News Briefs

AD SIGNERS IN 3-DAY MEETING; NUNS' CLARIFICATIONS REJECTED

Washington (RNS)—The Vatican has rejected a series of "clarifications" submitted by nuns who signed a controversial declaration on abortion rights and face expulsion from their orders, according to several sisters who signed the statement.

Although at least six of the twenty-four nuns have been cleared by the Vatican, this is the first time reports have surfaced that the Vatican has turned down explanations it demanded from the sisters.

A year after a December, 1984 Vatican ultimatum handed down to the nuns, the signers and the superiors of their religious communities gathered on the evening of December 19th for a three-day meeting behind closed doors to assess the Vatican response and bring the nuns up to date on each other's cases.

Before leaving for the meeting in the Convent Station, N.J., headquarters of the Sisters of Charity, several nuns said in telephone interviews that the Vatican has rejected verbal and written "clarifications" made through their superiors by a sizable number, if not most, of the twenty-four nuns.

The nuns endorsed a statement on abortion rights which appeared as an advertisement in "The New York Times" in October, 1984.

Their clarifications evidently have fallen short of a demand by Cardinal Jean Jerome Hamer, who oversees religious orders at the Vatican, for a straightforward statement expressing support for the Church's teaching on abortion, said the nuns.

"We really can't clarify any more, at this point. We're kind of like at the end of the rope," said one signer, School Sister of Notre Dame Jeannine Gramick of Brooklyn, N.Y.

She said she relayed two explanations, one which expressed support for the "tradition" of the Church on abortion, that the Vatican found unacceptable. Sister Gramick said she did not know what would happen next or whether the Vatican would act on its threat to order the superiors to expel the nuns from the orders.

"No one I know is willing to go any further," in their explanations, said Sister Barbara Ferraro of Charleston, W.V., who is one of the twenty-four nuns and runs a shelter for the homeless with another ad signer, Sister Patricia Hussey. "I don't see any resolution in sight."

The reports follow an announcement in November by the Sisters of Charity that four members of the order who signed the ad had been cleared by the Vatican. Before that, two other nuns said they were no longer under review.

The six cases led to speculation that resolution of the dispute was in sight. Furthermore, during a visit in August to this country, Cardinal Hamer, head of the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, shifted the Vatican's stance from its initial demands from a public retraction to a "clarification." The clarification should take the form of a statement affirming Church teaching on abortion, he said.

Russell Shaw, spokesman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, told reporters in November that the Vatican was "backing off" in its rhetoric. However, he later took back the remark, saying there has been no backing off but a "change" in rhetoric, from retraction to clarification, to bring about an end to the dispute.

Sister of Loretto Maureen Fiedler of Washington, D.C., one of the signers, said the initial remarks by Mr. Shaw and a statement made by Cardinal Hamer during his August visit were simply "an attempt to repackage" the demands and make Vatican officials "appear much more reasonable than they are."

The Vatican has centered its criticism on a part of the "Times" ad which asserted that there is more than one "legitimate Catholic position" on abortion.

However, in what appears to signal a widening of the conflict, some nuns interviewed said they believe the issue at stake is no longer abortion, but their right to speak out freely. "The issue is the Vatican's abuse of power," said Sister Ferraro. Although she and Sister Hussey have sent a joint clarification rejected by Cardinal Hamer, she added, "We shouldn't have even responded. Anything they ask for is wrong."

She asserted that the only just resolution to the dispute will come when Cardinal Hamer "apologizes for his actions and says he's made a mistake. He needs to make the public retraction, not us."

SYNOD ENDORSES VATICAN II REFORMS, URGES MORE SPIRITUALITY

Vatican City (RNS)—Roman Catholic bishops wound up a worldwide Synod by pledging to promote the liberalizing reforms of Vatican Council II, but also with calls for greater obedience and renewed spirituality in the Church.

The bishops launched an appeal for greater "doctrinal vigor" to prevent "confusion among the faithful" and to assure more respect for Church rules governing moral issues such as divorce and birth control.

"The Synod has accomplished the purposes for which it was convoked: to celebrate, verify and promote the Council," the Pope said at a special Mass he concelebrated with some 160 synod participants on December 8th in St. Peter's Basilica.

In addition to catechism and bishops' conference suggestions, the Synod's final document proposed:

- that a pastoral program be implemented in the particular churches to promote "a new, more extensive and deeper knowledge and reception of the Council";

- that concerted efforts be made to promote "the witness of holiness";

- that bishops "correct abuses" of liturgical reforms introduced by Vatican II;

- that preparation of a new Code of Canon Law governing Oriental rite Churches be completed "as quickly as possible";

- that there be a study of "whether the principle of subsidiarity in use in human society can be applied to the Church and to what degree and in what way."

PROTESTANT OBSERVERS SAY SYNOD REAFFIRMS ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT

New York (RNS)—The recent extraordinary Synod of Catholic Bishops in Rome issued positive signals about the Catholic Church's continuing commitment to ecumenism, said two U. S. Protestants who attended the Synod as official observers.

"I was relieved to see that they're still as interested in ecumenical developments as they've always been," since the Second Vatican Council, said retired United Methodist Bishop William Cannon of Atlanta, president of the World Methodist Council, in a telephone interview.

The Rev. Lewis S. Mudge, dean of McCormick Theological Seminary, said by telephone from Chicago, that the Synod's final report "does not take it (ecumenism) to a new level," but contains "a reasonably strong reaffirmation of ecumenical concerns." The report declares ecumenical commitment now to be "indelibly inscribed in the consciousness of the Roman Catholic Church," said Dr. Mudge, adding that the translation from the Latin document was his own.

Bishop Cannon and Dr. Mudge were the only two Americans among the ten official ecumenical observers to the Synod. Bishop Cannon, the only one of the ten who was also an official observer at Vatican II, is president of the World Methodist Council and co-chairman of the Catholic-Methodist international theological dialogue.

Also represented at the Synod were the Orthodox churches, the Coptic churches, the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran World Federation, the Disciples of Christ, the Baptist World Alliance, Pentecostal churches, and the World Council of Churches.

The Synod marked the first major world gathering of Catholic bishops since Vatican II to which such ecumenical observers were invited, Dr. Mudge said. The Vatican's Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity "made quite an effort to make that possible," he added, "and the Pope intervened," as well.

The Presbyterian ecumenist noted that "there is a body of opinion" within the Vatican "that is not much interested in ecumenism. My conclusion is that the Pope is not part of that body of opinion."

John Paul demonstrated his personal interest, both men noted, by inviting the ten observers to lunch, where they had an hour and a half of conversation with the Pope, Cardinal Johannes Willebrans, who heads the Unity Secretariat, and Msgr. Basil Meeking, also with the Secretariat. The Pope seemed most interested in hearing from the observers their perceptions on what has happened since Vatican II between Catholics and Protestants in various parts of the world, said Bishop Cannon.

As for the Synod itself, Bishop Cannon found it "progressive in every way. They didn't retreat from Vatican II." He was struck by "the harmony that seemed to prevail. We had thought there would be wider differences and heated debate." The bishop said he had read and heard a great deal about "a Church in crisis" preceding the Synod, but at the meeting itself, "there was none of that. It was very positive."

As for the effect of the Synod on the Roman Catholic Church, in Dr. Mudge's assessment, "neither conservatives nor progressives won a clear victory."

RATZINGER'S IS ONE OF TWO CATECHISMS TO SPRING UP SINCE SYNOD

Vatican City (RNS)—Less than a week after the worldwide Synod of Roman Catholic Bishops called for a new compendium of Church doctrine and morals, completed catechisms have begun to spring up around the Vatican.

The Vatican's chief doctrine official unveiled a new book that he says serves the same purpose as one proposed during the Synod—to defend the Faith and guard it against abuses and errors.

The new 300-page volume presented at a news conference December 12 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is a complete collection of all documents issued since Vatican Council II by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office he directs.

In the fifty-eight declarations, letters, decrees and other types of documents it contains, the book addresses virtually all the hottest, most difficult cases that face the modern-day Church, from liberation theology to abortion, from celibacy to euthanasia, ecumenism and divorce.

Cardinal Ratzinger said he hopes the volume, which like the Synod was prepared in honor of the 20th anniversary of Vatican II, will be put to good use by bishops and theologians.

At present, the new book is available only in a nearly all-Latin version. Forty-nine of the documents it contains are printed in Latin and the rest are in either Italian or French.

Joaquin Navarro Vails, official spokesman for the Vatican, said translation of the books into other languages is being considered.

CATHOLIC BISHOPS: AIDS FEAR NO REASON TO DROP USE OF COMMON CUP

Washington, (RNS)—A committee of Roman Catholic bishops has declared that parishes should continue the practice of drinking from a common cup of wine during eucharistic celebrations, despite growing fears of AIDS.

However, the bishops' committee said those who fear contracting communicable diseases can simply dip the eucharistic bread into wine when receiving communion.

Pastors should also tell "those who are fearful that they have the option of receiving Christ under bread one," said the Committee on Liturgy of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

BOYS TOWN: NEW GROWTH FOR AN OLD INSTITUTION, AND A NEW MOVIE

New York (RNS)—You don't have to be a Catholic, or even a boy, to be admitted to Boys Town.

The image of Boys Town as an exclusively Catholic institution was fostered by the Academy Award-winning film "Boys Town," and its sequel "Men of Boys Town." It will also be perpetuated by a third film, "Miracle of the Heart—A Boys Town Story," starring Art Carney, which will be shown next Easter.

The Rev. Val Peter, new executive director of the famed institution, acknowledged that the Archbishop of Omaha always chairs the board of trustees and that a priest of the archdiocese is always the director. "But that's where it stops," he said. "It's another of the things the Roman Catholic Church does, but it is not restricted to Roman Catholics."

The priest said a youngster at Boys Town is taught religious studies from his or her own tradition, whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, or any other.

What if a child professes no religion? In that case, Father Peter said, "For six months, you must study Roman Catholicism and go to Mass. Then you study Protestantism for six months. Then you decide for yourself what you want to be."

There are 424 children, including 32 girls, now living on the home campus, Father Peter said.

IRISH PRIEST: DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CHURCH WILL SAVE CATHOLICISM

Bourne, England (RNS)—The Irish Church as we know it is dying, the Rev. Parig Digan, an Irish Columban priest, said on national radio here.

The prospect brings tears to the eyes of many, but not to Father Digan and others who consider themselves progressive Catholics out to make the Irish Church a vibrant institution playing its part in shaping Irish life and culture into the next millennium.

The sooner the traditional Church dies the better it will be for Ireland and Catholicism, according to a recent Digan article titled, "Irish Catholicism Revisited" in the Irish journal, "Doctrine and Life."

A sub-heading in Father Digan's articles reads, "There is a kind of dying that is the only way to life." The death of the pre-Vatican II Irish Church in this sense he sees as both inevitable and providential.

Thirteen years ago he was working in Brussels, when he wrote about three possible features for traditional Irish Catholicism: one "essentially benign"; a second "essentially malignant"; the third "essentially transcending both categories."

The Rev. Austin Flannery, O.P., editor of "Doctrine and Life," recently commissioned Father Digan to update his 1972 article. Father Digan, who is now coordinator of research for the Columbans at Navan, Ireland, is calling for "no less than a dying of the Church that still seeks, now counter-productively, to enlist in its cause intimidation and coercion, including that of the state."

Father Digan writes that, in the West as a whole, that dying has been going on for half a millennium from the Renaissance and Reformation, through the middle- and working-class and Third World revolutions. "In Ireland that dying has only begun to be possible," he says. "On this fringe of Europe both the rise and the decline of Constantinian Catholicism has been compressed into a convulsively shorter span.

"It is the faith of Christians that God writes all the scenarios—bringing good out of evil, turning death into the one way of life."

The priest says that a wide chasm exists today between the many Irish clerics and lay Catholics who yearn for and strive to put back the clock and reinstate the old-fashioned Church ethos and power, and those "who place higher priority in the Christian imperative of respect for conscience and renunciation of force and domination."

Father Digan continued: "Like other Christian cowards I wish it were not true that the Church has to alienate so many, some of whom will never be reconciled. The only hope I have for Ireland and Catholicism is for the Church to be relieved of its power to prolong the agony of Ireland and is free to take on new life in the hearts of the people here as I have seen it do elsewhere."