Catholic bishops maintain celibacy not linked to pedophilia

Vienna, Austria, Mar 11, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).-

After media outlets misinterpreted an article by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn to say that he is questioning the Church's rule of priestly celibacy, several high ranking churchmen have spoken out in praise of celibacy as a gift. They also dismissed the idea that celibacy is connected to pedophilia.

Greeting participants and introducing the sessions for the international theological conference taking place at the Pontifical Lateran University of Rome on Thursday, Cardinal Claudio Hummes called the celibacy of priests "a gift of the Holy Spirit." Other cardinals have also weighed in on the role of celibacy in recent days.

"Priestly celibacy is a gift of the Holy Spirit that asks to be understood and lived with fullness of meaning and joy, in total rapport with the Lord," said Cardinal Hummes, the prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, according to ASCA news of Italy.

"This unique and privileged relationship with God makes the priest the true witness of a singular spiritual paternity ..." continued Cardinal Hummes.

He went on to say that "the Church, insofar as the mystical body of Christ, sees all faithful associated by the gift of being a priestly people, but at the same time we know that Christ chooses some (who) are priests that continue the mission for him."

The question of celibacy and its possible role in recent cases of sexual abuses against minors has been in European headlines over the last two months.

According to an ANSA report on Thursday, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, president of Caritas International, said, "I don't understand how there can be a link between celibacy and child sex abuse," and noted that the media frenzy only focused on abuse cases involving priests.

Bishop Gerhard Muller of Regensburg, Germany, who is now dealing with sex abuse cases in his diocese, said it was "nonsense" to associate pedophilia with celibacy.

The comments by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna which sparked speculation that he supported a reconsideration of the discipline of celibacy were made in an article he wrote for the diocesan magazine “Thema Kirche.”

In the article, Cardinal Schönborn called for an "unflinching examination" of possible reasons for pedophilia, and said that this includes the issues of training priests "as well as the question of what happened in the so-called sexual revolution.”

"It also includes the issue of priest celibacy and the issue of personality development. It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of the church and of society as a whole."

His comments were clarified by diocesan spokesman after headlines in international media touting his support for an end to celibacy were published. The spokesman said that Cardinal Schönborn was not questioning the Church's position on celibacy "in any way."

Pope urges priests to offer Confession and educate faithful on sin

Vatican City, Mar 11, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).-

Participants in this week’s course on the hearing Confessions met with the Holy Father in audience on Thursday morning. To the group of priests, Pope Benedict XVI underlined the importance of guiding their flocks "not to conform itself to this world" and the necessity of opening a “dialogue of salvation” with those who seek forgiveness.

Remembering the Cure of Ars, St. Jean Vianney, as having “exercised heroically and fertilely the ministry of reconciliation,” the Holy Father said that priests can learn “not only an inexhaustible trust in the Sacrament of Penance... but also the method of the ‘dialogue of salvation’ that must be carried out in it.”

The roots of this “heroicism and fecundity,” explained the Holy Father, are found “above all, in an intense personal penitential dimension.”

"Awareness of one's own limits and the need to turn to Divine Mercy in order to ask forgiveness, to convert the heart and to find support on the path of saintliness, are fundamentals in the life of priests. Only someone who has himself experienced greatness can convincingly announce and administer the Mercy of God," the Holy Father explained.

Living in a society "marked by the hedonistic and relativistic mentality, that tends to erase God from the horizon of life," does not lend to the development of "a clear framework of reference values does not help to discern good from evil and mature a just sense of sin," the Pope observed.

This, Benedict XVI noted, is not very different from the period in which St. Jean Vianney lived, marked as it was by "a mentality hostile to the faith, as expressed by certain forces that even sought to prevent the exercise of the priestly ministry."

"In these circumstances, the saintly 'Cure of Ars' made 'the church his home' in order to lead men and women to God," the Pope added, "and he appeared to his contemporaries to be an evident sign of God that he encouraged many penitents to come to his confessional".

Thus, the Holy Father urged, "it is necessary for priests to live their own response to vocation 'exaltedly,' because only someone who daily becomes a living and clear presence of the Lord can arouse a sense of sin in the faithful, give them courage and stimulate their desire for forgiveness from God."

There is a necessity for priests to return to the confessional, Benedict XVI emphasized, to ensure that the people "find mercy, counsel and comfort, feel loved and understood by God and experience the presence of the Divine Mercy, alongside the real Presence in the Eucharist."

The Holy Father also touched on the "crisis" of participation in the Sacrament of Penance. He said that this lack of repentance is "an appeal addressed first and foremost to priests and to their great responsibility to educate the people of God in the radical demands of the Gospel. In particular, it calls on them generously to dedicate themselves to hearing sacramental confessions, and courageously to guide their flock not to conform itself to this world, but to make choices that go against the tide, avoiding deals and compromises."

This is the task of the priest, Pope Benedict concluded, to open a "dialogue of salvation" with their penitents, as suggested by the "Cure of Ars." A dialogue that, "arising from the certainty of being loved by God, helps man to recognise his own sin and progressively to introduce himself into a stable process of conversion of heart, which leads to the radical rejection of evil and to a life lived in accordance with God's wishes."

Young priests have been taking part in a conference on Confession promoted by the Apostolic Penitentiary this week in the Vatican. The course is focused on "moral and canonical themes that involve the penitential ministry" and has touched on specific and delicate circumstances such as confession for divorcees and pedophiles.

Apostolic Exhortation on Bible expected after Easter

Vatican City, Mar 10, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).-

Following a press conference on Monday to present a new book, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic announced that Pope Benedict XVI will soon release an apostolic exhortation on the Bible. The exhortation will address themes presented at the most recent general assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

In October of 2008, the Synod of Bishops met in the Vatican to discuss the relationship of the Word of God and the Church.

According to the secretary general of the Synod, Archbishop Eterovic, Catholis can expect the document from the Holy Father after Easter, according to Rome Reports.

Of the post-synodal exhortation, he said, "It is addressed to the whole Church and all people of good will. The pope will invite all to read the Word of God to find Jesus Christ, The Path, Truth and Life for everyone."

The archbishop was presenting the book "The Word of God. Reflections on the XII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops" in which he documents the discussions of the assembly of 2008 pertaining to the meaning of the Bible today and ways to better understand Sacred Scripture, in addition to teachings from Pope Benedict XVI.

St. Bonaventure teaches Christians about being open to new charisms, Pope explains

Vatican City, Mar 10, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy Father returned to St. Bonaventure for the subject of his catechesis at the General Audience on Wednesday morning. This saint, he said, not only kept the Franciscan order together with his theology that accepted "newness" into the Church but also teaches modern Christians how to be open to new charisms in the Church.

St. Bonaventure, from his place as general minister of the Franciscan Minors, refuted the idea present within the order in the 13th century that St. Francis had ushered in a “totally new phase in history.” Within this perspective promoted by so-called “spiritual” Franciscans, the Holy Spirit had come to replace Christ and the Church in a new and final age, Pope Benedict recalled.

Following of the ideas of Joachim of Fiore, these brothers believed that an “eternal Gospel” had replaced the New Testament and that history was divided into three phases, one for each person of the Trinity.

This new age was said to have been brought into being by St. Francis, who they believed had inaugurated a time when Church hierarchy was no longer necessary. The Holy Spirit, they thought, was at the base of a new age in which Christian brotherhood would bring peace and reconciliation.

But this perspective contained a “grave misunderstanding” which brought them to an erroneous vision of Christianity, the Pope said.

St. Bonaventure dealt with this question in his last work, "Hexaemeron," in which he explained that "God is one throughout history. ... History is one, even if it is a journey, a journey of progression” and that “Jesus is the last word of God." St. Bonaventure also taught that "there is no other Gospel, no other Church to be awaited. Thus the Order of St. Francis must also insert itself into this Church, into her faith and her hierarchical order.”

He also proposed that the Church always moves forward, is not immobile and experiences newness within it. In this statement, said the Pope, he adds to the theology of the Church Fathers in saying that in the Church there is room for newness, guaranteed through the uniqueness of Christ, and that "utopian spiritualism" cannot be constructed within it.

St. Bonaventure, said the Pope, "teaches us of the necessary discernment... of sober realism and of openness to new charisms given by Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to his Church."

The ideas of decline and "spiritualistic utopianism" continue to repeat themselves, Benedict XVI pointed out.

He explained, "We know how after the Second Vatican Council some were convinced that everything was new, that there was another Church, that the pre-conciliar Church was finished and that we would have another, completely other."

This, said the Holy Father was "an anarchic utopianism, and thanks to God the wise helmsmen of the boat of Peter - Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II - defended the newness of the Council on one hand and, at the same time, the uniqueness and the continuity of the Church," which, he said "is always the Church of sinners and always the place of grace."

In this sense, said the Holy Father, St. Bonaventure provided a clear line of government for the order in which, guided by healthy realism and spiritual courage, members had to bring themselves "as close as possible to the realization of the sermon on the mount, that for St. Francis was a rule."

Following his catechesis on the Franciscan saint, the Holy Father made an appeal for the victims of the earthquake in Turkey on March 8 and called for an end to violence and reconciliation in Nigeria.