Vatican Believed to Have Written to Bishop of Monterey : Priest Who Wrote Book About Divorce Ordered Out of Diocese

A Franciscan priest says he has been told by the bishop of Monterey to leave that diocese after his provocative book of advice for divorced Catholics apparently prompted an inquiring letter from the Vatican.

Father Barry Brunsman, who had been working in the Monterey diocese for more than two years, said he saw the decision to end his trial membership in the diocese as “symptomatic of a larger situation” in the Roman Catholic Church--the increased silencing of views that are at odds with Vatican teachings.

Bishop Thaddeus A. Shubsda of Monterey, formerly an auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles, declined to discuss details of his action, though he said, “My action . . . had nothing to do with the book.”

Shubsda also declined to say if he received a letter from the Vatican. Brunsman said he had been informed that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican’s top doctrinal authority, wrote a letter to the Monterey diocese this summer asking about his performance on the marriage tribunal, a body that hears requests for annulments.

Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has been the key Vatican figure in tightening adherence to church teachings, including the removal of Father Charles Curran from the theology faculty at Catholic University in Washington.

The Monterey priest, interviewed by telephone, said he presumed Ratzinger’s inquiry in his case was prompted by the publishing in January of “New Hope for Divorced Catholics” since it would be unusual for Rome to ask about the tribunal work of a priest.

The book, whose subtitle is, “A Concerned Pastor Offers Alternatives to Annulment,” suggested more use in this country of the “internal forum,” a technical term for priestly conferences with divorced Catholics who want their new marriages blessed in order to return to full participation in church life.

Stand on Remarriage

Brunsman wrote that more than half of those who leave Catholicism blame “the church’s rigid stand” on divorce and remarriage. “On all levels the church has to rethink its position on marriage theology,” Brunsman wrote. The book, published by Harper & Row, was an expansion of his doctoral dissertation for San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Brunsman contended that “this whole business of the book has been very uncomfortable” for the bishop. Early this year, Shubsda asked two members of the U.S. bishops’ doctrine committee to review the book. The committee’s recommendations were published in the Monterey diocese newspaper. “All of us were satisfied,” Brunsman said.

The Monterey diocese is expected to be one of the stops for Pope John Paul II during his U.S. visit next fall.

Shubsda said that in taking his action he followed the recommendation by the diocesan personnel board that Brunsman should look for work in another diocese. Besides Brunsman’s duty on the marriage tribunal, the priest was an associate pastor at a parish.

“It’s a trial period,” Shubsda said, referring to the initial period that religious order priests spend in a diocese. “Sometimes they leave, sometimes we ask them to leave,” the bishop said. “Father Brunsman is a very pleasant priest to deal with, and I hope everything goes well with him.”

Brunsman, who said he thinks that he will be able to continue his ministry elsewhere, said he does “not want to make a big fight out of this.”

The priest said he and the bishop have two different “visions” of what the Catholic Church should be. “The bishop feels the greatest amount of good can be done through uniformity of practice; I accept that and yet see many people don’t fit into the normal process,” Brunsman said.

Brunsman’s order, the Franciscans, was criticized by Ratzinger in a letter he wrote to Father John Vaughn, the Franciscans’ minister-general. Excerpts from the May 9 letter, released by the Italian news agency ASCA last month, quoted Ratzinger as urging Franciscans to “overcome a radical mentality of dissent” and bring an end to “critical behavior” toward the church.