BishopAccountability.org
	Roman Catholic Priests: "Wise or Foolish Virgins?" By Ruth Gledhill The Times March 11, 2010 http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2010/03/wise-or-foolish-virgins.html Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna has intervened in the debate on celibacy and clerical sex abuse. Read my own commentary to Richard Owen's story from Rome. In this area, Cardinal Schonborn has previous. His intervention is interesting, albeit that an attempt has been made to minimise its significance, because he is conservative, hugely rated and is close to the Pope. Rentapriest has details of his form: 'On the eve of the opening of the Year For Priests sought by Pope Benedict XVI, the question of priestly celibacy was again forcefully raised at the Vatican,' he wrote. 'During the two days of meetings that the Pope and the most important representatives of the Roman Curia had on June 15-16 with the Archbishop of Vienna and other representatives of the Austrian Church, discussion was not limited to the case of Gerhard Marie Wagner, the ultra-conservative priest named auxiliary bishop of Linz and later forced to step down because of a revolt by priests and laity in the diocese. 'At the Vatican, Cardinal Schonborn also presented a supposed “Lay Initiative”, that is, a call launched at the beginning of the year by important Austrian Catholics, demanding the abolition of the celibacy requirement, the return to duty of married priests, opening the diaconate to women, and the ordination of so-called «viri probati».' Schonborn, who had met with the promoters of the initiative a few days before arriving in Rome, explained in an interview with Vatican Radio that 'while not agreeing with any of its conclusions, as I have said several times', he presented the Memorandum” by the Austrian laity – accompanied by a note written by himself -- to Cardinal Claudio Hummes, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, 'asking him to read it attentively.' 'I think,' he explained on the German language program of Vatican Radio, 'that it is important for someone in Rome to know what some of our lay people are thinking about the problems of the Church.' He linked the shortage of priests to 'the growing number of people who are alienated from the Church and the faith.' After the Wagner case, in the Linz Diocese, several cases emerged of priests who had been living with a woman for years, which contributed to drawing the attention of Austrian public opinion to the priestly celibacy problem, Rentapriest wrote. Catholic News Service also reported the same story: The cardinal did say then that Pope Benedict has been 'very impressive' in explaining how the continued requirement of celibacy for priests in the Latin-rite 'ultimately is a question of whether we believe that it is possible for a man to give his life entirely to God' in serving the church and his brothers and sisters. On the present crisis, Austen Ivereigh has a good analysis at America Magazine. He quotes Tom Heneghan at Reuters, who writes: 'The more the scandal of Catholic priests sexually abusing boys in Germany spreads, the more the focus turns to Rome to see how Pope Benedict reacts. The story is getting ever closer to the German-born pope, even though he has been quite outspoken denouncing these scandals and had just met all Irish bishops to discuss the scandals shaking their country. Nobody’s saying he had any role in the abuse cases now coming to light in Germany. But the fact that some took place in Regensburg while he was a prominent theologian there, that his brother Georg has admitted to smacking lazy members of his choir there and that Benedict was archbishop in Munich from 1977 to 1991 lead to the classic cover-up question: what did he know and when did he know it? 'This is only the start of what can be a long, drawn out and possibly damaging story for Benedict’s PR-deficient papacy. His crises to date have been linked to his statements or decisions, such as the controversial Regensburg speech that offended Muslims or several run-ins with Jews over restoring old prayers they consider anti-Semitic or rehabilitating an ultra-traditionalist priest who is also a Holocaust denier. But now it’s about what he did or didn’t do in the past and how he moves to avoid further scandals in the future.' Austen told me: 'In so far as celibacy is a part of the Catholic priesthood and that the formation of Catholic priests has been under the spotlight in clerical sex abuse cases, then celibacy is part of the question, but is not in and of itself a cause of sex abuse. The issue in these cases in Europe has been, as in Ireland, cover-up and collusion, putting the institution and priests before victims. That is what needs to be changed. Celibacy survives very happily without clericalism.' In his article he concludes: 'Having now ruptured the noli me tangere cloud which has traditionally surrounded the pope on this issue -- Pope John Paul II always seemed like a bewildered and saddened spectator - Benedict XVI is forcing himself to get involved with local Churches. The recent summit with all 24 Irish ordinaries, and the promised Lenten letter to the Irish -- next Wednesday, St Patrick's Day, seems the obvious date for its release -- are both unprecedented. On Friday the Pope meets Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, president of the German bishops' conference, to discuss the crisis. Whether or not these result in concrete initiatives is less important than Rome being seen to be involved and taking responsibility. 'This crisis could well have other effects, not least that of shaking out issues normally considered off-limits for discussion. Two recent examples from impeccably orthodox sources: 1. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, Archbishop of Vienna and editor of the Catechism, has said that the causes of the abuse crisis must be examined, and that these include "priestly formation and the understanding of celibacy in personal development" (Le Monde has the story here; the original article in German is here). 2. A front-page piece in the Vatican daily L' Osservatore Romano, no less, argues that a greater presence of women in high-level decision-making bodies in the Church would have helped to lift the "veil of masculine secrecy" over clerical sex abuse cases.' Earlier this week the Holy See itself acknowledged the 'grave crisis' the Church is facing. St Paul suggested that marriage could be an antidote to carnal desires, but the view in conservative Catholic circles is that contraception is more to blame for this. It is this kind of reasoning that does so much to discredit the Church. Some pro-life groups still argue that condoms don't prevent pregnancy and increase the risk of HIV. What can a celibate priesthood possibly understand about how to manage desire within a marriage, either for men or for women? Andrew Brown explains in The Guardian today why the Catholic Church is now likely to be a far safer environment for children than many institutions, including some families. The world, bereft of moral and spiritual leadership, and confused by widening gaps between poor and wealthy, gaps that noticeable more than ever because of the new communications, needs a strong and credible Catholic Church. None can dispute the right of the Church to maintain the vocationally celibate priesthood but few would surely dispute the need for its foolish virgins to wise up, and wise up fast.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.