Letter to Pope Benedict asking for voluntary celibacy

Press release of the International Movement We Are Church – Strasbourg, France / Madrid, Spain – May 9, 1008

We are Church: Letter to Pope Benedict asking for voluntary celibacy

We are Church writes Letter to Pope Benedict asking for voluntary celibacy as a first step toward a renewed form of priesthood. International Movement We are Church coordinates next year’s initiatives in its annual Council in Strasbourg/France.

In a letter to Pope Benedict XVI the International Movement We Are Church asks him “to reconsider the present organisation of the ministries in the Roman Catholic Church, to urgently repeal the present Church’s law of obligatory celibacy and to re-introduce voluntary celibacy for ordained priests as a first step towards a renewed form of priesthood.”

In its letter We are Church writes “The opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist should take precedence over the Church law of compulsory celibacy” referring canon 213 which gives Christians the right to receive the Holy Eucharist each Sunday.

The Catholic reform movement is greatly concerned about the growing shortage of ordained priests which can be seen in the Vatican’s “Annuario Pontificio”. Because of this the celebration of the Holy Eucharist has had to be omitted in an increasing number of parishes. This does not only affect Europe and the United States of America, but especially the parishes and missions in South America. It is a global problem that urgently requires a global solution and one that a great majority of practising Catholics would like to see changed.

The letter is addressed to “Dear Pope Benedict XVI, dear brother in Christ” and is signed by Raquel Mallavibarrena from Madrid, present Chair of the International Movement We Are Church.

Future activities of We are Church will include:

Common statements on the 40th anniversary of the Encyclical “Humane vitae” (July 25, 2008), on the third Encyclical of Pope Benedict expected in Summer 2008 and on the 10th anniversary of “World Aids Day” (December 1, 2008).
We are Church will take part in the Shadow Synod organized by Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) on October 15, 2008 in Rome (shadowing the Synod of Bishops October 5-26, 2008 in Rome).
Members of Noi Siamo Chiesa (We are Church, Italy) were delegated to be present at the European Social Forum in Malmoe, September 2008 and at the Forum Theology and Liberation at Belem/ Brasil, January 2009.
Various preparations for the 50th anniversary of Vatican II Council (1962-1965).

At this Council of the International Movement We Are Church members from Austria, Belgium, Catalonia, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK and USA were present in Strasbourg April 30th and May 1st, 2008. They also participated at the subsequent 18th Annual Conference of the “European Network Church on the Move” and its study day “Secularisation in a multicultural and multiconvictional Europe in search of social cohesion based on common values” from May1st until May 4th.

The International Movement We Are Church – a grassroots church reform movement of lay people, priests, and members of persons in religious orders – is working to continue the process of reform in the Roman Catholic Church, a process which began with the Vatican II Council (1962-1965) and which has come to a standstill in recent years. We Are Church was started in Austria and Germany in 1995 with a referendum, is now represented in more than twenty countries and is in touch with other reform movements all over the world.

The next informal Council of the International Movement We Are Church will take place in London in May 2009.

Website: http://www.we-are-church.org

Om Påvens besök i USA

The International Movement We are Church hopes that Pope Benedict on his upcoming journey will find the right words and gestures in view of the current challenges concerning global development, the inter-religious dialogue, ecumenism and the future of the Roman-Catholic Church.

“His journey to the United States – one of the world’s biggest Roman-Catholic churches – will be the acid test for the political and for the pastoral abilities of Pope Benedict”, says Raquel Mallavibarrena , Chair of the International Movement We are Church, a world-wide reform movement within the Roman-Catholic Church.

In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on April 18 the Pope must be very sensitive to find the right words that will be understood by people from all continents and of all religions. His address can be thought provoking but he should do better than he did in Auschwitz/Poland (about Jews, May 2006), in Regensburg/Germany (about Islam, September 2006) and in Brazil (about indigenous people, May 2007).

When the Pope will talk about human rights and justice at the United Nations he will have to explain why he started an appeasement policy towards China and why he uninvited the Dalai Lama a few months ago. The Pope’s plea for human rights would be much more convincing if the Roman-Catholic Church itself did not deny equal rights and responsibilities to women within its own church.

We are Church is very critical about the fact that the Pope – right on his 81st birthday – will meet President Bush, a religious fundamentalist and initiator of the unjust Iraq war. This is a very dangerous strategic alliance. When meeting President Bush the Pope should at least repeat the Vatican ‘s opposition to the Iraq war and speak of aid to the poor. Christianity is about solidarity with the weak and the poor, not with the political and economical elite.

Facing Pressing Questions of the Church
“If he really wants to be a good pastor of his flock he must address the dramatic priest shortage worldwide and other pressing questions of the Church”, says Anthony Padovano, spokesperson of We are Church in the United States and of CORPUS (National Association for an Inclusive Priesthood). By maintaining compulsory celibacy – which cannot be founded on biblical grounds and is now questioned all over the world – the Pope denies the canonical right of the faithful to have the Sunday Eucharist guaranteed (can. 213 CIC).

“The Pope has to make clear that the policy of zero tolerance after the paedophile scandals of recent years will be forceful if his pastoral visit to the US should be a really new start for the Roman-Catholic Church in North America”, says Aisha S. Taylor, deputy spokesperson of We are Church in the United States and Executive Director of the Women’s Ordination Conference. “We need much more transparency and accountability instead of maintaining a policy of secrecy and silence.”

In the light of ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue We are Church is very concerned about last year’s renewed Vatican statement that the Protestant churches are “not churches in the real sense”, about the recently changed prayer for the conversion of Jews on Good Friday, and about the papal baptism of a Muslim in St. Peter’s during in the Easter vigil.

Growing Disappointment About Pastoral Standstill

“Three years after his election (April 19, 2005), disappointment is growing in the People of God even among those who originally had hoped Ratzinger would act, as pope, more courageously than he did in his position as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith”, says Vittorio Bellavite, spokesperson of Noi siamo Chiesa (We are Church Italy).

The hope of millions of Christians, based on the Second Vatican Council, that interior reform steps and ecumenical progress would take place, has not realised up to now.

The extension of the pre-conciliar Tridentine Rite, the censorship of P. Jon Sobrino’s writings and other liberation theologians as well as the continued old system of Mission are discouraging. These are only a few of many indications that Pope Ratzinger has set off in the direction of a counter-reform against Vatican II.

Hans Küng 80 år

 

Press note – International Movement We are Church

deutsch >>> http://www.wir-sind-kirche.de/index.php?id=128&id_entry=1375
italiano >>> http://www.wir-sind-kirche.de/index.php?id=512

We are Church on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Prof. Hans Kueng on March 19, 2008:
“His persistence in the renewal of the Roman Catholic Church is encouraging us”

“His persistence in the renewal of the Roman Catholic Church and his commitment to ecumenical issues as well as to the dialogue between the world religions give us equally encouragement, inspiration and incentive”, the catholic reform movement “We are Church” declares gratefully on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Prof. Hans Kueng on March 19, 2008, as Kueng is one of the intellectual fathers of the “Kirchenvolks-Begehren” (= referendum of the people of the church) 1995.

The world-famous Swiss theologian, appointed official adviser of the Second Vatican Council (1962-195) by Pope John XXIII, contributed decisively to an ecumenical theology and to the inter-religious dialogue, and is still working actively and creatively for projects initiated by him, despite the following exclusion by the Roman Catholic Church.

His doctoral thesis “Justification” about the protestant theologian Karl Barth, terminated 1957, was praised by Joseph Ratzinger, colleague of Kueng at the University of Tuebingen/Germany until 1968. With his fundamental works (“The Church” 1967, “Being a Christian” 1974 and “Does God exist?” 1978), Kueng early brought certain reform topics into public, intensively justifying them biblically and spiritually in fundamental works.

With his ecumenical commitment, Kueng contributed decisively to the common declaration of the doctrine of justification, achieved by catholics and protestants in 1999. The eucharistic hospitality, supported by the Institute for ecumenical research (founded by Kueng 1963), is the right step forward according to Kueng.

More than others, Hans Kueng raised and kept alive the question of truth in Christianity. As a consequence of the Council, the encyclical on celibacy (1967), and the ecyclical on birth control “Humanae vitae” (1968), Kueng raised the question if the papal ministry was infallible in his book “Infallible? An inquiry” (1970).

This resulted in the deprivation of his lectureship “missio canonis” by pope John Paul II. Dec. 18th 1979. Nevertheless Hans Kueng has not revoked his theologically well-based statements about the controversial dogma of infallibility (1870) and thus showed, that not obedience but resistance – certainly a more seldom catholic “virtue” – is being called, when Vatican decrees must be regarded as arrogance or even usurpation.

In 1968 Hans Kueng has outlined the declaration “For the freedom in theology”. His text has been revised by Yves Congar, Karl Rahner and Edward Schillebeecks and then signed by 1.360 theologians – also by Joseph Ratzinger – from all over the world. 1989 he has been co-signer of the so-called “Cologne Declaration”, which has been a votum for an open catholic attitude and against an overstretching of the pope’s authority.

Hans Kueng is one of the spiritual fathers of the German “Initiative church from below”, founded in 1980, and of the Austrian “Kirchenvolks-Begehren” (“church referendum”) in 1995, which resulted in the international reform movement “We are Church”. The second volume of his memoirs “Controversial truth” presents a historic as well as a systematic foundation of the movement’s concerns and requests, which have been taking shape since the Second Vatican Council and for which he has fought already in the sixties and the seventies of the last century.

Today we must notice that Hans Kuengs questions on the papacy have not been answered at all. All these increasing conflicts between the Vatican and the local churches show this dilemma as well as the paralysing of the bishops synods. The obliged celibacy, the ordination of women and the Eucharistic problem are still being discussed – despite of the Vatican’s rigid position.

In September 2005 Hans Kueg had quite a surprising meeting with Pope Benedikt XVI, his former colleague Professor Joseph Ratzinger. Not so surprisingly all subjects regarding reforms within the catholic church had been excluded. As before Hans Kueng is standing up for the wishes and demands of the International Movement We Are Church, in other words: For a renewing process of the church “bottom up”.

Today Hans Kueng is very intensely engaged in the inter-religious dialogue. To this “century task” he has published three voluminous books dealing with Judaism(1991), Christianity (1995) and Islam (2004). Since 1990 he is working on the “project world ethos”, supported 5 years later by the “foundation world ethos”. The “declaration for the world ethos”, passed 1993 by the congress of world religions in Chicago must be regarded as a milestone. It has initiated a world-wide network of inter-religious relations.

Ingrid Thurner R.I.P

Ingrid var med och startade WAC i Österrike, och var föreningens ordförande under många år. Hon var en eldsjäl för förnyelsen både lokalt och internationellt. Hon avled nyligen, endast 63 år gammal. Må hon fortsätta be för Kyrkan – vi ber för henne.

Bilden är från WAC Österrikes 10-årsjubileum i juni 2005.

Women in the Catholic Church – Vatican’s consequent change-in-mind concerning the question of women’s rights or alibi event?

Commentary on the international congress of the “Papal Council for the Laity”, Rome, February 7-9, 2008, held on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the Apostolic Letter “Mulieris Dignitatem”, August 15, 1988.

The International Movement We are Church, a Catholic reform movement, hopes and expects that the congress in Rome shows a consequent change-in-mind in the question of gender and of women’s rights. This international congress bears the great chance of

• granting women to speak for themselves with their charismas,
• focussing the reality of life of women in the various continents,
• placing new accents for gender justice in the roman catholic church.

This would be an inspiring model especially for those countries, in which women are still oppressed and abused. For the sake of our church’s future, the catholic reform movement wishes on the conference the blessing and wisdom of God’s Holy Spirit.

The individual topics of the meeting like

• “Reflections about the changes in the question of women’s rights since 1988”,
• “Mary and the position of women in the Bible”,
• “Meaning of man and woman being image of God”,
• “Responsibility of women in church and society” or
• “Social situation of women in diverse cultures and countries”

should offer enough space for open discussions in order to take up and judge contemporarily today’s problems.

“Moreover, a factual dialogue with feministic theology and recognition of gender justice inside church structures are overdue and have to appear on the agenda of this conference”, demands Angelika Fromm, speaker of the women group of “We are Church” in Germany. “The roman catholic church keeps on addressing appeals to politics and society, but inside her own structures church refuses establishing gender justice and instead disguises the real degradation of women by idealising woman’s image. This behaviour is not credible.”

If this congress intends to encourage women to put their treasure of “female genius” into service of apostolate, family, world of labour and culture, this has to be realized also in church structures and hierarchy. The mere talking of “woman’s dignity” is no longer sufficient, whilst treating women in the same church as they were incapable of ordination and refusing them equal rights of participating in church development, using antiquated argumentation, Angelika Fromm points out.

It would be extremely unfortunate not dealing with all trends of roman Catholicism and the congress being held by the Vatican only as “alibi event”, putting only into scene a participation of women, but in reality preventing it completely.

Background:

The congress “Woman and man, the humanum in its entirety” is held by the “Papal Council for the Laity” in Rome from February 7 to 9, 2008 on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the Apostolic Letter “Mulieris Dignitatem” published by Pope John Paul II on August 15, 1988. At that time, the Pope personally meditated about a specific topic concerning women; now, after all, 250 women and men of all five continents were selected and invited to reflect on the position of women in church and society.

The International Movement We are Church, a Catholic reform movement, intercedes for equal access of women to all church functions, for an equal mentioning of women and men in church publications, for a female image of God and a female liturgy. The movement “Lila Stola” (“purple stole”) stands for these activities worldwide.

Contact:

Angelika Fromm, speaker of the women’s group of the Catholic reform movement “We are Church” in Germany

Tel: +49-6131-222486

angelikafromm@hotmail.com

Raquel Mallavibarrena, Spain, Chair of the International Movement We are Church
Tel: ++34-649332654
rmallavi@mat.ucm.es

Valerie Stroud, We Are Church (UK)
Tel: ++44-1634-715278
valeriejstroud@we-are-church.org

Links:

> International Movement We are Church

http://www.we-are-church.org

> International Congress „Woman and man, the humanum in its entirety”

http://www.laici.org

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