20
~ '- "--'" .y FELLOWSHIP OF CATHOLIC SCHOLARS IIEWlLETnl VOLUME 5, NUMBER 3 JUNE 1982 Letter from Father William B. Smith Our recent convention on Catholic Social Thought in the Teaching of Pope John Paul II brought together many insights and perspectives that underlined both the deep continuity and the nuanced contemporary application of the Holy Father's teaching. More than one scholar recalled the priorities and program outlined by the Pope at the General Conference of the Latin American Bishops at Puebla (Jan. 28, 1979). Speakingto the Latin American Bishops- and all pastors and teachers - the Pope stated his pastoral priorities and program clearly: (1) the first and principal duty of pastors is to be "Teachers of the Truth" (purity of doctrine; the truth about Jesus Christ is the center of evangelization and its essential content); then (2) Unity within the Church (unity among bishops, unity with priests, religious & faithful); finally (3) advancing and defending human dignity (not through violence, power & politics but through the truth concerning man). The Pope clearly rejected those who foster or allow a certain 'separation' between the Church and the Kingdom of God. Indeed, the Kingdom of God is emptied of its full content and understood in a rather secular sense when: "interpreted as being reached not by faith and membership in the Church but by the mere changing of structures and social and political involvement, as being present whenever there is a certain type of involvement & activity for justice" (Puebla, I, 8). No economic rule nor change in political mechanisms, by themselves, will advance human dignity. "Primacy must be given to what is moral, to what is spiritual, to what springs from the full truth concerning man" (Puabla, III, 5). It is now clear that the Pope himself has faithfully held to these priorities and this program: Redemptor Hominis ('79), Dives in Misericordia ('80). Laborem Exercens ('81), Familiaris Consortio ('81). Any pastor or teacher or both might examine trends and situations in the Church in our country in view of the papal priorities: teaching the truth; uniting the church; efforts for or at human dignity. In many cases, the papal priorities seem to be in American reverse. Some in the Church do not see at all how evangelization and education in the truth contributes very much to justice or peace. Moral-spiritual truths rarely receive primacy of place, more usually they are but rhetorical mentions to decorate policy proposals arrived at on economic or political grounds. While much is proposed in terms of advancing human dignity, the bulk of such proposals slant all in one direction, they pretend to come from a unity within 'the Church which is just not there. Indeed a steady diet of ideologically one-sided proposals has caused and will cause more and deeper polarity on particulars on which reasonable Catholics can and will disagree. The truth status of such proposals is rarely discussed; it is simply assumed and announced as self-evident when many such moves are anything but self-evident. . This reversal of papal priorities - almost silent on truth; consensus-sounding proposals that engender contention; a cascade of detailed policy statements, more and more pointed as they are less and less cogent - this reversed priority has invaded many areas of Catholic life - social, educational & sacramental. Simply stating the existence of problems is not, of course, to invent them; but pastors and teachers in the Church should understand them first and then, perhaps, contribute to a solution. A number of Fellowship members and friends have already done this at book length. I'd like to recommend such reading keeping in mind the papal priorities and program above: Msgr. George Kelly's The Crisis of Authority (Regnery, 1982); Prof. James Hitchcock's Catholicism & Modernity (Seabury, 1979) and Ralph Martin's A Crisis of Truth (Servant Books, 1982). These are well-documented accounts of reversed priorities; they also suggest forward solutions.

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Page 1: FELLOWSHIPOF CATHOLIC SCHOLARS IIEWlLETnlFELLOWSHIPOF CATHOLIC SCHOLARS IIEWlLETnl VOLUME 5, NUMBER 3 JUNE 1982 ... ('79), Dives in Misericordia ('80). Laborem Exercens ('81), Familiaris

~

'-"--'"

.y

FELLOWSHIPOF CATHOLIC SCHOLARS

IIEWlLETnlVOLUME 5, NUMBER 3 JUNE 1982

Letter from Father William B. Smith

Our recent convention on Catholic Social Thought in the Teaching of Pope John Paul II broughttogether many insights and perspectives that underlined both the deep continuity and the nuancedcontemporary application of the Holy Father's teaching.

More than one scholar recalled the priorities and program outlined by the Pope at the GeneralConference of the Latin American Bishops at Puebla (Jan. 28, 1979).

Speakingto the Latin American Bishops- and all pastors and teachers - the Pope stated his pastoralpriorities and program clearly: (1) the first and principal duty of pastors is to be "Teachers of the Truth"(purity of doctrine; the truth about Jesus Christ is the center of evangelization and its essential content);then (2) Unity within the Church (unity among bishops, unity with priests, religious & faithful); finally (3)advancing and defending human dignity (not through violence, power & politics but through the truthconcerning man).

The Pope clearly rejected those who foster or allow a certain 'separation' between the Church and theKingdom of God. Indeed, the Kingdom of God is emptied of its full content and understood in a rathersecular sense when: "interpreted as being reached not by faith and membership in the Church but by themere changing of structures and social and political involvement, as being present whenever there is a certaintype of involvement & activity for justice" (Puebla, I, 8).

No economic rule nor change in political mechanisms, by themselves, will advance human dignity."Primacy must be given to what is moral, to what is spiritual, to what springs from the full truth concerningman" (Puabla, III, 5).

It is now clear that the Pope himself has faithfully held to these priorities and this program:Redemptor Hominis ('79), Dives in Misericordia ('80). Laborem Exercens ('81), Familiaris Consortio ('81).

Any pastor or teacher or both might examine trends and situations in the Church in our country inview of the papal priorities: teaching the truth; uniting the church; efforts for or at human dignity. In manycases, the papal priorities seem to be in American reverse.

Some in the Church do not see at all how evangelization and education in the truth contributes verymuch to justice or peace. Moral-spiritual truths rarely receive primacy of place, more usually they are butrhetorical mentions to decorate policy proposals arrived at on economic or political grounds.

While much is proposed in terms of advancing human dignity, the bulk of such proposals slant all inone direction, they pretend to come from a unity within 'the Church which is just not there. Indeed asteady diet of ideologically one-sided proposals has caused and will cause more and deeper polarity onparticulars on which reasonable Catholics can and will disagree. The truth status of such proposals is rarelydiscussed; it is simply assumed and announced as self-evident when many such moves are anything butself-evident. .

This reversal of papal priorities - almost silent on truth; consensus-sounding proposals that engendercontention; a cascade of detailed policy statements, more and more pointed as they are less and less cogent- this reversed priority has invaded many areas of Catholic life - social, educational & sacramental.

Simply stating the existence of problems is not, of course, to invent them; but pastors and teachers inthe Church should understand them first and then, perhaps, contribute to a solution.

A number of Fellowship members and friends have already done this at book length. I'd like torecommend such reading keeping in mind the papal priorities and program above: Msgr. George Kelly's TheCrisis of Authority (Regnery, 1982); Prof. James Hitchcock's Catholicism & Modernity (Seabury, 1979)and Ralph Martin's A Crisis of Truth (Servant Books, 1982). These are well-documented accounts ofreversed priorities; they also suggest forward solutions.

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

Report of the 1982 Convention

in Chicago

"Catholic Social Thought and the Teaching ofPope John 'Paul II" was the theme of the FifthAnnual Convention of the Fellowship held onMarch 26-28, 1982 at the Sheraton-O'Hare Hotelin Chicago, Illinois.

More than 150 members and guests of theFellowship participated in the sessions of theConvention which was chaired by the Rev. WilliamB. Smith, St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie,President of the Fellowship.

Major addresses were presented by the Rev.Ronald Lawler, O.F.M., Cap., Professor JohnFinnis, the Rev.~John R. Connery, S.J., the Rev.James V. Schall, S.J., and Professor J. BrianBenestad.

Father Smith presented the 1982 PresidentialAddress at the Convention Dinner of theFellowship on Saturday evening.

Convention workshops were held on FamilyLife, Catholic Higher Education, Religious Life,and Social Action.

Papers were presented by Richard LaSalvia,Esq., Professor Thomas Werge, Professor MauraDaly, and Professor Regis Martin at a "Colloquiumon Religion and Literature."

Fellowship members and guests attending theConvention participated in masses celebrated atOur Lady of Hope Church on Saturday andSunday mornings.

The Addresses and papers presented at the1982 Convention will be published in Proceedingsof the Fellowship Convention. Summaries of thediscussions in the Convention workshops will bepublished in the Fellowship Newsletter.

--1981 Convention Proceedings

PublishedThe 1981 Convention Proceedings edited by

Paul Williamsof Scranton - entitled Catholic Faithand Freedom - has been published. Members ofthe Fellowship will receive their copies in the mail.If by June 30th the book has not arrived please letMsgr. Kelly know. Because of the high cost ofprinting and mailing we are suggesting thatmembers send $5.00 to our treasurer Dr. JosephScottino, Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania16541.

Report on the ConventionWorkshop on the Family Life

It was announced that there is a commentaryon Familiaris Consortio presently in preparationwith an expected publication date of Fall, 1982,by Franciscan Herald Press. Contributors includeFather William Smith, Father Ronald Lawler, Dr.William May, Dr. Joseph Boyle, Dr. Josef Seifert,Father Robert Levis, Father James O'Connor,Monsignor George Kelly, Father Henry Sattler,Father John Woolsey, and Father Michael Wrennwho will provide the Introduction and serve asEditor.

Members of the Convention Workshop ex-pressed the need to emphasize Evangelization ofthe Family in order to assist in building andsupporting Catholic family identity. A number ofparticipants expressed the need for support groupsto serve families and observed that FamiliarisConsortio is presenting guidelines for a family tofamily type of ministry and even implies thepossibility of an internship, within cooperatingfamilies, for young people who will eventuallymarry. This would be but another way of assuringthe Holy Father's express desire that marriagepreparation programs always accord with theChurch's teaching and practice.

A suggestion was made that a subsequentconvention of the Fellowship be devoted to aninterdisciplinary treatment of Familiaris Consortio.

Interest was expressed regarding Pope JohnPaul II's desire for a Catechism of Family Lifementioned in the Exhortation. All were agreed thatthe theological precisions and pastoral implicationsof Familiaris Consortio are almost limitless pro-vided every effort is made to promote and guar-antee its acceptance among Catholics in the UnitedStates. Fr. Michael J. Wrenn

'---I

'-'

--Wright Award at September

Board MeetingDr. Scottino reports that the nominations for

the 1982 Cardinal Wright Award, named after theformer bishop of Pittsburgh, have been receivedfrom the membership. The Executive Board willbe polled and a selection made during the nextmonth. The Award itself will be conferred inconnection with the September 18th meeting ofthe Executive Board in Chicago. John and EileenFarrell first conceived the idea of a Wright Awardin 1979. The earlier recipients were Msgr. Kelly,Dr. May, and Dr. Hitchcock in that order.

'-..I

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

~Report on the Convention

Workshop on the Religious Life

~

A discussion of religious vocations was the firstitem. Imprudent, unmonitored, and unevaluatedexperimentation in the novitiate and subsequentformation programs was recognized as the sourceof many problems. For example, the lack ofenthusiasm for encouraging vocations by religiousactive in the apostolate; a hesitancy on the part ofyoung people to commit themselves to the reli-gious life (they want to give themselves to Christ,not to an experiment); and the actual poorformation of young religious subjected to it.

Religious should be shown be Fellowship scho-lars what the consequences of unlimited experi-mentation are. Publicity should be given to com-munities that have retained authenticity; prospec-tive novices should be steered to them. Sodalitiesand other groups that foster the spiritual life instudents should be revitalized, for it is of suchbeginnings that religious vocations come.

A considerable amount of attention was thengiven by the workshop members to a newdocument on the religious life to be issued by theHoly See. It apparently has already been circulatedin draft form for comment by the experts. When itfirst appears in its final form, the Fellowship couldbe prepared to issue a positive statement about it,and then later, after careful study, a positive, morelengthly commentary designed to counteractnegative reaction that will certainly be forth-coming. A committee of the Fellowship could nowbe set up to prepare itself and stand by for such atask.

Other items entered the discussion (notnecessarily in this order): the need for a definitionof genuine religious life; the questions oftheological anthropology involved; rigid homo-geneity of outlook among all communities ofwomen religious enforced by national conferencesto the detriment of particular spirits andspiritualities; possibilities of renewal derived fromnew vocations of gifted people; withdrawal fromformation supervisory functions of those directorsof novices and others who do not have balancedviews or whose spirituality is shallow and prone toacceptance of fads; making available to sisters andbrothers spiritual directors and chaplains ofsubstantial spirituality; making good communitiesvisible; availability (for prospective novices) of listsfrom the Institute on Religious Life of religiouscommunities that are holding together well; andthe role of the journal Consecrated Life(originating in the Sacred Congregation in Rome).

Earl A. Weis, S.l.

\-.Y

Convention Workshop onCatholic Higher Education

This workshop rehashed the problemsassociated with the separation of Catholic HigherEducation from ecclesiastical control - the allegedreasons that such separation (federal funding andcultural respectability) and the effect of suchseparation on Catholic teaching and the lives ofCatholic students attending these institutions. TheAssociation of Catholic Colleges and Universities(NCEA) has been resisting efforts by Rome toregularize this situation and presently is opposed tothe New Code of Canon Law's stipulation thattheology teachers in Catholic colleges must operateout of a canonical mission from Church authority.In 1976 the International Theological Commissionexplained the importance of this requirement:"The Catholic theologian is not engaged in aprofane enterprise. He is exercising a 'genuinelyecclesial authority,' which usually derives from hiscanonical mission. He is sent to preach and teachby pope and bishops in a way no different than theapostles who were sent by Christ. Even if thiscanonical mission has not been explicated,theologizing can only be done in communion withthe faith, and this means with the magisterium.(Thesis 7)."

There is little chance that the Holy See willrevamp Canon 767 of the New Code to satisfy theACCD. A more important question may be: Willthat canon become a dead letter immediately afterpromulgation? The requirement of canonicalmission for teachers of theology may inspire somecolleges to reassert their Catholicity, but othershave already indicated their intent to foreswearpublicly their allegiance to the Catholic Church. Ifthis latter occurs a step will have been takentoward the "truth in advertising" some Catholiceducators claim is a minimum norm for trading onthe Church's name and claims. Another possibility,of course, is that some agreement will be workedout whereby the College Board of Trustees and/orthe College president will be delegated by Rome orbishop to authenticate the Catholicity of theinstitutional commitment and theological teaching.

Traditionally, the canonical mission (and theguarantee of authentic teaching) was supervised bythe superior of the religious community whichsponsored the college or university, the superior inturn being responsible to hierarchy at some point.The lines of jurisdiction (like authority lines in afamily), though clear in principle, were often fuzzyin practice. This relationship ended when thecollege institutes declared themselves indepen<!.~nt

(continued on page 11)

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowshi)!of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

Items of Interest

. John Kippley has called for more thoroughmarriage preparation. The president of The Coupleto Couple League thinks the new canon law willmake this more necessary because annulments maynot be so easy to obtain, certainly down from the31,000 reported by the Vatican for 1979 (asagainst 445 in 1969). Kippley is concerned that 95percent of the people seeking annulments haveused unnatural methods of birth control orengaged in pre-marital sex.

"It's very hard for a young couple to takeseriously the Church's teaching on birth control,"he explained, "when a doctor at their pre-marriageclasses explains how to use every imaginable formof abortifacient and contraceptive. It's hard forthem to believe that the local church really caresabout its own teaching when a parishoner who letsit be known that she had a tubal sterilization isgiven the privilege of reading the Bible ordistributing the Eucharist at Mass.

"These young people assume that such aperson wouldn't be allowed to hold such an honorif she let it be known around the parish that shewas running an abortion clinic or working as a callgirl; and so they assume that the Church isn'tserious about the morality of birth control." (Forfurther information on NFP write Mr. Kippley,P.O. Box 11084, Cincinnati, Ohio 45211.)

. Patrick Riley, longtime correspondent for theNC News Service has written an article in HPR(April 1982) entitled "What are the BishopsSaying", an analysis of recent statementsemanating from the Church's central headquarters.Seeking to perfect future episcopal statements, Mr.Riley proposes that an adversary system beestablished for the drafting of the bishops' publicstatements. The key paragraphs are found on pages18 and 19:

"Let a team of expert adversaries be appointedfor each major document to scrutinize it andpresent criticisms to the bishops. Then the bishopscould enter their deliberations armed with anunderstanding of the weaknesses of the documentshanded them by their bureaucrats. . .

"The adversary system would fit in easily withregulations adopted in November 1981 by thebishops for the drafting of public statements. Thenew 'pre-decision stage,' which enable the bishopsto decide whether they wish to issue any statementand, if so, what its drift should be, offers an idealopportunity for adversaries to present both sides tothe deciding bishops. Then, the draft of the

statement could be critiqued by appointedadversaries both before and during its presentationto the bishops. Bishops who rise from the floor tocomment on the draft could avail themselves of theexpertise not only of those who drafted thedocument - which situation obtains at present -but of appointed adversaries of the document. (Itis worth recalling that in highly-developedlegislatures, such expert help is regularly availableto members opposing particular legislation.)"

~

. The March Newsletter's report of AndrewGreeley's objection to celibates in Rome settlingmarriage problems for married people, brought thisnote from a reader: [The pope's toughpronouncements on polygamy in Africa stirredsome anger in predominantly Muslim Nigeria]."Said a trader in Kaduna: 'How can the Pope tellme how many wives I can have? Has he got one?' "

. Edward Fiske' book Times' Selective Guide toColleges (Times Books $9.95) grades 19 CatholicColleges among its 250 entries for their quality ofacademic, social, and community life. Thosecolleges are Alverno, Boston, CUA, Dayton,DePaul, Duquesne, Fairfield, Fordham, George-town, Holy Cross, Loyola (N.O.), Manhattan,Marquette, Notre Dame, St. John's (Collegeville),San Francisco, Santa Clara, St. Louis, Xavier(N.O.). None of the 19 were given five stars foracademics but Fiske thought Dayton deserved fivestars for its "fun-filled" social life.

v

. On March 18th Bishop James W. Malone,Vice-President of the National Conference ofCatholic Bishops and Msgr. Frederick McManus,board chairman of the Association of CatholicColleges and Universities and a delegation whichincluded Sr. Alice Gallin, ACCU executive directorand Fr. William Byron, S.J., forthcoming presidentof CUA, were received in audience by Pope JohnPaul II. The delegations were in Rome to securemodifications in the revised Code of Canon Law,particularly C. 767 ("In any kind of Institute ofHigher Studies those who give theological coursesor courses related to theology require a canonicalmission.") It does not seem that the ACCU missionwas successful.

. Msgr. Eustace D'Lima, deputy generalsecretary of the Indian Conference of Bishops inNew Delhi and a friend of the Fellowship from thebeginning, died of a heart attack on March 3, at theage of 49. Msgr. De'Lima had corresponded withvarious members of the Fellowship and wasextremely interested in the organization and thehelp it might provide for the Church in India.

"-'/

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

'-'' /The Present State of Jesuit Affairs

1. What John Paul II Said to the Jesuits

No.7 -

[The Assembly of Jesuit provincials- inRome at the request of the Pope(February 23 to March 3) for"reflection" - heard John Paul II(February 27) indicate the six areas ofhis concern about the Society: (Jj theidentity and ecclesial function of theSociety; (2) the "sentire cum ecclesia";(3) "the apostolate"; (4) "the quality ofJesuit religious life"; (5) formation; (6)what the Church expects from theSociety of Jesus. Beyond manyexpressions of affection and apprectitionfor the Order's long and useful service tothe Church, which dominate the text,the following excerpts seem to reflectthe Pope's mind on how his concernsshould be resolved.]

"Allow me to insist once more andsolemnly on the exact interpretation ofthe recent Council - This renewal offidelity and fervour in all sections of theChurch's mission, matured and expressedin the collective heeding of thePentecostal Spirit - must be welcomedand lived today according to the samespirit and not according to personalcriteria or psycho-sociological theories."

"The Church first of all requires you toadapt the different forms of traditionalapostolate which even today retain alltheir effectiveness and to work forrenewing of the spiritual life of thefaithful, the education of youth, theformation of the clergy, of religious menand women, and missionary activity.This requires catechesis, proclamation ofthe Word of God, the spreading ofChrist's doctrine, Christian penetrationinto the culture of a world trying toestablish division and opposition be-tween science and faith, pastoral activityfor those on the fringe of society, theexercise of priestly ministt:y in all itsauthentic forms.

" . . . Concern for justice must beexercised in conformity with yourreligious and priestly vocation - thismust be even more emphasized in ourtimes against the many tendencies tosecularize priest's work by reducing it to

~

No.8 -

~

a purely philanthropic function. He isnot a medical doctor, a social worker, apolitician or a trade unionist. . . Priestsare not meant to take the place of thelaity, and still less should they neglectthe duty that is specifically theirs."

"There should be no separation betweenthe interior life and the apostolate."

"Together with solidity of virtue, yourConstitutions insist on a solidity andsoundness of doctrine, such as isessential for an efficacious apostolate -The same should remain true in thefuture by means of that loyal fidelity tothe Magisterium of the Church and inparticular of the Roman Pontiff, towhich you are in duty bound."

No. 12 - [Concerning the special vow to Popespresent and future]It is evident that here we are touchingupon the essence of the Ignationcharism, and upon what lies at the veryheart of your Order. And it is to thisthat you must always remain faithful."

No. 13 - [Concerning their own deliberationsduring the Roman visit.]"I am confident that this preparationwill proceed in such a manner that it willbe possible to convoke the [33rd]General Congregation within this year."

No. 10 -

No. 11 -

.........

2. What Paolo Dezza, S.J. Said to the Jesuits

[Fr. Dezza, one-time confessor to Paul VI andpresently Delegate of the Holy Father to theSociety, who in the Pope's name convoked theRoman meeting sent a letter "to the wholeSocie ty " on March 25 th with the follow-updirectives to guide Jesuit deliberations in thecoming months. In the letter he communicates "inmore explicit detail, the desires of the Pope in ourregard and of furnishing directives for carrying outthese desires. "Help the Pope" is Fr. Dezza'smessage as he warns against division within thesociety. He calls for absolutely essentialcooperation and unity from every Jesuit: "Thisunion is possible for us only through ouracceptance and fulfillment of the desires of theHoly Father and of the directives which I haveindicated in conformity with those desires. I askthe cooperation of all of you in a sincere andgenerous acceptance and implementation of these

5

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

directives, " Speaking of their forthcomingdiscussion, Fr. Dezza concludes: "I am confidentthat this preparation will proceed in such a mannerthat it will be possible to convoke the GeneralCongregation within this year."J The significantexcerpts from the Directives are the following:

I The Apostolate of the SocietySince the Jesuit "mission" comes from the

Pope or the General in virtue of the "facultygranted by the Sovereign Pontiff", it is necessaryto follow his directives just as any person who is"sent". Since, too, Jesuit missions are carried outin the local Church, the proper norms of relationswith bishops must be observed.

After reviewing the approved Jesuit apostolatesFather Dezza said the following: "It is not possibleto approve certain tendencies which consider thepromotion of justice, no longer as required by theservice of the faIth but almost as the veryexpression of faith." Jesuits may not "confuseroles proper to priests with those proper tolaypeople." Specifically, "the priest's role is toindicate Christian principles concerning economic,social and political life; to denounce injustices, toexhort people to work for the improvement orreform of institutions; to expound the socialdoctrine of the Church."

However, "ours cannot take part in politicalparties or assume directly political positions save inreally exceptional cases, approved by the Bishopsand by father General."

Finally, to remedy injustice, "it is certainlynecessary to strive for a better social and politicalorder, but it is no less necessary that such peoplebe reached by other efforts directed toward areligious and moral improvement of man himself.And this is precisely the specific role of the priest,directed toward men of different factions,tendencies and ideologies."

II "Sentire Cum Ecclesia"

1. Fidelity to the Magisterium"In the exercise of our apostolate the Pope

earnestly desires that the Society not diminish inany way its traditional fidelity to the magisteriumof the Church."

Fr. Dezzareminds them that the 1974GeneralCongregation deplored "particular failings in thismatter on the part of some members of the Societyin recent years" and recommended "that care betaken to prevent and correct the failings whichweaken fidelity to the Magisterium." Not only ishe referring to the infallible Magisterium but to thenon-inflallible Magisterium, too (GS No. 25),especially to a doctrine clearly and repeatedly

taught in solemn documents such as Encyclicals.Jesuits should avoid publicizing outside ofscientific circles "affirmations that are contrary tothe Magisterium."

~

2. Fidelity to Church LawsFr. Dezza particularly has liturgical laws in

mind - e.g. tampering with liturgical forms andlanguage ("in not a few places the lack ofobservance of these norms is frequent".)

If the pilgrim Church stands in need ofpurification "the best way to improve it is notpublic criticism and controversy" but "suitableways to bring correction and remedy without agreat deal of noise and provoking scandals." Fr.Arrupe is called upon as a witness to the fact thatin St. Ignatius' voluminous correspondence whichcontributed so effectively to Church reform "thereis not a word of criticism against ecclesiasticalsuperiors. "

III Our Religious LifeFr. Dezza recalls Jesuits to the Spiritual

Exercises, the Account of Conscience, dailycelebration of the Eucharist, favorable communityatmosphere, the evangelical virtues, etc.

IV Formation of OthersThis section refers firstly to "the prolonged,

solid formation of the future apostles of theSociety" which the Pope does not want watereddown either in its spiritual, doctrinal, disciplinaryand pastoral content.

Young aspirants should be formed for "a deepand solid faith" strong enough to resist moderntemptations and life's difficulties. The youngshould participate responsibly in their formationbut we should not permit students to cancel theaction of the educator. A young religious is notmature at the beginning of the process nor does hehave experience. He must be solidly formed inphilosophy and theology as required by SapientiaChristiana. Philosophy is especially important as agateway for theological training and, respecting alltheological specialties, there should be no neglectof training in a systematic theology so that "ourscholastics receive that complete and organicknowledge of the funamental points of Catholicdoctrine which all need."

Fr. Dezza concludes with Fr. Arrupe's words ofDecember 31, 1981, affirming the close union ofPope and Society and the need to search God'swill: "This will of God is made known to usthrough the decisions and desires of the HolyFather, which I accept as expressions of the Voiceof God."

~

~

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 198:

'-./ 3. What Others Say the Pope Said of Intended

.-

. Peter Hebblethwaite (National CatholicReporter, March 26,1982 pp. 1 ff.)

This ex-Jesuit blames Fr. Dezza for the troublethe Jesuits had with Paul VI and John Paul II by"sneaking off to popes" with complaints behindthe back of Fr. Arrupe.

John Paul II's Polish background is theproblem, not the Jesuits. He still thinks of theJesuits as "the pope's shock troops" and the"fourth vow" as special obedience to himself andas indiscriminate approval of every papal action,when all it really means that Jesuits go where theyare sent but "for the greater glory of God" not asan ultramontane blanket approval.

The present pope has a certain hostility toJesuits and wishes to curb their independence. Ifhe can bring them to heel, then other religiousorders without a fourth vow are particularlyexposed.

The displacement of Fr. Arrupe by Fr. Dezzawas like the martial law imposed on Poland byGeneral Jaruzelski. However, the direct rule of theJesuits will end before martial law does in Poland.If they continue to be good they will be allowed tohold a 33rd General Congregation, elect a successorto Arrupe and return to constitutional rule. Yet,though Jesuit leaders can pledge their loyalty tothe pope, they cannot make the river flow backuphill. Will John Paul II learn anything from theexperience? That it is not so easy to impose hisvision on the Church.

As if to summarize what the Pope can expect,Hebblethwaite concludes one evaluation of theRoman assembly with this comment from areligious superior (not a Jesuit): "Collaboration is anew code word in the Vatican. It means that thereligious have to line up behind the Roman curiaand the bishops, who themselves are absolutelyperfect. It is always the religious who have to dothe collaborating." (NCR March 12, 1982 p. 4)

. Commonweal (April 9, 1982 p. 186)"Stitched into the pope's laudatory eighteen-

page text were exhortations (1) to a narrowerinterpretation of the reforms initiated by VaticanII than perhaps many Jesuits consider eitherintellectually or pastorally justified; and (2) thoughthe pope warmly endorsed action for social justice,he reiterated his anxiety that the priest's concernremain primarily spiritual."

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. Joseph O'Hare in America (April 3, 1982)reprinted a London Tablet editorial (March 13th)which interpreted the whole speech as an

endorsement of Fr. Arrupe's generalate, apermission for Jesuits per modum exceptionis toengage in political activity, that in spite of localdisorders the Jesuit body was healthy. The Popeemerged, says the Tablet, as a man who can bemisled to begin with, but on digging into theproblem himself, comes up with a balancedjudgment. The Tablet thinks, too, there is adesperate need for some release from Romanjurisdiction over the day-to-day government of theChurch and some recommended Vatican IIdecentralization, widening the local bishops'discretion.

National Jesuit News (April 1982 pp. 1-5).Headlines:'Reassured' Provincials Return From Rome

(p. 1)US. Provincials Encouraged by PapalAddress

(p.2)The Roman Meeting: Gratifying But "Open-

Ended" (pA)Jesuit Conference President Fr. John J.

Callaghan reported to the American contingentupon his return from Rome: "The positive tenor ofthe lengthy talk of the Pope, even in those passageswhere he referred to aspects of Jesuit religious lifeand apostolic endeavors about which we all haveconcern, confirmed our hopes that progress hasbeen made toward the resolutions of problems andmisunderstandings." (p. 1) Other U.S. provincialsconfirmed Fr. O'Callaghan's positive evaluation ofthe Rome meeting. Detroit leader Fr. MichaelLavelle said: "Contrary to prior musings of themedia, no knuckles were wrapped; no individualswithin the Society or areas of the Society weresingled out for rebuke."

National Jesuit News looks upon the Romanmeeting as an "affirmation" of Fr. Arrupe'sleadership, a confirmation of the decrees last twoGeneral Congregations "in full force" and a GC 33by the Fall of 1933.

The NJN editor sees the "open-ended"unresolved questions between Pope and Jesuits tobe these (p. 4).1. Fidelity to magisterium vs. occasional

"qualified" dissent.2. Jesuits and Jesuit institutions vs. the provisions

of the revised code of canon law.3. Better communication with the Vatican.4. Who will define "genuine priestly activity"?5. How much local autonomy for Jesuit

seminaries.

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4. Jesuit Books and Articles

Thomas Philip Faase, SJ.,Making the Jesuits MoreModern, (Washington, D.c., University Press ofAmerica 1981) 457 pp. $21.00.

"In the experience of the Jesuit Order, changes inthe environment induced changes in the Order insuch away that experimentation and questioningled to disembeddedness from ascription andrationalization of behavior. This led in turn to thepluralism of new behaviors and new forms ofintegration. This increased activity resulted in theeventual generalization of values. Implementationof the changes rely on the strength of predisposingfactors and the adherence to a central normativecore of values in the Society of Jesus. Thisdevelopment could serve as a paradigm oforganizational activity and evaluation for otherorganizations as well." (p. 336)

Translating sociological jargon worthy of aTalcott Parsons is not always easy but in essencethe above paragraph says the following: Once thecontemporary secular world, not the historicChurch, became the dominating context for theJesuits the ties that bound Jesuits to their owntraditions were loosened, leading to release of themembership from imposed constraints (canon law,hierarchy, otherworldly conceptions includingrevelation etc.) and the adoption of modern worldvalues, norms, goals and structures (temporality,pragmatism, experimentation, pluralism, ration-alism, etc.), creating a modernized Orderpreoccupied with modern concerns (mostlysecular), governed by modern rules (mostlysecular) aimed toward a new type of salvation(mostly secular). This new order is a good modelfor what the future Church should be.

Modernization, in the sense defined by Fr.Faase, means secularization, not any kind ofsecularization, but Jesuits leaving their elite statuswithin the Church for a more relevant status (ifonly minority status) in the secular world withlegitimation being derived (not from Church orOrder) from the poor and disenfranchised of theworld. The modernization process, unaffected bymiddle class populations or nations, exceptnegatively, can only be accom plished throughappropriate legislation. The radical shift ofpriorities demanded by Vatican II calls for anadministrative leadership capable of shaping theclimate of the Society and socializing membersthrough new formation programs and changed lifestyies, while simultaneously bridging the gap (readcontrolling) with older Jesuits raised undertraditional procedures and middle class values.Jesuits from developing nations are seen as moresympathetic to the new directions. Jesuits,

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therefore, are counted on to develop the pedagogywhich will result in the ultimate conversion to thecause of the Society (and the larger Church) to thiscause.

The forward movement, Fr. Faase furtheralleges, is the direct institutional outgrowth of the1974 General Congregation of Jesuits (the 32nd) inRome and the administration of Father GeneralPedro Arrupe - jointly fulfilling some mandate ofthe Second Vatican Council. The research suggests,he says, that the religious revolution withinJesuitry is directed toward reinstitutionalizing theentire Catholic Church, which has mirrored Jesuitteachings and structures, at least from Reformationtimes onward. Traditional doctrine has beenchanged in content and meaning (perhaps with thewords remaining intact) because the social contexthas changed. Faith in Christ is best served today bypromoting justice as the absolute requirement ofministry. Faase assures readers that delegates to theRoman assembly in 1974 generally favoredmodernized and avant-garde theology over theunchanging theology of the pre-Vatican II period.Consiliar-Humanist Jesuits there representedmajority opinion, although Bulwark-CatholicJesuits were not lacking in some power. (The veryterminology Faase uses predisposes the evidence.)

What comes clear from a reading of ChapterTen is that after 1974 Father General Arrupe andhis central staff in Rome reinforced theConciliar-Humanist choices of teaching, service,and life styles. Says Faase: "Through effectivelobbying in every province congregation by a groupof young Jesuits and information and statements ofFather General furnished by his secretariat onsocio-economic development, the Thirty-SecondGeneral Congregation accepted the issue of faithand justice as a priority of priorities and passed itsformulation into Jesuit legislation." (p. 326) Butsocial justice concerns were not the exclusivepriority: others included removing "the mysteryfrom revered routines", changing the relationshipof superior to subject, achieved status notascription, solidarity through self-aligned force notthrough submission, rationalization and relativity,the process of change itself - these were theingredients of renewal (p. 327). Breaking downascribed meanings and roles was seen aspurification, including the demythologizing of theChurch, the dismantling of the superstructure - inorder to grasp Catholicism's timeless elements.Building up was to mean reinstitutionalizationaccording to modern norms and forms. (pp.329-330)

This book is an exhaustive study done by a

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' / one-time Regis College Jesuit (Toronto), now aMarquette University professor, as a doctoraldissertation for Cornell University. The method-ology conforms to accepted social sciencestandards - and as usually is the case -without"controlling" the researcher's predispositions.There are not many tears shed for the divisions andthe losses among Jesuits in the process (a necessaryprice of change) but obvious resentment is shownnot only of authority itself, but for Paul VI'smodest interventions in the 1974 assembly. Faaserules:

"Two very powerful tracks of Catholicismarepresently at odds. Reconciliation must occur in afashion and persuasion compatible with thetwentieth century or else the Holy See will haveless flexiblerecourseto a powerfulally and theSociety of Jesus will be intrinsicallystifled inservingthe Church."(p. 64)

I wonder who he thinks decides that. But ifone wants to know why the post-Vatican II Jesuitswere in trouble with that great implementer of theCouncil, Paul VI (to pass over John Paul II for themoment), this is a good book to read in all itsdetail.

George A. Kelly" /

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Avery Dulles S.J., "St. Ignatius and the JesuitTheological Tradition", Studies, March 1982.

The Jesuit theological tradition, as AveryDulles has reminded us, does not rest upon explicittheological positions deducible from the writingsof Ignatius, nor does it rule out very considerabledifferences among Jesuit theologians. Nonetheless,given the Society's historical shape, it is notunreasonable to seek out the features whichcharacterize that particular concreteness. Norshould it be startling to find among the features acertain theological style specified by typicalemphases. Dulles has pointed to Christocentrism, ahumanistic emphasis upon freedom, a concern forthe institutional Church (ecclesiocentrism), and asense for the sacramental transparency of creationto God as the salient and identifying themes ofJesuit theology. It does not seem that his choicescan be faulted. These themes (in their organicunity) certainly form the substance of the Catholictheological interest, and it is easy to find aninsistence upon them in the work of the greatJesuit theologians and in the Spiritual Exercises.

The Jesuit stress upon Christocentrism intheology bears, as Dulles has seen, upon the 'whole

Christ'; it does not then conclude toChristomonism, for it can never dissociate theChrist from the one flesh of the union with Mary,with the Church, by whose fiat he is present amongmen. It is this sancta societas that is the Christusinteger upon which is focussed the entire interestof Ignatius and of the theology which accepts hisvision as its own. The impact of this Augustinianinsight, Franciscan before it was Jesuit, is still to berealized; its systematic exploitation is in itsinfancy, for its poses fundamental difficulties(problems of method) to the regnant transcen-dental Thomism.

The theological impossibility of dissociatingChrist from the Church obviously requires theecclesiogical stress which Dunes has instanced.With an equal clarity it bars any ecclesiology whichdilutes the substantiality of the Church by turningaway from the concreteness implicit in its maritalrelation to the Christ. It does not then seem likelythat a Jesuit ecclesiology can usefully understandthe Church, in the manner Dulles suggests, as a"Community of disciples." This language isevocative of a nominalism ill at ease with thepersonification or hypostatization of the Churchwhich the Jesuit ecclesiology of the Church as theBody of Christ requires. This idiom for the Churchis not merely one among the many images of theChurch. usable but not indispensable; it has acriteriological function, linking the unity andreality of the Church to the unity of theEucharistic worship which is the cause of theChurch. It is not the local Church which is theradical concern of Ignatius, but the sponsoralChurch, the Bride of Christ. This is neither feudalidiosyncracy nor an accident of 16th centurypolemic; it is a radical demand of his commitmentto the Christ, the whole Christ, the EucharisticLord present in His Church, which by thatpresence has the unity of the Body of Christ.

It is in this connection that Dulles' personalagenda for the Society's theologians begins to beapparent. After instancing Ignatius' completeloyalty and obedience to the Chair of Peter, heinserts an . obscure observation of Nadal -

"Although the men of the Society are papists, theyare this only where they must be and in nothingmore; and even then, only with an eye to the gloryof God and the general good." - as one by which"the attitude of the Jesuit order to the papacy isperhaps best summarized." This Dulles' conclusionis simply out of the blue insofar as the Ignatiantradition is concerned. It rests upon nothing moresubstantial than the arguments which Dulles hasurged in support of his notion of a double

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magisterium. It is a notion rejected conclusivelyand beforehand in the decree of the 32nd GeneralCongregation on "Fidelity to the Magisterium andto the Supreme Pontiff," and in the documentswhich have emerged from the recent meeting ofthe Pope with the Jesuit Provincials in Rome,particularly in John Paul II's A llocu tion to theJesuit Provincial Superiors on 27 February, 1982,and in Paul Dezza's letter, together with itsappendix, to the whole Society, dated 25 March,1982. The Pope and his delegate to the Societypresent a summary of the Jesuit as 'papist' -

depending little upon Nadal's minimalism, andquite unresponsive to Dulles' ecclesiology.

The humanist emphasis, another of the themeswhich Dulles has referred to as characteristic ofJesuit theology, is certainly that for which theSociety's theologians are best known, for betterand for worse. The demand for the recognition ofthe indispensability of human freedom to salvationdominated the four centuries of disputation deauxiliis - over the reconciliation of divine andhuman freedom - as well as founding theprobabiliorist moral theology (to which Dulles hasalso referred) long calumniated as teaching that theends justify the means. The many controversiestouching freedom in its multi-dimensional unitywhich have enmired the Society's theologians overthe centuries still are alive, mutatis mutandis,today; they live, as the controversy de auxiliis did,off the rationalization of the mysterious, or rather,off the common supposition that such ra-tionalization is theology. This rationalization isoperative today in the Jesuit discussions of theissue of academic freedom, most recently in thecontext of the encyclical Sapientia Christiana andof the imminent publication of the new code ofCanon Law as it bears upon the Jesuit institutionsof higher education. It is one thing to insist uponthe salvific role of human freedom; it is quiteanother to suppose that freedom is what AdamSmith or J. S. Mill thought it to be. In brief, thehumanistic emphasis, integral to Jesuit theology asto Jesuit obedience, is a religious emphasis; itcannot afford a secular overview derived fromsome favorite anthropology, such as, for example,the Jesuit theologians of liberation are too inclinedto rely upon.

The fourth theme which Dulles mentions asspecifically Jesuit is that of theocentricism, inwhich is summed up Jesuit spirituality, and whatmay be called Jesuit mysticism: the Ignatianinsistence upon the transparency of the createdorder to God, and the correlative insistence thatour way t6 God is lighted by faith in his creation as

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holy, as created in Christ. This vision of the worldis indisputably Ignation and Jesuit: this fallenworld is nevertheless the good creation, redeemedin the blood of the New Covenant, imbued withthe Creator Spiritus, its materiality qualified asgood by the Eucharistic immanence of the risenChrist, its temporality made salvific and thereforehistorical by that same presence within it of theChrist, the Lord of history. The indomitableoptimism of Ignatius, upon which no disaster couldcast its gloom for above a quarter-hour, is one hisfollowers do well to imitate when, as often, theyare tempted to find the Church's historicityopaque to God rather than the vehicle of hissalvific presence and lordship. When the Church'sconcreteness is experienced no longer as the placeof God's Spirit, effective in the gift of freedom tohis people in and through their worship of Him,but is encountered instead as precisely the obstacleto that presence and liberation, then the resultingpessimism is no longer Christian, no longerIgnatian, no longer Jesuit.

The theocentric theology which can rightly callitself Jesuit is Trinitarian, not in the nominalist andminimalist fashion of a Galtier, but in the way ofwhich Bonaventure is the authentic spokesman,which a generation ago Rahner revived in theframework of his Thomism. Today this isundergoing a revision to dimension narrower thanGaltier ever knew, under the burden of a theologyof history which would find even the Trinitariandoctrine dispensable, the product of a past alien toour present quest for liberation from historicalfragmentation. Such devices evoke a history-as-fatality upon which even God would be impaled;long ago condemned, they can serve no Catholicinterest, whatever their provenance.

It would be easy enough to multiply theelements essential to a truly Jesuit theology,particularly if one may speak for the present ratherthan for the past as well. Few would dispute thatany valid theology must now be not merely aChristology, a Trinitarian theology, an ecdesiologyand a Christo logical anthropology, but also atheology of history. It is in this dimension oftheology that the contemporary questions are mostclearly posed; it is a pity that so little inclination topursue this topic is evident in the Jesuit theologyfaculties. One hears everywhere of the need forhistorical consciousness; there is a vivid interest inthe work of positive historical scholarship and aconsiderable development of expertise in the use ofits critical methodology. There does not appear,however, much interest in developing a theology ofhistory, . without which all talk of historical

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consciousness among theologians is no more thanfashionable conversation.

This is not to say that no theology of history isin use; there is one, inarticulate, whose radicalhistorical pessimism, once articulated, requires nofurther refutation: one which finds whateverinconvenient reality of Church history disqualifiedfrom religious significance by the fact of itshistoricity. There is another, equally inarticulate,whose apparent optimism is upon examinationmere blandness; not many exemplars of thisremain, but its memory is green enough to be usedto identify the cynicism of the pessimists. Betweenthese, evidently, is a great gulf fixed.

It is a commonplace now that the Church issacramental. Its history is to be understood only insacramental terms, which neither isolate noridentity the sign and the signified, history andeschaton, as do the blind pessimism and the blandoptimism just described. If one postulates that themeaning of history is liturgical, as Gadamer hasdone, and postulates further that the liturgy(which is history) is a liturgy of sacramentalrealism rather than, as Gadamer supposes, of thepreached word heard in faith, it may begin toappear that the impossible choice between apositivist historicism and a baroque triumphalismmay be refused, in favor of a historicity whosehermeneutic is not theory but the Eucharisticworship of the Church. Thus understood, history isspecified as radical mystery, available to norationale, whose unity, freedom and concretenessis that of the Church whose mediation of theChrist is esablished by no apologetics andsubmitted to no criterion other than that which isimmanent within her, summoning her to acontinual reformation. Such a theology of historyis unlikely to find much favor in the short run, forit refuses the reduction of history to idea on theone hand and to randomness on the other whichmost contemporary historical scholarship assumeswithout discussion. Still, the question is no longeravoidable, once the impossibility of a value-freehistory is accepted by Catholic historians, for thenthe necessity for grounding one's preferredinterpretation somewhere can no' longer beignored, as it is now ignored. When this question isaccepted, it really does not seem to have anyanswer other than that history has the structure ofthe worship of the Lord of history. This wouldnot, one may suppose, have much astonishedIgnatius, for it does no more than corroborate histotal devotion to the Church as the necessaryimplication of his total devotion to the risen Lord.

Fr. Donald Keefe, S.J.

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Michael J. Buckley, S.J. (Santa Clara Today,April 1982 pp. 4-5)

This Berkeley theologian, on sabbatical leave atthe University of Santa Clara, thinks the Jesuits arein counterpoint (contrast) to the Pope, not inrebellion. He argues that Jesuits historically havebeen experimenters for the Pope, (in China,Paraguay, etc.), experimenting being a function ofobedience, not opposed to it. Sometimes Jesuitshave been condemned by Popes, but most are vitalleaders of the Church's mission. Says Buckley:"Many people mistake counterpoint for rebellion.Jesuits take a special vow - not of unique loyaltyto the Pope as has been endlessly and mistakenlyrepeated, but of availability for any assignment hemandates. "

Fr. Buckley argues that the Pope did notsummon the Jesuit Provincials to Rome. Fr. Dezzadid at the urging of Jesuit administrative assistants.The action was unprecedented but "par for thecourse for the Pope", who likes to intervenepersonally in situations where he has interests (e.g.Holland, Poland, Seminaries, writing encyclicalsetc.). The Pope's intervention did not arise becauseof rebellion or sexual immorality or elitism amongJesuits, or because of Marxism or the identificationof the kingdom of heaven with Jesuits. As a matterof fact, the Pope confirmed the Jesuit apostolateof justice "as an integral part of evangelization."--(continued from page 3)

of religious authority and responsible only tosecular agencies. Presently there is no juridical linkbetween many Jesuit governing structures and themanagement of "Jesuit" universities. The localJesuit community has no directive function,through its rector, of the institution it serves.Once upon a time (and in some places still) theUniversity President was also the Jesuit Rector.Where those roles have been separated theuniversity president. though a Jesuit, somewhatlike a Jesuit Provincial, acts under no other localJesuit authority qua President. When this occursthe institutional Jesuit apostolate in highereducation ends and a commitment merely ofindividual Jesuits to that work surfaces with noreligious control (theoretically at least) over whatJesuits say or do in the University context. There isa facade of Jesuit presence but in some places thesituation masks contumacius disobedience ofdirectives from Pope and/or bishops. Proposalshave been made to reestablish limited "Provincial"control of the Jesuit university apostolate, but sofar the status quo post-Vatican II prevails. (Nosuch arrangements are possible where a "Jesuit"university has secularized absolutely.)

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5. The Jesuit Situation: Overview and Commentary~

The Jesuits are like "the Yankees". They have been so good and champions so long and the Churchhas been proud of them. Unlike the Yankees, however, no one ever chanted "Break up the Jesuits". Duringthe lifetime of most Catholics fifty years and older, including priests, Jesuits were the Catholic champs.They influenced almost everything Catholic in the U.S. from the literacy of ghetto kids to the piety of nunsto the confessional practice of parish priests to the exercise of teaching office by popes. Only mean-mindedCatholics envied their pre-eminence, only bigots thought the word "J~suit" meant "conspiracy". They werethe Church's working intellectuals by far, but even their parish priests were classy.

But now they are breaking up from inside their own ranks and not as a result of enemy action or fromany discipline by Popes. Not only has the Society suffered an enrollment loss of 9,000 since 1965, but a1975 Jesuit study (Review for Religious, Volume 34) indicates how Jesuits are gradually running out ofnovices. By the year 2000 if nothing changes, they will be functioning at half their present strength. JesuitStudies (1977 Vol. IX) also provides more startling evidence of growing American Jesuit weakness andsome of the reasons for decline and possible disintegration of a once proud Jesuit team. In a large area likeNew York, for example, 585 novices and seminarians could be counted on thirty-two years ago, now thereare only 83. Regis High School, also in New York, still has 55 Jesuits working from its 1930-39 classes, butonly three functioning Jesuits from among its 1970-79 graduates. It is common knowledge that significantnumbers of Jesuits no longer recommend young men to Jesuit novitiates/seminaries because of whathappens to them when they get there.

What Pope John Paul II is trying to do - somewhat nicely it seems - is to get the Jesuits to reformthemselves in ways acceptable to the Holy See. He is only the fourth modern Pope to try. Few mayremember that the 30th General Congregation (1955) was sobered by what one Jesuit called "a harshrestrictive allocution" from Pius XII or that after the first session of the 31st (1965) Father Arrupe felt itnecessary to tell Jesuits "obedience will be expected of you." Most contemporary Jesuits well know thatPaul VI almost disbanded the 32nd General Congregation (1974) because of Jesuit disobedience right underhis nose.

Outsiders can read for themselves what the Pope - and Fr. Dezza - have said to the Jesuits recently.The question is whether they got the message. The official line of Jesuit provincials returning to the

U.S. is that there was no message to be gotten. The long anticipated "showdown" between the Holy Fatherand the Jesuits, it is being said, was a tempest in a teapot. Any apparent conflict was due mainly to a failurein "communication." The different wave lengths between the Pope and the Jesuits have now, to the delightof all, been mutually clarified, with a return to normalcy, including continuance of the "priorities" and"options" of recent years, particularly the social activism, though perhaps with more prudence. Thesuggestion of more reserve in criticizing the magisterium publicly and for a greater fidelity in public to theChurch's liturgical norms (e.g. saying Mass with proper vestments) also seems acceptable to returningJesuits. There should be, also, no rushing off to Time or Newsweek by scholars the moment a noveltheological theory pops into one's head. Time and Newsweek will have henceforth to do their ownfootwork and to smoke out the obscure journals themselves, as one Provincial intimated. This will not beimproper because many "legitimate" ecclesiologies co-exist in the Church, not just the official Roman oneto which the Holy Father ascribes. In dubiis, libertas.

Officially and by their own accounting, the Jesuit superiors did not see anything substantially wrongwhen they went to Rome - certainly not in matters of doctrine or religious life style. Some were willing toadmit that maybe in the Yucatan there might be extreme views, even when the philosophy coming from theYucatan, so roundly criticized by the Pope, was actually house doctrine within their own provinces. Yetonce home they reported that no accusations were made by the Pope or "proved" in Rome. It was the Popehimself who changed his orientation - it is being said - largely to agree with them as John Paul II's finalrewritten speech allegedly shows.

Privately many Jesuits express doubts about this way of interpreting the Roman event, but it isdifficult, if not dangerous, for them to intimate this in a public forum, Jesuit or otherwise. They know thesubstantive divergence between what the actual training, thought, and political persuasion is within theSociety from what the Pope and the Church hold, disagreements which cannot be reconciled. No official

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admissions are made here or in Rome that Jesuits have a sorry record of dissent, almost systematically fromHumanae Vitae and are an utterly insignificant factor in the vital struggle for protecting human life in ourday. Nor is there serious public mention by them about whether students in Catholic colleges/seminariesactually can learn much about what John Paul II and the Church teaches and stands for. Suggestions thatnot all Jesuits have observed liturgical laws in celebrating Mass, much to the scandal of the faithful, are metwith denials, when the fact is that the charges are true. Indeed, praise and understanding of the HolyFather, his work and extraordinary intelligence, are rarely heard in most Jesuit houses.

Many think, too, that a new censorship is now operative within the Society and in a much moreominous way. Candidates for the Jesuit ministry seem deliberately moulded toward a sympathy for the"socialist" ideology. Religion more and more seems to be identified with certain political and social"options", whose roots are not mainly within the Christian orbit. Chapels in academia often have been usedto promote (as a religious cause) leftist governments in Central America and elsewhere. Additionally, theuniversities are claiming that the Pope does not "understand" real university life in free societies, that toput his quaint ideas into effect would make the schools illegal or culturally disadvantaged. Jesuits, likemany curial officials, hear increasing talk of the "American Church", not the Catholic Church - andpromotion of a slick political ideology recognized for what it is in the secular media. This makes it difficultfor ordinary people to sort out what the Church might itself be or what Church teaching is other than akind of advocacy platform for certain trendy ideas among a certain intellectual elite.

The Holy Father, perhaps rightly, seems reluctant to "administer" the Society. John Paul II isbrilliant in explaining the faith and the world and man to himself. No objective person can really doubtthis. However his preaching seems to have produced few tangible results, except among some younger Jesuitthinkers who read the Pope carefully rather than what the aging theologians of post-Vatican II say. TheJesuit leadership has already proved that it did not grasp what Paul VI was telling them time after time. Oneformer Jesuit University President, thus, may have been closer to the mark than some of his confreres inpredicting: "We Jesuits either get our act together or we get dumped. That is the message that was reallygiven by the Pope." These lines will be heresy to people who think the Jesuit act is already together.However, it is a fact that some Jesuits, especially those in post conciliar leadership positions, have failed tocomprehend the criticisms of the previous four popes.

In sl?ite of Fr. Dezza's particularized bill of goods and evils, the whole controversy has been treated asan incident of unfortunate confusion, worrisome because the Pope acted at all (rashly, one gets theimpression) outside the Society's constitutions (for no adequate reason), and threatening because it seemsto question the chosen and reinforced policies of identifying the Christian witness with justice and peace.Assuming that the Pope does not entirely agree with the Order's optimistic view of the recent Romanmeeting, the Jesuit leadership's message is that John Paul II is wrong, that he should discover the truths andmovements of their scholars' counter-magisterium, and propagate their message among the bishops andfaithful, not the one popes usually send. If, instead, the Pope does not view the Roman meeting with thesame optimism, he will have to do something extraordinary to make his points stick. Otherwise, businesswill go on as usual. The pope has written and spoken so often that no one can claim not to have understoodhim. The problem with Father Arrupe's administration was not one of personality or communication. Itwas, instead, one of doctrine and practice, philosophy and rite. Unless the Order itself gets its act togtherby its own devices, unless it begins at its highest levels to understand what recent Popes have been saying,then the Pope, a firm and very intelligent man, will turn to other institutions and individuals willing and ableto understand what he means when he talks about Catholic Christianity and its truth.

The Jesuits may yet save the Church in our time - at least those fully committed to all that the Popeand Fr. Dezza ask of them and whose voices have not been fully heard. Jesuit dreamers will not help, thosewho call their institutions Catholic when they are not; nor depressed Jesuits, some of whom hurt badly andhave been hurt, and who think additional concilation is counter-productive; certainly not the dissentingJesuits. But there are Jesuits by the hundreds - still champs - and waiting to go to bat for John Paul II andFr. Dezza. May God increase their tribe and give them wisdom. Amen. (GAK)

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

Publications of Interest

. Current Issues in Catholic Higher Education:Purposes and Leadership is a publication of theAssociation of Catholic Higher Education (ADepartment of NCEA), Editor, Sr. Alice Gallin,OSV $2.00.

This booklet, intended to enhance dialogueover the mission of the Catholic college, containsshort articles on the college presidency, collegetrusteeship and corporate models. Santa Clara'spresident William Rewak, S.J. comments on therecent Bishops' pastoral on Catholic highereducation by summarizing its general tone andcontent. Jude P. Doughterty et al. collaborated ona fine summary of the roots of the present Catholiccollege identity problem under the heading "TheSecularization of Western Culture and the CatholicCollege and University." This committee of theAmerican Catholic Philosophical Society (includingDesmond Fitzgerald, Thomas Langan, KennethSchmitz) raise all the right historical, philosophical,theological and political points. They deftly pointthe finger at the right issues:

"Catholic educators must realize that certainissues inevitably have to be faced on the basis ofprinciple." (p. 12)

"The Church has a mission to preach a gospeland has a clearly and fully articulated purpose.The Catholic university must be associated thenin a more determinate way, and must seizewillingly the articulation already set forth by itssponsor." (p. 19)

"Is there not an episcopal responsibility toencourage the adequate teaching of essentialdoctrine?" (p. 20)

. Don DeMarco's, Sex and the Illusion onFreedom, is available at Mission House Pub-lications, 101 Silverspring Cr., Kitchener, Ontario,Canada N2M 4P3. Fellowship members can receivea 20 percent discount (that is, for $4.00 instead of$4.95, plus fifty cents postage).

. St. PaulEditions- Four new books andbooklets

. Bishop John J. O'Connor for the N.Y: StateConference of bishops If You Wish Peace, DefendLife (54 pp. 75 cents)

The moral and political aspects of abortion

To the Church of America: A Collection ofPapal Addresses by Popes Paul VI, John Paul Iand John Paul II (166 pp. $3.00 paper)

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John Paul II, Original Unity of Man andWoman (Preface by Donald W. Wuerl). ThePope's catechesis on the Book of Genesis (178pp. $3.00 paper). The pope's brilliantmeditations on sexuality given in weeklyaudiencesshortly after his election. .

George A. Kelly (ed.), Catechetical Instruc-tion and the Catholic Faithful (226 pp. $4.95paper) Introduction by Silvio Cardinal Oddi,prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy.Articles by Bishop Anthony Bevilacqua,Bishop Austin Vaughan, Professor Paul Vitz,Sr. Michelle McKeon, S.c., Sr. Theresa C.Shea, O.P. and Msgr. Kelly dealing with thesignificance and content of CatechesiTradendae.

. TheGallupOrganization- Two ResearchReports

Religion in America 1981

Statistical data on the state of church,religion and politics. Impact of religious TVprograms, giving to churches.The Unchurched American

A study convened and coordinated by theNational Council of Churches of Christ (1978);trends from 1952; comparison of the churchedand unchurched.

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Available from The Princeton ReligionResearch Center Inc., Box 310, 53 BankStreet, Princeton, New Jersey 08540.Priced at $25.00

. University Press of AmericaThe Social Teachings of Wilhelm EmmanualVon Ketteler (Bishop of Mainz 1811-1877)translated by Rupert J. Ederer (1981).

This book presents the first completetranslation (from the original German) of themajor social teachings of Bishop VonKetteler. He was a major teaching bishop ofhis time. Pius IX once told him: "You wield agreat pen, my son. In fact, I believe your penwrites better than my own." The influence ofhis thinking on later papal encyclicals is well

known. (Leo XIII once said "It is from himthat I have learned.") Less well known is hisview that the socialist program was worsethan the disease it was supposed to remedy.This book of 600 pages covers the following

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

~topics: freedom, authority, labor, work,liberalism, socialism, democracy and nationalwelfare.

. Recent Publications of Works by Henry V.Sattler, c.Ss.R

On the distinction between obedience tothe Magisterium and ordinary Catholic faith inthe Magisterium: "Living with the Certaintyof Faith" in Pastoral Life, July-August, 1981.

On the impossibility of discussing ecology andoverpopulation for human persons as one canof fauna and flora: "Overpopulation and theMoral Challenge" in International Review ofNatural Family Planning, Spring 1981.

On the necessity of being a gnostic manicheeif one wishes to promote human sterilization:"Dualism and Sterilization" in InternationalReview of Natural Family Planning, Summer/Fall, 1981.

Can there be adultery within marriagebetween husband and wife? "Adultery WithinMarriage" in Homiletic and Pastoral Review,Decenber 1981.

~If sexuality is merely instrumental, con-sequentialism is legitimate in sexualmorality, but if sexuality is both naturallyand supernaturally sacramental, it involvesinherent and immanent moral value."Sacramental Sexuality" in CommunioWinter 1981.

On the two kinds of secularistic humanism incontrast with Christian humanism: What IsSecular Humanism? Stafford VA, AmericanLife Alliance Foundation, Spring 1982 (PBcirca 125 pp. illustrated).

On the necessity of true rhetoric for theproper formation of conscience, and theperversion of rhetoric to promote immorality:"Rhetoric and Moral Discourse" in Fidelity,April 1982.

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. The Word Among Us, a new monthly Biblestudy aimed at helping Catholics read, understand,and act on the teachings of Scripture, recentlybegan publication. Since the first issue appeared inDecember 1981, the publication has receivedunanimously favorable responses from readers.

Written in a popular style, The Word AmongUs presents sound biblical teaching in an easilyunderstood, lively, and readable format. Con-temporary approaches to the study of Scripture areused without diluting or departing from the heartof the Gospel message.

-

The Word Among Us will prove to be useful toleaders of Bible studies of prayer groups,moderators of religious study groups, and priestsseeking to enliven their preaching. Teachers in CCDprograms, Catholic schools, and adult religiouseducation programs will also find the seriesvaluable in planning and carrying out theiractivities.

A Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur have beengranted.

A year's subscription to The Word Among Usincludes 12 issues, each about 60 pages in length,and costs $15.00. A special $12.00 bulk price isavailable when 10 or more orders are sent to thesame address.

Interested people may obtain a free sample orplace a subscription by writing to: The WordAmong Us, Mother of God Community, P.O. Box3775, Washington, D.C. 20037.

. A new magazine Fillioque gives attention tothe scholarly and interdisciplinary effort of Dr.Herbert Schwartz. Filioque is published by MountHope Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit, tax-exemptcorporation. The journal is supported solely byvoluntary contributions. For further informationwrite Filioque c/o Mount Hope Foundation, Inc.,P.O. Box K Middletown, New York 10940.

. "When Schools Teach Sex" is "a handbookfor evaluating your schools sex educationprogram" by Judith B. Echaniz et al. producedunder the auspices of the Family-Life Culture andEducation Council, (P.O. Box 8466, Rochester,New York 14618) 58 pp. $2.50.

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. James R. Schaefer, "Tensions between AdultGrowth and Church Authority" in ChristianAdulthood: A Catechetical Resource 1982(Publication of the United States CatholicConference)

Fr. Schaefer, one-time adult education officialof Baltimore and now a pastor, wants to know"Can the Roman Catholic Church tolerate theemergence of mature believers?" His maturebeliyvers are those who "can stand on their owntwo feet spiritually and accept responsibility fortheir own beliefs and ethical decisions." Maturebelievers are also described as those "open toquestions and doubts about the validity of theirpresent beliefs." In f~ce of a propensity to"infallibilize" authoritative Church teachings,mature believers have little choice but to"relativize" them - by following their consciencesdespite Church strictures. In the Schaefer view"the Roman Catholic Church" can tolerate suchmature believers but will it? Look at whathappened to Hans Kung.

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Volume5, Number 3 Fellowshi)! of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

Book Reviews

Who Is Christ: A Theology of Incarnation, JeanGalot, S.J. Franciscan Herald Press, Chicago, 1981.

Jean Galot is professor of dogmatic theology atthe Gregorian University in Rome, and author ofseveral major works and numerous articles onChristology, all of which - with the exception ofthe work at hand - remain untranslated intoEnglish.

Who Is Christ? is not a comprehensiveChristology since, as the author notes in hisIntroduction, the various questions touching onsoteriology or the redemption are not expresslytreated. Likewise omitted is any full presentationof the mysteries in word and deed of the publicministry of Jesus. Nonetheless, what is lacking incomprehensiveness is more than counterbalancedby the clarity and depth of treatment given to themajor questions centering on the Incarnation itself.Those questions Galot treats in three majorsections of his book as "The FundamentalAffirmations of the Faith of the Church" (partThree), "The Ontology Of The Incarnation" (partFour), and "The Psychology of Christ" (Part Five).

The first of these three sections is anhistorico-theological study of the development ofChristology from post-Apostolic times up to andincluding the definitions of Constantinople III in681. Without over-simplifying, Galot manages tosummarize in a very precise and intelligible fashioncurrents of thought and events which in themselveswere rich, complex, and, of course, frequentlydivergent and contradictory. The section ter-minates with a statement which may be said to bethe guiding principle of the entire book: "No validChristology can be developed, therefore, outsidethe path blazed by Chalcedon. - It is a stage in thedoctrinal progress of the Church, a stage that cannever again be brought into question but whichmust open the way to further advances" (p. 248).The importance of that statement in the light ofvarious popular Christo logical currents of thought,Galot has developed elsewhere (Cristo Contestato:Le cristologie non calcedoniane e la fedecristologica, Liberia Editrice Fiorantina, 1979)where he treats the theories of Schoonenberg,Vulsbosch, Schillebeeckx, Kung, Sobrino, etc., allof which he perceptively criticizes.

That he is not locked into an outdatedformulation of the Christo logical problem norcontent to preserve a merely verbal Chalcedonianorthodoxy Galot makes clear in the way hedevelops that doctrine. This development he beginsby a frank rejection of Aquinas' position

~concerning the nature of the relationship whichGod has to the world, and which the Eternal Sonhas to His humanity. In both cases St. Thomasdenied any "real relation" on God's part.

"Now every relation which is said of God froma temporal point of view does not posit any realityin the Eternal God Himself - Therefore, thesonship by which Christ is referred to His mother isnot a real relation (in God) but only a relation ofreason" (S. Th., III, q. 35, a. 5c).

That Thomistic distinction, always difficult toexplain and defend, was aimed a preserving thetruth that the eternal God is immutable orunchangeable. According to Galot, however, theIncarnation itself "does not permit us to affirmthat the immutability of God is such as to excludeany change whatever and to render any'innovation' in divine dispositions and activitypossible" (p. 269). To safeguard divineimmutability Galot affirms that such immutability"signifies permanence and perseverence inperfection, but does not signify immobility" (p.271). As a result, the newness which comes aboutas a consequence of the Incarnation is not simply achange on the part of humanity (i.e. of the humannature of Christ) but rather "demands theaffirmation of an authentic innovation in GodHimself" (p. 270). In all of this, as he himselfadmits, Galot is influenced by the formula of KarlRahner which says that "the immutable in itselfcan be mutable in another". He rightly sees,however, that the Rahnerian formulation promisesmore than it in fact delivers. Galot has gone a stepbeyond that type of formulation to make explicitwhat may be but is not necessarily latent inRahner's formula. In a sympathetic treatment ofGalot's Christology in his excellent book Theologyand the Gospel of Christ (SPCK, London, 1977),E.L. Mascall writes: " . . . although he does not putit in precisely these words, Galot's view might bestated by saying that, in addition to logicalrelations and necessary real relations, he alsopostulates voluntary real relations, and he seesthese, and not only logical relations, as included inGod's relationship to the world" (p. 182). For allthat he approves Galot's effort in this area, Mascallfaults him for showing a "rather inadequateunderstanding of the relation of time to eternity"(p. 184), which, it would appear, is a way ofcriticizing Galot's view of the relationship betweenthe infinite divine nature to the finite humannature in the One Person of Christ. The Thomisticdistinction may yet be saying something essential,even if one grants the inadequacy of its verbalexpression.

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

~Galot is on firmer ground in his treatment of

the personhood of Christ. Rejecting the suggestionsby Barth and Rahner that the terms "mode ofbeing" or "distinct mode of subsistence" might bemore adequate than "person" to describe thatwhich is Three in God, he prefers to develop theinsight of Anselm, taken up by the Council ofFlorence, on being as relational. "In Godeverything is one whenever the opposition ofrelation does not pose an obstacle." It is this"Relational being", the esse ad which constitutesthe person of the Son and which is the center ofunity in Christ. ' 'In Christ there is no humanrelational being. The relational being of the Son ofGod vivifies and possesses the human nature" (p.306). Although Galot unfortunately fails to see theharmony between this line of thinking and theteaching of Capreolus and Billot (and surelyAquinas senior, S. Th. III, q. 17, a. 2, ad 2), forwhose view he has harsh words (p. 292), hisdevelopment of personhood as relational beingboth preserves the meaning of Cha1cedon andallows him to integrate the more metaphysicalapproach of that time with the psychologicalinsights into personhood more favored in our day.

The final section of Who Is Christ? is devotedto what is in fact the true focus of controversy innearly all current exegetical and theological studiesof the Lord, namely His human self-awareness.While rejecting the traditional thesis that thehuman mind of Christ enjoyed the Beatific Vision(and here he does not give as sympathetic nornuanced a view of the traditional position as onemight have hoped for), he ably defends the truth(recently repeated by the Bishops of Canada intheir pastoral letter, Jesus Christ, Centre of theChristian Life, No. 22-26) that Jesus was humanlyaware of Himself as God and Son of God. Thisawareness was always there, but developed in thesense that it followed the usual patterns of humangrowth in self-awareness (cL p. 359). The author'streatment of this complex but absolutely crucialpoint is careful and detailed. It will not convincethose who defend the traditional presentation ofthe matter (cL William Most's work TheConsciousness of Christ, Christendom Press, 1980)nor will it appeal to the many who claim -without any justification except a restricted viewof historical-critical exegesis - that Jesus wasunaware of His divinity and messianic office.Galot's position, however, is no attempt toproduce a "via media" between extremes. It is areasoned effort to systematize faithfully the dataof Tradition, Scripture and the Magisterium. And,despite the disagreements one might find with

\Y

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particular sections, the same can be said of hisentire work.

James O'Connor

..........

William E. May, Sex, Marriage and Chastity,Chicago, Franciscan Herald Press, 1981, 170 pp.$9.00

Several thoughts will occur to more than onereader of this book, at least to those readers whostill believe in the Catholic Church's view ofmarriage, sex and the integrity of the humanperson. Is it not strange that so many prominentlaymen and women like William May, ElizabethAnscombe,_John Finnis, Germain Grisez, JosephBoyle, Robert and Mary Joyce, John and SheilaKippley - are using their scholarly talents as JohnPaul II requested in FamiliarisConsortio, when somany of the pope's priests and nuns areundermining the Church's norms and misleadingthe faithful, especially the young? Section 31 ofFC calls upon theologians "to collaborate with thehierarchical magisterium and to commit themselvesto the task of illustrating ever more clearly thebiblical foundations, the ethical grounds and thepersonalistic reasons behind this doctrine ofHumanae Vitae."

This united effort, the pope insists, must be"inspired by a convinced adherence to theMagisterium which is the one authentic guide forthe People of God" and "is particularly urgent forreasons that include the close link betweenCatholic teaching on this matter and the view ofthe human person that the Church proposes." JohnPaul II sees "doubt or error in the field of marriageor the family involves obscuring to a serious extentthe integral truth about the human person in acultural situation that is already so often confusedand contradictory."

William May undertakes the task of articulatingin this book - clearly and persuasively-Catholictruth about human sexuality, marriage, andchastity. His five chapters deal with the meaning ofhuman sexuality, marriage, married love, chastityin the married and single state. May's entireapproach is based on the "integralist" under-standing of sexuality presented in Humanae Vitaewhich insists that the procreative dimension ofhuman sexuality and its person-uniting, love giving,unitive dimension are intrinsically and inherentlyinterrelated, meant for each other, reciprocallyinterpenetrating and meaning given.

In contrast, according to May, "separatist"theologians separate the human person from his or

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

her body, place the human and personal value ofsex in its relational purposes, make thereproductive dimension of human sexuality abiological-functional value, not necessarily per-sonal, diminute the importance of sexualdifferences between men and women and permit asmoral sexual activity which responsibly enhancesthe person (regardless of the nature of the activityitself). May insists that there is no middle groundbetween this view represented by the Fuchs-McCormick-Curran School of moral theology andthe Catholic understanding of human sexuality.One or the other of these understandings, he says,"must be true and the other false".

About the time May's book reachedbookstores, Richard McCormick's latest analysis ofthe same subject area was being mailed tosubscribers of Theological Studies (March 1982 pp.69) with the advisory that his school his right andtheir critics including Paul VI, John Paul II and theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith arewrong. McCormick thinks that "formally authori-tative statements are no substitute for evidence" inthese matters (p. 72), that defenders ofmagisterium such as Dario Composta and JohnConnery may not understand the modernterminology or question (p. 75, 80), that killing,contraception, speaking falsehood, sterilization,masturbation, "cannot be said to be intrinsicallymorally evil as this term is used by tradition andthe recent magisterium" (p. 84), that pro-portionate reasons do establish the possibility ofexceptions to norms governing cases involving thesematters (p. 87), that one who is constantlyconcerned with rules is spiritually immature (p.90), that doing the just fair chaste thing withoutthe force of law should be the aim of moraleducation (p. 90), that the pope is better advisedto write on sex as he does on labor - providingpersuasive analysis about which there can bedisagreements but which is more likely to com-mand assent than specific directives (p. 95).

William May is absolutely correct when he saysthat between Catholic teachers Paul VI - JohnPaul II and the Fuchs-McCormick-Curran school-men there is no middle ground. One group ofteachers is wrong.

Patient readers of the contemporary moraltheology scene might find themselves askinganother question: Why is the Franciscan HeraldPress one of the few Catholic publishing housesinterested in books by the likes of William May?What about the other religious orders still involvedin the communication world of propagatingCatholic truth?

Ralph Martin, A Crisis of Truth: the Attack onFaith, Morality, and Mission in the CatholicChurch (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant Books, 1982,245 pages, $10.95).

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This work, by the well known leader of theCatholic charismatic movement, deserves theover-used epithet "hard-hitting."

There are those who will immediately drawback - what does hitting hard have to do withChristianity? Martin says in effect, "a lot." Hispoint is that, where truth is concerned, it is not anexercise in Christian charity to overlook problems,or to tolerate errors out of respect for the personin error. The book is never uncharitable or mean,but it is blunt and direct.

The fact that this point first has to be made initself shows that many contemporary Christianshave lost their grip on the meaning of theirhistorical faith. For practically no great figure inChristian history, Catholic or Protestant, wouldever have doubted that true charity sometimesrequires saying hard things to people, and theywould have agreed that it is profoundlyuncharitable to indulge people in their errors. Onlyin modern times has Christian charity beendivorced from truth in many people's minds.

Martin first presented these essays as speechesgiven, usually by invitation, in many parts of thecountry. They seem to have attracted largeaudiences, and he reports strong encouragement inhis efforts, some of it from bishops. His experiencethus says a great deal for the residual good healthof American Catholicism.

One of the book's strengths is its recognition ofhow far-reaching the problem actually is. It is notmerely this or that doctrine or moral principle thathas been called into question, but the veryfoundations of faith. Martin's point is that the verypossibility of genuine Christianity is now undercutby certain habits of thought into which believershave fallen, sometimes misled by the very peoplewho are supposed to be their teachers.

The basic crisis, in Martin's view, is biblical.Prevailing trends in biblical scholarship tend todestroy the supernatural credibility of theScripture, reducing it to a human document whichpeople are free to make use of as they please.Martin has a keen sense of the difference between agenuinely faithful approach to Scripture and onewhich treats it as an admirable but in the end notauthoritative document. One of his chapters istitled "Silencing the Gospel," and demonstratesthe various ways (some of them subtle) in whichthis can be done.

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

"-"Inevitably, as Martin recognizes, the "demytho-

logizing" of Scripture gets to the heart of thematter: If we cannot accept Scripture as God'sWord, then what grounds can there be forconceding a unique importance to Jesus Christ,much less acknowledging Him as the Son of God?Far from being a matter of esoteric speculation,this has become an acute practical question formany Christians.

Two contemporary concerns are recognized asespecially sensitive - sex and social justice. Withregard to the former, Martin notes that sex is theplace where traditional Christian morality is moststrongly assaulted and where pagan attitudes havebecome most widely accepted. With regard tosocial justice, he correctly emphasizes itsimportance but also criticizes the way that idea isnow frequently understood, in essentially worldlyand political terms. In these and other areas he canspeak of "The Secular Humanist Influence on theChurch. "

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The first half of the book is sub-titled "WhereAre We?," the second half "What Should We Do?,"The second part is also extremely good, becauseMartin recognizes that the problem is not merelyone of modernists versus the orthodox. If it were,the battle would be a lot easier. Rather thepassivity, the confusion, sometimes the deliberateneglect of their critical faculties by orthodoxpeople itself contributes greatly to the triumph offalse belief..

Martin's concluding chapters aim to inspire thereader to do something, to take a stand. He speaksforcefully of the prospect of divine judgment,analyzes the meaning of true and false unity in theChurch, urges personal repentance, and announcesa "Time for Action."

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This is not a scholarly treatise, and thosefamiliar with the current religious scene willperhaps not learn much that is new. But there isprobably no current book which sounds a strongertrumpet and which has the potential of reaching(as Martin has apparently done in his lectures) thefabled silent majority in the Church.

James Hitchcock

'"-' . -.

Bertrand de Margerie, S.J.: "Introduction al'histoire de l'exegese" I.-Les Peres grecs et orien-taux. ColI. Initiations. Paris, Cerf, 1980, VII-328 p.

Conscious to a rather limited extent, becauseof where I live and what I work on, of the currentcrisis of the R.C. Church in the United States, andof Christian faith itself, I am glad to point out tothe readers of the FCS's Newsletter the presentbook, written by the author of "La Trinitechretienne dans l'histoire", which, as a dis-tinguished Catholic biblical scholar has remarked,appears at its proper time. And I dare add that thefact that the Church is going through a crisis makesthe book more relevant, especially to thoseengaged in the formation of candidates tothe priesthood.

To put forth and clearly the main advantage Isee in this book, I would say that it can contributevaluably to a reading Scripture in the light ofTradition. In other words, it is an invitation toapproach the Bible as the Word of God, given tothe Church and read in the Church, but withoutignoring or undervaluating the tremendous effortsof modern biblical science, without reducing thestudy of the Sacred Books as to what thehistorical-critical methods can yield.

In order to open modern readers to thisecclesiastical dimension of biblical exegesis, Fr. deM. tries to clear for them a few important paths inthe immense forest of the Fathers of the Church.He recognizes, though, from the very beginning,that such is the only possible way available since acommand of the exegesis of the Patristic age by farsurpasses the forces of a single man and even of ateam. He chooses, thus, a number ofrepresentatives of the different trends and"schools" of antiquity, namely, Justin of Rome,Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria,Athanasius, Ephrem, the school of Antioch, JohnChrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa and Cyril ofAlexandria. In each case he profits from the workdone by specialists, yet making personalcontributions, and tries to characterize the methodof interpreting Scripture used by each one.

May the author promptly complete hisexcellent work with the second volume that will beconsecrated to the Latin Fathers and may thereading of such books by young people help bringforward a new generation of exegetes who willcombine both critical and faithful interpretationsof the Bible.

Julio R. deEscobar, SJ

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Volume 5, Number 3 Fellowship of Catholic Scholars NEWSLETTER June 1982

. John T. Dunsford, professor of law at St.Louis University and a member of the Fellowshipsince its inception, has been appointed McDonnellProfessor of Peace and Justice at St. LouisUniversity. This is an endowed chair which is oneof the most prestigious in the University.

. James Hitchcock, former president of theFellowship, has relinquished the editorship of theAmerican edition of Communio, which he had heldsince the edition's inception in 1974, and hasbecome chairman of the editorial board. The neweditor is David Schindler of the University of NotreDame, who had been assistant editor since the

St. John's UniversityJamaica, N.Y. 11439

. Janice Plunkett D'Avignon, PsychologicalInfluences in Modern Catholic Presentations of Sinand Redemption

This recently completed doctoral dissertationevaluates the Sadlier, Benziger, and BaltimoreCatechism texts in the light of Catholic teaching onthe subject matter.

For further information write to Dr.D'Avignon, Educational Psychology Department,Campion 200, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02167.

. Opening for a President of Kansas NewmanCollege, Wichita. Resume and 3 references to:Search Committee, Kansas Newman College, 3100McCormick, Wichita, Kansas 67213.

beginning. He presented a paper at the Fellowship's1979convention.

. The editor of The Teaching of Christ arebeginning to prepare a new edition of that adultcatechism. Every effort is being made to keep thecatechism precise and well-documented. Theeditors would appreciate it if any readers who haveobserved any mistakes, omissions, or obscurities inthe text, or have any other suggestions to make fora second edition, would kindly let them know.Please send comments to Ronald D. Lawler,O.F.M. Cap., University of St. Thomas, 3812Montrose Blvd., Houston, Tx. 77006.

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Non-Profit Org.

U.S. Postage

PAIDJamaica, N.Y.

Permit No. 451

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. Fr. Ronald Lawler, along with Cardinals Oddiand Ratzinger, were elected to membership in thePontifical Roman Theological Academy.

. -.

Friends of the Fellowship

Dr. GeraldBerry Fr. Raymond McCarthyFr. D. A. Brady Peter A. McDonald(England)

BishopGeorgeH. Speltz, DD

"-!Y