c. 2003 Religion News Service
Top Catholic Bishop Skeptical on Changing Celibacy Rule
(RNS) The nation’s top Catholic bishop, responding to Milwaukee priests who want to discuss optional celibacy, said he is not convinced that allowing married clergy would boost the number of priests.
Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan that celibacy is a “grace that enriches the church.”
“Indeed, the vitality of the church in the United States today owes much to the tens of thousands of priests who in previous generations were and today are faithful to their commitment to chaste celibacy and who have found it to be a powerful spiritual means to draw closer to God,” Gregory wrote on Thursday (Sept. 4).
Gregory was responding to an Aug. 19 petition from more than 160 Milwaukee priests who said mandatory celibacy kept many qualified men out of the priesthood. The priests said the shortage of priests was denying many Catholics access to church sacraments, and asked for a discussion on the policy.
Since 1965, the number of priests in the United States has dropped from 58,000 to 43,000, while the number of parishes without a full-time priest has grown from 549 to 3,040.
Gregory pointed to Jewish and mainline Protestant churches that allow married clergy also have seen a clergy shortage. “It is by no means clear that, as their (the priests’) letter states, a change in the discipline of clerical celibacy would necessarily bring about an increase in the numbers of candidates for priesthood,” Gregory wrote.
In response, Dolan _ head of the bishops’ priestly life committee _ said priests should be renewing their commitment to celibacy, not questioning it.
“It is not some stodgy Vatican `policy’ that has been `imposed,’ but a gift savored for millennia,” Dolan wrote in his archdiocesan newspaper. “I wholeheartedly support it, not because I’m `supposed to,’ or because I reluctantly `have to,’ but because I want to, and because I sincerely and enthusiastically believe it is a genuine gift to the church and her priests.”
The Rev. Joe Aufdermauer of St. Matthias Church in Milwaukee, who helped circulate the letter to Gregory, was not immediately available for comment.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Holy Land Christians: Get Rid of the `Separation Wall’
JERUSALEM (RNS) The heads of the Christian churches in the Holy Land are appealing to public figures and private citizens around the world to pressure Israel to halt the construction of a “separation wall” that, once completed, will separate the West Bank from Israel.
In a joint letter being circulated to journalists, government officials and church faithful, the nine leaders from Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches, said the barrier, started approximately 18 months ago, “constitutes a grave obstacle” that will lead to “a feeling of isolation” on the part of both Israelis and Palestinians.
If the wall is extended to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, as planned, it “will be devastating to the Christian community,” the church leaders said. “The community will be isolated following the deprivation of access to land and the freedom of movement.”
They warned that visits by pilgrims, which have dwindled to a trickle since the start of the Palestinian uprising three years ago, “will be further discouraged.”
The leaders, who represent the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox churches, expressed their abhorrence of violence, whoever the perpetrator, but singled out Israel as the source of the ongoing violence between Jews and Arabs.
The church officials urged “peace loving peoples around the world” to contact their political and religious leaders. Some of the letter’s recipients said they have contacted President Bush on the matter.
Daniel Seaman, an Israeli government spokesman, defended Israel’s right to construct the barrier, which he called “a fence, not a wall.”
Seaman told RNS that Israel decided to build a barrier after Palestinian militants crossed into Israel and committed terrorist attacks.
“These (church) leaders should be directing their criticism toward the Palestinian murderers and not toward their Israeli victims,” the spokesman said.
Seaman charged that the Palestinian Authority has done nothing to curb violence toward Jewish pilgrims wishing to visit Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and other holy sites under Palestinian control.
“Freedom of movement doesn’t only apply to Muslims and Christians,” Seaman said.
_ Michele Chabin
WCC Statement on Disabled Urges Full Inclusion
(RNS) Churches should work for full inclusion of people with disabilities, a new statement prepared for the World Council of Churches declares.
“Responding to and fully including people with disabilities is not an option for the churches of Christ,” reads the statement, “A Church of All and for All.”
“It is the church’s defining characteristic.”
The 18-page report was prepared by the Ecumenical Disabilities Advocates Network, which was founded at the council’s 1998 assembly. Conducted with the WCC’s Faith and Order Commission, it reflects the voices of disabled people and those who work with and care for them across the globe.
The statement made theological connections between the crucifixion of Christ and the situations of the disabled in the church.
“… the physical reality was that in his bodily existence, Christ was abused, disabled, and put to death,” it reads. “Some aspects of God’s image in Christ can only be reflected in the church as the body of Christ by the full inclusion and honoring of those who have bodies that are likewise impaired.”
The writers declared that individuals with disabilities and their relatives and caregivers are “accidental experts” who can share their experiences to help others in their church and community.
“We have met God in that empty darkness, where we realized we were no longer `in control’ and learned to rely on God’s presence and care,” they said.
Although the statement seeks a different mindset about disability _ such as not considering it God’s punishment _ it also addresses the need for physical changes in sanctuaries _ from acoustical aids to proper areas for wheelchairs to the incorporation of non-verbal elements of worship, such as dance and drama.
The World Council of Churches Central Committee, whose meeting ended Sept. 2 in Geneva, reaffirmed the council’s commitment to the work of the Ecumenical Disabilities Advocates Network.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Paul Hill, Murderer of Abortion Doctor, Executed in Prison
(RNS) Paul Hill, the anti-abortionist who murdered an abortion doctor and his bodyguard outside a Florida clinic in 1994, was executed Wednesday (Sept. 3).
The first killer of an abortion doctor in the nation to be executed, Hill was condemned for the shooting deaths of Dr. John Bayard Britton and James Barrett, Britton’s unarmed bodyguard, in Pensacola, Fla.
Hill’s death by lethal injection at Florida State Prison prompted a small group of supporters to stand outside the prison while others farther away said his actions did not advance the cause against abortion, the Associated Press reported.
“We think that unborn children should be protected and it should be through law,” said Sheila Hopkins, a spokeswoman for the Florida Catholic Conference.
“We definitely reject his statement that it was justifiable homicide.”
But Drew Heiss, an abortion protester from Milwaukee who stood across the road from the prison in Starke, Fla., said the murders by Hill were appropriate.
“I think it’s legitimate to consider,” Heiss said. “I wouldn’t condemn someone if they were called to do it.”
Hill, 49, used his last statement to encourage others to act in the way he did.
“If you believe abortion is a lethal force, you should oppose the force and do what you have to do to stop it,” he said. “May God help you to protect the unborn as you would want to be protected.”
Liverpool Bishop: Empower Women to Hear Confession, Anoint Sick
LONDON (RNS) The Roman Catholic bishop of Liverpool, England, has suggested that lay women might be empowered to hear confessions and administer the anointing of the sick.
Bishop Vincent Malone, auxiliary bishop of Liverpool, made his comments in his contribution to a book on women and ministry that grew out of a dialogue between the bishops’ conference of England and Wales and the National Board of Catholic Women.
Pointing out that the administration of the sacraments was not restricted to the clergy _ in marriage the ministers of the sacrament are the bride and groom, and baptism can validly be administered by a lay person _ Malone said in the case of two other sacraments _ reconciliation, or confession, and anointing the sick _ the reason for lay people being prohibited from administering them “may not be immediately clear.”
“Are these prohibitions of the essence of Catholic teaching, or merely the currently received practice?” he asked. He asked whether the church might think of the possibility a lay man or woman attending a sick person “could not only pray with them and pray over them but could pray the church’s most solemn prayers over them with sacramental anointing.”
Similarly, he said that with the sacrament of reconciliation the church might want to consider whether a lay person might not be seen by the church as the authorized speaker of the forgiveness which in reality comes from God alone.
“It is not difficult to conceive of circumstances in which a female minister could more appropriately than a man be the receiver of the humble confession that opens a soul to hear the glad words of the Lord’s forgiveness,” the bishop wrote.
He said his ideas “are not intended as an incitement to rebellion: rather they are a quiet reflection on what is meant by healing priesthood.”
He acknowledged that Pope John Paul II had ruled the ordination of women “is not an area for creative exploration _ which is not to say that it is unsuitable for humble reflection.” And, he added, John Paul’s ruling did not apply to “other areas which might yield surprising fruits.”
_ Robert Nowell
Quote of the Day: Len Short, Brand Marketing Expert at America Online
(RNS) “They’re lovable. … Who hates monks?”
_ Len Short, executive vice president for brand marketing at America Online in Dulles, Va. He was quoted by The New York Times about the appeal of monks in commercials.
DEA END RNS
