LETTERS
to the Editor
Please write to pthorp.ed@votf.org
“ On December 4th, 2005 I attended a parish assembly in my birth
town of Schuebelbach in Switzerland. My paternal grandfather
had been the chairman of the parish board there for years.
Growing up, I heard a lot about the workings of parish politics.
In the areas that had voted to remain Catholic after the Reformation,
property is in the name of foundations or the parish laity
outright. No bishop is able to close up and sell off property.
In fact, poor Bishop Haas was prevented from entering some
of the churches. Several parishes had some abbots from various
abbeys come in to do confirmation, during his tenure. Although
I had been a practicing Catholic all those 40 years in the
United States, I had no clue that here everything was under
the control of the bishops, until the church closures in the
San Francisco diocese.
The Catholic Church in Switzerland seems to operate under
a different Canon Law than the US, regarding control of
property
and funds. In the majority there, the laity have decision-making
power over assets, not the bishops and priests. The parish
boards can go outside their diocese to hire pastors. Pastors
have to negotiate salaries with the parish – and much
more. About 15 years ago the bishops tried to get control of
everything through pressure from the Vatican. However, the
Swiss have not complied. I have not heard of interdicts and
excommunications, as possible sanctions.
Why has nobody ever looked at that precedent in Switzerland,
in order to bring structural changes? If we take power and
control that the clergy now have, it will keep some undesired
characters out of the priesthood. Do you just want to preach
change, or actually take action?” Eva R. Weber
[Fr. Ladislas Orsy has often served VOTF in a consulting
capacity on Canon Law. The Structural Change Working Group
is one of many VOTF committees who benefited from Fr. Orsy’s
insight and direction. I asked Margaret Roylance, SCWG chair,
what her group might have gleaned on the subject of the Swiss
Church. Her reply follows. Margaret notes that follow-up
was not possible but there is interest in pursuing more information
about the Swiss practice.]
“When we were consulting with Fr. Orsy, he told us
that in one Swiss diocese, the people reserve the right to
select their own bishop. He said that when the See is vacant,
they send up a name, and the Holy See sends back a letter
stating that they do not have the right to select their bishop.
The Holy See then announces their new bishop, who is invariably
the man they have selected. It appears that the Holy See
will tolerate local control, even as they claim that it does
not exist. The moral is that we should have jealously guarded
the rights of the laity in the American Church early on.
If those rights are the status quo, they may well be tolerated,
but it is very difficult to take them BACK once they have
been given up.” Margaret Roylance
“We are facing a ‘priest shortage’ scenario
in beautiful Santa Barbara, too: the University Parish (St.
Mark's), which for around 40 years has been served by the
Paulist Fathers, is being abandoned by that order at the
end of June 2006 for lack of personnel. Many young Paulists
have simply left the priesthood because they can't reconcile
their lived human and ministerial experience with the discipline
of celibacy.
The Diocese of Los Angeles is going to try to find a suitable
replacement, but they will have a hard time. The qualifications
include (a) the intelligence and flexibility to connect with
university students who think for themselves, (b) the wisdom
to minister to the ‘year-rounders’ – the
disaffected Catholics who are refugees from the surrounding
parishes, where they were finding no spiritual nourishment,
and (c) the ability (if
possible) to preside at a Spanish-language Mass, because
a large Hispanic community shows up at St. Mark's for a Spanish
Mass every Sunday.
Many of us in the laity at St. Mark's are ready to step
in and minister to each other, but we have no models, and
evidently little acceptance, of peer-to-peer ministry in
the Catholic tradition. It has always been top-down. Do you
think we will be able to redraw the lines of ministry in
response to the priest shortage? What a blessing it might
be!”
Thomas F. Heck, Voice of the Faithful, Santa Barbara
“There are hundreds of married Roman Catholic priests
in the state of Massachusetts who are willing to minister
to priestless parishes at little or no cost to the archdioceses.
Mandatory celibacy is not a doctrine of the faith. Former
Protestant ministers are allowed to minister as ordained
married priests. Priests were married for the first eleven
centuries of the Church. The sacraments given to us by Jesus
are more important than man-made laws formulated for power
and control. VOTF says it wants to ‘change’ the
Church. Well, let’s change it back to the way Jesus
had it when he picked a married man to be pope and married
apostles to be priests. It is time that VOTF started advocating
for making priesthood available to married men. We have evidence
time and again that celibacy is not being observed by many
if not most priests. Not only are they not observing celibacy,
they are acting out in ways that they would not be if they
had normal outlets for their God-given sexuality. Again,
this is not a matter of faith or morals. It is a matter of
an unjust law depriving millions of people throughout the
world of the sacraments.” Terence M. McDonough
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