In back-to-back opening keynote addresses July 25 at the ninth annual Napa Institute, well-known conservative Catholic commentator George Weigel and high-profile papal critic Cardinal Raymond Burke exhorted the assembly to fight pervasive error, division and apostasy in the church and embrace its immutable teachings.
Both called the nearly 700 participants at the July 24-28 event in Napa, California, to “more thorough, intense Catholic lives” and “missionary discipleship,” in Weigel’s words.
It was the cardinal’s first appearance at a Napa Institute conference, staged at the elegant Meritage Resort and Spa, which is among holdings of institute’s co-founder, Tim Busch.
Burke was pointedly critical about the working document for the Vatican’s fall Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, which includes discussion of potential priestly ordination of widely respected married men to enhance access to sacraments in that region.
“Celibacy stems from the example of Jesus Christ,” said the cardinal. “Our great high priest made this choice” and it provides an example of “perfect continence” for priests.
Weigel agreed. “To relax or remove or dispose of the 1,000 or so years of tradition that lie behind the celibate priesthood is to surrender in a very profound way to the siren song of the sex-saturated culture that is killing itself and its offspring,” he said.
Titled “Proclaiming the Truths of the Faith in a Time of Crisis,” Burke’s address centered on a review of a recent 40-point “declaration” signed by him and four other prelates — a retired cardinal from Latvia (Janis Pujats) and three bishops from Kazakhstan (Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Archbishop Tomash Peta and Archbishop Emeritus Jan Pawel Lenga).
Among the 40 “pervasive errors” noted by Burke at Napa were:
• “Confusion” about working to bring Muslims or Jews to Christianity: Many feel both religions “claim their own integrity” and that “it is wrong to work toward their conversion,” but “there is salvation through faith in Christ alone,” he said to applause.
• Lack of clarity that the church does permit civil authority to exercise capital punishment, a statement that seemed to conflict with Pope Francis’ recent description of the death penalty as “a serious violation of the right to life of every person” and the U.S bishops’ move to re-cast the U.S catechism on the topic.
• “Serious implications for the entire life of the church” when priests’ “divinely appointed” role “acting in the person of Christ” at the consecration at Mass is misunderstood: an error “currently going about is that if no ordained priest” is available, “it is sufficient for the faithful to just designate one of their number to offer the sacrifice,” he said.
• Sidelining church doctrine that “the only moral exercise of sex” may take place “within a valid marriage” of a man and woman.
Weigel said a well-lived life centers on the question, “How have I brought others to Christ?”
Advocating “all-in Catholicism,” Weigel argued, “We will not attract others to Jesus” unless “manifest in our lives” are “service to the poor and marginalized and the walking wounded in our decadent culture” as well as rigorous sacramental practice.
In that vein, he said pro-life Catholics must do more than debate the abortion issue and should support pregnant women in crisis.
Full story at National Catholic Reporter.
So if Priestly Celibacy is from Christ, and did not become a requirement in the Western Church until many centuries later, and is still optional in most Eastern Churches, would the ‘priest shortage’ be reduced if this requirement were removed?
Sorry, but consideration of a married priesthood is nowhere near “pervasive error”. It was the practice at the beginning of the Church, including every single one of its very first Bishops for which we have records. It continues to be the practice in the Eastern Churches. It was never a problem in the Orthodox Churches. It was accepted without controversy when the Anglican Ordinariate was adopted. How did it somehow now become “pervasive error”? Asking for a few million Christian friends.
Yes it is, “YFC,” particularly given its intent. Such issues — such as using women deacons — are raised for one purpose, to defeat or alter other principles, requirements and rituals. The Church must stay within the Deposit of Faith and not reconsider everything whenever a liberal is elected Pope, or when society changes its moral stripes. Every such change does damage when the real need is for the Church to reclaim its holy Tradition.
YFC,
I’m sort of reading between the lines, but I think the “persuasive error” to which they refer is NOT that ordaining married men is in error but that the timing is all wrong. They perceive that the Pope is succumbing to contemporary culture which is over-sexed and which worships sex as an idol.
YFC,
I wish to clarify that my capitalization of “not” was not meant to shout but merely to emphasize that a negative was in the sentence.
Why accommodate National Catholic Reporter here? They’re heretical.
Weigel wrote a hagiographic biography on St Pope John Paul II years ago. While undoubtedly St Pope John Paul II was a charismatic leader, he lacked discernment of some of those around him, especially Marcel Maciel. The Pope was warned about Maciel, who was a serial sex abuser and fathered several children, but who was also a very prolific fundraiser. A real stain on an otherwise great legacy.
According to some , the Communists used to smear the names of good Catholic priests in Poland to make them ineffective or to put them in jail, so Pope John Paul II had difficulty believing some of the reports about Maciel even though he was in another country.
Anne T: you may want to dig a bit deeper into the Maciel matter. One of Pope Benedict XVI’s first actions in his papacy was to remove Maciel from his leadership of the Legionnaires of Christ and direct Maciel to a life of repentance, prayer and solitude. Maciel’s activities, i.e. drug abuse, fathering children, abuse of semanarians, was common knowledge to many in the Curia for many years. St Pope John Paul II does not get a pass on this one!
I know all about that, FHK, including how Pope Benedict XVI rightly removed Maciel, I was just repeating something I had read about why Pope John Paul II might not have been as effective in removing him.
Weigel and Burke may want to update their theological education and read the documents of Vatican II, particularly Nostra Aetate. Nostra Aetate addresses the Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions. The declaration was passed by the council fathers with a vote of 2,221 in favor to 88 opposed. St Pope John Paul II, hardly a liberal, spoke favorably and with enthusiasm about this important Declaration of the Church.