Well, well -- look what a little Googling can do:
5:01 AM PDT, September 7, 2007
A Roman Catholic bishop down under is causing quite a stir. Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Sydney, who is being called “another Luther” in the Australian press, says in his just published book, Confronting Sex and Power in the Catholic Church, that the Church must change its beliefs about sexuality and the authority of the Pope if it is to have any credibility. His words have sparked a fire that may well become a raging inferno.
While he is taking heat for his fearless words, Robinson’s courage gives hope to many lay Catholics and priests who long for dialogue about topics that the Church has deemed non-negotiable, and therefore, non-discussable. He writes, “The most loyal person in the kingdom is the person who tells the truth. It's like the emperor with no clothes. I thought now had come the time to speak the truths."
The issues about which Robinson writes, such as human sexuality, priestly celibacy, women priests and hierarchical authority, are usually guarded in an ecclesiastical “no tresspass zone.” Parish priests tiptoe around these potentially lethal minefields with the dexterity of ballet dancers, and preach homilies that say little or nothing about the issues people in the pews care about most. “Can’t we just talk about it?” one frustrated parishioner asked me recently with regards to women's ordination. Well, actually, no, we can’t.
We can’t because the hierarchy and some Catholics seem to interpret questioning as betrayal. A radical move by an minority of Catholics to institute a more traditional Church, complete with a pre-Vatican II, Latin liturgy (with unexpunged, anti-Semitic language), further serves to silence voices calling for an open conversation.
Officially, the Church says it is willing to dialogue about issues of faith and doctrine. A document that Pope Benedict issued when he was Cardinal Ratzinger (Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian) says that it is permissible to withhold assent, raise questions, and discuss issues. One cannot, however, dissent from official teaching and propose an alternative position. Fair enough. Why then was the Jesuit editor Tom Reese of America magazine forced by the Vatican to resign his post in 2005 for allowing articles that questioned Vatican views and Church teaching? What better forum to express differing opinions than in a Catholic magazine run by the Jesuits, an Order that takes an oath of special allegiance to the Pope? The parishioner’s question persists: Can’t we just talk about it? Or write about it?
Apparently not. The skittishness of the hierarchy of the Church seems rooted in fear that, if they give freedom, they lose power. However, as Bishop Robinson warns, “If the governing image of how to act as a priest is tied to the ideas of lordship and control, then, no matter how benevolently ministry is carried out, an unhealthy domination and subservience will be present.” That unhealthy dominiation, the root problem in the sex abuse scandal, will continue to plague the Church unless it includes more people in decision-making and it promotes official forums for people to talk about the issues that matter most to them.
Historically, Church doctrine often has shifted when believers have challenged what no longer seemed logical or relevant, thus revealing faith and doctrine as evolving realities shaped by living communities. Anecdotal evidence suggests that at Galileo’s trial before the Inquisition in 1633, when he was forced to recant his belief that the earth moved around the sun, as Galileo walked away, he muttered, “E pur si muove.” (“And it still moves.”) I can think of no better anthem for our Church today.
