www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Retired Bishop Calls for Reform, says Sydney Herald

Pope has too much power, says bishop
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national...ays-bishop/2007/08/24/1187462523655.html

Linda Morris Religious Affairs Reporter
August 25, 2007

The Sydney bishop who helped write the Catholic Church's sex abuse policy in Australia has urged a fundamental reshaping of the church's power structures, warning papal authority has gone too far and calling for a review of compulsory celibacy for priests and the church's teachings on sex.

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who retired three years ago and who was once touted as a possible candidate for the job of archbishop of Sydney, says the church has to get more serious about confronting clerical abuse and change must start at the top.

In an explosive critique of the church to be published tomorrow, he has directly criticised both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI for Rome's reluctance to take stronger action to tackle sexual abuse.

The breadth and scope of his stance is extremely unusual in the Catholic Church, where bishops usually observe an oath of silence in retirement.

Bishop Robertson said he did not expect immediate change but wanted to start a robust "conversation" in the church about the need for reform of power structures and sexual ethics.

He also says in his book that he was the victim of an abusive stranger, not a priest, as an adolescent. The experience shaped his response to abuse victims and led to significant disenchantment with the church.

In the book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, Bishop Robinson says papal authority has gone too far, local bishops have been marginalised and the faithful of the church rendered powerless.

John Paul II had left the church to deal with "one of the ugliest stories to emerge from the Catholic Church" without appropriate levels of direction or guidance.

Pope Benedict's failure to even consider a review of priestly celibacy was to "lose credibility even before the discussion has begun".

There was a need for the church to review its commitment to priestly celibacy and its "extreme" teachings on sexual ethics, in which the church treats as a sin sex before marriage between committed couples.

And the attire of bishops and priests needed to be modernised - the bishop's mitre abandoned because of its "bad body language" and the priestly collar replaced in some circumstances with a distinctive tie.

Priests and bishops should be appraised every five or six years, as was normal in every workplace, and parishes would get a say in the priests appointed.

Specifically, Bishop Robinson has called for an elected parliament of bishops to be established, from which properly representative church leaders would elect future popes.

The tradition in the Eastern Catholic Church of appointing patriarchs to lead national churches could be adopted by the Roman Catholic church to remove hierarchical confusion.

But Bishop Robinson's powerful case for reform was likely to be resisted by those with a vested interest in not seeing any radical change within the church, said Father Michael Whelan, the principal of the Aquinas Academy and a founding member of the group Catalyst for Renewal. The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, declined to comment.

Not having read the book in question, I remain skeptical at the claims in this article. Nevertheless, it is interesting and can lead some to ask important questions.

I, for one, would not want the ecclesiastical structure of the church to mirror our modern democracies and republics. The source of authority differs between the two, and that is very significant. The Bishop of Rome is not the source of Church authority, nor is the Cardinalate which elected him the source of authority. If laymen were to invest themselves with the authority this retired bishop is said to be calling for, there would be far greater troubles in the Church than a few black sheep and multi-million dollar lawsuits.

The sex scandal is a problem, but it is a moral and not an ecclesiastical problem. A widespread drive for a Peoples-Republic Catholic Church would lead to further fragmentation and isolation, as a whole, than purification. If it's a purification this Bishop is calling for, then let us return more forcibly to the Church Fathers and learn from them what it means to have self-control and to fully love our God and our neighbor. I realize I am simplifying the matter here, but I am convinced that if those three aspects were embraced with the full passion of our hearts, and the hearts of all priests, then there would be reform enough in the Church for skeptics to see Who is the object of our faith.

Terry

It's interesting that Catholic World News (CWN) is carrying a similar story, in the blog by Diogenes, but with a different retired Australian bishop, Bishop Patrick Power:

Bishop Calls for "reform" of Church in Australia [cwnews.com]

I wonder if this is an orchestrated effort?

By contrast with these concerns of these two retired Bishops, in his letter to the members of the Catholic Church in the People's Republic of China, in section 9, Pope Benedict writes, for both the government and Catholics to read:

Letter to the Catholic Church in China [vatican.va]

Personally, I like Pope Benedict's idea of what is needed in this day and age, more than the prescriptions of the named bishops and their ilk, and hope it bears fruit in every country of the world.

Michael

I would be interested in reading an intelligent review of Bishop Robertson's book from a Catholic perspective.

If they are not orchestrated maybe priests or laymen in their influence will be, if anything comes of their diatribes.

Terry

I hope that is not the case, and that this "initiative" amounts to a tempest in a teapot.

"Power" is the operative word. Obviously, we can't tell from this restatement whether that is the word Bishop Robinson himself would use.

Personally, I think that where RCs (clergy and laity) are intent on seeking the power to be faithful, we can see signs that the "power of the Holy Spirit" is being given generously; any other "power" is superfluous, and "power" to remake the Church according to someone's personalistic insights is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Last night, on an EWTN interview from 2-weeks ago, Cardinal Bertone attributed the priestly sex-abuse scandal to "bad seminary formation", and hinted that focusing on it as a hermeneutic of reform would be to let the tail wag the dog, i.e., let's replace bad formation with good formation, and see how that works for us.

Michael

Its interesting the terminology that was used the "extreme" teaching of the Church concerning sexuality, where it give approval of sex before marrigage and outside of marriage.
I wonder if Sacred Scripture is "extreme"?
Maybe the Scriptures teaching on murder and all other sin is "extreme"!
Stephanos I
One wonders if such people have any grey matter between their ears.

A distinctive tie for priests? What will it be: a necktie with

P
R
I
E
S
T

written on it?

Dave

I almost never wear a clergy "collar"; I prefer a plain cassock (the kind that doesn't require a collar). But perhaps I should wear a clergy kilt?

Otherwise, I really don't want to comment on a book that I have not seen, let alone read. I expect to be in Melbourne and Sydney in late September and shall attempt to obtain a copy of the book. Once I've read it, I might (or might not) have something intelligent to say about it.

Fr. Serge

Bishop Robinson's ranting drivel is the kind of stuff that reminds me of the episcobabble that drove me out of the Episcopal church. Nonsense all of it. Having lived through the effects of programs such as +Robinson proposes I can already spell out the result should his proposal be enacted in the following steps:

1) ++Benedict XVI loses all grip on sanity and allows program as expressed by +Robinson to be enacted.
2) +Robinson et. al. orchestrate a celebratory Mass where the "marginalized" as defined by modern social standards are "celebrated" for their "diversity" and the evil "paternalistic oppressors" are cast aside. Rubrics of the mass largely ignored to be more "inclusive".
3) A governing board is created, the "Peanut Gallery" is as good name as any for it. All key offices and boards are stocked with croneys and sympatizers to +Robinson. A few conservitive stragglers are allowed in for the sake of "Diversity" so long as they can't do anything of importance.
4) The Peanut Gallery announces annual ageda where Election of the Episcopate, Priestly Celabacy, Contraception other icky nasties will be "explored".
5) At the Convention Left wing speakers will spew emotion drenched appeals to loud applause from the stocked audience supplemented with "canned appaluse" from the AV system. Conservative responder will be ignored as free snacks are announced in the lobby and will finished to muted applause supplemented by "chirping crickets" from the AV. Stenograpy machine will mysteriously break. Revisionist agenda sweeps the election along with the slate of Revisionist candidates for the newly electable episcopate.
6) +Robinson told the results but he has already enacted them because he got a copy the day before.
7) See #2) but pushing new boundries.
8) Repeat 4, 5, 6 cover Women's ordination to ALL ranks of the clergy and Gay rights etc. etc. etc.......


Okay, maybe I'm a little cynical, but I do speak from experience.

God Bless.

I would like to read the book, to see what he is saying. I am convinced that even liberal Catholics would be taken out of context as easy as traditional Catholics if their aim is spiritual.

It is very difficult for me to imagine the plausibility of those steps, though I can understand how liturgical flexibility in a parish can lead to the marginalization of the Eucharist. I once witnessed a mass being performed after celebratory birthday shout-outs and trumpet blasts, this was before I even thought of converting, and I didn't like it. But even from that, I can't imagine the official ordination of priestesses or the lapse of sanity from Pope Benedict XVI--he is too concentrated on Christ to be so distracted by liberal reforms.

A question I would offer to those who seek such a reform of the Catholic Church would be, why not attend a church which already follows those aims? Why stay in the fold.

Terry

Michael McD:

Think about it. If an active bishop pulled this kind of stunt, he would have to account for it at his next ad limina visit. But what can one do to a retired "loose cannon"? Excommunicate him?

There are certain things that as Pope John Paul II of blessed memory reminded us "that we must �be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.� These gentlemen seem to think that "pick and choose" should be the state of the Church. Even after the long reign of JPII and all the clarifications he made to these types of challenges, doubts, and dissents, it still goes on.

Is this perhaps why His Holiness is so slow to name new bishops? Is it because there is a dearth of qualified candidates who will actually teach the Catholic faith and not their own thoughts and agendas?

In Christ,

BOB

Father, don't you get hot in them? My priest wears them during special events but I think he gets too warm in them which is why he changes to a short sleeve clergy shirt as soon as he gets the chance.

with deference - why do you think the Seminarians in Rome during in the summer months wear their College cassocks and have football shorts and short sleeved T-shirts underneath

Remember they do tours of the Vatican for visitors

Some of these reforms might be god, but some might bring negative effects.

Take the example of the Mexican Church after the so-called "agreements" with the Mexican government after the religious persecution. The result of this policy (popular or consense election of prelates and so on, specialy after organizations like "Priests for the People" were founded) left as a result the blatant interference of the State, the replacement of the bishops faithful to Roman Catholic orthodoxy and the installation of a liberal hierarchy worried about wordly affairs and the open imposition of candidates to JPII.

Or take the most horrendous example: China, priesta and bishops supporting unhuman policies such as abortion and forced sterilization of women.

I might say that the parishes might petiton the bishop their priests, and that a more synodal form might be taken, but even this has a disadvantage, as the liberal majority might be able to impose their views on more conservative bishops. If there is going to be a Patriarch they should be appointed only in the most important countries and sees (Brazil, France, US, Mexico) and the men chosen should be appointed by the Pope in order to avoid hetherodox prelates to reach the Patriarchate.

Bob,

I hear you.

As a freshman in college, I was "present at the creation" in D.C. of the "dissent" against Humanae vitae, so I always have the "organized campaign" question in the back of my mind.

I don't know about Australia, but I think in the U.S. people have had it with this kind of "ground-swell protest", at least I hope so.

Michael