Modern Roman Catholics

see also Ecumenical Thinking

POST VATICAN II

From THE LIVING FAITH IN A WORLD OF CHANGE, Carl Pfeiffer, S.J., page 26. "The doctrine (of original sin) as all the Church's saving teachings, is an attempt by God's people to articulate human experience, to make sense out of it in the light of faith.

"Faced with the constant human struggle between the powers of selfishness and the call to generosity, the writers of Genesis attempted, in the story of the Fall, to make sense out of the experience. They affirm the unquestionable goodness of God. He certainly could not be the cause of man's misery . . . The world's evil is somehow man's doing, each wanting his own way, wanting to be `like gods.' They taught this with the story, the penetrating story of Adam and Eve."

Ibid., page 27. "The exact historical beginnings (of the doctrine of original sin) are hidden in the misty unknown of pre-history, millions of years before the story of Adam and Eve was written. The story of Adam and Eve is not a historical document but the attempt of God's people in a given time and culture to explain the same mystery that we experience in the world and in our hearts today."

CATHOLIC JOURNALS

It is interesting to read comments by conservative Roman Catholic writers who admit there are Roman Catholic priests who are not offering Mass according to the rules laid down by the Church. One interesting question and answer appeared recently in James Drummey's column in THE WANDERER, 11/10/94.

Q: At a funeral Mass in my parish, the only candle in the whole church was the Easter candle near the casket; the priest did not receive Communion at the usual time, but after everyone else; we were told to stand during the canon of the Mass; and he invited all to receive Holy Communion, so a non-Catholic pall bearer did just that. Are these things allowed?

A: No, these things are not allowed. All of them are contrary to the rules of the Church. Pray for your priest that he will obey the directives for celebrating Mass.

(Note: This is like asking you to pray that your pastor will get saved.)

RELIGIOUS JOURNALS

From THE CHRISTIAN NEWS, 7/2/90. "New Vatican Directive Said to Ban Any Dissent by Theologians. In a move that apparently asserts its absolute authority over all matters of doctrine and theological thinking, the Vatican has prepared a document that denies theologians the right to dissent, according to a story in the June 29 (1990) edition of the NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER.

"The story in the independent Catholic newsweekly claims the document binds theologians `more tightly than ever to the magisterium in all "truths regarding faith and morals" even if not divinely revealed.'

"The NCR quotes a summary of the document, called an `Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian,' that was produced by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Editor's Note-this was previously known as the Inquisition)."

SECULAR JOURNALS

From TIME, 3/3/67. "Orthodoxy is the tragedy of Christianity," says the Rev. Joos Arts, the priest-editor of a Catholic weekly called DE NIEUWE LINIE. "What we need is a re-thinking of all the basic Christianity. We must break away from the formal dogmas of the Catholic Church." Methodical Dutch theologians are doing just that. Among the first to attack the Church's traditional teaching on contraception and clerical celibacy, priests and laymen are now questioning everything from the virginity of Mary to the traditional view that premarital intercourse is sinful. Dominican theologian Edward Schillebeeckx, an expert at the Second Vatican Council, proposed that the Resurrection of Jesus may not have been a physical recomposition of his body but a unique kind of spiritual manifestation. "One generally likes to consider his Resurrection," he says, "as being the impact of his presence in the hearts of all Christians."

Dutch theologians also reject original sin as an inherited spiritual stigma on the soul, instead regarding the doctrine as a symbolic way of expressing the truth that man exists in a sinful, imperfect world. For that reason, some thinkers question the need to baptize infants. "To say that a human being is born damned and continues to be damned unless he is baptized is utter nonsense," says Lay Theologian Daniel de Lange, secretary of the Netherlands' ecumenical center. Heaven and Hell? Dominican theologian William van der Marck shrugs them off as a myth. "Heaven and hell just do not pre-occupy us any more."

From TIME, 10/13/86. John Paul's Cleanup Campaign. Despite protests, Rome is determined to quash U.S. dissent.

Ever since Pope John Paul's celebrated American tour of 1979, it has been evident that one priority of his pontificate is to buttress official Roman Catholic policies that have faced continual questioning within the U.S. church. Now, a year prior to the Pope's planned return visit to America, his campaign to bring the nation's bishops, priests and sisters in line has provoked a rising tide of dissent. Bishops are privately vexed, and priests are salting sermons with barbs directed at Rome; the board of one Milwaukee parish even recommended that members divert gifts from the annual collection for the Vatican.

The burgeoning resistance to Rome is best demonstrated in Seattle, where Catholic activists last week presented Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen and Auxiliary Bishop Donald Wuerl with petitions signed by more than 13,000 parishioners over the past month to "protest the injustice" of Vatican intervention in the archdiocese. Earlier this year, in a virtually unprecedented step that was long kept secret, John Paul stripped authority from Hunthausen on moral teachings, marriage annulments, sacraments and the training of priests, bestowing those responsibilities upon the conservative Wuerl. Among Hunthausen's transgressions: allowing altar girls and permitting a cathedral Mass for gay Catholics.

In a second major ruling, the Vatican in August ended Charles Curran's career at the Catholic University of America, citing his open disagreements with Catholic moral teachings on birth control and other issues....

Conservative Moral Theologian Germain Grisez of Mount St. Mary's College in Maryland sees John Paul's cleanup as one of historic proportions, comparing it with Pope Pius X's effort early in the century to crush the modernistic movement...

From ORLANDO SENTINEL 10/9/93, "Priest in hot water for altered baptisms... A Roman Catholic priest told several families that baptisms he performed were declared invalid because he altered the wording of the Holy Trinity to delete references to gender.

"Instead of using the traditional 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit," the Rev. William Larkin baptized children 'in the name of God our Creator, through Jesus the Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.'

"'It was an initiative on my own to use a vocabulary that is more sensitive to women' Larkin said."

Bishop John Boles said if this were the case, the baptisms would be invalid.

Dan Chmielewski, whose son was baptized by Larkin, said he feels the baptism was valid.

In a recent letter, Larkin gave people the option of deciding whether to have the baptism done again.