Matters of Church and State

                                  HIDDEN SEEDS OF HOPE

               It’s challenging to see seeds of hope in the thuggish behavior of Vatican enforcers and some of U.S. Catholic bishops.  But the more outrageous their behavior, the more it underscores how far removed they are from what most of us understand as authentic Christianity and Catholicism.  And the more it gives Catholics the freedom to follow their consciences and decide for themselves what constitutes authentic Catholic teaching.

         The latest incident that sparked this posting is the way the Vatican came down on 92-year old Jesuit priest, Fr. William Brennan, S.J., for supporting the ordination of women.  As reported by the “The National Catholic Report,” Brennan, “a retired parish priest and former missionary to Belize, participated in a liturgy Nov. 17 with Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a woman ordained in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests movement.”  This constitutes a “grievous and unpardonable offense,” according to the Vatican.

Ninety-two year old Fr. Brennan is in an assisted-living facility in Milwaukee. Still, the Vatican saw fit to impose the following harsh measures for his “grievous and unpardonable offense:”

•        Suspension of priestly faculties, prohibiting him from performing any priestly duties in public;

•        Refraining from contact with media, "through phone, email, or any other means";

•        Not appearing as a Jesuit at any "public gatherings, protests or rallies";

•        Not leaving the Milwaukee area "for any reason" without his superior's permission. 

This Vatican action comes on the heels of the its equally harsh action taken against Maryknoll priest, Fr. Ray Bourgeois, a priest for 45-years, who also publicly supports the ordination of women.  Like Fr. Brennan, he attended and participated in Catholic liturgies with an ordained woman.  As a result, Father Bourgeois is no longer allowed to perform priestly functions and has been removed from the Maryknoll Order.  He is now a layman. 

But, of course, we have not heard the last of Ray Bourgeois or Jesuit Bill Brennan.  Most Catholics had never heard of either one up to this point.  But, they have now -- and they will hear more in the coming months.  Both will become heroes and poster children as victims of cruel, unfair, abuse by higher authorities.  In fact, the Vatican has given the cause of women’s ordination a push that the most prominent Public Relations firm couldn’t in its wildest imagination have hoped to achieve. 

Like Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other fading dictators have slowly learned, you doesn’t gain approval points by bombing your own people.  It just speeds the day when your hold on power will come to an end.  That’s a lesson the Vatican has still not learned.        

As a lifelong Catholic, I find this sad, but at the same time I see rays of hope.  There is no way a Church of any moral credibility can continue to be a witness to the Gospel message while denying women full participation in the life of the Church.  That’s a given and it’s just a matter of time before women will become priests and bishops.  Not in my lifetime, to be sure, but it will happen. 

In that hope, I take comfort in these lines written by longtime friend, Fr. Dave G. Schultenover, S.J., Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly publication “Theological Studies.”  This excerpt is taken from his column in the December 2011 issue in which he laments the unfulfilled bright promise of Vatican II held out to us 50 years ago:

 

“Approached in deep faith, hope, and love, the pain of the present situation can be seen as the labor pains accompanying the Church that is still being born out of Vatican II… It will take the Church many generations to appropriate the graces of Vatican II in a practical, faithful way.  In the process, we can rejoice that we lament.  Lamentation indicates that we love the Church, that we mourn its losses and failures, but that enduring grief faces the future with undiminished hope.”

 

Gerald E. Lavey