Paul Surlis's Blog

Dutch Dominicans Address Priest Shortage

When John XX111 (now blessed) announced his intention to convene the Second Vatican Council one of the hopes he expressed was that the Council would be a second Pentecost for the Catholic Church. In one respect, at least, his hope has been fulfilled: Since the Council (1962-65), there has been an explosion of ministries in the Church resembling what took place in the earliest days of the Jesus movement beginning after Pentecost and continuing in the early Church.  Many passages, especially in the letters of Paul and the ones attributed to him, echo what we read in the epistle to the Corinthians: “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.  To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another the expression of knowledge…to another faith…to another gifts of healing…to another mighty deeds; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits…But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person” ( 1Cor. 12:7-11).

We are familiar with parishes where baptized, but not ordained, Catholics serve as readers of the Scriptures and Eucharistic ministers during the liturgy, bring Communion to the housebound, instruct converts, prepare parents and godparents for the baptism of a child, provide couples with pre-marriage counseling, visit hospitals and prisons, serve as pastoral associates and sometimes administer parishes where there is no priest.  By some estimates around thirty thousand lay ministers are salaried while many others are unpaid volunteers. Because of the varied and generous response of the baptized it may be said that parishioners are better served in terms of ministerial needs than at any time since the early Church. 

While all this is happening, however, we are witnessing a continuing decline in the number of priests available in parishes and many people are left without weekly celebration of the Eucharist in their local churches.  In some places parishes are clustered and two priests may be serving five parishes alternating where the Eucharist is celebrated from one church to another. In some places services of Word and Sacrament, where prayers are said, Scriptures are read, and hosts consecrated at another time are distributed, replace the celebration of the Eucharist.  Tragically, reports are that some people do not seem to notice much difference between the service and the full liturgical action of eucharistic celebration and many Catholics may lose appreciation of a fundamental reality of our faith namely that…”the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the church is directed; it is also the fount from which all her power flows” as the Second Vatican Council taught in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy one of the Council’s greatest achievements.

Despite the growing crisis of priestless parishes that has been with us now for almost fifty years the response of Church leaders has been to urge prayers for more vocations in the hope that more celibate males will come forward for training and ordination.  Appeals for recognition that there is no shortage of vocations, if married persons male or female, and single women were invited to train for ordination into all ranks of ministry as deacons, priests and bishops, are ignored. The ordination of women is described as definitively settled by Church authorities before the question was studied in depth. Indeed important studies have indicated that there are no solid reasons in scripture or tradition why women may not be ordained.  And as far as ordaining married men is concerned, Karl Rahner stated correctly in 1982: “If the Church in a concrete situation cannot find a sufficient number of priestly congregational leaders who are bound to celibacy, it is obvious and requires no further theological discussion that the obligation of celibacy must not be imposed” (The Shape of the Church to Come, 101).

A REPORT FROM DUTCH DOMINICANS

Recently a group of Dutch Dominican priests issued a report Kerk en Ambt “The Church and the Ministry” (CM), which was accepted by the administration of the Dutch province and distributed without permission to 1300 parishes in the Netherlands.

The core recommendation of CM is that men and women can be chosen by the church community itself (‘ from below’)and presented to the local bishop for ‘confirmation’ or ‘blessing’ or ‘ordination.’ Should the bishop refuse acknowledgement of the person chosen as presider at the eucharistic celebration, the community should still proceed with the celebration.

Presiders at local celebrations should be suitable members of the community in question but it is irrelevant whether they are men or women, homo- or heterosexual, married or unmarried.

They should have necessary qualifications which CM describes as being versed in Scripture and Christian tradition, and able to preach.

They should also be open to have their expertise and liturgical creativity evaluated by the local community.

It is clear from reading CM that the Dominican theologians are offering a new model of priesthood (though one solidly grounded in Church tradition as we shall see), they are also working with a new model of church as proposed by the Second Vatican Council. They refer to the fact that in the dogmatic constitution on the Church the bishops at the Council, after fierce debate, inserted a chapter on the “People of God” before dealing with the pope and bishops, the hierarchical church. They emphasize that the Council saw “the people themselves and the salvation of the people” as the goal of the church community, and that the hierarchy is the means towards the salvation of the people.

Even though, in the period after the Council, this new view of the Church has not been incorporated into revised church structures or practice, the Dominicans appeal to it to justify their view of leadership at community level as appointment for service.  In other words, ordination does not entail a change at the level of being, ontological change, but change in the order of function in the community.

The theologians emphasize the Eucharist as ritual meal, a common sharing of bread and wine, doing what Jesus did, and in this sharing Jesus is present.  They state: “The bread which is broken refers explicitly to Jesus’ life and death, the wine points to his life force, to his strength of mind and spirit, to his blood; in the Bible ‘blood’ means life force.”

The Jewish roots of the Eucharist and Jesus’ identity as a Jew, are accorded their place as is the relationship between Eucharist and justice:  “ The history of the Jewish people, with its exodus from the ‘house of slavery,’ …the exile and return to the promised land, but also the holocaust, are on the table and so is the life story of the Jew Jesus, his death and resurrection, the whole history of those who have tried to follow him, in their good and bad moments.  The fact that people keep celebrating the Eucharist is a token of their hope that there will be a time when justice will be done to every person.”

The Dutch Dominicans present their recommendations to the Dutch Church as a contribution to what they hope will be a deeper discussion.  They state explicitly that the report, summarized above, “… is not meant to be a guideline or a doctrinal position”. Official church policy is giving priority to preserving priesthood in its present form over against the right of church communities to full celebration of the Eucharist.

With reference to the services of Word and Sacrament the report cites the statement of the bishop of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, who is in charge of the liturgy portfolio within the Bishops’ Conference, and who said: “Services of Word and Communion can be quite valuable in regions where a celebration of the Eucharist really is impossible.  But when such services become a fixed part of the liturgical programme as an alternative of equal value of the Eucharist, we fail to recognize the unique significance of the Eucharist for the life of the Church.  As a result we build the church of tomorrow on a basis which is too unstable.” (An English translation of “The Church and Ministry” is available in the Special Documents section of NCRonline.org).

REACTION AND REPRIMAND FROM THE MASTER OF THE ORDER.

Five months after the Dutch theologians issued Church and Ministry the Master of the Dutch Province of the Dominicans, Fr. Carlos Aspiroz, at the behest of the Vatican, issued a sharp reprimand to the theologians warning them that their proposal concerning lay celebrants “…was not in the constant and authentic tradition of the Catholic Church” and that the action they envisage with respect to lay celebrants would encourage schism in the Church (The Tablet, 9 February 2008).  These are very serious charges and not unexpected, and the Dutch Dominicans have promised to distribute Fr. Aspiroz’s letter and a critical analysis by French Dominican theologian Fr. Herve Legrand of the Church and Ministry document and its proposals. Fr. Legrand has rejected the argument that congregations could choose lay celebrants without the local bishop’s approval.  Celebration of the Eucharist by a lay minister would be “schismatic conduct” he continued and a congregation choosing this option would become a sect.

However, ‘the constant and authentic tradition of the Catholic church’ is not as uniform as the reprimand would have us believe.  The following considerations should be taken into account. 

• In accordance with the mandate of Jesus at the Last Supper: Do this in memory of me the Church has always considered weekly celebration of the Eucharist as His gift and absolutely essential for the spiritual nourishment of the Christian community.
• The New Testament does not contain direct instructions as to who may preside at the Eucharist, but it does stress that all ministries and grace are gifts made by the Spirit to the people of God, not exclusively to the bishops.
•  Dealing with the earliest period in the church Edward Schillebeeckx has written that “…the modern situation in which a community might not be able to celebrate the Eucharist because no priest is present is theologically inconceivable in the early church; the community chooses  a president for itself and has hands laid on him so that they can also be a community which celebrates the Eucharist, i.e. a ‘community of God’ In that case the vitality of the community in terms of the gospel is the deciding factor, not the availability of a body of priestly manpower, crammed full of education in one place or another” ( Ministry, 41).
•  Schillebeeckx cites Tertullian (ca 155-230) who said: “Where there is no college of accredited servants, you layman must lead the Eucharist and baptize…for, where two or three are gathered together, there is the Church even if all those are lay people” (Ministry, 51).
• Raymond Brown states: “There is no compelling evidence for the classic thesis that the members of the Twelve always presided when they were present, and that there was a chain of ordination passing the power of presiding at the Eucharist from the Twelve to missionary apostles to presbyter-bishops.  How one got the right to preside and whether it endured beyond a single instance we do not know; but a more plausible substitute for the chain theory is the thesis that sacramental ‘powers’ were part of the mission of the church and that there were diverse ways in which the Church (or the communities) designated individuals to exercise those powers” (Priest and Bishop, 41).
• In the same vein as Brown, James Bacik writes that “Jesus did not leave a blueprint or flowchart for leaders in the Church.  Forms of oversight leadership developed gradually, in response to the needs of the faith community and social influences, under the inspiration of the Spirit” (“The Priest as Pastor” in Priests for the 21^st Century, Donald Dietrich, editor, 47).
• In the house churches it is most likely that the host couple or individual women or men led the celebration of the Eucharist.
• The idea that ordination confers a new ontological status on the priest who is thereby exclusively empowered to celebrate the Eucharist  is a development in the second millennium of the Church’s history and is unknown in the first millennium.
• Today theologians stress relational ontology meaning that ordination confers on the priest a new location and function in the community rather than a superior, exclusive status with higher power attached.
• The Second Vatican Council stresses that the Eucharist is offered by the whole community present with the priest presider, not exclusively by the priest.
• Mandatory celibacy as a necessary condition for ordination to priesthood dates from the First Lateran council in 1123. Until then celibacy was optional and many deacons, priests, monks and bishops were married.  Major reasons for the imposition of celibacy had to do with achieving power over priests by a centralizing papacy, and taking control of property and lands by the destruction of priestly families which often exploited benefices for financial gain rather than ecclesial well being. The struggle to impose celibacy was long, bitter and at times violent. Defenders of priestly marriage had more than a thousand years of tradition on their side.
• The upshot of these considerations is the realization that priesthood, a divine gift to the Church, is in part socially constructed and altered in accordance with varying needs and conditions.

A French group Nous Sommes Aussi Eglise, NSAE ( We Are Also the Church)                 have sent an open letter to French bishops and they have expressed their support saying “It was with joy that we received the report of the Dutch Dominicans…The situation described and the questions raised are in fact directly applicable to France.” NSAE call for examination of the exercise of power in the Church. And they cite Herve Legrand, a critic of the text of the Dutch priests, who says” One must formally acknowledge to the local authorities that their cry of alarm is justified. Now that this debate has begun around this approach and the response to it, it would be well to conduct it according to clear and suitable rules as with all worthwhile debates.”  And they ask the French bishops to participate fully in the ongoing debate. They conclude “ Far from being a threat to the church, we have a veritable godsend: we must know hos to profit from it. ‘When it comes, the Spirit of truth, it will lead you toward the fullness of truth’”(Jn 16:13). (Translated by Christine Roussel, text posted online by the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church, 3/2/2008).

No doubt considerable discussion of the original proposal and the reprimand will now ensue.  We may expect to see fuller critical investigation of the changes and developments priestly ministry has undergone over the centuries and to what extent ‘constant’ tradition is involved in developments largely found in the second millennium of the church’s history. We may expect to see the validity of celebration of Eucharist by non ordained celebrants defended in light of the fact that it was accepted practice in the early Church. It is no secret that small communities in various countries are celebrating eucharistic liturgies led by both women and men. The fact that these practices are illegal by current norms and currently underground does not mean they are destined for oblivion

The Second Vatican Council sanctioned changes in celebrating the Eucharist such as altars facing the people, use of the vernacular, and communion in the hand, practices which had arisen in various European churches prior to the Council, and were technically illegal, now they are standard, accepted practice.

Moreover, there is the fact that Church leaders have known for over fifty years that a shortage of ordained priests is depriving numerous parishes of regular celebration of full eucharistic liturgy, and they have taken no constructive steps to deal with this threat to the very essence of many Catholic communities who rightly see the Eucharist and its weekly celebration as the fount and origin of their faith. Perhaps the proposals made by the Dutch Dominicans will at last spur Church authorities into serious consideration of the ordination of women and married men to priesthood.

 Even if there is conflict and struggle many are likely to regard this as a worthwhile price to pay to defend the inalienable right of communities to full eucharistic participation on a regular basis.  We recall that conflict and struggle marked the great Trinitarian controversies in the first centuries and we recall also, that when some synods of bishops went into heresy the true faith was preserved by the faithful, as Newman has recounted in his epoch-making book: On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from Vatican Two ( Lumen Gentium) has extensive discussion of the role of believers in securing authentic Church teaching declaring at one point: “ The whole body of the faithful who have an anointing that comes from the holy one ( c. 1 Jn. 2:20 and 27) cannot err in matters of belief” (Chapter 2, #12). The constitution lays considerable stress on the necessity of consulting the whole people of God in establishing church teaching in matters of belief and practice.

The document produced by the Dutch Dominicans is very important as is the condemnatory stance from the Province’s Master and one hopes both will be critically evaluated and taken with utmost seriousness throughout the Church where shortage of priests is widespread.  Gratitude is owed to the theologians who produced the report for their courage and forthrightness in tackling the issues so honestly in the interests of the future of the global Church and in service to the reign of God which the Church exists to promote.

Paul Surlis ( Rev).

Crofton Maryland, 21114

USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This entry was posted on July 9, 2009 at 9:22 pm and is filed under sermons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.