Newspaper Page Text
ANGLICAN PRIMATE-CARD. SUENENS
Churchmen Hopeful Of
Christianity’s Future
ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL RAMSEY of Canterbury received an honorary doctorate (March 11)
from Woodstock College, the Jesuit theological school. The Primate of the Church of England was
honored for “creative theological scholarship” and “intense ecumenical cooperation.’ Also
awarded an honorary doctorate was Leo Cardinal Suenens of Belgium. (NC Photo)
CRS OFFICIAL
Asks No Biafra Reference
PAGE 3 - March 19,1970
HOMILETICS PROF. ;
‘There’s Crisis
In The Pulpit 9
BY JO-ANN PRICE
NEW YORK (NC)-
Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens
of Malines-Brussels and
Archbishop Michael Ramsey
of Canterbury declared here
they are hopeful of
Christianity’s future, despite
a period of sometimes painful
change.
The Belgian cardinal and
the Anglican primate
expressed this optimism in
lectures they delivered at
Riverside Church.
The clergymen, both 65
and both theological scholars,
came to New York to
participate in a three-day
closed seminar at Trinity
Institute on “The Future of
the Church.” Approximatley
80 Episcopal bishops,
comprising more than half of
that church’s hierarchy in the
U.S., attended the
conference.
While
there, Cardinal
Suenens
and
Archbishop
Ramsey
were
feted by a
Catholic
and
a Protestant
seminary
Heights.
in
Momingside
They
were awarded
honorary
doctorates of
humane letters by Woodstock
(Md.) College, a Jesuit
seminary now in he process
of moving to New York, in a
quiet lounge at the Inter
church Center, headquarters
of the National Council of
Churches. Woodstock has
offices located at the center.
Four hours later, with
television lights blazing at
them in the ornately carved
gothic pulpit of Riverside
Church, the churchmen
addressed more than 800
persons invited by the Union
Theological Seminary.
The two archbishops
outlined the essence of their
Trinity Institute talks to a
hushed congregation which
broke into applause when
Cardinal Suenens recalled a
remark made by the late Pope
John XXIII to a Methodist
bishop asking him when their
churches would be visibly
united. The pontiff, he said,
stressed that between himself
and the Methodist, “it is
already done.”
Turning to Archbishop
Ramsey, who was seated in
the chancel, Cardinal Suenens
smiled and said, “and
between you and me, it is
already done.”
Cardinal Suenens also
warned the congregation
against the dangers of
“stressing the past too much”
and of “presentism-taking
too seriously the philosopy of
today” in church life.
He said it is necessary to
regard the church in a broad
perspective. The church
should be true to its historical
past, the prelate commented,
and yet give to that past “a
future in the present.”
Cardinal Suenens observed
that the world is fascinated
by the future, and that
Vatican II pointed toward
things to come. Therefore, he
added, Christianity needs to
be seen as “a hope for
tomorrow” so “it will not be
said that ‘the church lives on
memory, the world on hope.”
The Belgian clergyman
declared that in an age when
men are attracted by the
future, the unexpected and
the new, “biblical faith
demands that theology be
eschatological - going
forward.”
Christians of today, he
said, need to be “men of
hope and joy” to whom
non-churchmen, who do not
read the Gospel in the
Scriptures, will look to find
Christianity “as if we were
some sort of stained glass
windows.” he added:
“The conscious and
unconscious wish to people
around us is, ‘We want to see
Christ in you.’ The reproach
of the world is that we are
not Christian enough.”
Stressing that “God is
speaking to the Church
today,” Cardinal Suenens
observed that the present era
has been one of “surprises”
because “God is wishing to be
the holy, creating, spirit.”
“We had the surprise of
Pope John, and of the
(Second Vatican) Council,”
he remarked, and “one day
we will have the surprise of
unity.” He expressed the
hope that the visible unity of
the Christian Church might
be realized “as soon as
possible.”
Archbishop Ramsey said it
is vital for Christians to look
for their security in God and
the power of the
Resurrection rather than
relying upon the “false
security of religion, the false
security of theology and the
false security of good works.”
“We who are Christians
lapse into trying to make the
church credible in false
ways,” he warned. To believe
in the church “as a thing in
itself’ is false, he noted,
because it ignores the factors
that “transcendent power
belongs to God and not to
us.”
The cardinal said that to
rely on theology divorced
from the human context and
“the inner life of the soul”
may bring about a “sickenss
and deadness in religion-and
people can talk about God
being dead.”
And, he continued, while
no Christian faith can live
without overflowing with
compassion and action,
“woe to the church which
thinks it can justify itself on
this basis.”
“The church is indeed
called to serve, urgently, but
not to commend itself to the
world on the world's own
terms,” the Anglican primate
said. It can win admiration
for a while, but can also lose
the power to bring men to
repentence, to the
Resurrection.”
“To learn of God in new
ways it is not necessary to
abandon ways that are old, so
long as their validity lies in
their being timeless,” he
emphasized.
ROME (NC) - The
assistant executive director of
U.S. Catholic Relief Sendees
(CRS) has asked agencies
raising funds for
reconstruction work in
Nigeria to stop using the
word “Biafra.”
Msgr. Andrew Landi called
such tactics “an unnecessary
irritant” by agencies whose
interest is supposed to be
“humanitarian rather than
political.”
Earlier, the Nigerian head
of state, Maj. Gen. Yakubu
Gowon told the Nigerian
bishops they must condemn
priests in Europe and
America engaging in
“anti-Nigeria acts.”
He claimed that such
priests are collecting funds
for the reconstruction of the
former Biafra--the country’s ,
Eastern Region whose
secession in 1967 led to a
bloody civil war that ended
last January.
Nigeria had accused
missionaries in what was
Biafra of prolonging the war
by their relief efforts. Many
missionaries have been
deported since the war’s end,
but they have denied the
charges against them and said
that they distributed food
only to civilians and not to
soldiers.
By David Sutor
CHICAGO (NC) - There is
“a crisis in the pulpit” and it
seems to revolve mostly
around the content and
quality of preaching. That’s
the view of Father William F.
Jabusch, professor of
homiletics at St. Mary of the
Lake Seminary in nearby
Mundelin.
“Lay people today are
more critical of what they
hear in church, and priests are
becoming increasingly
frustrated in trying to
communicate their message,”
he said.
“For the first time, people
are now starting to shop
around for preachers in
Catholic churches. They are
calling rectories on Sundays
specifically to find out who
will or will not say a
particular Mass,” said Father
Jabusch.
“If the priest doesn’t
appeal to the person, as a
speaker, or if most of the
priests at a church don’t
appeal, lay Catholics will
avoid either certain Masses or
go to an entirely different
parish to hear Mass. And it all
seems to rest on the quality
of the priest as a preacher.”
Father Jabusch is
attempting to do something
about what he thinks is the
poor state of preaching in the
church today. He has helped
plan a clergy study week at
the seminary, aimed at
improving the “contemporary
ministry” through study and
application of effective mass
communications techniques.
“People today seem not so
much concerned with
whether a priest is a great
confessor or a great
theologian,” said Father
Jabusch, “but with - his
preaching ability. What really
hits them in the pit of their
stomachs is to experience a
bad liturgy on Sunday with
abysmal preaching.”
“It’s only in the church
system,” said Father Jabusch,
“that a man can be
considered a professional
communicator and bomb out
each Sunday-and still keep
his job. He can give a
continuously bad public
presentation and yet there he
is, Sunday after Sunday. And
it’s only the people who
attend church who still stand
for this, but even their
tolerance is lessening.”
Father Jabusch believes
poor quality preaching may
be one related reason why
younger people “turn off” to
the Mass and the liturgy.
“I’ve heard some young
people say, ‘This was a good
Mass.’ When I ask why, they
say, ‘The sermon did
something for me.’
Father Jabusch said that
priests are becoming
increasingly concerned about
their roles as communicators,
especially as preachers. He
pointed out that laymen are
better educated today, are'
constantly exposed to
professional communicators
on radio and TV, and,
consequently, expect more
from their clergymen in their
verbal communications.
And it can be tough on a
priest, said Father Jabusch,
because he can clearly see if
he isn’t coming through to his
congregation just by noticing
people “who are bored,
frustrated and fidgeting.”
Priests are not always at
fault, however, if their
congregation is unreceptive to
them, said Father Jabusch.
“Quite often people simply
don’t like what they hear
being said, especially if the
subject is race relations,
peace, anti-Semitism, or the
Spanish-speaking.” '
In this regard, Father
Jabusch said a priest must
preach the Gospel message «as
he sees it, “and that isn’t im
easy message if a priest us
doing what he believes he
must do. In some cases,
priests are like prophets-and
the history of prophets has
not always been good; many
had their heads cut off for
what they said.”
INTERyiEW WITH N£_ NEWS
Suenens Airs Celibacy, Married Clergy Views
Card.
BY DORIS
REVERE PETERS
(COPYRIGHT 1970
NC NEWS SERVICE
NEW YORK (NC) —
While finding little likehood
of priests being able to marry,
Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens
of Malines-Brussels sees a
strong chance ahead that
married people will be able to
become Catholic priests.
“I heard that different
biships in different countries,
in Latin America for instance,
have asked for that, the
archbishop of Malines-
Brussels said in an exclusive
interview with National
Catholic News Service during
a visit to New York.
Cardinal Suenens, long an
advocate of open diologue
within the Church, flew to
the United States on March 6
for a visit of several
weeks-part of it spent with
the visiting Dr. Michael
Ramsey, archbishop of
Canterbury and spiritual
leader of the World Anglican
Communion.
The Belgian primate, who
gained international
prominence during the
1962-1965 Vatican Council
as a strong progressive voice,
explained in his interview
why - he has defended
mandatory celibacy for his
own priests.
In a broad-ranging
discussion of many topics, he
also:
-Said the beauty of the
non-Latin Mass was that
people can speak to God in
their own natural language.
-Disclosed that he reads
widely of American matters
and admires the active
intellectualism of American
Catholicism.
-Advocated leaving on a
private baas, to avoid any
seeming inquisition, the idea
of priests renewing their vows
annually on Holy Thursday.
The NC News Service
questions and Cardinal
Suenens’s answers:
Q. - Many Americans are
unhappy over the tremendous
polarization in the American
church between right and left
between bishops and priests.
Is this dangerous? What do
you feel can be done to
change it?
Cardinal Suenens: Such
polarization is dangerous and
we have to do all we can to
make a bridge between
people. Practically speaking I
think the best way of doing it
is to open dialogues
EVERYWHERE. That is the
best way of putting
co-responsibility into practice
in the Church today. It is the
best way of making people
speak to each other and
obtaining that they should
LISTEN. Especially listen,
until they find the path of
truth in the opposite
sentence.
We have two ears, you
know, one to hear the right, and
one to hear the left. So we
must open the two and try to
put ourself in this disposition.
And when we have discovered
what is true in the opposite
sentence, then discussion can
be useful. I think we must
insist really on the need for
dialogue; to speak and to
listen. And speak means
first of all / listen, listen,
listen. What is Our Lady
wishing and waiting for?
What are our priests wishing
and thinking? What are they
really thinking? That is the
problem.
You know there is a saying
that “when someone becomes
a bishop he will never again
have a bad dinner and will
never hear the truth again.”
We really have to be open to
the desires' and expression of
wishes of everyone. That is
what can be done in the most
practical way.
Q. - Is it ture that the
Church is more polarized here
than in Europe?
Cardinal Suenens: I am not
competent to make a
comparison here. It depends
on each country. And you
can’t take Europe as a unity.
You have some bishops more
open than others. It isn’t
necessary to agree. But it is
absolutely necessary to be
open.
Q.~ There is the feeling
that the American bishops
were not wise in doing away
entirely with the Mass in
Latin. Da you fed there is
room for pluralism in regard
to the liturgy? A place for
variety in the forms of
worship?
Cardinal Suenens: I don’t
wish to speak about the
American bishops because we
are in the same situation
ourselves. Generally speaking
all the Masses today are in the
natural language. And I think
this is progress. Because you
must speak to God in your
own natural language. Some
variety in the liturgy is surely
possible and in the variety
you can introduce even a part
in Latin, in case of need. This
is especially so when we have
international meetings. It is
very useful then that we
should have Masses in Latin.
Q. -You seem so well
informed about the situation
here in America. Do you read
many American publications?
Cardinal Suenens: Yes, I
must admit that I read at
I? j i
least 10 of the best known
American papers. And I read
two or three American books
in a month. I am very close to
what is happening here and I
am also surprised what is
being published. It is really a
big move to the intellectual
side in America. Before the
Council we had not such a
phenomenon. Tgday it is
really an active Church and
you play a very big role in the 1
Church today.
Q.-Would you comment
on the role of public opinion
in the Church and the role of
communications in the
Church. Is it important?
Cardinal Suenens: I think
it is very important that there
be open and free discussion in
the Church. The Church is a
family. Within a family you
cannot discuss family
problems when something is
wrong with the family
atmosphere. 1 would like to
suggest that you read an
article by Father (Karl) .
Rahner. He published a
strong article in Orientierung,
on May 15th, defending the
right to express one’s views
publicly. There is no secrecy
about Church problems.
About persons, yes; but not
about problems,
Q.-Do you feel that the
approach to many of the
Church problems is
sensational?
Cardinal Suenens: Well,
from time to time, of course,
different problems are put in
wrong light because there is a
sort of tendency to make
them sensational. Instead of
putting one against the other
it would be better to say,
“One is stressing this point of
view, and the other is
stressing another,
complementary, point of
view.” It is harmful to put in
terms of opposition ideas ,
which are complementary.
And harmful to put in terms
of personal opposition. I have
had trouble saying, “I was
discussing the structures of
the Church, not the person.”
But there is always the
temptation to bring it on a
personal level.
Q. - Is the celibacy debate
between the Dutch clergy and
the Vatican being handled, in
your opinion, in a collegial
way?
Cardinal Suenens: Well, I
wish to take the problem as it
is now after the letter of the
Pope to Cardinal Villot. In
that letter you find an
invitation to exercise
collegiality-and an invitation
to discuss the, problem
whether married people
should become priests, where
there is a necessity. The Pope
opened that discussion and
that’s really a step in the
collegial way. I heard that
different bishops in different
countries, in Latin America
for instance, asked for that.
And as far as I can see
traveling through some of
those countries, it is the only
solution there.
Q. - That is to have
married people .. ?
Cardinal Suenens: Married
people, yes. It is not the
problem of priests getting
married but of married
people becoming priests. It is
a bit like the situation in
France and Belgium where
they started the idea of
priests becoming workers.
That’s one way, but you can
also see workers becoming
priests.
So, to continue on the line
of collegiality, I think the
first step was the letter of the
Pope and the second could be
Synod Number Three. You
remember that at the end of
the last synod it was
suggested that the next synod
should ' discuss priestly
problems and marital
problems. I’m in favor of
these subjects being on the
agenda and I hope they will
be accepted as they have
collegial possibilities. But the
synod is not the only way of
putting collegiality into
action. I think, for instance,
that the role of the seven
bishops in each congregation
could be completely
transformed and be really
collegial in action. But that is
supposing new methods and
new ways of acting.
Q.-Is there a need for
more dialogue within Roman
Catholicism on the celibacy
issue?
Cardinal Suenens: There is
a need for more dialogue on
every issue. And speaking
about dialogue, I think we
must always see a bishop not
as a head disconnected from
the body but we must see the
bihsop in the center of his
local Church in connection
with his priests and with his
laity-meaning, by that, the
priestly councils and pastoral
councils and in a larger way
with all the Christians, the
people of God. So that when
a bishop goes to Rome to a
synod he will not speak his
mind alone but say, “My
Church is thinking this.”
Q.-Would you comment
on the Congregation of the
Clergy proposal that priests
renew their celibacy vows on
Holy Thursday?
Cardinal Suenens: I think
we have to see that as an
invitation, not as an order; as
a suggestion, not as an order.
Cardinal (John) Wright said
that explicitly. The situation
is such, psychologically
speaking, that it appears to
J
fcV.
many priests as being a sort
of inquisition. Circumstances
being what they are, I think it
is better to leave it on a
private level, avoiding all that
would appear as an
inquisition or discrimination.
Q.--It is argued that
optional celibacy might bring
clergy and laity into greater
dialogue. Why, then, do you
defend mandatory celibacy
for Belgian priests?
Cardinal Suenens: I wish
to make clear the Belgian
position. We all wish that
there should always remain in
the Church the priest totally
committed to God in
Evangelical celibacy, freely
chosen for the kingdom of
God. That is of inestimable
value and we wish to stress
this point. That does not
solve the problem, but it is
very important that we
always should have fully
consecrated priests having a
complete apostolic existence.
The Dutch bishops are in the
same line, wishing the same,
but it didn’t appear clearly
enough.
Now a second point. We all
agree that today we will not
accept in our seminaries
future priests deciding to get
married later on. That is a
practical problem. And we
want to be loyal to the future
priests in saying, “No, I can
not give you hope there.”
And a third point is that
we all agree in the present
situation not to re-install in
their previous priestly
function priests who have
left. On this point we are not
in line with the Dutch
bishops. This, however,
doesn’t mean that we are not
helping the priests find their
place in social life.
The fourth point in this
question is that we leave open
■ I
the question of married
people becoming priests. That
is an open question to be
discussed. And we are very
much in favor of married
deacons. I have already, in
the past two weeks,
consecrated 10 married
deacons. And I am very
hopeful in this line.
And then finally we have a
commission between priests
and bishops in dialogue to
study all the priestly
problems.
Q.-How would you
characterize the post-Vatican
II renewal within the Catholic
Church at present?
Cardinal Suenens: We are
living in difficult times and in
hopeful times. HopefUl
because they are difficult.
When you have difficult times
it means you are going t6 the
root of the problem. It is very
useful to go to the roots,,
something like in an
operation, as long as you
don’t touch the vital
elements-touching it in the
sense not that the Church has
to change something of the
essential.
It is only in secondary
affairs that change is
happening, but with big
possibilities of renewal. Just
think about liturgical renewal
and what has happened in
five or 10 years. It is
wonderful. Just think about
the sense of co-responsibility.
We have gone far, but we are
not at the end. We are just
starting. We are still in Good
Friday.
Q. -How would you
characterize your visit here at
this time in the history of
Anglican-Catholic relations?
Is it, for example, a landmark
or a milestone?
Cardinal Suenens: Ask that
of an historian in 25 years.
a a