NEWS STORY: British priests express concern over `restrictive’ Vatican policies

c. 1998 Religion News Service BIRMINGHAM, England _ Roman Catholic priests in Britain have expressed concern over the increasingly restrictive stance on doctrinal and pastoral matters being taken by the Vatican. In a letter which is being sent to the Symposium of European Priests, scheduled to meet Sept. 21-28 in Strasbourg, France, the National Conference […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

BIRMINGHAM, England _ Roman Catholic priests in Britain have expressed concern over the increasingly restrictive stance on doctrinal and pastoral matters being taken by the Vatican.

In a letter which is being sent to the Symposium of European Priests, scheduled to meet Sept. 21-28 in Strasbourg, France, the National Conference of Priests of England and Wales said they found a”growing anxiety”among the laity about the”increasingly restrictive and sanction-based directives”coming from the Holy See and the Roman Curia _ an anxiety, they said, they also shared.


A copy of the letter was made public Sept. 10. It was also sent to Archbishop Pablo Puente, the papal nuncio in London and to leaders of the British bishops conference.”Recent attempts to foreclose on some theological discussions which are at present unresolved alarm us and are even a cause of scandal,”the letter said.”Efforts to silence and even to outlaw discussion are proving grave impediments to people accepting the credibility of the church as institution.” In recent years the Vatican has demanded an end to all discussion of the ordination of women, laid down new rules restricting doctrinal discussion and dissent by theologians and taken action against some priests, parishes and theologians who express views contrary to the Vatican’s conservative interpretation of doctrine.

Most recently, the Vatican acted to remove a liberal priest from his parish in Rochester, N.Y., because of the parish’s inclusive and ecumenical programs, including a broader liturgical role for women than current Vatican norms allow.

The priests quoted a three-year-old statement by the English and Welsh bishops in which the bishops acknowledged there are in the church”people who feel hurt or angry or excluded”and that”we need to become a church more conscious of our own need for repentance”_ not least because”we find ourselves sometimes excluding people whom Christ may well have invited into his company”.

In this context, said the priests,”many of our lay people are totally puzzled by the attitude of fear that seems to underlie certain statements from Rome.” They noted, too, that”people no longer expect simple authoritative decisions from a church leadership which does not appear to take their understanding into account”.

The letter was endorsed by the conference on a 38-8 vote, with 11 abstentions _ precisely the two-thirds majority of those present and voting needed for it to be adopted as a conference resolution.

But by a 27-24 vote, with six abstentions, the conference voted down a call for a review of the conditions for ordination to the priesthood which would consider both the possibility of a married clergy alongside the celibate priesthood and also the re-admission to the ministry of those who had left and were now married.

In the latter action, the priests reversed themselves from the position of last year’s conference, which adopted a resolution calling for examination of the possibility of the re-admission of married priests into the ministry as part of the millennium jubilee, and of previous conferences which, since the first meeting in 1970, have consistently called for the ordination of married men.


The conference also amended its constitution to ensure that among delegates to future conferences would be two representatives of the handful of priests of African and Asian descent working in England and Wales.

DEA END NOWELL

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