Encouraging
and Discouraging Aspects of the Synod on the Eucharist
ENCOURAGING
1. The liturgical reforms of Vatican II were overwhelmingly affirmed.
Mass in the vernacular was seen as an important reason Eucharistic
communities remain vibrant. There was little to no interest in
a statement reaching out to the schismatic Lefeverites or emphasizing
the Tridentine Mass. Even though a proposal suggested that International
celebrations be celebrated in Latin and that seminarians and post
Vatican II Catholics learn Latin and Gregorian chant, these should
be understood as recognition of a sort of Catholic cultural heritage.
There was no notion that the Latin Mass should be reinstated...in
fact just the opposite. The final version of Proposition 2 described
the “goodness and validity” of the Second Vatican Council
liturgical reform, Two hundred and thirty-six fathers voted in
favor of this proposition, four abstained and only two voted against
it. The proposition that called for an expanded use of Latin at
Mass (No. 36) received the fewest favorable votes (170) and the
most negative votes ( 56) with 16 abstentions.
2. According to several veteran synod delegates and staffers,
this synod was more open than previous synods. Bishops were free
to say what they needed to say and did not feel railroaded into
pre ordained conclusions. This is much different from earlier synods.
However some complained that the curial bishops and Italian-speaking
prelates had more political leverage. Participants reported that
the Pope was listened attentively and was careful not to dominate
or impose his views on the assembly. He also did not feel the need
to attend every minute of the synod, apparently to assure that
taboo topics were not discussed, as his predecessor was wont to
do.
3. Benedict XVI's intervention effectively headed off a pointless
debate over Eucharist as communal meal and Eucharist as sacrifice.
Benedict, good theologian that he is, skillfully pointed out that
there is no conflict between these two understandings of Eucharist.
This saved a lot of needless bickering. It is also unfortunately
indicative of the impoverished theological understandings of some
bishops appointed by Benedict's predecessor.
4. Thanks to the intervention of not a few bishops from the developing
world, the priest shortage DID dominate the agenda. Only a year
ago, the Lineamenta document did not even mention the priest shortage.
Even the synod Instrumentum Laboris (working document) only listed
worldwide priest shortage statistics. FutureChurch and Call To
Action had a part to play in this since we did a pretty big lobbying
and media effort over the past three years to make it high profile...at
least in the US.
A related concern: Not one US bishop spoke publicly
about the priest shortage in the US or anywhere else. I have been
told by
a non-bishop synod delegate that bishops often don't like to bring
the priest shortage up because they are blamed for not doing enough
work or they would have seminiarians. Another veteran synod staffer
told me that the US bishops often take a lower profile because
the US is so big and powerful. (I have no idea what to make of
these observations...so take these for what they are worth!)
5. Four of twelve small groups submitted proposals to study the
possibility of married priests. NCR's John Allen interviewed former
USCCB president Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who said individual
Bishops' conferences could petition the Pope to begin study of
the so called “viri-probati” (tested married men) option.
This could be a “next step” in the need to open ordination
to all those called to it.
6. The nuance about politicians and Eucharist remained, recognizing
that justice and human dignity are also “life issues.” "There
is no eucharistic coherence when laws that go against the integral
good of the human person, against justice and against natural law
are promoted. One's private opinion and public opinion cannot be
separated, putting oneself in contrast with the law of God and
the teaching of the church, and this must also be considered with
respect to the reality of the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)." "In
applying this orientation, bishops should exercise the virtues
of firmness and prudence, taking account of concrete local situations. " (Proposition
46)
7. Social justice and ecological issues were prominently addressed "Christ's
sacrifice is a mystery of liberation that calls out to us. It is
in the commitment to transform unjust structures and to re-establish
the dignity of man, created in the likeness and image of God, that
the Eucharist assumes in life the significance it has in celebration.
This dynamic movement opens up to the world: it questions the process
of globalization which not infrequently increases the gap between
rich countries and poor countries, it denounces the political and
economic forces that dilapidate the earth's resources, it reiterates
the grave requirements of distributive justice in the face of inequalities
that cry out to heaven, it encourages Christians to commit themselves
and to work in political life and social activity. ... Those who
share in the Eucharist must commit themselves to creating peace
in our world, which is marked by violence, war and, especially
today, by terrorism, economic corruption and sexual exploitation.
The conditions for building true peace are the restoration of justice,
reconciliation and forgiveness." (Proposition 48)
DISCOURAGING
1. In the final analysis the bishops did not accept their responsibility
to make Eucharist available. By acknowledging that the priest shortage
keeps millions of Catholics from the Eucharist, and then essentially
deciding to do nothing new about it, one could conclude that our
bishops have abdicated their responsibility for providing Catholics
their Eucharistic birthright.
The bishops seem more fearful of
a married priesthood than of losing access to the Eucharist. This
will have a potentially tragic
effect on parishes that want to stay together but won't be able
to because they have no priest.
2. Curial cardinals still dominant. According to the 10/29/05
British Journal The Tablet: “The issue of language was not
exhausted in the endorsement of Vatican II liturgy. A synod insider
said it was “the general consensus of many English-speaking
fathers” that the use of Italian had dominated the meetings.
He said: “Some fathers also thought that the decision to
translate the propositions into Italian was a ploy to keep control
in Europe and with those bishops who had studied in Italy.” It
seems to have worked. “The [Curial] cardinals were obviously
afforded more deference than the bishops, and they were more frequently
called upon in the open sessions,” said one prelate. “I've
never been to a meeting where it was so obvious that the cardinals
bullied others and tried to call the shots,” said the head
of a religious order.
3. Many bishops exhibit impoverished theological understanding.
Again, according to the 10/29/05 British Journal The Tablet: “The
one-hour “open forum” was Pope Benedict XVI's attempt
to “get the bishops talking”, said one seasoned synod
participant. But, for a variety of reasons it was not a great success.
...But several theologian-experts reported that there seemed to
be a low level of theological understanding among many of the bishops “and
some of the cardinals”. At one point the Pope - who inherited
the already-planned synod from his predecessor - intervened and
offered “a very basic” lecture on the nature of the
Eucharist. “It was very good and very sound,” said
one theologian, “but it was Eucharist: the basics.”
4. Synod strategies for addressing priest shortage won't work
a. While vocation outreach and recruitment programs are good
things, restricting vocations to only the male celibate variety
won't
work. We have had 40 years of prayer and recruitment programs.
Over this time frame about 100,000 men left the active ministry
to marry and polls show Catholics belief in a married and women
priests have increased steadily to over 60% in both categories.
b. Suggestions that the church can simply redistribute priests
are naive at best. Europe and North America have the best priest
to parishioner ratios in the world. Many US Bishops are assiduously
recruiting priests from countries that have fewer priests than
we do.
c. Most Catholics are already quite aware of the Church's ideology
about the relationship between celibacy and the priesthood and
don't agree with it. Teaching it again will only raise more questions
about why we are accepting married priests who convert from other
denominations and why the Eastern rites allow married priests
but we don't.
5. Reasons for not considering married priests unconvincing and
insulting
a. Some bishops' objections that married priests have wives and
children and so it is harder to transfer them, limps dreadfully
in light of contemporary US realities. Corporate America frequently
requires families to move...and often across the country rather
than just to the other side of the diocese! Earth to Bishops...the
Church is made up of Families. We can only benefit from priests
who know what it is to try to raise a family too.
b. Cardinal Pell's statement that ordaining married men would
be "a departure from the practice of the Lord himself, bring
significant practical disadvantages to the work of the church" --
for example, added financial responsibilities -- "and weaken
the sign value of the priesthood," is shocking and insulting.
Jesus asked a married man, St. Peter, to lead the early Christian
community. The early church had both married (Peter, Prisca)
and celibate (Paul) leadership and it flourished.
c.Some bishops, notably Atlanta's Bishop Wilton Gregory keep
repeating the mantra that celibacy isn't the problem, the secular
culture
is the problem. They point to increased divorce rates as a
decline in willingness of secularized Catholics to make a commitment.
Gregory
has now twice repeated the inaccurate statement that Protestant
denominations with married and female ministers have shortages
too.
A December 2003 study by Purdue's professor James Davidson
published in America refuted Gregory's claims. Davidson found
that between
1981 and 2001 all denominations except Catholicism registered
increases in ministry. Catholic priests declined by 22%. Davidson
looked
at two other parameters, the numbers of ministers/priests per
Church and numbers of congregants per minister/priest. In both
parameters
on the Catholic Church showed a decline in clergy per church
and a significant increase in numbers of Catholics per priest.
This
caused Davidson to conclude that these changes were unique to
the Catholic Church and likely due to internal issues in the
Church
itself. They were unlikely to be due to cultural factors which
would equally affect all denominations.
6. The absence of women's voices impoverished the synod Only 14
women attended the synod as auditors and they had no voice. It
would have been good for synod fathers to hear from some of the
tens of thousands of “mulierae probatae” who are minisiering
in priestless parishes and communities. For the U.S. Church, a
silver lining of the bishops' balking on “viri probat”i
is that we can't really deal with solutions to the priest shortage
without talking about women's ministerial roles as well. If we
rush headlong in the “viri probati” direction we risk
escalating tensions between women leaders in the church who are
staffing and administering parishes.
7. Post synod media spin by conservative Cardinals sought to close
discussion (but failed) Again, quoting the 10/29/05 British Journal
The Tablet: “Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's top ecumenist,
told Rome's Foreign Press Club this week that “in certain
cases” it might be better to remain “open to the hypothesis” of
married priests. And he also suggested that other issues - Communion
for divorced and remarried Catholics or even non-Catholics - might
still be open questions. More than 50 bishops did not vote in favor
of Proposition 40, which supported the Communion ban for the former,
and 23 did not support Proposition 41, which did the same for the
latter. ...two reactions to the same synod: Cardinals Pell and
Scola jubilant that the bishops had maintained the status quo on
all the pastoral and theological items; Cardinal Kasper happy that
new issues and ideas were brought to the table and required more
reflection.”
|
