The spread of the clergy worldwide is very uneven. In an aside to an Australian bishop on his Ad Limina visit to Rome, Pope John Paul II lamented that Italy alone had 35,000 priests and asked what impact they made when other countries with large populations of Catholics had so few. Italy has about nine percent of the world’s clergy for just on three percent of the world’s baptized Catholics. The Philippines has just on 2.2 percent of the world’s priests for 4.5 percent of baptized Catholics worldwide.
The Western world, as is widely known, is witnessing not just the decline in gross numbers of priests but their rapid aging as well. In Australia, the average age of priests is nearly 70 where it may be little more than half that in some developing countries.
In other words, unless figures are set in their real and relative contexts, they aren’t very helpful.
But these statistics prompt even more basic questions. What are we talking about when we use the word priest? What is at the core of a priest’s ministry? Compare that to what priests actually do. What are the things priests do that in many places around the world that are done by unacclaimed and unordained lay people? What are the terms of access to priestly ministry and why are they restricted to celibate males?
Aren’t there plenty of ministries in the Church - teaching, financial and staff administration, service of the sick and poor, introductions to the Christian faith as catechists, etc - that should have a way of being recognized, celebrated and commissioned as part of the service of the Church to the faith community and beyond?
More than 20 years ago, a priest now in his late 80s asked me a question: “Michael, do you know what the two issues were that Paul VI reserved to himself and would not allow their discussion on the floor of Vatican II?”
I replied that I didn’t know, that I was nine years of age when the Council began and 12 when it closed.
“Contraception and clerical celibacy,” he replied. “And what are the two things that bedeviled the Church since? Female anatomy and the nature of ministry.”
Celibacy was slated for consideration at the 1971 Synod of Bishops but got bumped off the agenda in favour of social justice and produced the groundbreaking document Justice in the World. It has been the fountainhead of extensive action and reflection in the Church ever since.
But maybe it’s time to put ministry back on the agenda.
Father Michael Kelly SJ is executive director of UCA News. He has worked in radio and TV production since 1982 and as a journalist in Australia and Asia for various publications, religious and secular.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
German man married to nun ordained as priest with pope's approval
What's even more curious about this article than the Pastoral Provision finally striking in Germany is that this man's wife, also a former Lutheran, first became a Carmelite nun while still being married to him. So we have a double challenge to the celibacy/chastity requirements...
By Kirsten Grieshaber
Canadian Press
2/22/2011
BERLIN — In a rare move that needed the pope's approval, a Lutheran convert was ordained Tuesday as a Catholic priest in Germany and is being allowed to remain married to his wife — who has already become a nun.
Harm Klueting, 61, was ordained by Archbishop Joachim Cardinal Meisner in a private ceremony at the city's seminary, the Cologne archdiocese said.
Pope Benedict XVI gave Klueting a special permission to remain married to his wife Edeltraud Klueting, who became a Catholic Carmelite nun in 2004.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's chief spokesman, said the exception is rare but there have been similar cases.
"It doesn't happen every day," he said.
Klueting and his wife were Lutherans when they married in 1977 and both served as Lutheran clerics before converting to Catholicism several years ago. They have two grown children.
The Cologne archdiocese said in a statement that the couple would not have to take the traditional vow of celibacy as long as they remain married — a highly unusual move since celibacy is normally a key requirement for Catholic priests.
Klueting and his family could not be reached for comment, and it was not clear whether they still lived together as a couple.
Lombardi said he didn't have any specific information about the Kluetings, including what the pope said about the case.
Klueting is a professor for historical theology at the University of Cologne and teaches Catholic theology at Fribourg University in Switzerland. From now on, he also will provide services as a spiritual counsellor for university students.
The archdiocese published pictures of the ordination ceremony showing Klueting with short grey hair and a beard, wearing a simple white priest vestment as he received his blessings from Meisner, who was wearing a festive yellow embroidered robe and a golden cardinal's hat.
In 1950, Pope Pius XII first allowed clergymen who had converted to Catholicism to remain married, the Cologne diocese said in its statement. However, each case has to be approved by the pope himself, the statement said, adding that in the past married priests also had been ordained in the German cities of Hamburg and Regensburg.
Last month, three former Anglican bishops were ordained as Catholic priests in London, becoming the first ex-bishops to take advantage of a new Vatican system designed to make it easier for Anglicans to embrace Roman Catholicism.
By Kirsten Grieshaber
Canadian Press
2/22/2011
BERLIN — In a rare move that needed the pope's approval, a Lutheran convert was ordained Tuesday as a Catholic priest in Germany and is being allowed to remain married to his wife — who has already become a nun.
Harm Klueting, 61, was ordained by Archbishop Joachim Cardinal Meisner in a private ceremony at the city's seminary, the Cologne archdiocese said.
Pope Benedict XVI gave Klueting a special permission to remain married to his wife Edeltraud Klueting, who became a Catholic Carmelite nun in 2004.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's chief spokesman, said the exception is rare but there have been similar cases.
"It doesn't happen every day," he said.
Klueting and his wife were Lutherans when they married in 1977 and both served as Lutheran clerics before converting to Catholicism several years ago. They have two grown children.
The Cologne archdiocese said in a statement that the couple would not have to take the traditional vow of celibacy as long as they remain married — a highly unusual move since celibacy is normally a key requirement for Catholic priests.
Klueting and his family could not be reached for comment, and it was not clear whether they still lived together as a couple.
Lombardi said he didn't have any specific information about the Kluetings, including what the pope said about the case.
Klueting is a professor for historical theology at the University of Cologne and teaches Catholic theology at Fribourg University in Switzerland. From now on, he also will provide services as a spiritual counsellor for university students.
The archdiocese published pictures of the ordination ceremony showing Klueting with short grey hair and a beard, wearing a simple white priest vestment as he received his blessings from Meisner, who was wearing a festive yellow embroidered robe and a golden cardinal's hat.
In 1950, Pope Pius XII first allowed clergymen who had converted to Catholicism to remain married, the Cologne diocese said in its statement. However, each case has to be approved by the pope himself, the statement said, adding that in the past married priests also had been ordained in the German cities of Hamburg and Regensburg.
Last month, three former Anglican bishops were ordained as Catholic priests in London, becoming the first ex-bishops to take advantage of a new Vatican system designed to make it easier for Anglicans to embrace Roman Catholicism.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Seven out of ten Flemish priests oppose celibacy, support women priests
La Croix
2/19/2011
Brussels (AFP) - Seven out of ten Flemish priests are against celibacy for priests, are for the access of women to the priesthood and don't consider themselves in line with the Belgian primate André-Joseph Léonard, according to a poll taken by De Standaard newspaper among priests in the north of the country.
According to this survey taken between the end of December and the middle of January among all the priests in Flanders (the north of Belgium) and which approximately one third of them answered, 73.3% think it would be better to end the celibacy requirement for priests.
Around 15.6% have the opposite opinion, and 11.1% didn't respond.
Moreover, 68.7% believe women should no longer be excluded from the priesthood, 14% oppose this and 17.3% didn't respond.
In addition, 69.1% don't think they are in line with the head of the Belgian church, Mgr André-Joseph Léonard, who has been in office since January 2010 and is thought to be very conservative. Moreover, 77.8% think the Belgian clergy is in a state of crisis.
The poll was conducted by the newspaper among 724 Flemish priests between December 24, 2010 and January 10, 2011, by letter or e-mail. Two hundred and forty eight agreed to participate in the poll.
The Belgian church, after those in the United States, Ireland and Germany, has been shaken for over six months by pedophilia scandals.
In April 2010, the Bishop of Bruges acknowledged having abused his nephew over a dozen years and resigned. Some 475 people have stated that they were abused by priests in their youth.
2/19/2011
Brussels (AFP) - Seven out of ten Flemish priests are against celibacy for priests, are for the access of women to the priesthood and don't consider themselves in line with the Belgian primate André-Joseph Léonard, according to a poll taken by De Standaard newspaper among priests in the north of the country.
According to this survey taken between the end of December and the middle of January among all the priests in Flanders (the north of Belgium) and which approximately one third of them answered, 73.3% think it would be better to end the celibacy requirement for priests.
Around 15.6% have the opposite opinion, and 11.1% didn't respond.
Moreover, 68.7% believe women should no longer be excluded from the priesthood, 14% oppose this and 17.3% didn't respond.
In addition, 69.1% don't think they are in line with the head of the Belgian church, Mgr André-Joseph Léonard, who has been in office since January 2010 and is thought to be very conservative. Moreover, 77.8% think the Belgian clergy is in a state of crisis.
The poll was conducted by the newspaper among 724 Flemish priests between December 24, 2010 and January 10, 2011, by letter or e-mail. Two hundred and forty eight agreed to participate in the poll.
The Belgian church, after those in the United States, Ireland and Germany, has been shaken for over six months by pedophilia scandals.
In April 2010, the Bishop of Bruges acknowledged having abused his nephew over a dozen years and resigned. Some 475 people have stated that they were abused by priests in their youth.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
A Valentine's Gift for a Married Priest in Argentina
by Maria Martinez (English translation by Rebel Girl)
La Voz
2/19/2011
Rio Tercero: This year's Valentine's Day will be a memorable one for the Vitalis. Adrian (43), who left the priesthood 14 years ago to marry Alejandra (41), showed her the dispensation letter he had received several days earlier from the Vatican that day.
They have been waiting almost ten years for this paper which will now allow them to get married in the Church. They will be able to do it now, accompanied by their two sons, Bruno (13) and Renzo (10).
The Pope doesn't sign dispensations frequently. In this case, it strips the former priest of the obligation of celibacy and reduces him to lay status. For the Church, the lay person is a Christian who performs his religious mission outside of the priestly area.
Dispensation is the formal process through which a priest regularizes his situation in the Church after his separation.
Vitali, like many others who have resigned from the priesthood, really remains a priest, since ordination is considered a "character sacrament" which, like baptism and confirmation, is never lost.
However, he is suspended from priestly ministry.
The Vitalis admit that the dispensation came late. "It's extemporaneous", says Adrian, and although he acknowledges that he had thought about rejecting it, he says he changed his mind after listening to his wife.
"It didn't add or take away anything from me. But for her, it's a way of vindicating our love as a couple," he remarks.
The love story. Alejandra says the love story surprised them while he was a priest in the Villa El Libertador neighborhood in Cordoba, and she was an active youth collaborator in the Church in tasks he performed in villas and jails.
"In that same church that at that moment judged me, criticized me, looked at me badly, I want to claim that we still love each other and that we are a family. I want to receive the sacrament of marriage, and moreover I don't feel represented by all the men who lead the Catholic Church, who, as men, are fallible, who make mistakes," she notes.
Alejandra states that she knows of former priests who were compelled to "marry in silence and in small chapels".
In the papal dispensation they showed, which seems a bit impersonal, they are asked, for example, to celebrate the wedding "cautiously and without pomp."
Adrian wonders "what the pomp would be." And his wife notes: "I don't know whether it will be with pomp or on a shoestring. I want everybody to see me happy and to no longer feel expelled from that church."
Why talk about it? Adrian admits the reason he is making this situation public: "I'm trying to inform the people of God that these things happen, things that nobody explains and generally nobody knows about. We aren't seeking anything else. I think it's news because there hasn't been room to tell it, nobody was aware, the Church doesn't inform the faithful."
While she's hurrying to prepare the mate, Alejandra adds: "Marriage is frustrating for the priest who leaves the priesthood. It's like a dark story, all boxed up. That's why I imagine a fiesta now with lots of people and with the happiness we couldn't experience before."
In the dispensation, other impositions on Adrian are that, on being suspended from the priesthood, "he won't be able to be a lector in the Church, or distribute the Eucharist, or lead or give theological classes in Catholic institutes."
Opening the debate. A chapter is closed for this couple with the arrival of the paper from the Vatican. But Alejandra implores that a more open debate be held so that the Church will discuss issues related to celibacy, in addition to its role in social policy.
Adrian states that the Federación Latinoamericana de Sacerdotes Católicos Casados [Latin American Federation of Catholic Married Priests] has 150,000 members in this situation. “Most of them don't ask for dispensation," he adds.
As an example, he cites the married priests' group in Cordoba, of which he is a member, in which only three of the almost 60 members have solicited it. "And I got it," he adds.
"I asked for it five years after leaving the priesthood. They make you feel like you're in exile. For all of us, there's a distancing from the Church. Most don't ask for it, because there's not a pastoral policy of accompanying those who leave the priestly role, either emotionally or in work-related matters."
La Voz
2/19/2011
Rio Tercero: This year's Valentine's Day will be a memorable one for the Vitalis. Adrian (43), who left the priesthood 14 years ago to marry Alejandra (41), showed her the dispensation letter he had received several days earlier from the Vatican that day.
They have been waiting almost ten years for this paper which will now allow them to get married in the Church. They will be able to do it now, accompanied by their two sons, Bruno (13) and Renzo (10).The Pope doesn't sign dispensations frequently. In this case, it strips the former priest of the obligation of celibacy and reduces him to lay status. For the Church, the lay person is a Christian who performs his religious mission outside of the priestly area.
Dispensation is the formal process through which a priest regularizes his situation in the Church after his separation.
Vitali, like many others who have resigned from the priesthood, really remains a priest, since ordination is considered a "character sacrament" which, like baptism and confirmation, is never lost.
However, he is suspended from priestly ministry.
The Vitalis admit that the dispensation came late. "It's extemporaneous", says Adrian, and although he acknowledges that he had thought about rejecting it, he says he changed his mind after listening to his wife.
"It didn't add or take away anything from me. But for her, it's a way of vindicating our love as a couple," he remarks.
The love story. Alejandra says the love story surprised them while he was a priest in the Villa El Libertador neighborhood in Cordoba, and she was an active youth collaborator in the Church in tasks he performed in villas and jails.
"In that same church that at that moment judged me, criticized me, looked at me badly, I want to claim that we still love each other and that we are a family. I want to receive the sacrament of marriage, and moreover I don't feel represented by all the men who lead the Catholic Church, who, as men, are fallible, who make mistakes," she notes.
Alejandra states that she knows of former priests who were compelled to "marry in silence and in small chapels".
In the papal dispensation they showed, which seems a bit impersonal, they are asked, for example, to celebrate the wedding "cautiously and without pomp."
Adrian wonders "what the pomp would be." And his wife notes: "I don't know whether it will be with pomp or on a shoestring. I want everybody to see me happy and to no longer feel expelled from that church."
Why talk about it? Adrian admits the reason he is making this situation public: "I'm trying to inform the people of God that these things happen, things that nobody explains and generally nobody knows about. We aren't seeking anything else. I think it's news because there hasn't been room to tell it, nobody was aware, the Church doesn't inform the faithful."
While she's hurrying to prepare the mate, Alejandra adds: "Marriage is frustrating for the priest who leaves the priesthood. It's like a dark story, all boxed up. That's why I imagine a fiesta now with lots of people and with the happiness we couldn't experience before."
In the dispensation, other impositions on Adrian are that, on being suspended from the priesthood, "he won't be able to be a lector in the Church, or distribute the Eucharist, or lead or give theological classes in Catholic institutes."
Opening the debate. A chapter is closed for this couple with the arrival of the paper from the Vatican. But Alejandra implores that a more open debate be held so that the Church will discuss issues related to celibacy, in addition to its role in social policy.
Adrian states that the Federación Latinoamericana de Sacerdotes Católicos Casados [Latin American Federation of Catholic Married Priests] has 150,000 members in this situation. “Most of them don't ask for dispensation," he adds.
As an example, he cites the married priests' group in Cordoba, of which he is a member, in which only three of the almost 60 members have solicited it. "And I got it," he adds.
"I asked for it five years after leaving the priesthood. They make you feel like you're in exile. For all of us, there's a distancing from the Church. Most don't ask for it, because there's not a pastoral policy of accompanying those who leave the priestly role, either emotionally or in work-related matters."
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Open Letter to the US Catholic Bishops
An Open Letter to the U.S. Catholic
Bishops on the Forthcoming Missal
ANTHONY RUFF | FEBRUARY 14, 2011 [America Magazine]
Your Eminences, Your Excellencies,
With a heavy heart, I have recently made a difficult decision concerning the new English missal. I have decided to withdraw from all my upcoming speaking engagements on the Roman Missal in dioceses across the United States. After talking with my confessor and much prayer, I have concluded that I cannot promote the new missal translation with integrity. I’m sure bishops want a speaker who can put the new missal in a positive light, and that would require me to say things I do not believe.
I love the Church, I love the sacred liturgy, I love chant in Latin and English, and I treasure being involved with all these as a monk and priest. It has been an honor to serve until recently as chairman of the music committee of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) that prepared all the chants for the new missal. But my involvement in that process, as well as my observation of the Holy See’s handling of scandal, has gradually opened my eyes to the deep problems in the structures of authority of our church.
The forthcoming missal is but a part of a larger pattern of top-down impositions by a central authority that does not consider itself accountable to the larger church. When I think of how secretive the translation process was, how little consultation was done with priests or laity, how the Holy See allowed a small group to hijack the translation at the final stage, how unsatisfactory the final text is, how this text was imposed on national conferences of bishops in violation of their legitimate episcopal authority, how much deception and mischief have marked this process—and then when I think of Our Lord’s teachings on service and love and unity…I weep.
I see a good deal of disillusionment with the Catholic Church among my friends and acquaintances. Some leave the Catholic Church out of conviction, some gradually drift away, some join other denominations, some remain Catholic with difficulty. My response is to stay in this church for life and do my best to serve her. This I hope to do by stating the truth as I see it, with charity and respect. I would be ready to participate in future liturgical projects under more favorable conditions.
I am sorry for the difficulties I am causing others by withdrawing, but I know this is the right thing to do. I will be praying for you and all leaders in our church.
Pax in Christo,
Fr. Anthony Ruff, O.S.B.
Anthony Ruff, O.S.B., is a Benedictine monk of Saint John’s Abbey and a professor of liturgy and Gregorian chant. He was on the committee which drafted the 2007 document “Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship” for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is founder of the National Catholic Youth Choir and blogs at Pray Tell. His letter above to the U.S. bishops is printed in its entirety.
Bishops on the Forthcoming Missal
ANTHONY RUFF | FEBRUARY 14, 2011 [America Magazine]
Your Eminences, Your Excellencies,
With a heavy heart, I have recently made a difficult decision concerning the new English missal. I have decided to withdraw from all my upcoming speaking engagements on the Roman Missal in dioceses across the United States. After talking with my confessor and much prayer, I have concluded that I cannot promote the new missal translation with integrity. I’m sure bishops want a speaker who can put the new missal in a positive light, and that would require me to say things I do not believe.
I love the Church, I love the sacred liturgy, I love chant in Latin and English, and I treasure being involved with all these as a monk and priest. It has been an honor to serve until recently as chairman of the music committee of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) that prepared all the chants for the new missal. But my involvement in that process, as well as my observation of the Holy See’s handling of scandal, has gradually opened my eyes to the deep problems in the structures of authority of our church.
The forthcoming missal is but a part of a larger pattern of top-down impositions by a central authority that does not consider itself accountable to the larger church. When I think of how secretive the translation process was, how little consultation was done with priests or laity, how the Holy See allowed a small group to hijack the translation at the final stage, how unsatisfactory the final text is, how this text was imposed on national conferences of bishops in violation of their legitimate episcopal authority, how much deception and mischief have marked this process—and then when I think of Our Lord’s teachings on service and love and unity…I weep.
I see a good deal of disillusionment with the Catholic Church among my friends and acquaintances. Some leave the Catholic Church out of conviction, some gradually drift away, some join other denominations, some remain Catholic with difficulty. My response is to stay in this church for life and do my best to serve her. This I hope to do by stating the truth as I see it, with charity and respect. I would be ready to participate in future liturgical projects under more favorable conditions.
I am sorry for the difficulties I am causing others by withdrawing, but I know this is the right thing to do. I will be praying for you and all leaders in our church.
Pax in Christo,
Fr. Anthony Ruff, O.S.B.
Anthony Ruff, O.S.B., is a Benedictine monk of Saint John’s Abbey and a professor of liturgy and Gregorian chant. He was on the committee which drafted the 2007 document “Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship” for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is founder of the National Catholic Youth Choir and blogs at Pray Tell. His letter above to the U.S. bishops is printed in its entirety.
Friday, February 04, 2011
Catholic theologians call for an end to compulsory celibacy
Deutsche-Welle
2/4/2011
Over one hundred Catholic theologians have called for radical reform of the Catholic Church, like the end to compulsory celibacy, in a bid to mend the damage caused by recent sex scandals.
Around a third of all Catholic theology professors at universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, on Friday called for reforms to the Catholic Church, according to a report in the German daily "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
"It looks like we struck a nerve," said Judith Könemann a professor from Münster and one of 144 signatories of the declaration.
The professors said that they no longer wanted to stay quiet in the face of child sex abuse scandals that came to light last year and plunged the Catholic Church into an unprecedented crisis.
The theologians want to start an open dialogue about the future of the Catholic Church.
"We have the responsibility, to contribute to a new start," the undersigned text said
They called for an end to compulsory celibacy, and for women to be allowed into the priesthood. The theologians also called for the Catholic laity to have more say in the selection of bishops.
There hasn't been a comparable revolt by theologians since 1989 when more than 220 academics signed the "Cologne Declaration", which protested against the authoritarian leadership style of the late Pope, John Paul II.
Author: Natalia Dannenberg (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Rob Turner
The full text of the memorandum and signatories is available online.
2/4/2011
Over one hundred Catholic theologians have called for radical reform of the Catholic Church, like the end to compulsory celibacy, in a bid to mend the damage caused by recent sex scandals.
Around a third of all Catholic theology professors at universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, on Friday called for reforms to the Catholic Church, according to a report in the German daily "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
"It looks like we struck a nerve," said Judith Könemann a professor from Münster and one of 144 signatories of the declaration.
The professors said that they no longer wanted to stay quiet in the face of child sex abuse scandals that came to light last year and plunged the Catholic Church into an unprecedented crisis.
The theologians want to start an open dialogue about the future of the Catholic Church.
"We have the responsibility, to contribute to a new start," the undersigned text said
They called for an end to compulsory celibacy, and for women to be allowed into the priesthood. The theologians also called for the Catholic laity to have more say in the selection of bishops.
There hasn't been a comparable revolt by theologians since 1989 when more than 220 academics signed the "Cologne Declaration", which protested against the authoritarian leadership style of the late Pope, John Paul II.
Author: Natalia Dannenberg (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Rob Turner
The full text of the memorandum and signatories is available online.
Friday, January 28, 2011
As a young priest Benedict XVI ‘called for the Church to investigate priestly celibacy’
By Anna Arco
Catholic HeraldFriday, 28 January 2011
As a young priest, Pope Benedict put his name to a document calling for the Church to seriously investigate the obligation to priestly celibacy.
Joseph Ratzinger was one of the signatories of a 1970 document calling for an examination of priestly celibacy which was signed by nine theologians.
The memorandum was drawn up in the face of a shortage of priests and other signatories included Karl Rahner and the future cardinals Karl Lehmann and Walter Kasper.
The German newspaper Die Sueddeutsche reported about the document today.
The memorandum, which was sent to the German bishops reads: “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.”
According to the Sueddeutsche, the document said if there were no such investigation, the bishops’ conference would “awaken 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”.
If there weren’t enough priests, the document said, then the “Church quite simply has a responsibility to take up certain modifications”.
The signatories who had drawn up the document acted as consultors to the German bishops’ conference in a commission for questions of Faith and Morals.
The document’s release coincides with a renewed debate on priestly celibacy after prominent German politicians called for the Church to change the teaching on priestly celibacy in the face of a serious lack of priests.
Catholic HeraldFriday, 28 January 2011
As a young priest, Pope Benedict put his name to a document calling for the Church to seriously investigate the obligation to priestly celibacy.
Joseph Ratzinger was one of the signatories of a 1970 document calling for an examination of priestly celibacy which was signed by nine theologians.
The memorandum was drawn up in the face of a shortage of priests and other signatories included Karl Rahner and the future cardinals Karl Lehmann and Walter Kasper.
The German newspaper Die Sueddeutsche reported about the document today.
The memorandum, which was sent to the German bishops reads: “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.”
According to the Sueddeutsche, the document said if there were no such investigation, the bishops’ conference would “awaken 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”.
If there weren’t enough priests, the document said, then the “Church quite simply has a responsibility to take up certain modifications”.
The signatories who had drawn up the document acted as consultors to the German bishops’ conference in a commission for questions of Faith and Morals.
The document’s release coincides with a renewed debate on priestly celibacy after prominent German politicians called for the Church to change the teaching on priestly celibacy in the face of a serious lack of priests.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
German Catholic politicians call for married priests
Reuters
Sat Jan 22, 2011 10:46am IST
BERLIN - Several prominent Roman Catholic politicians have urged German bishops to lobby their countryman Pope Benedict for a change in Church policy to ordain married men in response to a worsening shortage of priests.
The group, including the speaker of parliament and a cabinet member, backed up its call by quoting a 1970 essay by the present pope where he predicts the Church "will know new forms of ministry and ordain upstanding (lay) Christians as priests."
The German bishops estimate that two-thirds of all Catholic parishes in the country will not have their own priest by 2020. As in other countries, bishops have been merging parishes to have the dwindling clergy minister to ever larger areas.
Pope Benedict has firmly ruled out any reform of priestly celibacy, despite calls from some bishops -- especially in German-speaking countries -- to consider a change.
The politicians, whose appeal will be printed in Saturday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, argue that upholding celibacy is not as pressing as "the need of many priest-less parishes that are no longer able to celebrate Mass each Sunday".
"A reform of the Church (parish) structure alone cannot be the response to the priest shortage," writes the group including Bundestag speaker Norbert Lammert and Education Minister Annette Schavan from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
The politicians said the Church should ordain "proven men," pious married Catholics whose wives are beyond child-bearing age. If the Vatican continues rejecting this option, they said, the German Church should "consider a regional exception".
The appeal appeared to have little chance of success in the Vatican, which often urges Catholics to pray for more vocations to the priesthood, but it reflected a deep concern among German Catholic laymen about the priest shortage.
Among its eight signatories were also former state governors Bernhard Vogel, Erwin Teufel and Dieter Althaus.
German Catholicism was shaken by the sexual abuse scandals that swept through Europe last year. Some critics blame clerical abuse of minors on celibacy, a link the Church denies.
In the wake of the scandals, polls have found that about a quarter of German Catholics are considering leaving the Church.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by Tom Heneghan/Maria Golovnina)
Sat Jan 22, 2011 10:46am IST
BERLIN - Several prominent Roman Catholic politicians have urged German bishops to lobby their countryman Pope Benedict for a change in Church policy to ordain married men in response to a worsening shortage of priests.
The group, including the speaker of parliament and a cabinet member, backed up its call by quoting a 1970 essay by the present pope where he predicts the Church "will know new forms of ministry and ordain upstanding (lay) Christians as priests."
The German bishops estimate that two-thirds of all Catholic parishes in the country will not have their own priest by 2020. As in other countries, bishops have been merging parishes to have the dwindling clergy minister to ever larger areas.
Pope Benedict has firmly ruled out any reform of priestly celibacy, despite calls from some bishops -- especially in German-speaking countries -- to consider a change.
The politicians, whose appeal will be printed in Saturday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, argue that upholding celibacy is not as pressing as "the need of many priest-less parishes that are no longer able to celebrate Mass each Sunday".
"A reform of the Church (parish) structure alone cannot be the response to the priest shortage," writes the group including Bundestag speaker Norbert Lammert and Education Minister Annette Schavan from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
The politicians said the Church should ordain "proven men," pious married Catholics whose wives are beyond child-bearing age. If the Vatican continues rejecting this option, they said, the German Church should "consider a regional exception".
The appeal appeared to have little chance of success in the Vatican, which often urges Catholics to pray for more vocations to the priesthood, but it reflected a deep concern among German Catholic laymen about the priest shortage.
Among its eight signatories were also former state governors Bernhard Vogel, Erwin Teufel and Dieter Althaus.
German Catholicism was shaken by the sexual abuse scandals that swept through Europe last year. Some critics blame clerical abuse of minors on celibacy, a link the Church denies.
In the wake of the scandals, polls have found that about a quarter of German Catholics are considering leaving the Church.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by Tom Heneghan/Maria Golovnina)
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Culture Notes: "Femme de prêtre?"
A play about priests' women is being reprised next month in Lausanne, Switzerland. "Femme de prêtre?", written and directed by Jean Chollet, who writes under the name Jean Naguel and has a degree in theology, had its debut last summer at the Avignon Festival.The play deals with two love stories that come together. Fr. Matthieu (Christophe Gorlier) has been a priest for 20 years in the town of Limoux. Madeleine (Nathalie Pfeiffer), his assistant, helps him with charitable works while they carry on a secret romantic relationship on the side. Into this mix comes a young woman, Chloé (Caroline Guignard), who is supposed to be helping Madeleine put on a concert. Chloé provokes a spiritual crisis by confessing to Fr. Matthieu that she too is in love with a man who professes to be a priest. The play explores the theme of celibacy and secrecy.
In connection with the upcoming production, Bonne Nouvelle, the magazine of the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Vaud, ran the following article about "Sarah" [a pseudonym], a real life woman involved with a priest. We have translated it into English:
Sarah is 62. For many years, she has loved the same man. One peculiarity: she shares her life clandestinely with him, since he's a priest. She is not alone in this. The association that has been created around this issue has been in contact with 500 women for whom priestly celibacy has caused problems these last twenty years. The situations are quite diverse. The priest was able to leave his work to get married, the relationship broke up or, on the contrary, as in Sarah's case, still lasts. "Many priests have a woman, but they don't talk about it", Sarah avers.
"These love stories, you can't control them," she says. "When you discover that your lover is a priest, you're idealistic and you imagine that everything will change. But the years pass and you're still in the same place." At the cost of anonymity, the couple might spend some good times together, but the status of woman in the shadows weighs heavy. Sarah says she suffers because she isn't acknowledged by society. She has to be careful not to display more than friendship publicly. Someone might denounce them. "The hardest thing is not being able to live together," laments the woman who has been seeing a priest for a long time.
Does her priest friend feel guilty about living the life of a couple? "No, he can't preach about love without experiencing it himself," Sarah answers. "It has never hindered his work. On the contrary, my support helps him." Sarah believes most people are in favor of marriage for priests. "It's just the hierarchy that's blocking it. It's not normal that priests can't marry. Marriage doesn't take away from the quality of the work of pastors."
Sarah has never regretted her choice, in spite of the difficulties. "The more I move ahead, the more I think that maybe my mission is to further the debate about mandatory celibacy, to fight to abolish this obligation for priests. It's the women who will make things move. The priests don't dare to talk about it, for fear of losing their job."
"I believe deep down inside me that it's going to change someday, but I don't know if I'll see it. I think about the women who are younger than me, for whom I wish a less tumultuous life. It's already progress that our association can exist. That would have been unimaginable thirty years ago. It's important to feel that we're not alone."
Sarah doesn't have any children but says that she knows women in her situation who do. "If they don't create a scandal and remain discrete, they leave them alone," she says. "There's such a shortage of priests..."
The future? "I live from day to day. It's going to stay that way. Maybe it will be better when my friend retires. But he has to wait until he's 75, quite a few years yet..." Sarah doesn't hide her resentment towards her friend's hierarchy. "They know we exist but they won't acknowledge us. That's what's hardest to take. In the end, it's the priests' women who are the victims of the situation," she says.
NOTE: Organizations that support women involved with priests with which the producer of this play is collaborating include the Swiss group ZöFra and the French group Plein Jour.
Photos: Poster and a scene from the play with Fr. Matthieu and Chloe.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Padre Alberto publishes new book
You can already place an advance order for Fr. Alberto Cutie's version of the scandal that rocked the Archdiocese of Miami and Hispanic Catholicism throughout the Western hemisphere.In Dilemma: A Priest's Struggle with Faith and Love (Celebra, January 2011): "Father Albert Cutié tells about the devastating struggle between upholding his sacred promises as a priest and falling in love. Already conflicted with growing ideological differences with the Church, Cutié was forced to abruptly change his life the day that he was photographed on the beach, embracing the woman he would later call his wife.
Once a poster boy of the Roman Catholic Church -- loved and admired by millions -- Cutié found that he was not happy and able to live as a celibate priest, especially having to defend the number of positions he was no longer in agreement with. For years he kept his relationship a secret, while he soul searched and prayed for answers. The love that he deemed a blessing was bringing him closer to God, but further from the Church. In Dilemma, Cutié tells about breaking that promise, reigniting the very heated debate over mandatory celibacy for Catholic priests, beginning a new way of life and discovering a new way of serving God."
Remarkably, Padre Alberto is not leaking many details about his new book on his Web site nor has it gotten much buzz online. We got the tip from a conservative Catholic newspaper, The National Catholic Register (not to be confused with National Catholic Reporter)...
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Catholic > Lutheran > married Catholic priest
This pastoral provision priesthood candidate in Sacramento shows how a Catholic boy can become a married Catholic priest...
By Anita Creamer
Sacramento Bee
12/12/2010
Jeff Henry's long journey of faith has brought him full circle, not only back to the church in which he was baptized as an infant but also back to serving God. When he's ordained at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on June 4, he will become the Sacramento Catholic Diocese's first converted, married priest.
"This will be new for us," said Bishop Jaime Soto. "I announced it to our priests on Monday, and they're very excited. They were curious but very welcoming of the idea. I think it will be an adventure not just for Jeff and his wife but for us."
With Peg, his wife of 26 years, at his side, Henry called their grown daughter when he learned two weeks ago that the Vatican has approved his application to become a Roman Catholic priest.
"I said, 'Guess what? I'm going to be a father again,' " said Henry, 51, a former Lutheran minister who lives in Vacaville.
Under pastoral provision, Catholic canon law since 1980 has allowed former clergy from other faiths – primarily Episcopal – to be ordained into the priesthood. About 100 currently serve in this country, including a handful of former Lutherans and one converted Baptist. Few of them, according to Mary Gautier of Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, or CARA, are assigned as parish priests.
Should their wives die before they do, the church doesn't allow these converted priests to remarry.
"Knowing Jeff, even if he could remarry, he probably wouldn't," said Peg Henry, 50, a teacher.
"I'd end up in a monastery," said her husband.
Despite its 30-year history, pastoral provision remains a source of controversy in a church whose laity increasingly sees its traditional celibacy requirement as the main cause for a rapidly dwindling number of priests.
Why, some church observers ask, should married former clergy from other denominations be allowed to enter the Catholic priesthood when an estimated 25,000 American priests have had to leave the priesthood to marry?
"I think it's a deep wound, a very deep hurt," said Christine Schenk, a nun who serves as executive director of FutureChurch, a Cleveland-based nonprofit that advocates opening the priesthood beyond celibacy.
205 priests serve 900,000
In a sense, the numbers are stacked against the church. While the nation's population of Catholics has grown by 20 million since 1965, says CARA, the number of priests has dropped by one-third, to fewer than 40,000. The personnel shortage has forced the closure of more than 3,000 parishes in the past four years.
There simply aren't enough priests to go around. In the Sacramento diocese, for example, 205 priests serve a 20-county region of 900,000 Catholics.
And a large percentage of U.S. priests are in their 60s, edging into retirement.
"I'm always happy to see another addition to our clergy," said Ed Donaghy, 74, a retired Lincoln insurance professional who left the priesthood to marry in 1970. "We need them badly, so I applaud (Jeff Henry) for doing this. It's a big step.
"But the church has locked itself in a death grip to the concept that Roman Catholic priests must live a celibate spiritual life. It's a tragedy. I think of it as a management problem, a disastrous management problem."
Celibacy has been a church tenet for 900 years, but more than 70 percent of priests think mandatory celibacy should be re-examined, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Catholic advocacy group Call to Action earlier this decade.
Occasional announcements from the Vatican, such as the 2009 decision welcoming Anglicans and married Anglican priests into the Catholic Church, bring glimmers of hope to those who would like the church to allow its former priests to return after marriage.
"Every time the church allows a person from outside our tradition to serve, it's a harsh and sad reminder to those born Catholic that they're still second-class citizens," said Nicole Sotelo, a Call to Action spokeswoman based in Chicago.
"I know many men and women feel very hurt. They feel called by their fellow Catholics and God to serve, yet the church hierarchy rejects their call."
The church itself shows little inclination to bring these priests back into the clerical fold.
"They knew the rules," said Sacramento diocese spokesman Kevin Eckery. "They went through the traditional path to the priesthood. They knew the rules going in, and they had the option to make the decision then."
Study led to Catholic faith
Jeff Henry, the soon-to-be priest, lives a quiet life with his wife in a small condominium on the south side of Vacaville. He commutes every day to Vallejo, where students of St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School plan to call him Father Dean. They know him as their dean of students, after all.
"I'll introduce him to people as 'Father Dean Dad,' " said daughter Teresa Henry, a 21-year-old biology major at CSU Monterey Bay.
For Jeff Henry, baptized Catholic but raised in a military family that didn't attend church, the spiritual path he embarked on in evangelical groups at Oregon State University in Corvallis led him to leave his early career as a science teacher to become a Lutheran pastor.
By 2002, he was minister at Fairfield's Trinity Lutheran Church, leading a study group on early church leaders. The more he and his wife studied, the more they decided they belonged in the Catholic Church.
"I had Catholic friends who called us 'Catholic lite,' " said Peg Henry.
Her husband is a modest person, hesitant to talk much about himself or his faith, more comfortable in the realm of the analytical than the emotional.
"It's not my nature to share," Henry said. "I was teaching this study group, and before I knew it, I was thinking there was a depth and richness in the Catholic Church.
"There's a resonance in the church and the expression of life, and that's something that resonates in my soul. This is what it's about."
By 2005, Henry had returned to teaching high school and, with his family, he had converted. A friend, a Catholic priest, introduced him to then-Sacramento Bishop William Weigand.
"He said I should become a priest," said Henry. "I thought, 'How? I'm married.' But I started praying about it and thinking about it."
He also began a course of study at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, and with the guidance of Weigand and, in turn, Soto, he began the long application process for pastoral provision.
"Jeff chose this response to God's grace," said Soto. "We're very honored he'd choose to join us."
Others in the Sacramento diocese have tried, said Eckery, but the Vatican has rejected previous local applicants.
In January, Henry will be ordained as a transitional deacon, the last step before his June ordination as a priest. He will continue in his role as a high school dean.
There is no specific path for the wife of a Catholic priest, however.
"This whole situation is very unusual," said Peg Henry. "I'll take it step by step. Some of the experiences I had as a Lutheran minister's wife will transfer over."
Relatives seem more rattled by their conversion to Catholicism than by Henry's acceptance into the priesthood, he said.
"Eventually we want to be in a parish," he said.
The journey has already taken him in unexpected directions, into a world of possibilities denied to many others.
"Who knows where we'll be?" said his wife.
"God knows," he replied.
By Anita Creamer
Sacramento Bee
12/12/2010
Jeff Henry's long journey of faith has brought him full circle, not only back to the church in which he was baptized as an infant but also back to serving God. When he's ordained at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on June 4, he will become the Sacramento Catholic Diocese's first converted, married priest.
"This will be new for us," said Bishop Jaime Soto. "I announced it to our priests on Monday, and they're very excited. They were curious but very welcoming of the idea. I think it will be an adventure not just for Jeff and his wife but for us."
With Peg, his wife of 26 years, at his side, Henry called their grown daughter when he learned two weeks ago that the Vatican has approved his application to become a Roman Catholic priest.
"I said, 'Guess what? I'm going to be a father again,' " said Henry, 51, a former Lutheran minister who lives in Vacaville.
Under pastoral provision, Catholic canon law since 1980 has allowed former clergy from other faiths – primarily Episcopal – to be ordained into the priesthood. About 100 currently serve in this country, including a handful of former Lutherans and one converted Baptist. Few of them, according to Mary Gautier of Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, or CARA, are assigned as parish priests.
Should their wives die before they do, the church doesn't allow these converted priests to remarry.
"Knowing Jeff, even if he could remarry, he probably wouldn't," said Peg Henry, 50, a teacher.
"I'd end up in a monastery," said her husband.
Despite its 30-year history, pastoral provision remains a source of controversy in a church whose laity increasingly sees its traditional celibacy requirement as the main cause for a rapidly dwindling number of priests.
Why, some church observers ask, should married former clergy from other denominations be allowed to enter the Catholic priesthood when an estimated 25,000 American priests have had to leave the priesthood to marry?
"I think it's a deep wound, a very deep hurt," said Christine Schenk, a nun who serves as executive director of FutureChurch, a Cleveland-based nonprofit that advocates opening the priesthood beyond celibacy.
205 priests serve 900,000
In a sense, the numbers are stacked against the church. While the nation's population of Catholics has grown by 20 million since 1965, says CARA, the number of priests has dropped by one-third, to fewer than 40,000. The personnel shortage has forced the closure of more than 3,000 parishes in the past four years.
There simply aren't enough priests to go around. In the Sacramento diocese, for example, 205 priests serve a 20-county region of 900,000 Catholics.
And a large percentage of U.S. priests are in their 60s, edging into retirement.
"I'm always happy to see another addition to our clergy," said Ed Donaghy, 74, a retired Lincoln insurance professional who left the priesthood to marry in 1970. "We need them badly, so I applaud (Jeff Henry) for doing this. It's a big step.
"But the church has locked itself in a death grip to the concept that Roman Catholic priests must live a celibate spiritual life. It's a tragedy. I think of it as a management problem, a disastrous management problem."
Celibacy has been a church tenet for 900 years, but more than 70 percent of priests think mandatory celibacy should be re-examined, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Catholic advocacy group Call to Action earlier this decade.
Occasional announcements from the Vatican, such as the 2009 decision welcoming Anglicans and married Anglican priests into the Catholic Church, bring glimmers of hope to those who would like the church to allow its former priests to return after marriage.
"Every time the church allows a person from outside our tradition to serve, it's a harsh and sad reminder to those born Catholic that they're still second-class citizens," said Nicole Sotelo, a Call to Action spokeswoman based in Chicago.
"I know many men and women feel very hurt. They feel called by their fellow Catholics and God to serve, yet the church hierarchy rejects their call."
The church itself shows little inclination to bring these priests back into the clerical fold.
"They knew the rules," said Sacramento diocese spokesman Kevin Eckery. "They went through the traditional path to the priesthood. They knew the rules going in, and they had the option to make the decision then."
Study led to Catholic faith
Jeff Henry, the soon-to-be priest, lives a quiet life with his wife in a small condominium on the south side of Vacaville. He commutes every day to Vallejo, where students of St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School plan to call him Father Dean. They know him as their dean of students, after all.
"I'll introduce him to people as 'Father Dean Dad,' " said daughter Teresa Henry, a 21-year-old biology major at CSU Monterey Bay.
For Jeff Henry, baptized Catholic but raised in a military family that didn't attend church, the spiritual path he embarked on in evangelical groups at Oregon State University in Corvallis led him to leave his early career as a science teacher to become a Lutheran pastor.
By 2002, he was minister at Fairfield's Trinity Lutheran Church, leading a study group on early church leaders. The more he and his wife studied, the more they decided they belonged in the Catholic Church.
"I had Catholic friends who called us 'Catholic lite,' " said Peg Henry.
Her husband is a modest person, hesitant to talk much about himself or his faith, more comfortable in the realm of the analytical than the emotional.
"It's not my nature to share," Henry said. "I was teaching this study group, and before I knew it, I was thinking there was a depth and richness in the Catholic Church.
"There's a resonance in the church and the expression of life, and that's something that resonates in my soul. This is what it's about."
By 2005, Henry had returned to teaching high school and, with his family, he had converted. A friend, a Catholic priest, introduced him to then-Sacramento Bishop William Weigand.
"He said I should become a priest," said Henry. "I thought, 'How? I'm married.' But I started praying about it and thinking about it."
He also began a course of study at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, and with the guidance of Weigand and, in turn, Soto, he began the long application process for pastoral provision.
"Jeff chose this response to God's grace," said Soto. "We're very honored he'd choose to join us."
Others in the Sacramento diocese have tried, said Eckery, but the Vatican has rejected previous local applicants.
In January, Henry will be ordained as a transitional deacon, the last step before his June ordination as a priest. He will continue in his role as a high school dean.
There is no specific path for the wife of a Catholic priest, however.
"This whole situation is very unusual," said Peg Henry. "I'll take it step by step. Some of the experiences I had as a Lutheran minister's wife will transfer over."
Relatives seem more rattled by their conversion to Catholicism than by Henry's acceptance into the priesthood, he said.
"Eventually we want to be in a parish," he said.
The journey has already taken him in unexpected directions, into a world of possibilities denied to many others.
"Who knows where we'll be?" said his wife.
"God knows," he replied.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Culture Notes: La Mujer del Papa
What is the next Pope came from Spain? What if he came to the Vatican with a woman by his side? This is the premise of a new novel by theologian and writer Rafael Paz Fernandez, "La Mujer del Papa" (Lobo Sapiens, 2010). The book combines fiction with real issues of church reform, liberation theology, the celibacy debate, etc...Paz wrote the novel in part to protest the current treatment of women in the Church. In a recent interview, the author said: "The institutional Church is the biggest chauvinist club in the world. Women are still considered unequal and inferior to men, and their roles and functions are third place. The recent visit of the Pope to Barcelona was a case in point: four nuns cleaning the altar, while a thousand or so men in Roman vestments presided at the liturgy..." He added that the institutional Church is fearful of the true message of Christianity and only sees women as temptation, as sin, as those through whom evil entered the world.
And "Father" makes seven...
The pastoral provision strikes again in Billings, Montana.Rev. Barton Stevens, a Catholic deacon and former Evangelical Christian turned Episcopalian priest, took the final step toward what he calls his call to ministry.
"We're home. We've found where we fit," said Stevens.
A tale of finding a compatible church for family worship is not unusual, but the circumstances surrounding how Stevens became a Catholic priest are far from normal.
Under a provision enacted by Pope John Paul II in the early 1980's, the Roman Catholic Church allows former Episcopalian priests to become Catholic priests under the Roman Rite- pending the pope's consent, of course.
Stevens, who is married with five children, his kids ranging in age from 9- years-old to 4- months-old, is one of about one hundred priests in the United States ordained under those provisions.
He says the small fraternity keeps in contact with each other.
"Once word gets out that there's another one, I've gotten a couple phone calls from guys saying, 'Hi, I'm in Santa Fe, and I'm praying for you and I've got six kids', and I can hear them in the background," said Stevens.
Having support helps when you're one of few, but Stevens says the parishioners from the churches he will serve (Our Lady of Guadalupe, Little Flower and Holy Rosary) were overwhelmingly welcoming to his family.
"The people have been very, very nice and welcoming," said Stevens. "They are rather fond of my children. They're fond of me too, but they really like the children when they come to church."
Bishop Michael Warfel says although the use of the provision is rare, the Roman rite of the Catholic Church is one of few that still require celibacy from priests.
"In the Syrian Church actually the norm is married priests," said the bishop. "It's somewhat of a misconception that celibacy is the norm for the Catholic Church as a whole."
Warfel says Stevens will function as every other parish priest in the diocese, but must try to maintain the balance between the time needed to maintain parishioners and his family.
"Catholics expect a lot of their parish priests, and so, it'll be a challenge, but the primary way to live out his baptism is as a father and a husband," said Warfel.
Stevens says he's very aware of the challenge he faces, but is looking forward to working through them with his family and the church he now belongs to-no matter the reason he is being called "father".
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Married man to be ordained as priest
Meanwhile, the Pastoral Provision goes merrily marching along. I particularly like the comment by the Archdiocese that these guys are the exception. Seems to me like we're getting to the point where they're more like the norm than the exception...
By Annysa Johnson
Journal Sentinel
Nov. 5, 2010
If all goes as planned, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee will install its second married priest next spring with the ordination of Deacon Russell Arnett, a former Episcopal priest who converted to Catholicism in 2007.
Arnett, who was ordained a deacon by Archbishop Jerome Listecki in October, would be the first priest in the diocese to enter through the so-called pastoral provision, a 1980 Vatican provision that made it easier for Anglican clergy and laity to convert to Catholicism.
"Russ is a great candidate," said Father Donald Hying, rector of the archdiocese's St. Francis Seminary, who worked with Arnett in spiritual direction and formation.
"He's already serving in two parishes, and that will be a natural segue for him."
Arnett, 52, was first ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1999 and has been married for nine years. He would be the archdiocese's second married priest, following Father Michael Scheip, a former Lutheran minister who spent a year at St. Mary Catholic Church in Menomonee Falls beginning in 2008.
Arnett, who grew up as a Southern Baptist, said he was drawn by the theology and what he sees as the historical authenticity of the Catholic Church."There is a quote by John Henry Cardinal Newman that says, 'To go deep into the history of the Catholic Church is to cease being a Protestant.' And that's what I found," Arnett said. "I was drawn to the historic councils and teachings of the Catholic Church."
The archdiocese made it clear in a Q&A published on its website and the Catholic Herald newspaper that it is not softening the church's position on celibacy as a requirement for the priesthood.
"The ordination of a married man remains an exception and one that is granted only in very specific cases involving men who had already been called to ministry in another church," it said.
According to the Archdiocese, there are about 100 married priests in the United States who have converted from other Christian denominations, primarily Lutherans and Episcopalians.
The 1980 provision by Pope John Paul II followed requests by some Anglicans to convert to Catholicism after the Episcopal Church sanctioned the ordination of women in 1976.
Arnett graduated from Nashotah House Theological Seminary and has served Episcopal congregations in West Bend and Texas. He is currently the administrator at two Kenosha County parishes, St. Francis Xavier in Brighton and St. John the Baptist in Paris.
While studying for the Catholic priesthood, he spent three years at St. Jerome Parish in Oconomowoc, where he taught religion classes for children and adults and worked with the youth ministry program.
St. Jerome pastor Father John Yockey said his church will host Arnett's ordination on March 19.
"With the life history, personal gifts and ministerial experience he brings, Russ will be a special blessing for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee," he said.
By Annysa Johnson
Journal Sentinel
Nov. 5, 2010
If all goes as planned, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee will install its second married priest next spring with the ordination of Deacon Russell Arnett, a former Episcopal priest who converted to Catholicism in 2007.
Arnett, who was ordained a deacon by Archbishop Jerome Listecki in October, would be the first priest in the diocese to enter through the so-called pastoral provision, a 1980 Vatican provision that made it easier for Anglican clergy and laity to convert to Catholicism.
"Russ is a great candidate," said Father Donald Hying, rector of the archdiocese's St. Francis Seminary, who worked with Arnett in spiritual direction and formation.
"He's already serving in two parishes, and that will be a natural segue for him."
Arnett, 52, was first ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1999 and has been married for nine years. He would be the archdiocese's second married priest, following Father Michael Scheip, a former Lutheran minister who spent a year at St. Mary Catholic Church in Menomonee Falls beginning in 2008.
Arnett, who grew up as a Southern Baptist, said he was drawn by the theology and what he sees as the historical authenticity of the Catholic Church."There is a quote by John Henry Cardinal Newman that says, 'To go deep into the history of the Catholic Church is to cease being a Protestant.' And that's what I found," Arnett said. "I was drawn to the historic councils and teachings of the Catholic Church."
The archdiocese made it clear in a Q&A published on its website and the Catholic Herald newspaper that it is not softening the church's position on celibacy as a requirement for the priesthood.
"The ordination of a married man remains an exception and one that is granted only in very specific cases involving men who had already been called to ministry in another church," it said.
According to the Archdiocese, there are about 100 married priests in the United States who have converted from other Christian denominations, primarily Lutherans and Episcopalians.
The 1980 provision by Pope John Paul II followed requests by some Anglicans to convert to Catholicism after the Episcopal Church sanctioned the ordination of women in 1976.
Arnett graduated from Nashotah House Theological Seminary and has served Episcopal congregations in West Bend and Texas. He is currently the administrator at two Kenosha County parishes, St. Francis Xavier in Brighton and St. John the Baptist in Paris.
While studying for the Catholic priesthood, he spent three years at St. Jerome Parish in Oconomowoc, where he taught religion classes for children and adults and worked with the youth ministry program.
St. Jerome pastor Father John Yockey said his church will host Arnett's ordination on March 19.
"With the life history, personal gifts and ministerial experience he brings, Russ will be a special blessing for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee," he said.
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