Letter #31, 2019: Celibacy and Amazon Synod

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Letter #31, 2019: Celibacy and Amazon Synod

[2019-06-20]

[Engleză]

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Christian faith has from its earliest years regarded virginity and sexual restraint with great respect and reverence, and this has played a central role in the requirement in the Roman Catholic Church that priests not be married, and if married, that they be sexually continent

The Question of Celibacy, Continence, and the Priesthood

Today I wanted to explore briefly the question that has some to center stage in the past two days, following the presentation Monday, June 17 in the Vatican Press Office of the "working document" (Instrumentum Laboris) for the upcoming October 6-27 Special Bishops' Synod on the vast Amazon Region which constitutes the heart of South America.

In that document, the organizers of the Synod on behalf of Pope Francis speak of many environmental and cultural issues which are not central to Church teaching.

But in one passage, the document is explicit: the authors say they would like to propose the ordination of married men to the priesthood.

Here is the passage where this is proposed:

2. Affirming that celibacy is a gift for the Church, it is asked that, for the most remote areas of the region, the possibility of priestly ordination for elders, preferably indigenous ones, who are respected and accepted by their community, be studied, even though they may already have an established and stable family, in order to ensure the Sacraments that accompany and support Christian life.

This proposal is one that many people today consider "the most ordinary thing in the world."

And that is precisely the concern.

Because the Christian priesthood, and the Christian life, has never been "the most ordinary thing in the world," but rather, something much closer to "the most extraordinary thing in the world."

And if the Christian priesthood, or the Christian life, becomes "ordinary," then it loses something of its transcendent quality, which bears witness to a realm above this world, or within this world, a realm that transcends space and time, and partakes of eternity -- a realm which rises above sin and its wages, which are death, and opens the way to that holiness which can never be touched by corruption, by death, and so partakes of eternal life.

All of this may sound quite silly to most modern men or women.

But all of this made profound sense to the early Christians who are our fathers and mothers in the faith.

For these Christians, and their bishops and Popes, the joys of the Christian life did not exclude marriage and sexual relations — the Christians always taught that marriage was a good thing, and having children a great blessing — but their lives, and their identities, were never oriented solely toward, or focused solely upon, those relations.

Sense perception itself, and so sensuality -- the experience of reality by means of the senses -- was regarded as less reliable and less profoundly "in touch" with reality than the perception of the soul, and of the mind, because it was evident to many that all material things pass away, but that all spiritual things remain untouched by time.

Indeed, it might well be argued that the loves of any human life were seen as 90 percent, or more, the loves that have nothing whatsoever to do with sexuality in its erotic sense -- such loves as those between brothers and sisters, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren, between friends.... and even the love between a husband and a wife, as the long days and years of caring for one another, and others, unfolding though many labors and toils and worries, for all of these days of work are intertwined, interlaced, with agape love, though our present, post-Christian society tends generally to give no or little value to such non-erotic days and times and joys.

Such a poor society... which struggles to perceive where true love is.

In this context, it seemed fitting to look for an account of the reasons the early Church embraced the doctrine and discipline which asked priests to be sexually restrained, sexually continent, when celebrating the sacred mysteries.

I understand that these reasons, these beliefs, may seem startlingly odd to many, but the fact that the early Christians held these beliefs seems clear.

And if we depart from the traditions and beliefs of our ancestors, it ought to be for profound and serious reasons, not light and frivolous ones.

=================

A Controversial Synod Document

Here is a brief article by Diane Montagna published by LifeSiteNews on June 17 the presentation of the Synod document. It contains some of the more controversial passages in the text (see especially the last two paragraphs below, in bold-face). The text as a whole has not yet been published in English, only in Spanish and Italian (link).

Monday June 17, 2019

Vatican’s Amazon Synod to discuss allowing married priests, letting bishops ‘adapt’ Mass

By Diane Montagna

ROME, June 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican today released the working document for the Special Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, being held in Rome Oct. 6-27.

The 64-page document, which will form the basis of discussion at the upcoming Synod, suggests that local bishops’ conferences “adapt the Eucharistic rite to their cultures,” that the Church consider ordaining married “elders” to the priesthood, and that Synod fathers identify the “official ministry that can be conferred on women,” given their prominent role in Amazonian culture.

The document also suggests that it’s time to reconsider “the notion that the exercise of jurisdiction (power of government) must be linked in all areas (sacramental, judicial, administrative) and in a permanent way to the Sacrament of Holy Orders.”

General structure of the working document

At a Vatican press conference today, the general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, offered an overview of the working document. Composed of three main parts, the instrumentum laboris relies heavily on Pope Francis’s encyclicals Evangelii Gaudium and Laudato si’.

Part I, titled "The Voice of the Amazon," is divided into four chapters on ‘life’, ‘territory’, ‘time’ and ‘dialogue’.

Part II, titled "Integral Ecology: The Cry of the Earth and of the Poor," contains 8 chapters dealing with issues such as "extractivist destruction," isolation, migration, urbanization, family and community, corruption, and integral health and education.

Part III, titled a "Prophetic Church in the Amazon: Challenges and Hope," also contains 8 chapters and deals with topics such as the challenges of inculturation, the "celebration of faith," the "organization of communities," evangelization in the cities, ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and the media.

Here below we offer readers a working translation of Part III, chapters 3 and 4, which contain the controversial passages (and others) noted above.

***

Chapter III

THE CELEBRATION OF THE FAITH: AN ENCULTURED LITURGY

“Evangelization with joy becomes beauty in the liturgy, as part of our daily concern to spread goodness” (EG, 24)

124. Sacrosanctum Concilium (cf. 37-40, 65, 77, 81) proposes that the liturgy should be inculturated among the indigenous peoples. Cultural diversity assuredly does not threaten the unity of the Church but expresses its genuine catholicity and shows forth the “beauty of her varied face”(EG 116). That is why “we must be bold enough to discover new signs and new symbols, new flesh to embody and communicate the word, and different forms of beauty which are valued in different cultural settings…” (EG 167). Without this inculturation, the liturgy can be reduced to a “museum piece” or the “property of a select few” (EG 95).

125. The celebration of the faith must take place through inculturation so that it may be an expression of one’s own religious experience and of the bond of communion of the community that celebrates it. An inculturated liturgy will also be a sounding board for the struggles and aspirations of the communities and a transforming impulse towards a “land without evils.”

Suggestions:

126. The following should be kept in mind:

a) A process of discernment is needed regarding the rites, symbols and styles of celebration of indigenous cultures in contact with nature, which need to be integrated into the liturgical and sacramental ritual. It is necessary to be attentive to grasp the true meaning of symbols that transcends the merely aesthetic and folkloric, especially in Christian initiation and marriage. It is suggested that the celebrations should be festive, with their own music and dances, using indigenous languages and clothing, in communion with nature and with the community. A liturgy that responds to their own culture so that it may be the source and summit of their Christian life (cf. SC 10) and linked to their struggles, sufferings and joys.

b) The sacraments must be a source of life and a remedy accessible to all (cf. EG 47), especially the poor (cf. EG 200). We are asked [it is necessary] to overcome the rigidity of a discipline that excludes and alienates, and practice pastoral sensitivity that accompanies and integrates (cf. AL 297, 312).

c) Communities find it difficult to celebrate the Eucharist frequently because of the lack of priests. “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist” and the Eucharist builds the Church. Therefore, instead of leaving the communities without the Eucharist, change is requested in the criteria for selecting and preparing ministers authorized to celebrate the Eucharist.

d) In accordance with a “sound ‘decentralization’” of the Church (cf. EG 16) the communities request that the Episcopal Conferences adapt the Eucharistic rite to their cultures.

e) The communities ask for a greater appreciation, accompaniment and promotion of the piety with which the poor and simple people express their faith through images, symbols, traditions, rites and other sacramentals. All this happens through community associations that organize various events such as prayers, pilgrimages, visits to shrines, processions and festivals celebrating the patron saint. This is evidence of a wisdom and spirituality that forms a real theological locus with great evangelizing potential (cf. EG 122-126).

CHAPTER IV

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMUNITIES

“It is fair to acknowledge that there are encouraging initiatives that emerge from your own local realities and from your organizations”(Address of Pope Francis, January 19, 2018)

The cosmovision of the natives

127. The Church must be incarnated in the cultures of the Amazon that have a pronounced sense of community, equality and solidarity — and that is why clericalism is not accepted in all its guises. The native peoples have a rich tradition of social organization where authority is rotational and has a deep sense of service. Given this experience of organization, it would be opportune to reconsider the notion that the exercise of jurisdiction (power of government) must be linked in all areas (sacramental, judicial, administrative) and in a permanent way to the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Geographical and pastoral distances

128. In addition to the plurality of cultures in the Amazon, distances generate a serious pastoral challenge that cannot be solved by mechanical and technological means alone. Geographical distances give rise to cultural and pastoral distances which; it follows that a “pastoral ministry of visiting” needs to give way to a “pastoral ministry of presence.” This requires the local Church to reconfigure in all its dimensions: ministries, liturgy, sacraments, theology and social services.

Suggestions:

129. The following suggestions from the communities recall aspects of the early Church when it responded to needs by creating appropriate ministries (cf. Acts 6:1-7; 1 Tim 3:1-13):

a. New ministries to respond more effectively to the needs of the peoples of the Amazon:

1. Promote vocations among indigenous men and women in order to respond to the need for pastoral and sacramental care. Their critical contribution is in the movement towards an authentic evangelization from the indigenous point of view, according to their customs and traditions. It is a matter of indigenous people who preach to indigenous people with a profound knowledge of their culture and language, capable of communicating the message of the Gospel with the strength and effectiveness of those who have their own cultural background. It is necessary to move from a “Church that visits” to a “Church that remains,” accompanies and is present through ministers who emerge from its own inhabitants.

2. Affirming that celibacy is a gift for the Church, it is asked that, for the most remote areas of the region, the possibility of priestly ordination for elders, preferably indigenous ones, who are respected and accepted by their community, be studied, even though they may already have an established and stable family, in order to ensure the Sacraments that accompany and support Christian life.

3. Identify the type of official ministry that can be conferred on women, considering the central role they play today in the Amazon Church.

[End, article by Diane Montagna]

==============

ď»żSpecial Note to Readers: I would like to ask readers of these letters to join me by sponsoring this work (here is a link to the donation page: link.) Even small monthly donations (say, $2.50 per month, the price of a cup of coffee) would be much appreciated, and help cover the costs of travel and filing reports. —RM

A Married Priesthood?

"We do not dispute that there were married clerics; this point is settled historically. What needs to be examined and settled is whether these married clerics were sexually active -- whether they made use of their conjugal rights -- or whether they practiced continence. And, if they practiced continence, whether they did so by pious custom or because of positive legislation compelling them to be continent. As we shall see, the unanimous teaching of the Church throughout the first seven centuries is that all men ordained to Major Orders were expected to observe perfect continence." —Boniface (the pen-name of an American Catholic writer), in an essay (printed below) which studies the early teaching of the Church on priestly celibacy and sexual continence (link)

"Pope Benedict's assertion -- that Christ's virginity is the point of reference for clerical celibacy -- does not appear a single time in any patristic source. There is simply no Church Father or synod that argues that priests should be celibate because Christ was. Not that this and other arguments do not have their place in the overall discussion; clearly they all have their own value. Yet none of them constitute the prime reason for the discipline, at least according to the Fathers. And what is that reason? What is the teaching that the discipline of celibacy was meant to buttress? The clear and consistent teaching of the Fathers is that it is impure and impious for a man to offer the Eucharistic sacrifice to God if he is sexually active." —Ibid.

"It is undeniable that absolute continence was expected of all clerics in the early Church, both married and unmarried. Married men were expected to 'convert' to continence and abstain permanently from conjugal relations with their wives. However, the wives were not 'divorced' or 'put away'; they were expected to still retain a common life with their husband, although as a sister to a brother. The married cleric still had an obligation to care for and love his wife with the exception of conjugal relations." —Ibid.

Here I reprint a lengthy article, with many citations from Church Fathers, arguing that, for the early Church, sexual continence was universally required for all ordained priests. This seems to be something that is not being discussed by anyone who is debating the ordination of married men to the priesthood, so it seems useful to add this material to the debate. The article may be found on the Unam Sanctam Catholicam website (link).—RM

==========

The Truth About Priestly Continence and Celibacy in the Early Church

By Boniface (link)

The discipline of priestly celibacy is one of those practices of the Catholic Church that are under intense attack in the modern age.

However, it happens too frequently that the discussion about celibacy is framed incorrectly, which leads to conclusions that, while sometimes true, miss the point entirely and can lead unintentionally to further errors.

For example, everyone agrees that priestly celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma.

This is established by the fact that for many, many centuries the Church admitted married men to Holy Orders.

This fact is not disputed, or at least it should not be. Anyone who denies there were married priests in the first six or seven centuries of the Church has simply not read enough of the Fathers.

But there is a danger in over-stressing the disciplinary nature of celibacy.

It must be remembered that ecclesiastical disciplines exist for the sake of safe-guarding the truth of Catholic dogma.

The Eucharistic fast (discipline) exists to bear witness to and affirm the truth of our Lord's Real Presence in the transubstantiated elements (dogma). The practice of not admitting the divorced and remarried to Holy Communion (discipline) reflects the Church's perennial teaching on the indissolubility of sacramental marriage (dogma). The necessity of attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days (discipline) flows from the universal nature of Christ's redemption and the nature of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (dogma).

Every discipline has its foundation in one of the Church's unchanging teachings. To treat a certain discipline as a "mere discipline" can create a dangerous disconnect between the practice and the dogma upon which it is based. One need only look at the way in which relaxing the discipline of communion on the tongue led to a disastrous abandonment of belief in the Real Presence.

Furthermore, in over-stressing celibacy as a discipline, it soon becomes a "mere discipline", and a mere discipline is only one step removed from a dispensable discipline. Therefore, discussions which begin by always emphasizing the disciplinary nature of celibacy do so from a prejudiced starting point.

What, then, is a balanced way of approaching this subject? We mentioned above that every discipline exists for the purpose of bearing witness to, buttressing, or exemplifying some teaching of the Faith. Any discussion of the discipline of celibacy must be balanced by a reference to the more fundamental Catholic teaching the practice exists to safeguard.

And what teaching is that? The fact that many of us do not know shows how much we have lost sight of the purpose of this discipline. Too often, attempts to defend celibacy devolve down to three arguments -- that it is not practical for a priest to have a family, and that Christ Himself was not married, and that there is a strong tradition of celibacy in the Latin rite. In Pope Benedict XVI's 2007 post-synodal exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, Benedict links the discipline of celibacy to the fact of Christ's own virginity: "The fact that Christ himself, the eternal priest, lived his mission even to the sacrifice of the Cross in the state of virginity constitutes the sure point of reference for understanding the meaning of the tradition of the Latin Church. It is not sufficient to understand priestly celibacy in purely functional terms. Celibacy is really a special way of conforming oneself to Christ's own way of life. This choice has first and foremost a nuptial meaning; it is a profound identification with the heart of Christ the Bridegroom who gives his life for his Bride." (Sacramentum Caritatis, 24).

Benedict's statement that Christ's own virginity must be the fundamental point of reference for understanding the tradition is true if we are looking at it from the standpoint of celibacy as an ascetical practice -- a manner of living in imitatio Christi that signifies the priest's nuptial union to the Church.

However, this is not the rationale the early Church used when discussing the discipline; in fact, Pope Benedict's assertion -- that Christ's virginity is the point of reference for clerical celibacy -- does not appear a single time in any patristic source. There is simply no Church Father or synod that argues that priests should be celibate because Christ was.

Not that this and other arguments do not have their place in the overall discussion; clearly they all have their own value. Yet none of them constitute the prime reason for the discipline, at least according to the Fathers.

And what is that reason? What is the teaching that the discipline of celibacy was meant to buttress?

The clear and consistent teaching of the Fathers is that it is impure and impious for a man to offer the Eucharistic sacrifice to God if he is sexually active.

This will be demonstrated further in this article as we examine the plethora of patristic canons and commentary on this question. But for now it is noteworthy that this principle explains several problems very conveniently.

First, it introduces a distinction between celibacy and continence, which is too often lacking in our modern discussions. It usually happens that the discussion devolves down to whether or not the Church can or cannot have married priests -- or what a married priesthood has looked like historically -- rather than questioning to what extent continence was enjoined upon the priesthood, married or otherwise, which is the real question.

In other words, to ask whether a priest could or could not be married is not the same as to ask whether he is expected to be continent.

Celibacy is a very narrow concept; it means both the inability of a priest to contract marriage as well as the exclusive selection of priests from among bachelors.

Clearly, the Church has not always mandated celibacy. There have been married priests and married bishops and married deacons, and anyone who denies this is in simple ignorance of history.

Continence, on the other hand, is a much broader concept.

Sursa: www.InSideTheVatican.com

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