My commentary on a UCANews article from November 13, 2013, by Jesuit Father Frank Brennan:
No one walking down the street past you, Dear Father in suit and tie, would even know that you are a priest. Suits and ties do not do much for spiritual approachability. If I were enduring a crisis and needed forgiveness and advice the sight of a clerically dressed priest just might be the grace to push me to ask for help in the name of Christ.
So, Father Frank Brennan, Australian Jesuit, has a few things to say about Pope Francis, and his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the Gospel), in a UCANews article. He praises the Pope for his words about the ghetto of bureaucracy that stifles the air in the Vatican, inhibiting the primary “mission” of the Church, but then he opts for National Bishop’s Conferences over the individual ecclesia each bishop is responsible for in his own diocese which is under his own jurisdiction. Bishops who do stress that sacramentally deputed authority that they have under Rome and not under any kind of “national church” (the fruit of every schism that has injured the Bride of Christ) are insulted by Brennan who identifies such as the “more conservative”:
“In the past, more conservative bishops have tried to downplay the significance of national bishops’ conferences, preferring their individual teaching role augmented by ready access to Roman dicasteries that could receive complaints from disaffected parishioners upset at the pastoral leanings of more liberal bishops.”
But then he argues for more autonomy for the local bishops, “It is not advisable for the pope to take the place of local bishops in the discernment of every issue which arises in their territory.” Of course, this is true and always has been. The Church was established from the start, however, with an apostolic hierarchy, and every bishop had the right (and duty) at times to “appeal to the pope.” But Father Brennan seems to want to exalt collegiality (universally or within each nation? I cannot tell from his words) over the uniqueness of the papal office.
It’s hard to figure out just what kind of a church Father Brennan wants, but he is clear enough that the new church he envisions should have women priests.
I quote in full:
“But there are some nettles he is not prepared to grasp, and the Church will continue to suffer for it. He writes, ‘The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion, but it can prove especially divisive if sacramental power is too closely identified with power in general.’
“Surely it must be even more divisive if those who reserve to themselves sacramental power to determine that they alone can determine who has access to that power and legislate that the matter is not open for discussion.
“Given that the power to determine the teaching of the magisterium and the provisions of canon law is not a sacramental power, is there not a need to include women in the decision that the question is not open to discussion and in the contemporary quest for an answer to the question?
“Francis’s position on this may be politic for the moment within the Vatican but the position is incoherent. The claim that the matter ‘is not a question open to discussion’ cannot be maintained unless sacramental power also includes the power to determine theology and the power to determine canon law.
“Ultimately the pope’s claim must be that only those possessed of sacramental power can determine the magisterium and canon law.
“We need to determine if ‘the possible role of women in decision-making in different areas of the Church’s life’ could include the power to contribute to theological discussion and the shaping of the magisterium and to canonical discussion about sanctions for participating in theological discussion on set topics such as the ordination of women.
“As Pope Francis says, ‘Demands that the legitimate rights of women be respected, based on the firm conviction that men and women are equal in dignity, present the Church with profound and challenging questions which cannot be lightly evaded.’
“This paragraph of the exhortation on women’s ordination adds nothing to a resolution of the question or the way forward. This exhortation contains some wonderful material but on this issue, Francis has attempted to lightly evade the question riding the jet stream of opposition entrenched in the magisterium and in canon law by his two predecessors. ”
Father Brennan, if this is your vision, then, as Captain Picard used to say, “Make it so!” Start your own church. Why not just ordain some females yourself? Why do you need a bishop? After all, who says that is necessary? But do not dare to challenge what is ordained by the Son of God by tampering with the matter of a sacrament. That kind of theological arrogance is unworthy of a true Catholic.
