Volume 12 Number I FellowshiQ. of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

Catholic Scholarship, God's Glory and Sanctity

I'm writing this immediately after our annual convention in Boston, and I chose the title given above as a way of introducingthe theme that willbe focal in our conventionfor next year. But before saying something about next year's meeting Iwant to report brieflyon the one recently concluded in Boston. It was, in my opinion, an exceptionally good one. Itwas, Ithink, by far the best attended that we ever had, with approximately one hundred and fiftyFellowship members present for the banquet on Saturday evening, when the special Cardinal O'BoyleAward for defense of the faith was given to John Ford, S.J., and the Cardinal Wright Award was given to John Harvey, O.S.F.S., two great priest scholars who embody the ideals of the Fellowship. Cardinal Law honored us with his presence at the banquet and on the next morningwas the principalcelebrant and homilistat ~ass. Iwant to thank all the speakers at the Convention for the care they took to prepare first rate papers for presentation and discussion during the meeting. Ialso want to thank Msgr. Clark, Terry Archer, and many others who Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

worked so hard to prepare for the convention. those members of the Fellowshipwho are not by AndfinallyIwant to thank allthose who were able profession theologians or philosophers but to cometo Bostonfor the great contributions rather social scientists, humanists, scientists, they made to its success. I knowthat many other lawyers and doctors. They suggested that the members of the Fellowship would have liked to workshops on Friday afternoon be given over to take part but were not, unfortunately, able to do these areas of scholarly inquiry and that topics so. As soon as possible we will make the taken up in them not be related of necessity to proceedings available so that all members will the general theme of the convention. Rather, have a chance to read the many splendid papers they should be so designed as to allow that weregiven. Fellowship members in these disciplines to focus on some important on-going work in their own disciplines, approached, of course, from the Duringthe convention the Board met to perspective of a scholar who sees his scholarly determine the theme for next year's meeting. It work as a commitment of his intelligence to the willbe "Recovering the Sacred", and itwillbe an faith. Philosophers and theologians among the effort to explore, in a scholarly way, the biblical, membership could learn a lot by sitting in on liturgical,and theological sources of our lives as such workshops, one would think, and Catholics, called to give glory to God and to workshops of this kind will provide an participate in the redeeming work of HisSon and opportunity for members in these disciplines, our brother. And to do so by carrying out particularlythose beginning their work and under responsibly and faithfullyour work as scholars, the pressure to come up with publications, a priests, religious, husbands and wives, or as chance to do some work that could be used in unmarried men and women in a worldthat yearns some way to help their growth in their chosen for the go~odnews mediated to us by our fields of study. This seems like a good idea to Catholic faith. Inthe months ahead a lot of work me, and in the months ahead, with the help of will have to be done to prepare for next year's the Board of Directors, Iwilldo what I can to meet meeting, to identifymore specific topics relating this need. to the general theme and the persons who could best articulate these topics in well-prepared I urge all members to continue papers. efforts to interest colleagues, particularly youngerones, to becomemembersandhelpus I also think that there should be a in our efforts to give God glory and participate in change somewhat in the format of the the redemptive work of Christ by hard scholarly convention for next year. Right after the work. convention Regis Foster and John Guegen met with me to suggest a format that might make William E. May attendance at the convention more attractive for

2 Volume 12. Number 1 Fellowship of Catholic ~oLars Newsletter December 1988

":..Causa Finita Est?"

A keynote of the proceedings of the The NDoctrinalResponsibilityNstatement 37th General Meeting of the National occasioned an unprecedented and sudden Conference of Catholic Bishops seemed to be a Roman intervention. Bishop lessard made his dissonance between rhetoric and reality. report on Monday morning, the first substantive item of business for the meeting, and revealed The tension between Rome and the stunning news that Archbishop Bovone, America was palpable from the very substance of Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for the the issues presented on the agenda. The chief Doctrine of the Faith, had sent, only days before, items concerned an American statement on the a five-page letter stating certain objections to the procedures whereby bishops would carry out draft. In light of those objections, Bishop their responsibility to enforce the integrity of lessard's committee had decided to defer Catholic teaching; and a Roman draft on the discussion of the document until after a meeting theological and juridical nature of episcopal between representatives of the Congregation conferences, whose central thesis was that and of the American hierarchy. conferences as such do not possess a munus maQisterii. Rome issued a sudden non placet to Archbishop Bovone's objections the American document while the U.S. bishops centered on the third part of the document fired back a non placet of their own to the Roman which Nseemsto place Bishops and Theologians document. on the same level: Archbishop Bovone buttressed this contention with numerous quotations from the document, concluding that it The inference to be drawn from these failed to make clear the ultimate responsibility of facts is that Rome and America are not thinking in bishops for the integrity of Catholic teaching. harmony. Yet, like a drumbeat, the presentations of the main spokesmen for the The news of this last-minute intervention American viewpoint were studded with produced visible consternation within the ranks protestations of loyalty, gratitude and agreement of the dominant faction of the American with the Holy See. It seemed almost as if any hierarchy. Cardinal Bernardin rose and, after the verbal profession of fidelity to Rome was the obligatory professions of fealty to Rome, signal for a substantive disagreement. complained about the timing of the Roman intervention, suggesting that this mode of action is NconfrontationalN. In his opening address, Conference president Archbishop John May, referring to Cardinal O'Connor offered another Pope John Paul's comments to bishops during their ad limina visits, said, "What has impressed interpretation, noting that the Congregation is understaffed because of budgetary difficulties. me time and again is the convergence between his aspirations and the initiatives of our Archbishop May, in a reply whose irony was unmistakable, agreed with Cardinal O'Connor conference both past and present. I believe that that the NlimitationsNof the Congregation were the words of praise and challenge which Pope apparent, but contended that the American John Paul has spoken find a resounding echo in bishops also had limited staff assistance, while the ongoing work of our conference What is theological resources are certainly not in short even more significant and deeply reassuring is supply in Rome. Stating that the Congregation that he has indicated we are moving in the right direction: had the document for N13 monthsN, he seconded Cardinal Bernardin's objection to the timing of the Roman intervention. Bishop lessard, in presenting his report from the Committee on Doctrine on the document NDoctrinal ResponsibilityN; Bishop While the resentment that bubbled to Malone, in presenting the report of his ad hoc the surface might really have been rooted in the committee of former Conference presidents, substance of Archbishops Bovone's comments, rejecting the Vatican draft on episcopal the expression of that resentment was limited to conferences; and Cardinal Bernardin, in several complaints about timing, and Archbishop May's interventions from the floor, all reiterated the N13monthsN stood as the figure of record on theme of unity and harmony with the Holy See, how long it took the Congregation to make its even as their actions expressed something less views known. In an interview following the than perfect harmony. 3 Volume 12 Number 1 Fello~ of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

session, however, Archbishop Kellyof Louisville tends to equate bishops and theologians acknowledged that the Congregation had appears to inspire the whole orientation of the received the final draft of the statement only a document." Experience shows how dangerous few weeks before. In his presentation of the even a single ambiguity can be in any effort to Committee report, Bishop Lessard had correcttheologicalerror. mentioned that the bishops had received the revised draft in April, and several prominent As a consequence of the dramatic Catholic scholars had expressed concern that intervention of the Congregation, a delegation the revised draft had been treated as such a of American bishops - stillto be named - willgo closely guarded secret that copies were not to Rome early next year for a consultation with available for reviewand comment untiljust a few the Congregation to settle these difficulties. It is weeks prior to the bishops' meeting. expected that a revised version of the statement willbe submitted to the bishops for approval at Timing, however, is really a peripheral their June 1989meeting. issue. The basic question which appears to divide the dominant American element from the The other great controversy raised in Congregation is the matter of episcopal this meeting was the response of the American authority. A year ago, this was the question hierarchy to the draft guidelines on episcopal Archbishop Stafford raised in speaking out conferences issued early this year by the against an earlier version ofthe same document. Vatican. The precise functions of episcopal His position was rejected by a close vote of 92 to conferences had been left vague inthe Vatican II 80 last year, and but for the lack of a quorum, it is Decree on Bishops, and the most important possible that the earlier version of this statement unanswered question concerns the teaching might have been approved by the bishops at authority of conferences. Cardinal Ratzinger, in that time. the interviews published in this country as The Ratzinqer Report, had put forward the view that Since then, more than 70 modifications conferences as such have no teaching authority, have been made in the text, and it is not and this viewpoint is reflected in the draft unreasonable to assume that the Congregation guidelines. It is a viewwith which the majority of was expecting the American hierarchy to correct American bishops appear to disagree. its own theological errors. Only when it was evident that such correction would not come about without Roman intervention did The drafting of the American response Archbishop Bovone step into the situation. His to these guidelines had been assigned to a letter reiterates the main objections raised by committee of former presidents of the Archbishop Stafford a year ago. Conference, and its response, released shortly before the meeting, was remarkably harsh in In his presentation of the committee tone. Over the weekend before the meeting of report, with its revelation of the Roman the Conference, Cardinal Bernardin and intervention, Bishop Lessard tried to downplay Archbishop Quinn revised the draft, softening its the different perspectives of Rome and America, language in many places. Nonetheless, even stating that the objections mentioned in the softened Bernardin/Quinn document reads Archbishop Bovone's letter had already been likea professor's explanation to a particularlydull considered and dealt with by the drafters of the student as to why he received a failinggrade. statement. Archbishop Lipscomb, a member of the Doctrine Committee, attempted tc}make the Two things must be said in defense of same point in the press briefing following that the American response. First, the theological session. He said that the letter of Bovone was issue under consideration is, at present, an based on a "misrepresentationU(presumably, he open one and good arguments can be made on meant to say "misunderstandingU) of the third either side. Second, the Vatican draft is far from part of the statement, and that the statement did a finished product and, even in the eyes of not even touch on questions of "dissent" from theologians who support its major contentions, settled theological questions. He and bishop is not well argued. The most sympathetic Lessard attempted to minimizethe substantive commentator would have some constructive problems with the document, suggesting that criticism to offer on this draft, and the critic who the criticismfrom Rome was essentially stylistic. disagrees with the basic premises of the draft Yet Archbishop Bovone's letter cited 17specific would find broad latitude for arguing that the points at which the text suggests that the Instrumentum Laboris is defective. authority of bishops is not given adequate strength, and declares that "an attitude which While it appears that the American

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. -' Volume 12 Number 1 FeliowshiQ of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

bishops are not of one mind on the basic Cardinal Bernardin rose five times to rebut points theological point of the teaching authority of made by bishops who supported it. Cardinal conferences, the debate at the meeting was O'Connor proposed compromise language taken up more with the tone of the response. softening further the tone of the When debate on the action item came up on recommendations made in the paragraph under Wednesday morning, one amendment on the discussion, and the chair ruled that agenda was a substitute response prepared by consideration of the O'Connor amendment had Archbishop Levada. The Levada substitute was been dealt with. finely balanced, avoiding any firm conclusion on the teaching authority issue, commending The debate on the Szoka motion had positive elements in the Vatican draft and, in its less to do with theology than with a question of

~ criticism, avoiding any appearance of attitude. Those who supported it appeared to condescension. be arguing that the American bishops should not presume to give formal instruction to the Vatican This was scheduled to be the last on how to develop documents, while the amendment considered. The debate opponents seemed to consider such instruction proceeded with the adoption or rejection of a necessary corrective to defective Vatican several minor amendments, until a cluster of procedures. When the question was finally amendments relating to the final paragraphs of called, the voice vote showed a division too the response came up for consideration. The close to call. A standing vote was taken, after committee recommended acceptance of an which Archbishop May announced that the amendment offered by Cardinal O'Connor, "nays" appeared to have a majority. Bishop John striking the phrase, USchema non placet (the Nolan requested a count, and a second standing draft is not suitable),U and an amendment by vote was taken, yielding the result of a slim 5- Bishop Alfred Hughes which modified a vote plurality for the Unays". Bishop Ahearn then sentence relating to recommendations for requested a ballot on the question, a procedure developing an alternative draft, and eliminated that necessitated a break while the votes were two sentences recommending that the names of tallied. consultants be made public and that those consultants be urged to Ustudythe matter with During that break, a bishop said to me the greatest objectivity possible: that the videotape of the standing vote which had occurred moments before would be Ua Other amendments dealing with the perfect picture of this Conference. The ones same section of the document had been offered who stood in favor of Cardinal Szoka's motion are by Cardinal Law, and by Archbishop Stafford the ones who always stand in favor of Rome, and (joined by Bishops Myers and Wuerl). But the ones who stood against it always seem to be Cardinal Szoka had also proposed an the ones who are pulling against the reins." amendment under which the entir~ section would simply be stricken from the response. The result of the vote was announced: The Cardinal rose on a point of order, objecting that his amendment had not been included 127 in favor of the Szoka motion, 127 opposed. The motion failed on a tie vote - a remarkable among those scheduled for a vote. Monsignor Hoye responded that the committee had dramatization of the present division within the subsumed several proposed amendments, hierarchy, not on a matter of doctrine, so much similar in intent, into the Hughes amendment, as on a matter of attitude. The good news from but permitted Cardinal Szoka to place his the Romanist perspective is that gaining parity on a question of this kind represents a new hig~ amendment on the floor prior to consideration of water mark for the Roman element. "" the other amendments dealing with the same i sections of the document. Following this confrontation, the The Szoka amendment would have Hughes/O'Connor amendment was accepted without demur, and the Levada substitute came ] deleted the section of the response which instructs the Vatican on the proper method of up. Archbishop Levada, knowing that his motion had no chance of passage, withdrew it, ! preparing a document. In Cardinal Szoka's view, this constituted a needless and inappropriate explaining that he had put the substitute forward in order to stimulate discussion on the chiding of the Vatican. Cardinal Bernardin rose to declare that this message was an essential substance of the American response and that, in part of the American response. The discussion order to avoid unnecessary procedural complications, it would be best to move to of the Szoka motion proceeded for a consideration of that document. considerable length of time, during which 5 Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

Bishop Malone moved acceptance of Roman document on sterilizations in Catholic the whole amended response, and Archbishop hospitals, and a delay of six months in the Levada argued for rejection of it urging that the release of Vatican guidelines concerning bishops engage in a full discussion of the issues Eucharistic bread. involved. Bishop Vaughn also expressed At this point, Bishop Austin Vaughn dissatisfaction with the Vatican draft on certain made a lengthy and most remarkable points, including its failure, in his view, to advert intervention. He began by criticizing the adequately to the teaching office of auxiliary composition of the committee which had drafted bishops. He went on to object to the manner in the response. Former presidents of the which the Conference conducts its business. Conference, he noted, were obviously among Too many important questions are referred to the most distinguished members of the small committees, he contended, while the Conference, "but they are not distinguished for meetings themselves do not admit of a free and their ecclesiology: This startling criticism of his complete discussion of basic issues. Only a fellow-bishops was just a beginning. Bishop small number of bishops can make themselves Vaughn went on to declare that the committee heard on any point because of the crowded members were also "not distinguished for their agenda, and the discussion of significant issues exercise of collegiality," because as leaders they is often constrained by the practice of dealing tended to be men of decisive character. The stir only with amendments, while the basic premises among the bishops grew to audible murmurs as of texts presented for approval are rarely Bishop Vaughn went on to compare the task of challenged. the committee with the guarding of a henhouse, concluding that this had been a "committee of After this rather comprehensive critique, foxes - friendly foxes, but foxes." further discussion was somewhat anticlimactic. The ballot was taken on approval of the Blunt speech like this is not customary in response, requiring a two-thirds majority. This bishops' meetings, certainly not in public, and it was achieved by a vote of 205 to 59. is possible that Bishop Vaughn tactically damaged his own cause, even if some other The remainder of the agenda for this bishops might have privately agreed with his meeting was devoted to fairly minor items. assessments. In the context of the entire Several new liturgical texts for the celebration of meeting, however, Bishop Vaughn's frankness feasts in the U.S. Church calendar were was one more symptom of a growing approved. Among these only one item aggressiveness on the part of the pro-Roman occasioned controversy. That was the liturgy for minority in the Conference. the Bicentennial of the American hierarchy. An early draft, which was not approved by the He stated his agreement with the basic Liturgy Committee, included several references theological position of the Vatican draft on the to the dignity of the episcopal office. These question of the teaching authority 0 f were eliminated from the otherwise Conferences, and that he considered the unexceptionable text which was recommended specific denial of magisterial authority to by the Committee, and the lack of specific conferences to be timely from the Vatican references to the office of bishop was noted by perspective. "My guess is they have been Bishop Vaughn, among others. The liturgical scared into this by the actions of several of the texts did win the necessary two-thirds approval, Conferences, including our own." He cited but only by a narrow margin. several instances in which conferences had adopted positions troubling to Rome: the Dutch Guidelines on lay preaching, conference on the question of clerical celibacy; implementing Canon 766 were adopted over the tepid response of several conferences to some minor opposition which was voiced, in Humanae Vitae: the comments of Cardinal characteristically entertaining fashion, by retired Lustiger on the concerns felt among European Bishop William McManus. Bishop McManus bishops about the American pastoral "The imagined the circumstances in which Mother Challenge of Peace"; and the issuance of "The Teresa might be present at a Mass, but Many Faces of AIDS" last year by the forbidden to give the homily; yet a deacon .who Administrative Board of the USCC. In addition, works as the local bartender" would have a right he complained the the U.S. Conference had, on to deliver the homily. occasion, been slow to transmit to the bishops certain statements from Rome. He cited the Bishop DiLorenzo responded that delay of "more than a year" in the release of a broadening the permission of the laity to preach

6 Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowship of Catholic ScholarsJ.'-ewsletter December 1988

at Mass might give -false hopes- to those who favor Women, commending the HolyFather's recent letter the ordination of women. -On the Vocation and Dignity of Women- and condemning feminism as an -alien ideology-, was The Campaign for Human Development was distributed on the first day of the meeting. Among put on a permanent basis, after existing as a the signers were pro-life heroine Joan Andrews and temporary program for the past 19 years. many other prominent lay and religious women.

Turning to the realm of civil affairs, the The proposed pastoral letter on women was bishops approved a statement in opposition to the not on the agenda for this meeting. The current employer sanctions provisions in the 1986 schedule for the development of that document calls immigration law, contending that those provisions for a second draft to be released early in 1989, led to discrimination against immigrants and citizens discussion at the June meeting of the bishops, and a of -foreign- appearance. Inaddition, they adopted a possible vote next November. very strong and comprehensive statement on religious freedom in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Archbishop Mahoney reported that the Union, which included a country-by-country report Committee on HIV,constituted in June to draft a new on conditions prevailing in those countries. And a statement on AIDS,was conducting interviews with statement favoring reconciliation with Vietnam was certain experts and would be meeting in January to approved. draft a document. That statement willbe sent to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for A press release from Archbishop Roach, review before it is submitted to the bishops for chairman of the subcommittee on Food and approval. Agriculture, called it a -tragedy- that some 85,000 warnings of possible foreclosure had been sent to The issues that engaged the most attention farmers who were in arrears of payment on at this meeting -- the -Doctrinal Responsibility- government loans. And one issue tl)at was not on statement and the response to the Vatican draft on the agenda was raised by Phyllis Schlafly at an conferences - present a curious paradox. In both impromptu press conference on Tuesday. Mrs. instances, the Roman position is one which upholds Schlafly objected to the endorsement of the Dodd- the authority and responsibility of the episcopal Kildeechildcare billearlier this year by the USCC. In office, discouraging any devolution of that authority response to a question on this subject at a press either upwards to a bureaucracy or downwards to briefing, Bishop Joseph Sullivan said that the theologians. Meanwhile,the position staked out by Conference is not wedded to that position, but the American bishops is one which appears to favor a would be open to tax credit proposals that mighthelp diminution of episcopal responsibility. The Vatican, families withyoung children. thus, appears to be pro-bishop while the bishops are tending to move in the opposite direction. - Father Robert Lynch, a long-time staff member of the Conference, was elected General On the -Doctrinal Responsibility- question, Secretary, replacing the outgoing Msgr. Daniel Hoye the Vatican has stepped in to ensure that the who served in that capacity for seven years. The authority of the episcopal office is not compromised. selection of Lynch, who was the only nominee for As for the final verdict on the authority of episcopal the position, signifies no change in policydirection. conferences, that remains to be worked out, and the offices of the relevant Roman Congregations now In the executive session on Wednesday have the benefit of the advice of their American afternoon there was a discussion of the motu proprio brothers. Ecclesia Dei regarding the celebration of Mass according to the Tridentine rite. Archbishop Maywas In his closing remarks to the press, not forthcoming in his press briefing, about the Archbishop May, reiterating his theme of harmony discussion in closed session but he did confirm that between the Holy See and the Church in America, a letter on that subject had recently ~een forwarded commented that -the Pope is b,ullishon the Church to the American hierarchyfrom Cardinal Mayerof the in this country-. Perhaps. But if so, that Congregation for DivineWorship. -bullishness- probably has more to do with the continuing emergence of a vigorous pro-Roman One noteworthy absence at the meeting minoritywithinthe Conference than with the evident was that offeministagitators. Ithas become common disparity between the aspirations of the Holy See in recent years to see picketers and other groups of and those of the dominant element within the feminists pressing their claim at bishops' meetings, American hierarchy. but this year they apparently made a strategic, decision to avoid the meeting. However, a statement from an ad hoc Committee of 100 Catholic Michael Schwartz

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-- Volume 12 Number 1 FeliowshiQ of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

International Council for Catechesis Rome. October 1988

The Meeting

The 8UniversalCatechism8 preoccupied Cardinal Catholic Church a known quantity among the Antonio Innocenti when he addressed what is billion Chinese who hitherto knew nothing about known in Rome as COINCAT on October 27th. her. In countries like Yugoslavia and Poland, the The first draft is virtually completed and will be Church now enjoys greater freedom to catechize distributed to the worldwide episcopacy by mid- in her parishes than they have in school summer of 1989, he said, with final publication situations, where Brother Government watches expected, if all goes well, a year later, in time to closely. In the more affluent countries, as well as celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the in the Third World, the catechetical enterprise closing of Vatican II. has become extensive and the reporting included catalogues of numbers of teachers, COINCAT is a council, composed of. thirty training institutes, degreed programs in selected worldwide catechetical leaders, countries where the priests and religious have including ten bishops, which (since 1973) never been numerous and where, as in the advises the Clergy Congregation. At this West, they are in decline. The earnestness to moment, Cardinal Innocenti himself is drafting a make catechesis work was clearly in evidence. paper on Catholic catechesis for use by the universal hierarchy. COINCAT met through the The negativism was also impressive. There was week of October 23-29. little reference, at least in the presence of the Cardinal, to 8Catholic truth8 and the point was In his first appearance at the meeting, the made several times that anything from 80n high8 Cardinal was intent on conveying accurate was likely to make light of local 8experience8or information concerning the forthcoming deeply embedded cultural value systems which 8UniversalCatechism8. It is to be a document for need to be respected. A Spanish bishop, one the bishops, he said, unlike the Roman of the drafters of the 8UniversalCatechism8,was Catechism of Trent which was written for parish distressed at this suspicion under which his priests, and a compendium of the 8sacredtruths8 commission worked and which he seemed to of the Faith, those 8givenfrom above8,which of have experienced personally. the Church must propound, protect, and defend. This 8catechism8 is intended, he said, The negativism appeared in other ways:. to offset the doubts, denials, and omissions that suggestions that local hierarchies need latitude have pervaded the Catholic community since from Rome; analyses which blamed the Church Vatican II, and is to be used by bishops as the in the United States for a bad catechetical norm for writing local and regional catechetical situation, which she did not create, e.g., among texts. The book, now under four hundred pages Hispanics; fears expressed that religious in length, will be positive and principled in its instruction would dominate catechesis to the statements on the Creed, the Sac,ramerits and neglect of base community experience; lack of Moral Norms,will avoid theories in favor of stating appreciation in a universal document for the facts of Doctrine. Its language can be adapted to ecumenical dimension, the creation of a 8straight local cultural forms and methodologies, as long jacket8 with seemingly fixed formulations. et as the 8truths8 of the Faith are accurately cetera. portrayed and taught as such. Cardinal Innocenti was gracious with his The discussion which preceded and followed assurances that the motives of the Holy See Cardinal Innocenti's intervention was both were honorable, even though doctrinal, and that positive and negative. Quite interesting were the Pope favored legitimate local creativity as the reports of COINCAT members of how the long as the faith wa$ handed on faithfully. Church survives in adversity. In China, for Rome's problems were likely to be created by example, the Catholic population has grown from catecheticalleaders who wanted guidelines, not three million to six million since Mao's directives. persecution of the Church in 1949. Largely because the persecution itself made the The American participants in the COINCAT

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... Volume 12 Number 1 FellowshiQ of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988 meeting included Father Hilary Franco and Cruz of San Francisco, and Monsignor George Father Paul Langsfeld of the Congregation, A. Kelly of St. John's University, New York City. Father Francis Kelly of NCEA,Sister Maria De La The Universal Catechism and On-going Catechetical Issues

I - The General Context they claimed ran into the millions. And they were acting out their super-critical role about priestly performance at the very moment when the It appears that the universal catechism will go far Church was about to double its Catholic to reassert the identity and message of the population, before the opening of Vatican II, Catholic Church, providing its convictions and from twenty million to forty million, the number of content reach into the recesses of the Catholic priests from 25,000 to 50,000, religious women community's teaching/formative apparatus from 50,000 to 150,000, school enrollment from worldwide. This is a larger order but the two and a half million to five million, and a Sunday -catechism- itself was the universal episcopacy's Mass attendance of approximately seventy-five response to a perceived need of the Universal percent for adults, a higher rate for Catholic Church. The conditions which prompted this teenagers. The critics role even propelled demand, made of John Paul II by the 1985 Father Shaughnessy into the episcopacy, Roman Synod, will not be automatically ushering in what has correctly been called the corrected, not even mitigated, by the publication -golden age of American Catholicism-, a period of another document. Part of the reason for this when the faithful acted from their convictions is (1) the inability of local churches to face the about the Church and aboutthe Faith of which facts Rome understands very well; and {2) the the Church was the chief repository. present uncertainty of how to deal with dissent effectively, and the unwillingness in some A little old-fashioned critical honesty should quartersto dealwith it at all. compel today's leading clergy to admit that the signs of Catholic fidelity are down and religious We cannot rightfully blame the outside world for observance with them. Elites might consider this bad catechesis or bad Catholics. The outside an exercise in polemics, and, as we all know, world has generally been unfriendly toward polemicists of this genre have little standing in substantive Catholic Christian truth. Sometimes contemporary Catholic inner circles. Indeed, this hostility challenges episcopal leadership to they are an embarrassment. The best we can do better; sometimes it overwhelms, as it did in do, perhaps, is to offer suggestions as to how early Protestant Reformation days. Today we the Church might regain her credibility among offer media or secularization as excuses for the the demoralized faithful, and in so doing, poor performance of Catholics when in truth impress those interested in the substance of those same forces did not obstruct United what she has been saying to the people for two States' bishops in the 19th and early 20th millemia. Centuries. The Universal Catechism will provide authentic We live in the age of cover-up, of the catechetical material, of course, but it will be the unwillingness to face disagreeable facts about convictions of the people to whom it is directed our conduct, let alone to admit culpability for and who will or will not use its message that will wrongdoing and failure. The Church has never determine what Catholic local churches of the been immune from such temptations. And, future will become. Christ did little about the succumbing comes easy when defenses are disciples who walked away, but what He stood down and excuses for failing are badly npeded. for and the kind of shepherds He fashioned to In the post-World War I era, the Catholic clergy be exemplars for the Apostolic Church, are were severe critics of the work of their peers. abundantly evident in the New Testament story. Beginning in 1925, following Father Gerald The modern Church can do no less - teach Shaughnessy's Has the Immigrant Kept Christ's truth as truth, not opinion or theory; the Faith?, one literate priest after another - certify and reinforce that truth in the local Thomas Coakley, T.A. Fox, E.F. Garische, Catholic community through good pastors, Thomas Coogan, M.V. Kelly, John A. O'Brien, whose lifestyle and governing abilities, added to Raymond O'Flaherty, Eva J. Ross, Gerald J. their personal convictions, provide the promising Schepp, and a host of others, cried often and - circumstances under which God's grace might loudly - about leakage from Peter's Barque which produce its salutary effects.

9 Volume 12 Number 1 FeliowshiQ of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

II - The Issues and the Priorities priorities. From the earliest days Catholic religious life in its everyday manifestations has been fashioned around the prophetic vision of The circumstances of the catechism will be Christ: NSeefirst His Kingship over you, His way promising if (we may presume) that the Church is of holinessN (Mt.6:33) - prayer, the pursuit of still committed to and will continue to virtue, liturgical and sacramental practice, institutionalize three fundamental justifications penitential discipline, the exaltation of for her existence. contemplation in religious community life and in the daily prayer ofthe universal Church. 1. The Catholic Church alone speaks fullyand authoritivelyfor Jesus Christ. Some modern theologians, and social reformers, would radically revise these Catholic priorities Catechesis will remain sterile, and will appear downward, blurring the distinction between hypocritical, if there is any question in Catholic nature and supernature and stressing Christ's circles about the truth of this proposition. The humanity, not his divinity. Paul VI laid the axe fundmental reason Catholics believe the Creed intellectually to this revisionism in 1975 with his or followthe Magisteriumis the legitimacy ofthis Evangelii Nuntiandi. Eternal destiny and unique claim by the Church. However else the liberation from sin remain the preeminent issue is handled in ecumenical dialogue, Catholic goals. The mission of Christ is trivialized Catholics must not be uncertain about this truth - when mundane concerns - whether self- reaffirmed in many places by the Second ~atican fulfillment or economic reform - become the Council. Church's dominant apostolate. Pre-evangelical works - of education, charity,justice - are tools of 2. Assent to God's Revealed Word - as this is evangelization, not its finis operis. proposed bv the Maaisteriumis - the only basis of sound catechesis. For the first time in the history of the young Church in America we are having difficulty Catechesis must deal with Catholic truth. catechizing, in many cases evangelizing, the Reflection on the Catholic tradition is not latest immigrants to our shores, viz, the enough. Hispanics. We have to face another alarming development -the lack of interest of our young Developing psychological maturity, fostering in the priesthood and religious life. Our Sunday upward mobility or community organization, Mass attendance is declining, the penitential discipline is in shambles, the unworthy reception perfecting secular institutions, are not the of the Eucharist seems to disturb few. And reasons for the Church's existence, let alone for her catechesis, except incidentally as an Protestant fundamentalism has begun to attract element in evangelization. ethnics and many others. Is it possible that our present shortcomings and our ineffectiveness are related to the loss of a vitalCatholicfocus? Is Catechesis is often described today as community-building, not indoctrination. What Church leadership ready to face the communityand for what purpose, one may ask, if consequences of this loss? not to enflesh in human lives and at least in the community of those who believe the livingtruth The .Universal Catechism. surely will reassert the historic Catholic priorities revealed by Jesus Christ and proclaimed by the and reaffirm the Catholic absolutes. Church. Since man is largely what he thinks, But it may be necessary for the Pope to whatever else he might become, it would be introduce the text with an exhortation II. surprising that Jesus would have it any other I, directing not merely recommending how way. NPick-and-choose ChristianityNmay be a it is to be used. fact of lifefor some Christians, but it is not a living I ! Catholictruth. III - A Question of Good Governance 3. EternalSalvation and Christ's HolvWay of Life on earth are the raison d'etre of the Church's existence and as such must be preached and supported bv ecclesiastical leadership. Catechesis must have a Catholic content and use an appropriate method. It must be carried on We are not dealing here with theological realistically, in full awareness of the difficulties abstractions but with God-given Church presented by secular societies in which the

10 Volume 12 Number 1 FellowshiQ of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988 apostolate is exercised. But the best intentions them into inactivity. The platforms on which they in the world and the most promising methods are are elected are often never realized. Historically, of little account, if catechesis is not con~ucted the Church similarly has been unable to function and supervised in accordance with the mind and as Christ intended because princes and kings, laws of the Church. Bad catechesis is more the later .godless governments., paralyzed the result of a poorly governed church than it is of authority of popes and bishops, or otherwise defective materials or poor teachers. interferred with them. Such debility in Church governance has never occurred here until Even in apostolic times, and certainly through recently. Church history, Catholic catechesis has been adulterated by the immoral lives of Christian Today, new .princes of the Church. have leaders or from a Church overrun by the evil claimed squatters rights over Church institutions, practices of surrounding secular cultures. There exercising ecclesial authority without portfolio, may be some profit in contemplating our setting themselves up as a church within the situation. Church. Firmly placed in academe. religious houses, and ecclesial infrastructures, the new First, relative to the content of catechesis, most .princes. direct Catholics away from Church bishops assess Catholic priorities correctly, definitions and norms and instruct bishops to although they may verbalize them differently. enter the mainstream of .their. Church if the But, other bishops prefer the priorities proposed bishops expect to exercise any influence at all by the American Theological Establishment over post-Vatican" Catholics. Bishops are which is presently in serious opposition to norms advised to be moderate (I.e., to collaborate with promulgated by the Holy See. Confusion of dissenters); to negotiate doctrinal differences as goals among leaders of the United States if faith and morals were divisible like a wage Church creates a major catechetical problem for package; to spread appointments; to have a pastors. It is a question not fully discussed in broadly based administration; and above all, to meetings of the national Conference of Bishops. avoid the hard lines like those coming from Rome. A second problem is more serious. Active permissiveness (not passive awareness) toward Since the Church operates under the virulent dissent from Church teaching in Catholic .mandatum. of Jesus Christ, the proposed institutions, and an immoral way of life, both package above represents disaster for any inevitably flow from faulty or erroneous catechesis that enjoys the name Catholic. catechesis. Here is a defect hitherto unknown to Governance is rightfully an art more than a the Church in the United States, except during science. It is exercised best by those with its earliest days. Historian Peter Guilday, knowledge of and experience with the craft, speaking of that infant American Church, wrote: especially when that talent belongs to rulers who .It was sadly hampered by the presence of also have good sense and good policies. In priests who knew not how to obey and of laity times of crises, however, good governance also who were Interpreting their share of Catholic life calls for decisiveness and the proper use of by non-Catholic Church systems.. That state of power conferred on rulers by law. Correction of affairs which prompted Rome to send John public error and of wayward public lifestyles, Carroll as first bishop quickly disappeared when especially among priests and religious, would succeeding bishops took hold. But it has seems to be the minimum exercise of good reappeared in our time. ecclesiastical governance. They are rarities today. And as for the demand of the First Roman What has happened is that we have begun to Synod (1967)that in serious cases recalcitrants take on the worst features of contemporary be removed from office, the instances are so few American political practice. Not only do we have as to be noticeable. It is Rome that has become the highest crime rates in the civilized world, but the object of frequent correction. a disintegrating family life amid affluence. Jndeed it is alleged that it is increasingly impossible to As dissidence becomes a staple of Catholic govern the nation, even with overwhelming institutional life, a certain ennui begins to prevail popular mandates representing the .will of the among pastors which additional documents, people., Unelected .veto groups. and .special especially of a hortatory nature, do not alleviate. interests. using violence, threats of violence or At some point political decisions of rulership are bribery, bend officeholders to their will 0 r required on behalf of truth and right, including infiltrate their administrations or simply intimidate the local scene once Rome has determined the

11 Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988 policies that must be enforced. We have become so intent on appearing as doers of good The question of proper governance of the works, or being ecumenical or acting Church must be addressed. The Church is not a democratically, that we oftentime fail to protect debating society where victories and defeats are our own norms of belief and practice. rhetorical. She is a living body commissioned to achieve certain results, holiness above all. Within the Church true faith and right morals Do we not remember that Pope Paul VI's .Credo count toward holiness; and the eternal salvation of the People of GodHwas dismissed in 1968as of peoples does, too. The pope and the the personal animadversions of a highly placed bishops in union with Him arsthe mainstream of prelate, nothing more and, though the Church, and those who are not with them are recommended in Catechesi Tradendas. it is not against them and against Christ. Until this the basis of catechesis in many United States - ecclesiastical order is recognized again and Centers. Pope John Paul II's Familiaris maintained by ,the proper use of authority Consortium has been a dead letter for American outlined in the Code of Canon Law, it is difficult elites since its promulgation. His ~ecent to see how we can have anything ahead other statement on women is already being set aside than more institutionalized .pick and choose. in the same quarters as irrelevant to the Church Catholicism, hard,lythe good or defensible state of the future because it is only a personal of Catholic affairs recommended to the United reflection, binding on no one in positions of States bishops by Pope John Paul II during his command in the Church's infrastructures. In 1987visit. these circumstances, the Universal Catechism, scheduled for 1990, will also be ignored if it Msgr. George A. Kelly, Ph.D reflects the content of these earlier papal St. John's University, New York statements.

Friends of the Fellowship

Mrs. DorothyWalker Bishop Joseph T. Maguire A Midwest Priest Bishop John B. McDowell John Cardinal Carberry Bishop Joseph T. O'Keefe Bishop Edward J. Harper, Retired Bishop Paul Waldschmidt Bishop James R. Hoffman

New Foundatio!,\ Members of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars

Rev. Kenneth Baker, S.J. Eugene Keating, Esq. Msgr. Fabian Bruskewitz Dr. John O'Rourke Most Rev. John P. Foley Rev. Joseph W. Roach Rev. Roger E. Griese Dr. Alfred P. Szews

12 Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

Presentation of the Cardinal Q'Boyle Award for Defense of the Faith to John C. Ford, S.J. by the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars September 24, 1988 - Boston, Massachusetts

-The mouth of the just man tells of wisdom and his tongue utters what is right. The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps do not falter.- Psalm 37:30-31

John C. Fordwas bornin Bostoneighty- saw many urgent needs and contributed to six years ago on December the twentieth. He meeting them--not least by his scholarly work entered the Society of Jesus sixty-eight years ago concerning alcoholism together with his pastoral on August the fourteenth. He studied theology at work in alcoholics' care. In the field of moral Weston College and was ordained a priest fifty-six theology, he recognized the need for renewal and years ago. worked, often in collaboration with the late Gerald Kelly, S.J.,toward that end. Some of that work was Father Ford's superiors chose himto be a published in two volumes of questions in moral theologian. He did his biennium in moral Contemporary Moral Theology. theology at the Gregorian University, 1935-37. Father Ford was Professor of Moral Theology at The second of those volumes, Marriage Weston College from 1937-48,and simultaneously Questions, providentiallyappeared in 1963,just as earned a degree in civil law from Boston College some Catholics began to deny the Church's Law School. He was Professor of Moral Theology constant and firm teaching that contraception is at the Gregorian, 1945-46;Professor of Ethics and always wrong. When Pope Paul VI, in June 1964, Theology at Boston College, 1948-51;Professor of expanded the Pontifical Commission for the Study MoralTheology at Weston, 1951-58,withsemesters of Population, Family, and Births, the Pope named at West Baden and St. Mary's, Kansas; Professor John Ford to that commission. Ford served on it of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of until its work ended two years later in June 1966. Amerfca, 1958-66; and Professor of Pastoral That work was difficult and depressing, and was Theology at Weston, 1966-68. especially hard on Father Ford, since he was not entirely well. Father Ford overcame a serious obstacle in responding to his vocation, for he suffered from Yet during those years he led the a severe case of tuberculosis both before and after theological defense of the received teaching, and his ordination. But he became a professed proved cogently that it could not be substantially member of the Society of Jesus and participated in modified. The majority of those involved in that its goverance in obedience to the will of his Commission's activities proceeded according to superiors. the principle,Stat pro ratione voluntas (nWiIIstands in for reasonn), and urged Pope Paul VI to John Ford was a good student, and those abandon the traditional teaching. However, at who taught him were already aware that some point during the next two years the Pope development in moral theology was necessary. So realized that he could not preach a Gospel in the course of his intellectual formation Father different from the one he had received. So in July Ford learned to be an accurate scholar, well-trained 1968he issued Humanae Vitae, endorsing Father in the tools of the trade, clear in thought, powerful Ford's thesis concerning contraception just as in argument, limpid in speech and writing, and Vatican II had endorsed his thesis concerning determined to leave moral theology better than he obliteration bombing. found it. Recognizing the need for a higher level of scholarship in the field, Father Ford helped As soon as Humanae Vitae appeared, a found the journal, Theological Studies, and its wind of dissent whipped around the world, regular feature, nNotesin Moral Theologyn. amplified to an all-but-deafening howl by the secular media of communication. The eye of this When the United States and her allies storm, Cardinal Patrick A. O'Boyle, Archbishop of engaged in obliteration bombing during World War Washington, had a splendid episcopal motto, II, John Ford wrote an article demonstrating the radically at odds with Stat pro ratione voluntas. His unjustifiability of those attacks on innocent life, and motto was State in fide rStand in faithn), That is published the article before the war ended, while what he did, despite everything. the bombing still continued. Vatican Council II endorsed Father Ford's thesis in one of its most solemn statements. But he knew he could not stand alone. He needed theological help. So he called John Ford, and Father Ford helped the Cardinal to formulate Inthe field of pastoral theology, John Ford and begin to implement the policy, both firm and 13 Volume 12 Number 1 FeliowSl1ip.of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988 and Father Ford helped the Cardinal to formulate Ordinary Magisterium which appeared in and begin to implement the policy, both firm and Theological Studies in 1978. Since then, Pope gentle, of instructing the faithful, dialoguing with John Paul II has made and published his own the dissenters, and taking only the minimal profound and extensive studies on the disciplinary measures necessary to maintain the foundations in Scripture and tradition of the integrity and consistency of the Cardinal's own Church's teaching that contraception is always witness to the truth. wrong, reaching the conclusion that this truth Hbelongsto the moral order revealed by GodH. Many of John Ford's confreres in the Society of Jesus, colleagues in scholarship, and Thus, it is true that John Ford has other friends and associates did not agree with, defended the faith. He stood with Patrick a'Boyle respect, or appreciate what he did in serving Pope when that exceptional bishop stood firm in faith, Paul VIand Cardinal a'Boyle. Many relationships and they suffered the consequences together. changed for the worse. Father Ford is an Moreover, Ford's theological workwas of excellent outgoing, friendly, sociable man. Sa he suffered scholarly quality. Therefore, it is right that we, the all the more as he experienced others' hostilityand Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, bestow upon you, livedwith their alienation. Truly, that experience John C. Ford of the Society of Jesus, this first has been a slow martyrdom, and one not yet Cardinal a'Boyle award for defense of the faith. I ended. am certain that everyone here, all our absent members, and Patrick a'Boyle himself joins me in The truth which John Ford defended doing so... about the sanctity of lifeeven in its transmission is a truth of faith. I was privileged and blessed in His Eminence Bernard Cardinal being able to collaborate with him in making the Law joined in the presentation and spoke case for this position. We set out the case in our of Father Ford's saving work. article, Contraception and the Infallibilityof the

Response of Father John C. Ford to the Award of the Cardinal a'Boyle Medal

I want to thank the Fellowship of Catholic that the Pope HissuedHumanaeVitae.endorsing Scholars for the singular honor you have Ford's thesis concerning contraceptionH. I remain bestowed upon me by awarding me the first utterly convinced that that teaching will never be Cardinal a'Boyle Medal. And I thank my friend changed precisely because it is a truth of faith. Germain Grisez for the generously kind things he And Iwould like to share with you an experience said about me. carved in my memory which I associate with'Such conviction. During an interviewwith Pope Paul he . It is with genuine humility I.accept this and I were discussing the positions being medal, signifyingas it does that you view mywork proposed in the Commission. The Pope was calm as laudable defense of the faith we all love. I and composed while we talked about these. I did confess it has meant some suffering. But in ages have the impression that he did not talk about the past defense of Christ's faith cost people their proponents of these new positions as though they blood. To be the first recipient ofthe medal makes were HFormatiDoctoresHspeaking about the faith. me doubly honored and doubly humble. But when I said to Pope Paul, HAreyou ready to Needless to say Iam happy you named the medal say that Casti Connubii can be changed?H Paul in honor of Cardinal a'Boyle. For he indeed was a came alive and spoke with vehemence: HNo!Hhe man of faith, a man who suffered in defense of the said. He reacted exactly as though Iwas calling him faith, a man I personally held in high esteem. Inmy a traitor to his Catholic belief. I have never before judgment Pope Paul VI respected and stood up told that story publicly. Perhaps you interpret his for Cardinal a'Boyle when the trial went to Rome. reaction the way I did and do. I wish to express my esteem also for this Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. To know people It has been my privilege to have devoted that like you are working to preserve our Catholic my lifeto working for the Roman Catholic Church faith heartens me. and itfillsme with pride to be able to say that. May the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars flourish and may more and more men and women respond to Germain Grisez referred to mywork on the God's call to defend His Son's Church in whatever Pontifical Commission for the study of population, family and births. Iwas flattered to hear him say way and at whatever time it is needed.

14 Yolu.e 12 Nu..er I Fellowshi,2 of Catholic Scholars Newsletter Dece..ec 1"33

The Conversion of the Jews: A Correspondence

Inthe June18,1987issueof The Texas view,would be to cease being a Christian. Catholic, Dr. John Crosby, Professor of Philosophy of the Universityof Dallas, objected "What I did say was the the figure of to certain comments in the May 8th issue Edith Stein should not be used as an occasion regarding the beatification of Edith Stein and for "unwarranted proselytizing'" among Jews. cited Dr. Eugene Fisher,-the Executive Director The historical referents of this phrase include of the UnitedStates Catholic Bishops Secretariat activities such as forced baptisms, disputation, for Catholic-Jewish Relations. Among other ghettorization,etc. More,they includeany and things, Dr,Crosby said: all forms of social, economic and psychological pressure, however subtle, that a dominant "I appreciated many ofthe reflections on religious culture can impose on minorities. Catholic-Jewish relations which you (The Texas Further, they include any denigration of the Catholic) offered us on the occasion of the religious integrity of Judaism or the ongoing beatification of Edith Stein, but it seems to me validity of God's covenant with the Jewish that they contain one serious error. Youseem to people. We are called instead to an attitude of accept the view of Dr, Eugene Fisher that, in "mutual esteem" with Jews as people of God. thinking about this beatification, we should The Christian attitude toward Judaism which is to approach Jews not as potential objects of say the proper character of Christianwitness, has conversion but rather as bearers of a unique been clearly articulated, To cite again the Holy witness to the Name of the One God'. Father "Where Catholics are concerned, it will continue to be an explicit and important part of "There is nothing in any officialteaching my mission to repeat and emphasize that our of the church which says or even implies that attitude to the Jewish religion should be one of conversion is inappropriate for Jews; the most the greatest respect, since the Catholic faith is recent official documents rather reaffirm the rooted in the eternal truth contained in the necessity of conversion. For example, in 1985 irrevocable covenant made with Abraham. We, the Vatican's Commission on ReligiousRelations too, gratefully hold these same truths to our with the the Jews declared: "Jesus affirms that Jewish heritage and look upon (Jews) as our there shall be one flock and one shepherd, brothers and sisters in the Lord", (John Paul II, . Church and Judaism cannot then be seen as two November 26, 1986)... parallel ways of salvation, and the church must witness to Christ as the redeemer for all" and "The church's proclamation, in short, is therefore as the redeemer for Jews, too (part I, incomplete if one stops at "Christ is risen", as paragraph 7). Crosby does, To that affirmation must necessarily be added: "Christ will come again", "The Vatican Commission goes on to God's Kingdom, we proclaim with Jesus, is say that, in accordance with the teaching of already present among us. But equally we pray Vatican II, the church must show the strictest with Jesus, "Thy Kingdom Come", We respect for the religious libertyof Jews. But our Christians must be circumspect in our use of respect for their religious liberty does not language regarding the sacred mysteries, As prevent us from invitingthem to conversion." the 1974Vatican "Guidelines"for Catholic-Jewish relations put it, "we believe that (the biblical) promises were fulfilledwiththe Coming of Christ Dr. Eugene Fisher replied in the But it is nonetheless true that we still await their June 18th issue: perfect fulfillment in his glorious return, to the end of time", Crosby, it would seem, has "Dr. Crosby's letter seriously accepted only the first part of these great truths misconstrues my position. I did not say that the ignoring their eschatolgical ("not yet") aspect. ct1urchshould cease to "witness to Christ as the But it is precisely to that eschatological hope, the redeemer for all". To cease such witness, in my challenge of God's Kingdom,that the pope and

15 Volume 12 Number 1 FellowshiQ of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

the teaching of the Holy See today are calling an essentialpart ofthe teachingofJesus, and that our renewed attention. It is a hope and a , Jesus did not preach it on other occasions. proclamation that, pace Crosby, we share in common with the Jewish people.- 4. From the fact that the Jews are still a people dear to God, and under His special providence, Dr. Fisher insinuates the conclusion Dr. Crosby replied, but The that their covenant with God (which in their Texas Catholic did not publish his reply. understanding of it involves a rejection of Christ) is He wrote: just as valid before God as our covenant with God, which is in Christ, and that they therefore have no -Ithank Dr. Fisher for taking the trouble to need of converting to Christ-as if the covenant respond to my letter. But the more he talks sealed inthe blood of Christ were optional, and left (especially in his second and third paragraph) the open other equally valid ways of being reconciled more he givesthe impressionthat the Church no to God. longer desires to lead Jews to conversion: nor can he, as it seems, be induced to correct this 5. Ifind it difficultto gather clear thoughts impression by declaring that the Church does from Dr. Fisher's remarks on eschatoj'ogy. But as I indeed take a missionary interest in the Jews. read his last paragraph, he seems to want to Perhaps it willhelp to advance the discussion if I relativize the difference between Christians and formulate five of the main confusions which Ifind in Jews by saying that even we Christians are still his argument. awaiting our Messiah, namely stillawaiting Hisfinal coming at the end of time. Christians no less than 1. From the fact that Jews may not be Jews are awaiting a Messiah, and so the difference forced to convert, he concludes, or is easily read between them, he suggests, is only one of as concluding, and does nothing to prevent being degree. The implicationseems to be, or at least in read as concluding, that the very idea of inviting the minds of many readers will be: why go to the them to conversion is inappropriate, as if this trouble of inviting Jews to conversion, when we invitationinevitablyinvolvedforce. Christians do not after all go that much beyond them? 2. Fromthe fact that we should cultivate -mutual respect- between ourselves and Jews, as I would ask: is this the way Edith Stein Pope John Paul has said, he again seems to understood her conversion to Christ? Did she suggest the conclusion that any Christian interest experience her conversion as a continuation of in their conversion is out of order. Butwait-did St. Jewish expectation, or did she not rather Peter fail to show respect for the Jews gathered in experience it in the first place as a fulfillment of Jerusalem from all over the world when on Jewish expectation? Again I appeal to the labors of Pentecost he boldly proclaimed Jesus as their the apostles towards their fellow Jews: do these Messiah? Would he have shown greater respect labors make any sense if Dr. Fisher is right in for them if he had pretended that he had no more bringing Jewish waiting and Christian-waiting so religious knowledge than they, ihsisting instead on close to each other? St. Paul does not say that only dialoguing with them, and refusing to invite youwillbe a new creature in Christ when you get to them to baptism? eternity, but that you are a new creature already now; and that what you await in eternity is only the 3. The fact that there are occasions, such fullrevelation ofwhat you are. as ecumenical encounters, when it would indeed be inappropriate to invite Jews to conversion Dr. Fisher should not respond by (since on such occasions we come together in the protesting that he did not directly say any of the name of what we have in common), seems to fivethings Iascribe to him. I realize that he did not confirm Dr. Fisher in his opinion that the very idea directly say them; he insinuated them. Nor should of conversion is inappropriate. But consider a he respond that he did not mean to insinuate parallel case. Itwould have been inappropriate to them; for I am only interested in the public have preached the cross at the marriage feast of impression which he makes and which he is Cana; but this does not mean that the cross is not responsible for..:

16 -. Volumbe 12 Number 1 Fe"owshiQ~f Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

Humanae Vitae

From August 7 to 12, 1988 a major U.S. prominent professors who teach contrary to symposium to mark the twentieth anniversary of HVhave been left in their positions; it took an the encyclical Humanae Vitae of Pope Paul VI interventionfrom Rome to remove Father Curran was conducted at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, from Catholic University of America. Father New Jersey. It was a notable success in many Maguirestillteaches at Marquette. No one in the ways. It was sponsored by the Roman Academic U.S. has pushed hard enough on behalf of the Center Foundation (New York) and the Aquinas truth about human sexuality. Institute (Princeton). These are the major points contained in Precis of the talks were developed and HV: we print three below. Precis always dilute the authors carefully nuanced thought and we offer the usual apologies for not having space for the I) A clear reaffirmationof objective moral fulltalks. principle: contraception is always wrong, regardless of consequences; 2) The physical part of our nature is integral to our being: dualism is rejected; Humanae Vitae: Christian Respect for 3) Human life is ruled by divine the DiQnitv of the Human Person Most providence; ultimately, God's way is the best - way, no matter how hard it may seem to us; Rev. Austin Vaughan, Auxiliary Bishop of New York. 4) The HolySpirit speaks in the Church ,- through the successor of St. Peter: his teaching is normative; Contrary to the -expectations of those 5) Natural law is fullyunderstood only in who opposed Humanae Vitae when it was light of revelation: everything in the world is part issued in 1968,it has become a growing reality; it is much clearer now than it was then. How of the divine plan of salvation (no true anthropology without Christology); prophetic a document it is. The Church has to 6) Emphasis on the sacredness of be a sign of contradiction--even to her own sexuality, and not mere instrumentality: it children. Most of the national episcopal cannot be honest unless the unitive and the statements in Western countries wh ic h procreative meanings remain together commented on HVtried to find ways of leaving (acceptance of artificial contraception leads the question of the limitation of procreation directly to homosexuality, divorce, and abortion open; in the 1969 Synod of Bishops (on because they make sexuality instrumental); collegiality)there was no mention of birthcontrol. 7) The need for grace in order to live in No universities supported HV,not even those in accordance withGod's law; Rome. A 1975document permitted sterilization 8) the importance of purity, of chastity in in some cases, pleading doubt on the moral education; fundamental principle. 9) Married life,sex, children, and family support one another; The hardest part of HVto defend was in 10) Parents are God's instruments in sec. 17:that contraception would lead to sexual procreation: only He can give to each child a license and moral decline; to the demeaning of unique soul. women; to greater government intervention in private affairs. Nowthis is the easiest part to Some remarks on human dignity: love defend because we have seen how the and the origin of human life are sacred; an predictions have come true; the disaster is all awesome loss of dignity has resulted from the around us. birthcontrol mentality. The value of married lifeis now more apparent, by contrast; also the Now in 1988HVis still not accepted in personhood ofthe unbornchild. the Church; there is widespread dissent among clergy as well as laity, and almost no effort has In the past 20 years Catholic theology been made to deal withthis and change it. Inthe has been sterile; no dissenting position has

17 -- Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

made a substantial contribution to it. The Interiorchanges occur in the spouses as Magisterium stands serene above the fray. But they live their vocation; having children makes doctrinal ties with Rome have been weakened. parents better Christians--the more the better. This transformation in Christ through the It is rare today for Catholicpeople to hear vocation to marriage is developed by John Paul II doctrine in sermons or in the confessional; there (see Sources of Renewal). He shows how is very littleteaching on purityor on the salvation parents, in accepting the munus, accept a share of one's soul. Priests seem to lack a' sense of in Christ's fulfillmentof His own munus-as priest their divinevocation. Here is a reason for the fal~ (sacrificial self-giving), as prophet off of priestly vocations-because priests have (evangelization), and as king (government and turned away from doctrine. No wonder Catholic self-government). public officials feel no compulsion to live their faith in public life. No wonder the general public has been hardened into acceptance of so many Most Rev. John J. Myers, corrupting influences in society. All of us are Coadjutor Bishop of Peoria, The affected by it. There has been a remarkable Rejection and Rediscovery by decline in human dignity. Christians of the Truth of Humanae Vitae. The "Munus" of Transmitting Human Life: A New Approach to From the pastoral point of view, we can Humanae Vitae. Dr. Janet E. Smith. discern a recovery by clergy and laity of the Program of Liberal Studies, University of Notre Dame. truths in HV,followingthe earlier rejection of the symbolism which the media builtaround it. What werethe causes ofthat rejection? We must try to overcome the resistance to Humanae Vitae: it is still largely neglected 1) Historical and cultural factors: The because it is not well understood. Re-reading atmosphere of change accompanying Vatican II HVnow shows the freshness of its approach, its made it possible and likely for some people to understanding of marriage as a Christian reject a teaching of the Church for the first time. vocation. Most couples seem to have lost the Some theologians had adopted a "university sense of that vocation; children are considered a model" of theology: privatized notions of truth- mere option. HVcan be effectively explained by in-development. The media became actors in focusing on the Christian understanding of this theological process. They promoted a marriage and the centralityof childrento it. neurotic fear of overpopulation; and life-style was elevated above people. The pill had ju~t The fourth word of HVis "munus"; this becomeavailable. These factors combined to means a privileged office entailing certain strip the Pope and the Bishops of traditional obligations, duties, responsibilities, and freely support for their teaching. given as an honor. It is a special mission of service to God whichcomes from God. Thus it is 2) Internal pedagogical factors: The closely linked to the vocation to apostolate, a Magisterium had not tried to get the average participation in Christ's mission. This word Catholic to understand what it taught; it relied connects HVto Gaudium et Spes and Familiaris upon faithful adherence to and respect for Consortio. As HV.explains,this munus is a task Church authority. Only a few could understand given to spouses and not to be underestimated: scholastic philosophy and theology. HV a cooperation in the transmission of life-freely, seemed to restrict the freedom of the average responsibly, lovingly. Catholic;the media had led everyone to expect a loosening of restrictions. The people reacted as Analogies that show why contraception if they had been betrayed. Probably the violates God's intent and is therefore evil; they teaching of HV could have been presented show that parents contract with each other to do better (pedagogically); there was no tradition whatGodwantsofthem. Theydon'thavea right among Catholics of accepting contraception as a to be selective in carrying out this munus. If good or even as a lesser evil. People spouses have an imperfect understanding of the recognized that to use sex apart from its meaning of sexual intercourse, they won't procreative purpose (usually out of weakness) understand HVor why offspring are the supreme was sinful, and they confessed it. With the good of marriage. (continuedon page 28)

18 Volume 12& Number 1 FeliowshiQ of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

Bt)t)~REVtEWS gg)

Dishonored Shepherd: Pius XII and the the non-Germans, whose good will they were Holocaust by Anthony D. Mangano and Robert then cultivating, how Hitler became Chancellor in E. Martin, The Catholic Leaguefor Religious and the first place. How were the leaders of the Civil Rights, Milwaukee. Army, the Evangelical Churches, the conservative parties, the big industrialists, the One of the most surprising events in the history bankers, the major labor unions, the Socialists of the modern Papacy was the savage onslaught and the universities - non-Catholics all, in a on the character of Pope Pius XII (1939-1958)for country where Catholics were only one-third of which the publication in 1963of Rolf Hochhuth's the people, induced or constrained to accept play -The Deputy- provided the occasion. The him as their National Leader. This astonishing thesis of the play was that the Holocaust could and sinister man was despised by many of them have been prevented or severely curtaUed by as a child of the gutter and he could never have the Pope. All he had to do was to denounce become Chancellor if Woodrow Wilson had not Hitler publicly and forcefully and the persecution insisted on the destruction of the German would have been checked, if not stopped. His Monarchy in 1918. failure to act was explained only by cowardice, pro-German sympathies, financial considerations Hochhuth supplied them with a convenient alibi and antipathy to the Jews. so they were willing to use and to be used by him. He himself, a German Protestant born in The breathtaking simplicity of this thesis, which 1931,was a child in arms when Hitler came to had much to do with its popularity among power, and so had no personal experience of illiterates on every social and academic level,was the complicated problems he dealt with. something Dr. Goebbels would have admired. Apparently he knew nothing of or simply ignored The fact that it ran counter to mountains of the ineffectiveness of excommunication as a available documentary evidence and to political weapon in the cases of Elizabeth I of immensely important military and political events England, Napoleon, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, the whole world had seen before 1963made very and others. little impression on the critics then or since. Hitler and the Third Reich were not destroyed by Many of the Jewish leaders outside Germany, moral suasion or fervent denunciation from any enraged by the unjustified sufferings of their quarter or by a revolution in Germany, much less people and aware of how little they had been by a rising of the oppressed masses in the able to do (or in some cases tried to do) for them, occupied countries, but by the application from welcomed the chance to blame the Church for without of overwhelming armed might on a scale not having done enough, or if enough were never seen before. Most of that force was impossible, at least more,. Moreover, in their supplied by America and Russia so ,their leaders understandable determination to make sure that determined the' major part of the post-war the Holocaust never happened again, they were settlement. Stalin who, unlike Roosevelt, always (and are) making every effort to keep its memory knew exactly what he wanted, collected alive - a task made easier for them by their handsomely at Yalta and Potsdam for the exceptional prominence in the international manpower without which the President's fateful communications industry in all its branches. policy of unconditional surrender could not have been imposed on Germany. Not all the Jewish leaders followed Hochhuth. It is noteworthy that those who had known Pius XI Not all who hailed -The Deputy- really believed and Pius XII and knew what they had done for its thesis, but some important groups had the Jews, paid warm tributes to them in 1939, reasons of their own for using it. Many German 1945 and 1958. It was left for a younger Protestants were only too happy to unload the generation that -knew not Pius- to take up the blame for a heinous crime no one could defend cudgels in 1963. They were joined by all the on a hereditary enemy, the Catholic Church with traditionally anti-Catholic forces in the West its Italian Pope. It was easier than explaining to which, for a variety of reasons, are always ready

19 Volume 12. Number 1 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

to attack the Church. The Papacy was the only unacceptable theory of race, from which so many institution in Europe that had emerged from the of his crimes flowed that drew on Hitler the wreckage of the two World Wars stronger than unrelenting hostilityof Pius XIwhich was shown before. In particular the respect for Pius XI,the as early as 1928and was accepted fully by Pius veneration for Pius XII, and the unexampled XII. AfterWorldWar IIitself,for which Hitlerwas popularityofJohn XXIIIhad raised the prestige of responsible, his greatest crime was the the HolySee to a level unseen for centuries. Holocaust. The exact number of the victims will never be known. There are many discrepancies That Hochhuth ignited rather than created the among the estimates, but they really are anti-Catholic feeling "The Deputy" evoked, can irrelevant. It is safe to accept the generally used be seen by the failure of "Soldier", his second figure of a total of 14,000,000 of whom attempt at icon-smashing which appeared in 6,000,000 were Jews. Of the 8,000,000 Jews 1967. Surprised and elated by the success of his in non-Russian Europe, about 2,000,000 attack on Pius XII he tried to repeat a winning survived and of them about 800,000 were saved formula. This time his Goliath was Winston by the Church. Itwas a splendid achievement in Churchill (1874-1965) whom he accused of the light of the existing circumstances. Of complicity in the assassination in a plane course if it had been "enough" there would have accident of General Sikorski,then Premier of the been no Holocaust. It is essential to keep in Polish Government in Exile. There is no proof mindthat as the figures show, the Jews were not that the General was murdered and the moulders the only targets of Hitler's rage. He loathed the of public opinion who welcomed "The Deputy" Poles, especially, and all other Slavs among were unwillingto accept the attack on Churchill. others. In England, where libel is taken seriously, the pilot of Sikorski's plane sued for libel and was The authors of this book have done a real awarded 130,000pounds by a jury. service by telling a terrible story so calmly and temperately and providing the reader with One consequence of the heavy emphasis on copious references. Two other features the Holocaust has been the development and demand special commendation: a country by spread of a distorted perspective on WorldWar II country summary of what the Church tried and itself. As the War faded, inevitably, from the achieved wherever the German Army was public consciousness, and as awareness of the present, and a description of the difficulties Holocaust grew, the impression was created that encountered by the authors when they tried to the latter was as known and important to insure that wherever, as in NewJersey and New contemporaries as it has since become. The fact York, the states have mandated courses on the is itwas not a major concern to the AlliedPowers Holocaust, the story is told as accurately as while the hostilities lasted. It was not widely possible. A Preface by Father Robert A. known,as is shown by the revulsion and surprise Graham, S.J., a recognized expert on the on all sides when its full dimensions we re diplomatic history of the pontificate of Pius XII revealed. gives added value to this most useful book.

This is true especially ofAnti-Semitism,whichis a Msgr. Florence D. Cohalan distressing phenomenon of immemorialantiquity New York that was well known in the Greek and Roman world centuries before the time of Christ. It has many degrees, takes many forms and is rarely Homosexuality: The Test Case for Christian defined precisely. It had a long history in Social Ethics by James P. Hanigan, Paulist Germany, long before Luther supported it Press, New York, 1988, 194 pp., $9.95. vigorously. The term itself is relatively new and has been traced to ImperialGermany immediately after the Franco-Prussian War. It was then and The author sees homsexualityas a test case for a there that itwas based on race at a time whenthe theory of Christian ethics. He argues that the theories of the Master Race (whether Teutonic, two-in-one flesh unity in marriage is the more Anglo-Saxon or Nordic) was spreading in fundamental meaning and purpose of human Northern Europe. No American has to be told sexuality in its genital expression; but the that the idea of racial superiority was not purpose of procreation must be subordinate to invented by Hitler. the mutual love commitment of husband and wife; hence, in opposition to the traditional It was precisely this unalterable and wholly Christian ethic summed up in Humanae Vitae,

20 Volume 12. Number 1 Fellowshi,2 of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

Mr. Hanigan can find justification for birth may not be able to conform to the law of chastity, prevention. Accordingly, the impossibility of but is able to approximate the ideal: thus in that procreative purpose in homosexual intercourse logic masturbation is again not always the is not sufficientreason for regarding such activity normative ideal of sexuality. as not in harmony with the Christian ideal of sexuality. Still, he writes, homosexual intercourse does not fulfillthe Christian-Ideal. Although this book contains some brilliant because it lacks the vocational significance insights and useful distinctions, it suffers from which human sexual behavior ought to have. distortions and misleading positions. The author Only in Christian marriage is the vocational states that most human beings fall between the meaning of human sexual-genital actMty fulfilled; two extremes of exclusive homosexuality and ~ all other forms of sexual activity do not satisfy exclusive heterosexuality (p. 24); he should add completely the normative ideal of human sexual that the vast majorityof humans (94 per cent) are behavior. heterosexual with, at most, an insignificant .. attraction to homosexual activity. (Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse, Homosexuality: Symbolic Stating his conclusion (above) in nuanced Confusion) tentative, and, at times, vague language, Mr. Hanigan fails to reconcile even steady-lover homosexual liaisons with his understanding of Itake exception to the author's viewthat nothing Christian ethics. He turns to the notion of can be done to change the condition of an active vocation to solve the problem. For all its homosexual life style. The confessor does not ambiguity and concrete disorder sexuality he have to say: -I am sorry; I cannot help you: (p. states, remains a gift of God, pointing each one 27) Mr. Hanigan seems unaware of the fact that to a role of service to others inthe world, and so many Christian counselors, both Protestant and confronting us with a vocational choice. -The Catholic, clerical and lay, have been able to help key issue or question confronting every active homosexuals to change their way of lifeto Individualis not how to best satisfy one's sexual either a life of celibate Christian living (see my longings, but how to best express one's book, The Homosexual Person, New Thinking in sexuality in the service of the kingdom of God: Pastoral Care),or to move toward a heterosexual (pp. 186-187) orientation (see, among others, Leanne Payne, The Broken Image).

Mr. Hanigan's thesis is unconvincing. By Again, the author accepts the subjectivism of separating the unitive and procreative purposes Gregory Baum when he asserts that the most of human sexuality and by reducing procreation important factor in making an assessment of the to a non-personal function he weakens his moral quality of a sexual relationship is not its argument against homosexual activity. Inthe sexual character or form, but the quality of order of objective meaning there is no way one personal relationship between the partners. can subordinate the end of procreation to the good of the genital expression of marital love. I have manyother reservationsabout this book: His presupposition, moreover, that one cannot the author claims that Persona Humana: The have absolute certitude about any ethical theory Vatican Declaration on Sexual Ethics regard is misleading, for it fails to note that in practical homosexual orientation as an innate instinct matters of morality,all that is required personally (82). (In fact the document refers to it as auasi- is moral certitude. This reduces his thesis to a innatus, that is, as if innate); his uncritical support form of moral agnosticism. Ineffect, he says that of Dignity (p. 166); that only God, and not the we really do not know which position is true; Church, can make moral judgments about the thus, the official teaching of the magisterium lifestyle of homosexual persons (p. 171) and that concerning the immoralityof homosexual activity all significant human experience is ambiguous is reduced to a venerable opinion. ~ (p. 186). The author, for instance, does not knowwhether Yet, despite my criticisms, I concur with the there are any exceptions to the moral norm of author's insight into sin: -Sin is at root always a heterosexual marriage. He uses the term ideal form of active or passive idolatry, a kind of Instead of norm because it allows him a certain disordered love, which makes the loves of one's latitude in the Interpretation of moral law and of own mind or heart, or the loves of another's mind officialChurch teaching. Followingthat opening, or heart, superior to the mindful heart of God. exceptions can be made on the plea that one Sexual sin is no less idolatrous, for it gives to

21 Volume 12&Number 1 FeIIQws_hi,Rof Catholic Scholars tiewsletter December 1988 sexual pleasure and experience an importance that belongs only to the kingdom of God: (p. Reflecting, though she may not realize it, some 191). of the mainline Protestant attempts to square religion and the Enlightenment, Ms. McFague John F. Harvey, OSFS asserts that the authority of Scripture is the Courage, NewYork authority of a classic poetic text. She then echoes an old canard-ihe Bible is to be seen as great literature rather than as a document of The Battle for the Trinity:The Debate Over divine revelation...The Bible as model can never Inclusive God-Language by Donald G. Bloesch, be an idol. As poetic classic the Bible continues, Servant Publications, Ann Arbor, Michigan, as does any great poetic work, to speak 1985, 106 pp. $10.95 universallY-. 8Though I regard myself as pro-woman, I sense Another feminist, Jean Bolen, encourages her in the modern feminist movement an ominous hearers to offer prayers to such goddesses as drift toward a goddess spirituality, which calls Athena, Demeter, Artemis, and Aphrodite. And people into a new faith-orientation.8 NaomiGoldenberg calls for the restoration of the religion of witchcraft which is more in tune with This statement from the preface sets the tone of nature. prominent evangelical Christian scholar Bloesch's crusade against altering -Bible Professor Bloesch says we have to understand it language to desex it. Professor Bloesch scores is not we who name God. God names Himself, the feminists, some of their male supporters, and showing us who He Is-I am who I am (Ex 3:14 others for this. He is particularly critical of the New International Version). The name of God in Inclusive Language Lectionary of the National the Biblerepresents the very reality and being of Council of Churches. And he quotes all of his God. Itis in Hisname that He reveals Himselfand sources in such careful detail that he cannot be saves us-our help Is in the name of the Lord, validly accused of taking them out of context. who made heaven and earth (Ps 124:8 Revised This is an important, powerfulwork. Standard Version, italics the author's).

Mr. Bloesch startles us by showing how the Ifwe are to follow the biblical way, Mr. Bloesch feminist campaign mirrors the similar, and failed says, we will designate God as our Father and efforts of the 8German Christians8inthe 20s and the Church as our mother. We refer to the 3Os to accommodate Christianity to National motherhood of God Indirectly, he continues, Socialism. Insupport of his main thesis he says when we call the Church 80ur Holy Mother8. Rosemary Ruether proposes changing God to There is a divine side to the Church as well as a the metaphor Godless. He cites another human side and Protestants especially, .he feminist scholar as acknowledging that shift in believes, have lost sight of this dimension of the symbolism from God the Father to a Mother sacred by thinking of the Church primarily as a Goddess means a new religion. Two ofthe many gathered body of believers. He agrees with the telling quotes he gives are: advisory Council on Discipleship and Worship in the Presbyterian Church (USA) that the Witchcraft is the only western religion traditional formula (Father, Son and HolySpirit) that recognizes woman as a divinity in speaks to who God is, whereas the substitutes Her own right.- NaomiGoldenberg are generally functional terms describing what the triune God does. We (should) enrich our imagery of female divinity by meditation on the In the area of equating feminist campaigns to HinduGoddesses: -Rita Gross change the language with that of the 8German Christians8, Bloesch Is working over a theme The seeming rejection by some feminists of the (parallels between any current movement and divinityof Christ, Mr.Bloesch says, goes farther Hitlerism) that is being done nearly to death. toward a new faith: SallieMcFague,for example, However, his treatment of it is compelling. For says -while we look through the story of Jesus example, he cites a pointed letter of scholar to gain an understanding of what it means to live Harold P. Nebelsick to the Office of Worship of under God's rule we cannot make the illegitimate the Presbyterian Church (USA) that provides move of IdentifyingJesus with God8. striking parallels between modern feminist word- changers and the 8German Christians8 (a

22

, Volume 12. Num_ber 1 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988 congeries of groups within the churches in come to recognize the bankruptcy of the Germany inthe '205 and '305that tried to workan theology that describes Jesus only as the model accomodation with NationalSocialism). Bloasch, of -Transformative Love-, who simply aids us in on the basis of his own researches and his understanding. -God Is not merely a model of correspondence with Professor Nebelsick, sees love-, says Bloesch, -but the God who loves- the similaritiesas glaring and beyond dispute. even to the point of death on the cross-. Among the -German Christians- who gained And surprising to us is the author's insistence on ascendancy in the movement, the idea of a Tradition as well as Scripture as our guide for creator God is replaced by a God immanentinthe understanding our religion. For example, he historical process. God is no longer Almighty says (p. 26), -God reveals not only Himself but Creator of the World but the soul of the race. To also His plan of salvation. He tells us not only one of the movement's leaders, Bishop who He is, but also what He demands from us as Hossenfelder, -Christ is an heroic fighter, a His people. We have this revelation primarily in helper and a conqueror, rather than the mediator the testimony of Holy Scripture though this between God and man-. original revelation is amplified and illumined in the tradition of the Church-. Heretofore, I Third Reich Bishop Mueller in 1936 offered a believe, only the Catholic Church has said this revised version of the Sermon on the Mount. In withany regularity. the King James version, Matthew 5:5 reads: -Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be The main thrust of The Battle for the Trinityiswell comforted-. Bishop Mueller's version was: summed up in its penultimate paragraph: -Just -Happy is he who bears his suffering like a man; as the people of Israel had to maintain the purity he will find strength never to despair without of the faith in the battle against the cult of the courage-. MotherGoddess, and just as the early Christians had to resist the lure of the Gnostic attempts to Even more disturbing was that Joachim Niedlich, dilute the particularistic claims of the faith, so founder of the League for a German Church, Christians today have to contend for the religion urged that hymn books and liturgy be purged of of Christ crucified and risen in the face of the all Jewish expressions! Substitute -sexist- for recrudenscence of both Baalism and -Jewish- and you have the modern feminist Gnosticism.- crusade. Niedlichalso edited a -German Matins- for use in church liturgy, which he hoped might John J. Farrell serve as -building stones for the new and holy Oak Park, Illinois shrine of Germanism-.

Professor Bloesch sums up his appraisal of this The Reflections of an Unorthodox Christian by issue by saying that the goal of life in both these Theodore Abel, Privately published, 4200 movements is no longer the glory of God but the Sunningdale, N.E., Albuquerque, New Mexico, realization of human potential. 87110,1986,134 pp., no price listed (paper). Among the names for God he has culled these from the suggestion of the language-changers: Religious sociologists and sociologists of Ground of Being, Creative Source, Creative religion alike willfind this monograph useful. A Process, All Determining Reality, the recently deceased eminent social theorist who Unconditional, Spiritual Presence, 'Womb of was trained in both philosophy and sociology Being,Primal Matrix,Immanent Mother,Creatrix, and who has long advocated a -scientific- Godless, The DivineGeneratrix, Shalom of the sociology, Polish-born Theodore Abel (1896- Holy, Source of Sustenance, and Cosmic 1988) offers his own personal interpretation of Benefactor. the Christian faith. His overall message: -one can be a believing and born-again Christian and To Professor Bloesch, as to us, none of these not be orthodox and a fundamentalist- (p. 1). titles is even adequate. He comments: -God is Writinginthe spiritof Peter Berger'sA Rumorof not just the first cause of the universe, but the Angels (1969)and The Heretical Imperative AlmightyOne Who Holds the Whole World InHis (1979),heanalyzessuchtopics as salvation,the Hands-, and We can know Jesus Christ as Lord second coming, creation and evolution and Savior only when his spirit moves us to confess Himas Lord and Savior-. Then we will (continued on page 24)

23 Volume 12, Number 1 Fellowship' of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988 spirituality and immortality, evil and Satan, the Vol. 12, #3, June 15, 1985, pp. 7-8). problem of hell, among others. In doing so he offers the reader an excellent example of what Two quick responses are in order here from a Ernest Troeltsch meant by the highly reviewer who advocates the resurrection of the individualistic and syncretic mode of religious idea of "Catholic sociologies". The first is that belief supposedly endemic to the modern world the body of Catholic social thought is capable, in (or at least notoriouslyso among social scientists principle, of producing a coherent sociological who are religiously musicaJ), Le" "mysticism". theory (ortheories). The second is that even in Abel consistently takes very liberal positions on the event that a Christian sociology is unable to the issues he addresses; he is to born-again produce a unique and distinctive theory, Christianity what Hans Kung is to Roman following Margaret Poloma, "it can supply a Catholicism. Abel hopes that his reflections "will perspective that may be integrated in other encourage readers to take those steps toward theoretical paradigms" ("Toward a Christian self-determination of their beliefs. I also hope Sociological Perspective" Sociological Analysis. that in rejecting the claims of religious and Vol. 43, #2, Summer, 1982, p. 105). Another secular fundamentalists to know the absolute Christian sociologist, David Lyon,hedges his bet truth, they will refrain from becoming on this issue carefully and intelligently:"the kind fundamentalists themselves and practice the of critical integration proposed may open the Christianvirtue of tolerance", door for 'alternative' types of sociological theorizing, but more likelyis a continuation of a Christian sociologists will find two of -Abe"s complex conversation with existing sociology" positions worthy of in-depth investigation. The (Sociology and the Human Image,.1983, p. first is Abel's understanding that the fields of 194). theology, philosophy, and science are autonomous, that they operate in different The second issue, not explicitly addressed in frames of reference, and that they are in no way the volume but very real nonetheless, revolves incompatible or in conflict (pp. 63-4). The around Abel's simultaneous Dositing of 1) the implication here-one that he explicityly states usefulness of "verstehen" in the sociological elsewhere-is that there can be no such thing as research process and 2) the maintenance of a "Christian sociology". For Abel, "a disposition sharp boundaries between religion, philosophy, (attitude or intent) is not sufficient to create a and science. Scholars are urged to contact Dr. branch of a science" (Christian Sociological Abel's widow regarding information as to how to Newsletter, Vol. 5, #2, February 15, 1977, p. 4) acquire his important manuscript. and "to say there is a Christian sociology would mean that there are principles of Christianitythat Joseph A.Varacalli are basic to sociology, and these principles Nassau CommunityCollege constitute Christian sociology. This makes no NewYork sense to me" (Christian Sociological Newsletter, Letters to the Editor

Dear Sir: bear out this judgment. Though I know your space is limited, certainly such a text merits more attention. While I usually enjoy your newsletter, I don't think a fair review has been given in your J~ne '88 Second, and more important, the review issue to the book "Canons and Commentaries on contains the misleading statement that the book Marriage (Gramunt, Hervada, Wauck). "dodges the critical question of whether almost any marriage can now be attacked on psychological First because the review was so brief. Please grounds"...The books stated purpose is to elucidate keep in mind that to date this is the only canonical the canons on marriage in a clear and analytical way. book on Matrimony, published in the U.S.A. on the new It is not meant to attack current abuses of U.S. code, that upholds the Church's teaching on the marriage tribunals, or to represent one school of sacrament. As Bishop Keating notes in the foreward: thought over another. To infer that the authors were "The authors give a very clear and concise account of deliberately avoiding something, or not confronting how the Church goes about its sacred trust of something, is unfair.. teaching, celebrating, upholding the sacrament, safeguarding its holiness and dignity through her substantive law..." (see p. vii). And indeed the book's Rev. Michael Giesler, S.T.D. carefully reasoned considerations of each new canon Chicago" Illinois,

24

1 Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowship' of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

~ Iterg~-~!J _I!t~rest.

Search for Director of I congratulate C.U.F.and Iwouldask that Pastoral Education: Mount Saint Mary's my congratulations be extended to Fr. Joseph Seminary is conducting a nationwidesearch for a Fessio, S.J. and Ignatius Press for adding this priest to serve in the seminary administration as series of books to the repertoire of Catholic Directorof Pastoral Education. He willsupervise works they have already published.." the training of students in effective pastoral programs and relate their work to the mission of Christendom College - the Church. He should be faithful to the Philosophy: Applications are invited for a Magisterium and have acquired the permission position in the Department of Philosophy, of his diocesan bishop or religious superior. He beginning August, 1989. Christendom College should be ordained at least five years, with a is a four-year Roman Catholic liberal arts college priority placed on his pastoral experience and institutionally committed to the Magisterium of appropriate academic work. the Catholic Church and to the spirit, method and principles of St. Thomas Aquinas. Position requires competence in Thomistic metaphysics Applications and recommendations and epistemology and special competence in should be directed, by December 15,1988,to the Chairman of the Search Committee: contemporary philosophy, phenomenological realism and the thought of Karol WoytylalPope John Paul II. Salary and rank commensurate with The Rev. J. Michael Beers, Ph.D. qualifications and experience. Mount Saint Mary's Seminary Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727-7797 Send curriculumvitae to: (301) 447-5295 Dr. Robert C. Rice The CUFllgnatius Press Vice President for Academic Affairs catechetical series has received many nice Christendom College endorsements. Front Royal, Virginia 22630

From Cardinal Gagnon of the Pontifical President - Georgia State Councilfor the Family. University: The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia announces its The Second Vatican Council called search for a new President at Georgia State upon the laity to take up its share of the &urden Universityto take office on July 1, 1989. of evangelization, so responding to the universal call to holiness. These catechisms are splendid Georgia State Universityis located in the example of the apostolate of Catholics Unitedfor heart of Atlanta. Some 22,000 diverse students the Faith responding generously to these major are presently enrolled in undergraduate, themes of the Council. graduate and professional degree programs. The university has one of the largest graduate It is particularly important for parents to programs in the Southeast. The academic know that these texts provide the Faith whole colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business and complete in each of the eight primary grade Administration, Education, Law, Heath levels. I am impressed by the magnificent art Sciences, and Public and Urban Affairs offer work utilized throughout the series to support more than 50 degree programs and 250 majors. the teaching in each chapter and to transmit a sense of Catholic culture. Candidates should have a distinguished record of accomplishments in teaching, research I remember wellwhen C.U.F. began this and administration in higher education or major project. Now,Istand in admiration ofwhat executive-level accomplishments and a working has been achieved, and I hope that bishops, knowledge of higher education. A doctorate or priests, religious, teachers and catechists will appropriate terminal degree is desirable. recognize the balance of sound content and good methods. I hope that C.U.F.willdo all in its Nominations should include the power to promote this series, and that donors nominee's current address. Applications should can be found to subsidize the printing of these include a letter of interest, a curriculumvitae and catechisms in other languages, especially the names and address of five persons who can Spanish. serve as references.

25 . Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowshi2 of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

Dr. H. Dean Propst, Chancellor "We have previously drawn your attention University System of Georgia to the postgraduate research degrees in Islamic 244 Washington Street, S.W. studies, which this Centre offers in conjunction Atlanta, Georgia 30334 with the University of Birmingham. I should now like to provide you with more details of the one- Don't miss two excellent articles re year MA programme. With its three taught feminism in the Social Justice Review: one courses and dissertation...the MA programme is a reprint of Msgr. John McCarthy's appraisal of has the advantage of offering a well-instructed the Bishops' proposed pastoral on women from close relationship between teacher and student Living Tradition; the other is Don DeMarco's Clearly limited to a 12-month period, it is also superb piece The Marxist Roots of predictable in terms of the commitment of time Contemporary Feminism. Both appeared in and resources required. Many students the SJR's September-October issue. Address embarking on the first stage of postgraduate is: 3835 Westminster Place., St. Louis, MO work find these elements of certainty preferable 36108. to the less clear circumstances of direct progression to a degree by research only, such Despite Georgetown University's as the M.Phii. stated neutrality on an effort in Congress to exempt it from a District law protecting the rights "The MA offers an integrated of homosexual student groups, the school's programme which stands on its own, and at the president spoke out against the effort same time it lays a firm foundation for students considering progressing to doctoral research "It's a bad law; it isn't going to work," said work... " the Rev. Timothy Healy in regard to the so-called Armstrong amendment.. New International Organization

"Most Catholic colleges and universities On November 11, 1988, the have responded to secular learning," he said. International Society of Ethics (tentative title) was Increased excellence in these areas are required formed. Its purpose is basically similar to that of for Catholic colleges to receive the kind of grants the Fellowship. Its aim is to support the and endowments received by secular schools, teachings of the Church, particularly in areas of he said. morality and ethics. Its membership is open to those engaged professionally in teaching ethics "We're still playing catch-up" in that area, and moral theology, or in professions where he said... issues of ethics loom large, e.g., the medical and legal professions, higher education, etc. Two "In American law and in reality, a Catholic Fellowship members are on the board of" university is not a form of the church's life but a directors, namely, Germain Grisez and Bill May. secular university in which the Church lives, In subsequent Newsletter more information will , functions and exercises her influence," he said. I" be given. II Regarding the lawsuit by the homosexual Catholic Principles at Work student groups, Father Healy said, "The university has arrived at, after a long struggle, an A relatively recent foundation of the honorable solution to a difficult problem: Sisters of Mercy is doing good work in the field of health care. Founded by Mother Maureen He described the agreement reached McDonald, the foundation of these Sisters in through the courts between Georgetown and Alma, Michigan, works in cooperation with local the homosexual groups as "holding a balance Catholic physicians and dentists in an effort to between legal rights and pastoral responsibility: bring the truth of Catholic teaching to the care of their patients. The Sisters themselves are The Washinaton Times. 10-27-88 professionally educated. Among their members are an internist, Sister Firestone, another is a surgeon, Sister Kotorba, another a psychiatrist, Sister Weber. The community operates under From: The Centre for the Study of Islam the leadership of Mother Margaret Mary Turner. and Christian-Muslim Relations, Selly Oak Their work needs to be made known. They are Colleges, .996 Bristol Road, Birmingham B29 fine work. Subsequent Newsletter will give more 6LO, United Kingdom, telephone: 021-472- details. 4231:

26 l Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowshi)! of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History context, and cites primary and secondary sources for by Baruch Halpern, Harper and Row, 285 pp., additional research. $22.95 How Bishops Decide: An American Catholic Case These eleven chapters, written by a Study by Philip F. Lawler, Ethics and Public Policy Canadian, are of Interest to professional biblical Center, Washington, D.C.,41pp., no price). historians. Professor Halpern argues against the reductionism that views the bible as literature only; This is a valuable booklet by the editor of the and also against the Fundamentalism that takes Boston Pilot. In five short chapters Mr. Lawler every detail of it to be literallytrue. In his judgment summarizes recent Catholic social thought and then historical texts are to be examined for what they dissects the process by which the United States mean to say, more than for what they say. He offers Bishops came to publish their recent pastorals on what he calls a fresh understanding of the peace and economics. He discusses the ideologies historiography of the bible. Specialists will be involvedand the committee work which turned drafts challenged and probably pleased. into approved documents. His final treatment of the levels of authority for different segments of these When Theology Listens to the Poor by Leonard letters is incisive. Wellworth reading. Boff,Harper and Row, 147 pp. $18.95~ A Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality: Part 3, These seven chapters are essays 0 n Christ in Context by Paul M. Van Buren, Harper and liberation theology unadorned and bluntly stated. Row, 312 pp., $29.95 We obtain the flavor of his thinkingfrom his treatment of the Eucharist which for him is a symbol of The third of a four-volume study of the communion with others, not the worship of God or relationship of Christianity to Judaism. The author reconciliationwith Him. He quotes favorably the view expresses his views frankly: Jesus is not unique of Jose Castillo who thinks that once the eyes of the divinitybut a recapitulation of God's covenant with clergy are opened to the need for a collective the Jewish people. He is one of God's messages - evangelization of the entire Church, the liturgical a reconfirmation of the Jews during the Exodus. situation will be revitalized: -The solution will be Christianity, therefore, should abandon its concept found not in 'ecclesiastical decisions', but in of universality and see itself as part of the creation 'community options'. We face a problem affecting process, not an end in Itself. the whole Church. The Church is not just clergy. It will have to be the community, therefore - each Introducing the Old Testament by John Drane, concrete community that celebrates the Eucharist - Harper and Row, 352 pp., $19.95 who take responsibility for their (sic) Eucharistic celebrations and their concrete manner of This lecturer In religious studies at Sterling 'proclaiming the death of the Lord' before society: Universityin Scotland incorporates into his thirteen (pp. 101-102) chapters all the latest biblical and archaeological research he could put his hand on. His drawings, 19th and 20th Century Theological Texts, by Harper maps and pictures are intended to, and often do aid and Row, $19.95 each. readers working their way through the maze of biblicalevents and personalities. The framework is This series offers theologians who, since the hlstorlco-critical and of use to Catholics, even Enlightenment, have had a major influence on the though not Catholic in inspiration. development of Christian theology: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, (edited by John de Gruchy); Friedrich IGnatius Press Schleiermacher, (edited by Keith Clements); Paul Three books almost form a trilogy. Tillich, (edited by Mark Kone Taylor); Rudolf Bultman", (edited by Roger Johnson). The Teaching of Humanae Vitae: A Defenseby John C. Ford, S.J., Germain Grisez, Joseph Boyle, Each volume follows the development of John Finnls, 219 pp., $12.95 one theologian's thought, provides historical (contil1J8d on p.28)

27 Volume 12 Number 1 Fellowship' of Catholic Scholars Newsletter December 1988

Twenty-four sermons from evangelical writers. Bishop Ullathorne, Christian Classics, 184 pp., $9.95 Reprint of Bishop Ullathorne's well-known Pillars of Flame: Power, Priesthood and Spiritual Maturity treatise, first published in 1855, following the definition of by Maggie Ross, Harper and Row 214 pp., $17.95 the doctrine. An indictment of the Church's view of the Catholic priesthood. Recommended by Rosemary Our VitalReserves bj WilliamJames, Christian Radford Reuther! Classics, 58 pp., $8.95 It is hard to understand why essays on energy The Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God by and relaxation are called Christian classics.

Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter Non-Profit argo Published by St. John's University U.S. Postage Jamaica, New York 11439 PAl D Jamaica, NY 11439 Permit No. 451

(Humanae Vitae- continued from p. 18) taught his theology of sexuality), pedagogical problem was one of an inadequate 2) The gradual recognition by couples that mediating role by the clergy. They simply contraception is dishonest because it is a withholding assumed that the old adherence of the people to of part of their love, the creative part. The Pope is authority of Christ in the Pope and the Bishops was telling them that they musttrulymeanwhatthey are practically sufficient, that commands didn't need to saying with their bodies. People today want to live be supported by knowledge. The clergy usually want noble, honest lives; and with that they have won a to be popular; they dislike controversy; they don't deeper consciousness of their sexuality. want to dash people's hopes, bring bad "news. And 3) The disposition of younger clergy and they had not catechised enough about sexual seminarians and religious educators (who no longer morality. carry the emotional baggage of the 60's and 70's) to accept the teaching of HV. But Bishops have to lead But all of that is in the past. We look to the the way, especially in correcting wrong moralteaching future, for the Holy Spirit is always at work, providing in seminaries. Teachers must be found who not only the resources and the will to correct what has teach correctly, but believe what they teach. happened: Dissenters must be refuted and its privileged position restored to the Magisterium. Minds are opening. 1) The enriched reformulation of the tradition 4) The hopefulness of this historic moment; it by John Paul II ; this gives new tools for reaching the is our second chance. Those who believe HV have to people, and especially seminarians (who must be act accordingly.

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