ARTICLES

Diocesan Officials Welcome Vatican Opponent

PRAYER AND FASTING FOR VOCATIONS POOH-POOHED

By Judith Martel

The University of San Diego's Institute for Christian Ministries hosted dissenting theologian Father Richard McBrien of Notre Dame University on Friday, February 2. Speaking to a full house (over 200) at the USD University Center and dressed in a suit and tie, McBrien spoke on "The Future of the Church: Looking Toward the Third Christian Millenium."

The evening had the air of a gala diocesan event. In attendance were numerous priests, nuns (a couple in habit, most not), USD professors and chancery officials (some, who had dined with McBrien earlier, wearing name tags). Notable attendees included director of catechetical ministries Ginger Infantino, Mary Ann Fallon from the liturgy office, Sister Nancy Kane, new social ministries director Deacon Jim Keeley and his assistant Deacon Al McDaniels, USD professor Father Ronald Pachence, USD campus ministry head Msgr. Brent Eagen, Msgr. Thomas Prendergast, and Msgr. Mark Campbell.

In his opening prayer, Msgr. Eagen included both male and female metaphors for God. He jokingly referred to a time "before there was a problem discussing [women's ordination]," drawing laughter and applause from the audience.

Fr. McBrien was somewhat muted in his criticism of Pope John Paul II. One of the major themes of the USD talk was the inevitability of ordination of women and married men to the priesthood.

In his opening remarks, McBrien quoted the pope calling for Catholics "to apply, as faithfully as possible, the teachings of Vatican II in the life of every individual and as a whole Church." Father McBrien outlined six teachings of the Second Vatican Council. The first -- "The Church is a mystery or sacrament, and not only or even primarily and institution or an organization" -- he interpreted as calling for obedience to God and the invisible "church," rather than to individual members of the Catholic hierarchy. He stated, "'I believe in the Church' does not mean that I believe in -- am loyal to -- the leadership or the rules of the Church."

O'Brien considered his second principle of Vatican II teaching --"The Church is the whole people of God" -- to be fulfilled in the "multiplication of ministries, particularly in ministries associated with liturgy and education and social justice. The Church that enters the 21st century and third Christian millenium will be a Church in which even more of its members -- laywomen and laymen alike -- will be ministerially involved, as they are increasingly today. This means that ministry now and in the future cannot and will not be confined to the ordained, and ordained ministry will not be restricted to males."

McBrien presented the current dearth of vocations to the priesthood as the fault of old-fashioned, authoritarian bishops, slow to bring the Church into the modern world, especially by accepting women's ordination and married priests. He joked that some people "seem convinced that the problem will go somehow go away through prayer and fasting [laughter], or by purging seminaries of so-called 'dissident' theologians."

Reviewing the conciliar affirmation that the Church is "a communion... it is collegial," Father McBrien reasoned that "the ordained ministries of the future...will be increasingly differentiated and decreasingly uniform" and predicted that in the "Church of the Future," bishops will not have a monopoly on authority, but presbyteral councils and diocesan pastoral councils will share the teaching and administrative authority once reserved for bishops. He added, "It will take longer for some regions of the world to accept the married clergy or the presence of women in positions of real pastoral authority, but these developments are inevitable."

After the talk, McBrien spent half an hour answering questions. One questioner opined that "during the first couple hundred years, there were no ordained ministers...will we go back to that?" McBrien replied, "Although I'm in fundamental sympathy with the unstated thesis of your question...I think the tradition of ordination goes back quite a long way; but I would not say it's part of the Deposit of Faith such that we can say there have to be ordained ministries."

Another questioner described Pope John Paul II as "a brilliant man," asking, "So why doesn't he recognize what we recognize?" McBrien blamed the pope's alleged "conservatism" on the fact that he "grew up in undemocratic...Poland" and did not travel around the world until after becoming pope. "His formation has already been done -- his spiritual formation, his theological formation...It's very hard for someone just to break out of all of that...He already has a formed way of understanding authority and its exercise."

Discussing what sort of man the College of Cardinals might choose to succeed John Paul II, McBrien said, "Although people will acknowledge the special genius of this particular pope, they'll say, 'As we enter now a new millenium, we have to be able to reach out to people who, for good or for ill, seem to have been turned off, whether it's women, young people, the poor....We need now a new style.'"

The final questioner charged that the Church is not observing collegiality, that "Ratzinger, our abbot, is running the Church." McBrien blamed the world's bishops for accepting tight control, but he saw signs of hope in the recent move by certain U.S. bishops to loosen ties to Rome: "To their credit, more than 40 bishops -- we don't know the exact number -- released a memorandum several months ago that they had prepared for a special committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, trying to consider restructuring the conference."

Many approached McBrien after his talk, asking him to sign his book Catholicism (sold at a table in the lobby). One woman was wearing a T-shirt with DaVinci's Last Supper, in which all the participants were women. She said she bought it at the Women's Ordination Conference. Two elderly men in the crowd around McBrien discussed having left the priesthood. "I was part of the exodus of '67," said one. "I left in 1969," said the other.

McBrien was asked whether he believed Church teaching on abortion would change. He sidestepped the issue, saying, "I don't want to get involved in a discussion on moral theology," but added, "Soon, there won't be any need for abortion; contraceptive technology will become so advanced that there will be no unwanted pregnancies and abortion won't be an issue."

On a table outside the lecture hall, next to brochures for upcoming events hosted by USD and the Institute for Christian Ministries, was a flyer from the dissident Call to Action, a reprint of their 1990 New York Times ad.