The Papal Visit : Moral Issue Dissent a ‘Grave Error’--Pope : Catholics Can’t Be Selective on Doctrine, He Tells Bishops

After hearing candid reports on widespread resistance to church doctrine, Pope John Paul II bluntly told the nation’s bishops Wednesday that it is “grave error” for American Catholics to consider themselves faithful if they dissent on church teachings on divorce, abortion, homosexuality and other sexual issues.

In the most significant address yet of his U.S. tour, John Paul made it clear that he is in charge. He instructed the bishops to encourage obedience to church teachings, including those that independent opinion polls show most American Catholics routinely ignore.

His remarks, delivered to 300 U.S. bishops behind closed doors, represented the Pope’s first definitive response to growing disregard by American Catholics of church teachings on so-called moral issues. The meeting with the bishops also came at a time of widely acknowledged tensions within the U.S. church leadership over the Vatican’s exercise of authority.

First of Its Kind

It was the first time the Pope met face-to-face with the American hierarchy in a two-way discussion. After praying with the bishops at the chapel in the historic San Fernando Mission, he led them into the dining room of the adjacent Our Lady Queen of Angels Seminary for the private meeting.

Four U.S. bishops, in clear and frank presentations, described the stubborn independence of American Catholics, their resentment toward authoritarian stances and the pain many Catholic women feel because of a perceived second-class status. Texts of the speeches were made available to the media. The Pope had received copies of the presentations in June.

In response, John Paul told the bishops that Catholics cannot be selective in their adherence to church teachings. “It is sometimes claimed that dissent from the Magisterium (church teaching) is totally compatible with being a good Catholic and poses no obstacle to the reception of the sacraments,” the Pope said. “This is a grave error that challenges the teaching office of the bishops of the United States and elsewhere.”

The Pope reiterated his opposition to the ordination of women, divorce and remarriage, abortion and homosexual behavior, and called on bishops to be vigilant in ensuring that candidates for the priesthood clearly understand and accept church dogma on moral matters.

But instead of prescribing penalities for disobedient Catholics, the Pope encouraged the U.S. bishops to “attract assent” from lay people and institute more effective educational programs--in his words, “a new effort of evangelization . . . (and teaching) directed to the mind.”

Later Wednesday, an archbishop acting as spokesman for the bishops said that the Pope’s admonitions do not mean “that everybody who practices birth control is going to have to leave the church.” Moreover, Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk said, “It’s far too easy and simple to say anyone who does this should never receive Communion.” Pastors deal with the situations according to each individual’s case, he said.

The pontiff’s remarks, according to Pilarczyk, do not suggest “in any way that he is displeased with the church in our country” or that the bishops are supposed to “go home and raise general Cain.”

Discussing tensions over Vatican use of authority, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago told the Pope that it is painful for the bishops to be cast as adversaries of the Holy See or of groups within their dioceses. He stressed that the Pope and the bishops must cooperate closely in carrying out their “distinct but complementary responsibilities.”

“We must be able to speak with one another in complete candor, without fear,” he said. “This applies to our exchanges with the Holy See as well as among ourselves as bishops. Even if our exchange is characterized by some as confrontational, we must remain calm and not become the captives of those who would use us to accomplish their own ends.”

Some U.S. bishops were upset last year when the Vatican took away certain responsibilities from Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, but Rome later restored the archbishop’s full authority in a compromise solution recommended by a panel of high-ranking American prelates.

Replying to Bernardin’s statement, the Pope said the church operates on a vertical, not a horizontal, authority structure, and noted that church teachings are entrusted to the bishops with the Roman pontiff as their chief. “This universal church cannot be conceived as the sum of the particular churches, or as a federation of particular churches,” John Paul said.

On another issue that has generated controversy, the Pope said dissenting theologians “may not be proposed or received on an equal footing with the church’s authentic teaching. . . .” “Your dialogue (with theologians) will seek to show the unacceptability of dissent and confrontation as a policy and method in the area of church teaching.”

Neither the Pope nor the bishops made reference to Father Charles Curran, whose license to teach theology at Catholic University of America was lifted by the Vatican last year. Curran was disciplined for his open disagreement with the church’s teachings on sexual ethics, but many fellow theologians defended his right to dissent.

Catholics Polled

The four U.S. bishops who presented statements to the pontiff said U.S. Catholics need to be persuaded by church teachings and react negatively when they are not consulted or considered in the promulgation of church policies.

In a Los Angeles Times Poll last month, U.S. Catholics, by a 10-1 margin, said they believe they can disagree with church teachings and still be considered loyal followers. Even among Catholics who are strongly supportive of the Pope’s doctrine and policies, only one in five said that a member must follow all of the church’s teachings to be considered faithful.

Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, who gave what appeared to be the most candid assessment of the conflicts within the U.S. church, appealed to the Pope to understand the pain of many Catholic women and the tendency of Catholic intellectuals to question rather than blindly accept.

“There are no words to explain so much pain on the part of so many competent women today who feel they are second-class citizens in a church they love,” Weakland said. “That pain turns easily to anger and is often shared and transmitted to the younger generation of men and women.

Women’s Expectations

“Women do not want to be treated as stereotypes of sexual inferiority, but want to be seen as necessary to the full life of a church that teaches and shows by example the co-discipleship of the sexes as instruments of God’s love. They seek a church where the gifts of women are equally accepted and appreciated.”

Weakland did not take issue with the papal pronouncements that women may not be ordained to the priesthood. He praised the Pope’s speech of Aug. 16 declaring that there is New Testament precedent for women holding important roles in churches.

The role of women in Catholicism remains one of the U.S. church’s most divisive issues, and women protesters have held demonstrations during the pontiff’s visit to demand a greater voice in church affairs. In the Times Poll, 60% of American Catholics surveyed said they believe women should be allowed into the priesthood.

After hearing Weakland’s presentation, the Pope said the question of women’s “equal dignity and responsibility” will be properly discussed at next month’s Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. The synods are called periodically by the Pope to discuss topics of his choosing. October’s synod will deal with the laity.

The Pontiff reiterated that women “are not called to the priesthood,” affirming the church’s ban on female priests.

“Although the teaching of the church on this point is quite clear, it in no way alters the fact that women are indeed an essential part of the gospel plan to spread the good news of the kingdom,” the Pope said. “And the church is irrevocably committed to this truth.”

Resentment Told

Weakland also told the Pope that American Catholics “resent being told how to vote on an issue or for which candidate to vote,” and noted that such interference can be counterproductive, an apparent reference to church criticism of political candidates who support freedom of choice on abortion.

The archbishop called for a “new kind of collaboration and a wider range of consultation” in the formation of church teachings. He told the Pope that U.S. Catholics are better educated then ever and inclined to look at the “intrinsic worth of an argument” proposed by the church rather than to accept it based on authority alone.

Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco said “the conversion of the mind” is the first challenge that bishops face in order to convey to American Catholics that the revolutionary changes in society “are not grounds for dismissing church teaching as outmoded.” The San Francisco prelate spoke of the need to find more ways to translate church teachings “into more attractive language.”

Quinn, whose archdiocese includes a large gay community, noted that a Vatican declaration in 1986 affirmed “the fundamental dignity and freedom of homosexual persons” while still condemning homosexual behavior as wrong. Many gays were infuriated by the statement, which described homosexual behavior as “intrinsically evil.”

The Pope said he recognizes that the teaching is “unpopular” but described it as a truth that often leads to a “deep inner conversion.” He encouraged the bishops to minister to homosexuals, saying that all homosexuals “striving to fulfill the Gospel precept of chastity are worthy of special encouragement and esteem.”

Archbishop Pilarczyk, in his presentation, claimed that U.S. society has become increasingly secular and “therefore increasingly inhospitable to Christian belief.” Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago told the Pope that Americans “live in an open society where everyone prizes the freedom to speak his or her mind.”

“Many tend to question things, especially those matters which are most important to them, as religion is,” Bernardin said.

Pilarczyk characterized the Pope’s meeting with the bishops as “very cordial and warm.” The reading of the prepared texts was delayed because the pontiff spent 45 minutes greeting bishops and shaking hands.

A Vatican spokesman described an outdoor buffet lunch after the meeting as very cheerful. As for the Pope’s words against dissent, the spokesman said, “It’s a byproduct of this papacy to provoke these issues.”

Two hours before the bishops’ meeting was scheduled to start, about 75 white-garbed protesters, nearly all of them women, lined the approach to the mission along San Fernando Mission Boulevard, just east of Sepulveda Boulevard. They held banners and picket signs urging a more active role for women in the Catholic Church.

“Repent. Sexism kills . . .” one read. “Equal Rites for Women,” said another. A long scroll taped to the roof of a beige van carried a special message for the Pope that the demonstrators hoped he would see as his helicopter passed over the gathering. The slogan was in Polish; it translated to “Ordain Us or Stop Baptizing Us.”

The charter buses ferrying the bishops to the mission rolled past at 8:15 a.m. “Our purpose here was to have the bishops see us,” said Margaret Arnold, a spokeswoman for Women for Change in the Church, an organization of religious and lay feminists. “But it’s also a gathering of the flip side of the church. Three hundred male bishops are meeting with the Pope. The church includes women too.”