Showing posts with label Episcopal Conferences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Episcopal Conferences. Show all posts

Sunday, June 8, 2014

In Japan As on the Banks of the Rhine. The Church's Surrender

The responses of the Japanese and central Europeans to the questionnaire for the synod on the family register the yielding of Catholics to the dominant “uniform thought.” But also the pastors' inability to lead

by Sandro Magister

ROME, June 6, 2014 – So far six episcopal conferences have violated the terms of confidentiality and have made public the responses to the 39 questions of the preparatory questionnaire for the upcoming synod of bishops, convened on the issue of the family. 

German:


Austrian:


Swiss:


Belgian:


French:


Japanese:


As can be noted, five of the six episcopal conferences belong to the central European geographical area that was the activist wing of the innovations of Vatican Council II but afterward was also the one most marked by the phenomenon of secularization.


Today it is above all from this area that the strongest pressure is coming for a change of teaching and pastoral practice concerning marriage, in particular with the request to give communion to the divorced and remarried.

Friday, March 28, 2014

The Old Demon of Gallicanism is Not Dead (Not Just in France)

(Rome) A recurring problem in the Catholic Church is the question of the autonomy of the local churches from Rome.  A problem that has recently returned in astonishing ways.
The latest controversial case is the case Fabienne Brugere.The speech of the philosopher  for 19 March before the French Bishops' Conference has been canceled.

Gallican Bishops of France's Mind Games?

The cancellation sparked fierce debate in France. Stephanie Le Bars, wrote in her blog for Le Monde , the case "proves that strong disagreements prevail within the Catholic Church  which are broken up by the discussion of "marriage for all".  As a "marriage for all" is only the law legalizing  "gay marriage" in France,  from which   the counter-movement "Manif pour tous"  takes its name.
The decision of the Bishops' Conference to allow the philosopher Fabienne Brugere to speak  at a training session was criticized in Catholic circles. Brugere who already had guest professorships in Hamburg and Munich, is considered a representative of bridge-building, is seeking to mediate the Bishops' Conference with the government. The Bishops' Conference meekly opposed  the introduction of "gay marriage". However, an active minority supported the resistance and forced the majority of the bishops to take a stand.

Search for a Accomodations of the Bishops with the Government

No sooner had "gay marriage" but been approved by Parliament, when most bishops withdrew from the resistance and has  looked back since then to form of arrangements with the government majority, although this rarely prosecuted as another a radically anti-Catholic course. The invitation to Brugere should assist in "Arrangements".
But on the other hand rose up in protest of the Church. The projection is therefore attributed to "certain Catholic circles", where the labels who are good and who is evil taken up quickly by the secular media. Father Louis-Marie Guitton expressed, however, on the website of the traditionally friendly Diocese of Frejus-Toulon, that the French Bishops' Conference is being flirtatious with a new Gallicanism: "As Pope Francis is in favor of a real subsidiarity in the Church, it  is to be feared that the old demons of Gallicanism is not all dead. The 'offices', 'presentations' and commissions of  the Bishops' Conference are not the French Church.'"

2000 dispute between Cardinal Ratzinger and Cardinal Kasper on the understanding of the church

Can the Episcopal Conferences be autonomous or must the bishops  always be in complete agreement with each other and be more so with the Pope as "successors of the Apostles"?  The question is not new. In early 2000 there was a famous debate between the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Cardinal Walter Kasper. The future Pope Benedict XVI. defended the understanding of the Church as the universal Church. The world Church he described as "a reality that is always  comes ontologically and chronologically before any particular church". An understanding of the church, which was critized  by the then secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kasper.  Kasper turned the understanding of the Church on its head. Not a world Church with a clear center, which is divided into a number of local churches, but many local churches, which only form a single whole. Where does  the primacy come in, that of Rome or the local churches?

If Diocese or  the Sum of Dioceses Form a Local State Church?

The specific question goes even further: How important are national churches in the form of episcopal conferences?Where already are "national churches" defined by  the current state borders meaning a subordination of spiritual things under the mundane concerns of  states. In other words, with this breakdown, the decision is in favor of practical things and not the doctrine of faith. Who is the local church? Is it, according to the understanding of the Church of Benedict XVI. the single diocese with their bishop, who exercises the responsibility and sole decision-making authority in his field? Or are the dioceses of only a minor appendage of the Episcopal Conferences that have taken over the rights of the dioceses as an autonomous institution?

Between Canon Law and Reality

Considered canon law, things are as Benedict XVI. defined. The diocesan bishop and not the chairman of a bishops' conference is a sacramental reality in the church. But in reality, the Bishops' Conferences are often taken the place of rights and obligations of the individual bishops with their apparatus. The majority decisions in the Bishops' Conference are  formed according to  a consensus. This means, first above all that possible minorities should not be considered. Because the Bishop of Chur Vitus Huonder does not want to submit  otherwise to the dictates of the majority of the Bishops' Conference, he published his reply to the questionnaire of Rome to moral teaching of the Church about remarried divorcees and homosexuals independently, as  he is required by Church law . That earned him a lot of criticism because he thwarted the intention to report a unit review for the whole of Switzerland to Rome. An opinion that has little in common with that of Bishop Huonders. Huonder was with his "go it alone"  spoiler vote  undermined a uniform position that hardly tolerates dissent and intends to carry through the "unity vote" of the Episcopal Conference to pressure  Rome.
Another aspect of the episcopal conferences is the opportunity it provides bishops to hide behind it. However, does the Bishops' Conference relieve  a bishop of his responsibility?

Cardinal Baldisseri: Strengthening the Bishops' Conferences

The divergence of the Church away from Peter, the center of  unity,  towards a spin-off of the local churches, poses a serious threat to the unity of faith and doctrine. Pope Francis seems with Monsignor Lorenzo Baldisseri the Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, and who was also made cardinal at the end February, to forego the risk to shake the fragile unity of the Church. The price for such a development is clear, but where are the benefits?
The decision of Pope Francis, to allow Cardinal Walter Kasper at the Consistory  to speak  and  explain his controversial theories about remarried divorcees, at least  is read from the perspective of a German as "Gallican".

"Process of Decentralization" Towards National Churches

Cardinal Baldisseri said in an interview by Jean Mercier: "The process of decentralization takes place in a medium in which   the episcopal conferences and other regional and continental episcopal conferences are given  significance." The discussion about "subsidiarity" and "decentralization", therefore, does not mean that between Rome and the dioceses meet as local churches, but between Rome and the bishops' conferences as "national churches".
In the Apostolic Letter Evangellii Gaudium Pope Francis says the Second Vatican Council had compared the Episcopal Conferences with the ancient patriarchates. How could this contribute in multiple and fruitful ways, so that the Bishops' Conferences, could be realize the collegial sense concretely.
The line of approach has been struck in this direction by the C8-Kardinalsrat of Pope Francis. It's a risky path.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Messa in Latino