Denver Catholic

18 FEBRUARY 22-MARCH 6, 2020 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives Beyond Amazonia T he post-synodal apostolic exhortation Querida Amazo- nia [Dear Amazonia] did not accept or endorse the 2019 Amazo- nian synod's proposal that viri probati — mature married men — be ordained priests in that region. So until the German Church's "synodal path" comes up with a simi- lar proposal (which seems more than likely), a period of pause has been created in which some non-hysterical refl ec- tion on the priesthood and celibacy can take place throughout the world Church. Several points might be use- fully pondered in the course of that conversation. The fi rst involves celibacy and the Kingdom. Christians live, or ought to live, in a di« erent time-zone because the Kingdom of God is among us, by the Lord's own declaration in the gospels. Di« erent vocations in the Church bear radical witness to that truth and remind the rest of us of it. The vocations that live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obe- dience in a consecrated way do that. So should the celibate priesthood. It was said openly during the Ama- zonian synod, and it's often muttered in other contexts, that celibacy makes no sense to many people. Which is quite true — if those people are living in pagan societies that haven't heard the Gospel or post-Christian societies that have abandoned the Gospel and haven't been re-evangelized. Celi- bacy, a total gift of self to God, only makes sense in a Kingdom context. So if celibacy doesn't make sense in Amazonia or Dusseldorf or Hamburg, that likely has something to do with a failure to preach the Gospel of the inbreaking Kingdom of God in Ama- zonia, Dusseldorf, and Hamburg. All of which is to say that the fail- ures of Catholic Lite and Catholic Zero aren't going to be addressed by lighter Catholic Lite or less-than-zero Catholic Zero. The second point to ponder involves celibacy and the broader reform of the priesthood. The brutal assault on Pope Emer- itus Benedict and Cardinal Robert Sarah over their book From the Depths of Our Hearts obscured one of the crucial points these two eminent churchmen were trying to make: namely, that the priesthood is in crisis throughout the world because priesthood is too often reduced to a set of functions, rather than being understood and lived as a unique vocational confi guration to Jesus Christ, the eternal high priest of the New Covenant. There were hints of this function-think at the Amazonian synod, where some bishops seemed to imagine ordained viri probati as a kind of Catholic variant on the local shaman: an elder who does magical things in the spirit world. But the dumbing down of priesthood — the reduction of priestly ministry to what was sometimes called in the 1970s "priestcraft" — is a problem through- out the world Church. It is a problem in seminaries that are boot camps for a clerical caste system. It is a problem where priest- hood is thought to be a step up the social ladder in poorer countries. And it can be a problem in pastoral settings where the priest is so over- whelmed by the many things he must do that he can be tempted to forget just what he is: an icon of the priest- hood of Jesus Christ. So any serious discussion about the reform of the priesthood must begin with a deep dive into the Church's theology of Holy Orders, rather than with debates about how to "make things work better." Those debates are important. But they are secondary to the authentic Catholic reform of priestly ministry. Then there is the question of cel- ibacy and clerical sexual abuse. It's been said many times but it evidently it needs saying again: a married clergy is not the silver-bullet answer to cler- ical sexual abuse because marriage is not a crime-prevention program. That is an obvious sociological truth, in that most sexual abuse takes place within family settings, and denom- inations with a married clergy have their own serious problems of clerical sexual misbehavior and abuse. In a Catholic context, it should also be an obvious theological truth, given the Catholic understanding of the sacra- mentality of marriage. Thus it would help facilitate a real conversation about the reform of the priesthood in the Catholic Church if the nonsensi- cal notion that abandoning celibacy would solve the crisis of clerical sexual abuse were taken o« the board, permanently. The reform of the priesthood, including a deepening of the Church's commitment to the value of celibacy as a radical witness to the Kingdom, begins, as does all authentic Catholic reform, with deeper conversion to Jesus Christ and the Gospel. The Catholic DiŸ erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL LETTER TO THE EDITOR In support of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's beatifi cation A s a young kid, I recall watch- ing the Emmy-award winning television show of the 1950s and 1960s entitled "Life Is Worth Living," hosted by (then) Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. I still watch re-runs of his program almost every Sunday afternoon on EWTN Cable TV net- work. He was later elevated to an archbishop, and still later elevated by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to the rank and dignity of "Blessed Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen." As almost every Catholic knows, it takes two miracles to be authenti- cated to be considered for Sainthood. Some of my Protestant friends and family have misguided notions that Catholics pray solely to the Virgin Mary. I gently remind them that we Roman Catholics pray to Almighty God, and only ask the intercession of others (especially saints) to aid us in our spiritual intentions. When I explain it to them, that it is compa- rable to some Protestant Churches invoking "Prayer Warriors" to aid in prayer, they fi nally get the drift. Anyhow, some while ago, a young boy was born almost stillborn. He wasn't breathing and was unrespon- sive for an incredible 61 minutes. Paramedics were ready to call a doctor to pronounce the baby dead, when a miracle happened: The baby's parents prayed to Almighty God but they also invoked the intercession of the Blessed Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's memory and soul to intercede and magnify their prayers. Suddenly, the little boy began breathing and is alive to this day. Pope Francis duly declared the fi rst miracle attributed to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. His beatifi cation was set to occur this past Dec 21, 2019, but a bishop from Rochester, New York, asked the Vat- ican to postpone it; which is what happened. While I think it's proper to review all cases for beatifi cation and/or sainthood, it is pretty apparent ( bar- ring any undisclosed material ) that Archbishop Sheen has been "vetted" quite a number of times; plus he has been deceased over 40 years (he died in December 1979). Plus, the civil authorities have had over two or three months to examine his arrival records from when he was bishop of Rochester, New York. If something was amiss or out-of-place, it would have been discovered by now. My point is: clear the man's name if he is innocent. And, conversely, if there is something dubious in the his- torical fi les, disclose that too. It seems as if there has been sort of a "media blackout." I just don't want the case

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