News Briefs

POPE, IN CHRISTMAS TALK, RENEWS ATTACK ON LIBERATION THEOLOGY

VATICAN CITY (RNS)—Pope John Paul II launched a new attack December 21st on Marxist-oriented liberation theologies, saying the Roman Catholic Church must defend the world's needy against spiritual as well as material poverty.

In his annual Christmas speech to the College of Cardinals and to members of the Roman Curia and pontifical household, the Pope said, "The first liberation that must be procured for man is that from moral evil harbored in his heart, because that is where the cause of 'social sin' and of every oppressive structure lies.

"The Church cannot remain silent in the face of the present-day forms of exploitation of the poor," John Paul said. But he stressed that its "preferential option for the poor must be based on the word of God and independent of all ideologies or political systems." He said the Church has a duty to defend the "poor from illusory and dangerous ideological proposals of liberation which, while departing from real and dramatic situations of misery, would make those people and their suffering into merely a pretext for new, and sometimes graver oppression.

"There exists not only the poverty that strikes the body, there is also another and more insidious kind that strikes the conscience, violating the most intimate sanctuary of human dignity," the pope said.

John Paul denounced totalitarian regimes that deprive people of their basic rights and systems that attack individuals' consciences, personal convictions and religious beliefs.

The Pope's statements were the latest in a series of Vatican assaults on Latin American liberation theology movements that use such Marxist concepts as class struggle as the basis for their work in favor of the poor. The Vatican's Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, once known as the Holy Inquisition, warned against the use of Marxism in a 36-page "instruction" it issued on Sept. 3rd. John Paul, in his Christmas speech, praised the document and the Congregation "whose only intention is to safeguard from every deceitful plot or danger the greatest good that a Christian possesses, namely, the authenticity and integrity of his faith."

The Pope said that all Roman Catholic priests, as well as the Church's central government in Rome, must "defend the authentic evangelical teachings from all things that pollute or deform it."

24 NUNS THREATENED WITH OUSTER FOR STATEMENT ON ABORTION

NEW YORK (RNS)—Twenty-four Catholic nuns have been threatened by the Vatican with expulsion from their orders unless they publicly renounce their endorsement of a statement which said Roman Catholics hold diverse views on abortion. According to one source close to the matter, the letter from the Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes was sent to fourteen different orders of nuns.

The controversial statement, which ran Oct. 7th as a paid ad in "The New York Times" during the heated political debate on abortion, was sponsored by the Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice. The position of the organization is that Roman Catholics hold a variety of views on abortion and can do so under principles of moral theology and free conscience.

One of the signers of that statement, who spoke on the condition that she not be identified, said the superiors of the fourteen orders that received the Vatican ultimatum were meeting in Washington on Dec. 17th to discuss "options."

Sister Carol Dunthey, a spokesperson for the Sisters of Loretto, confirmed the meeting took place in Washington, and said her superior, Sister Marian McAvoy, was in attendance at the session being held in the offices of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. She said people in authority were meeting to decide what the letter really means.

William Ryan, spokesman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops "have no direct involvement in the matter, but hope for a happy resolution along the lines outlined by the Vatican. They [the Vatican] want the people involved to make a public retraction." He said priests who signed the statement, and their orders, also received the Vatican order. There could be as many as 20 priests involved.

The National Bishops' Conference already has released two statements criticizing the advertisement.

Asked by RNS what options might exist, the anonymous nun responded, "There's no option. Rome doesn't have the word 'dialogue' in its language . . . they made it seem there is only one school of thought. We said, 'But where is pluralism when it comes to . . . abortion.' "

SIGNERS OF ABORTION STATEMENT CALL VATICAN ACTION A "SCANDAL"

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Signers of a statement dissenting from the Church's teaching on abortion have labeled a Vatican threat to some of the signers a "cause of scandal to Catholics everywhere."

In a press conference following a four-and-a-half hour meeting behind closed doors at the St. Charles Hotel in Washington, D.C., the group of more than 35 nuns, priests and lay people, strongly criticized the Vatican action. But they refused to say whether they would ultimately obey or defy the Church's demand.

In an interview with RNS. Joseph Fahey, one of the signers and a professor at Manhattan College, explained that some of the signers hope the issue is allowed to die. "It may be a bluff, they might not follow through," he said.

VATICAN, U.S. BISHOPS CONFIRM ULTIMATUM: RETRACT OR LEAVE ORDERS!

VATICAN CITY (RNS)—The Vatican has confirmed that a stern ultimatum, based on canon law, has been issued to 24 nuns who signed a statement asserting that Roman Catholics hold diverse views on abortion.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Director of the Vatican Press Office, said that the Vatican has demanded that the signers either issue public retractions of the statement or face expulsion from their orders. Vatican officials said the order also applies to as many as 26 priests who signed the statement.

In a related development the same day, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a release confirming the Vatican action.

Three meetings have been held by those who signed the declaration in "The New York Times." The flurry of meetings was one sign of the severity of the order. Said the Rev. Avery Dulles, Professor of Systematic Theology at Catholic University of America, the Vatican warning "does seem like a very strong measure. Dismissal from an order is not a light thing. It's a person's whole life investment."

The Vatican spokesman insisted that the threatened disciplinary action constituted "ordinary Church procedure. We want to stress that it is all ordinary procedure, based on the code of canon law," said Mr. Navarro-Valls. "The Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, recalling the teaching of the [Second Vatican] Council and canon law norms on abortion, as well as the submission to the Magisterium required of religious, has invited the superiors major of the institutes concerned to ask every single member who has signed the above-mentioned declaration to make a public retraction."

In the letter it sent to the superiors of the nuns the Congregation cited canon 689, paragraph 1, of canon law saying that "the pernicious upholding or spreading of doctrine condemned by the Magisterium of the Church especially on an issue of such gravity is a flagrant scandal and is sufficient cause for the dismissal of a religious guilty of such conduct." The Congregation also cited the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World which defines abortion as "an unspeakable crime."

According to canon law, a person who procures successful abortion incurs automatic excommunication.

Father Dulles said he believes the latest Vatican action is part of a pattern which is less tolerant of certain kinds of dissent than Vatican policy of the recent past. "There is a feeling in the Vatican that pluralism has gone too far, and that there is confusion about what the teaching is" on matters of Church doctrine such as abortion, he said.

"There has been a lot of indications lately that the Vatican" intends to counter certain thinking which it views as running contrary to magisterial teaching. He cited the removal earlier this year of a popular catechism for adult converts published by the Paulist Press, and the more recent calling into question by the Vatican of the teachings and writings of some "liberation theologians" in Latin America.

On December 10th, the Vatican notified Rev. Fernando Cardenal of a similar ultimatum also based on canon law. The dispute with Fr. Cardenal was not over doctrine, but a legal prohibition against holding political office. The Vatican told Father Cardenal through his superiors that he would have to give up his post as Education Minister of the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, or be separated from the Jesuits. Father Cardenal refused to give up the post and was expelled from the order.

CATHOLIC STUDY CALLS FOR LAY "PROFESSIONAL MINISTERS"

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A high-level Catholic study has called for the immediate training of lay people as "professional ministers" to take the place of declining numbers of priests and nuns. After two years of study, the Task Force on Personnel Planning for the U.S. Catholic Church also suggested a more coordinated national effort to address personnel problems in the Church.

The nine-member task force was commissioned by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (priests) and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (nuns).

According to the study, there are many more Catholics in the U.S. today than in 1970, but far fewer priests and nuns to minister to them.

According to data in the church-personnel study, the number of American Catholics rose from 45 million, in 1970 to 52 million, in 1983. During that period, however, the number of priests and nuns went from 194,000 to 151.000, a drop of 22 percent.

Between 1958 and 1962, there were 32,433 new members of women's religious orders, while the figure reported for the 1976-80 period of 2,767.