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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 1987)
Willebrands' Speech Lecture Seen As Challenge To 1985 Doctrinal Stance BY JERRY FILTEAU PAGE 11 — The Georgia Bulletin, May 21,1987 CARDBOARD SHELTER — Crystal Jones, a graduating senior at the College of Mount St. Joseph, near Cincinnati, made cardboard beer cartons and newspapers her home for a few hours to raise con sciousness about the plight of homeless people. As part of Homeless Day, she and other members of Professor Kay Clifton’s community organization class erected cardboard shelters in the administration building lobby to show the way many of the homeless are forced to live. (NC photo by Marianne Cianciolo) WASHINGTON (NC) - In a key lecture he gave twice in the United States, Car dinal Johannes Willebrands took a stand on the relation of the Catholic Church and „ other Christian churches which theologians said disagrees with the view publicly expressed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith two years ago. * The cardinal, president of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, made no mention of the doctrinal con gregation itself in his speech. * But several theologians in attendance saw the talk as challenging the congrega tion on an issue that cuts to the core of the Catholic Church’s ecumenical stance: * How and to what extent do Catholics see other Christian churches and ecclesial communities as already part of the one church founded by Christ? ' The theologians said they did not know the cardinal’s own reasons for addressing the topic, but it was reasonable to assume that he was responding to the doctrinal congregation. The issue he addressed was: What did the Second Vatican Council mean in its ^ Dogmatic Constitution on the Church when it said the one true church of Christ "sub sists in” the Catholic Church, rejecting earlier language that the church of Christ * “is” the Catholic Church? The speech was given first in Atlanta May 5 and then in Washington May 8. During his U.S. visit, the cardinal also i gave talks in Atlanta and New York on the unrelated topic of suffering as a part of the quest for Christian unity. In the speech on the council, Cardinal « Willebrands said that with the change in language the council went from identifying the church of Christ with the Catholic Church to saying that Christ’s one church '“goes beyond the visible limits of” the Catholic Church. "Outside the Catholic Church,” he said, “there exist many elements of sanctifica- * tion and truth which are the gifts proper to the church of Christ and therefore true ec clesial elements.” Several theologians said later that Car- * dinal Willebrands’ position was very dif ferent from a 1985 commentary on the same council passages by the Vatican’s „ doctrinal congregation. In a March 1985 statement of notification criticizing a book by a Brazilian liberation theologian, Franciscan Father Leonardo «Boff, the doctrinal congregation had argued that the “authentic meaning” of the conciliar texts in question was that “only elements of the church” exist out- »side the “visible structure” of the Catholic Church. The doctrinal congregation said the Latin term “subsistit in” (subsists in) was ' chosen by the council “exactly in order to make clear that one sole ‘subsistence’ of Hi the true church exists,” namely the Catholic Church. * That aspect of the doctrinal congrega tion’s Boff critique was given scant atten tion in general press coverage of the con troversy, but it provoked consternation in " ecumenical circles. The Rev. Albert Outler of Southern Methodist University, a leading theologian .and ecumenist who attended Vatican II as an official non-Catholic observer, sharply criticized the statement in an essay published last year in the book “Vatican II , Revisited.” At the council, Dr. Outler said, the non- Catholic observers saw the “subsistit” texts — the term was used three separate x times — as crucial to moving the Catholic If Church away from its ecumenical policy of the previous 30 years into a new policy, based on the idea of unity through “con vergence,” which was to become the basis for “a massive ecumenical reorientation” by the Catholic Church. “Two decades later, it (that 'con vergence’ approach) has not only been denied but repudiated ... in the recent ‘Statement of Notification’ from the Con gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” Dr. Outler wrote. In a speech last August to leaders of U.S. Catholic religious orders. Dr. Outler asserted that official ecumenism is “dead in the water” these days, in part because “Romans in high places are re-exegeting 'subsistit in’ as if it always had meant ‘est. Est" is Latin for “is,” the term used in the earliest drafts of the constitu tion on the church but rejected in favor of “subsistit in.” Father Joseph Komonchak, a professor of ecclesiology and the documents of Vatican II at The Catholic University of America in Washington, said that when the doctrinal congregation used "only” with reference to the “elements of the church" found outside Catholicism, the effect was “to minimize” the idea of how other churches or ecclesial communities par ticipate in the one church of Christ, restric ting the meaning of the original texts. “I do not see how you could defend the (doctrinal) congregation’s interpretation” of the Vatican II passages, he said. Jesuit Father Avery Dulles, another Catholic University theologian who also at tended the Willebrands lecture, said he agreed with Cardinal Willebrands and disagreed with the doctrinal congregation on the meaning of the conciliar texts. Father Dulles said he also disagreed with Father Boff’s position, and Cardinal Willebrands’ speech was not a defense of the Brazilian theologian. In a question-answer session at the end of Cardinal Willebrands’ lecture. Father Dulles asked if any of the debate or discus sion during the council indicated that the council participants took the verb “sub sistit” to imply the philosophical notion of “subsistence,” so as to suggest that church of Christ exists substantially only in the Catholic Church, and elements elsewhere are only accidental. Cardinal Willebrands said he could recall no discus sion during the council indicating that view at all. Father Dulles said in an interview later that when he asked the question, the doc trinal congregation’s interpretation of “subsistit” meaning “one sole ‘sub sistence,’” was a part, but only a part, of what he was thinking about. His problem with the doctrinal con gregation’s formulation, he said, was that “it seems to deny that the church of Christ as such is more than” the Catholic Church. Jesuit Father Ladislas Orsy, a canon lawyer and theologian at Catholic Univer sity, said he thought Cardinal Willebrands’ whole speech was merely “elaborating on the obvious.” “I was in Rome during the council and was following the debates closely,” Father Orsy said. “I would find it very difficult to find any other interpretation” of the con ciliar texts than that presented by Car dinal Willebrands. Father Francis Sullivan, an American Jesuit who has taught ecclesiology at Rome’s Gregorian University since the late 1950s, sharply criticized the doctrinal congregation’s 1985 statement in a speech last year at the Centro Pro llnione, an ecumenical center in Rome run by the Atonement Fathers. Charismatic Renewal Pope: Movement BY AGOSTINO BONO VATICAN CITY (NC) - The charismatic renewal movement is the sign of “a continual youthful vitality” in the church, said Pope John Paul II. In a May 15 talk, he also asked move ment leaders to deepen their ties to the church. He also appointed a Vatican of ficial as episcopal adviser to the Interna tional Catholic Charismatic Renewal Of fice in Rome as a way of promoting closer ties. The official is German Bishop Paul Cor- des, vice president of the Pontifical Coun cil for the Laity. "Iam sure that he will help you in foster ing a dynamism that is always well- balanced and in strengthening your bonds of fidelity to the apostolic See,” the pope said. “It is essential that you seek always to deepen your communion with the whole church: with her pastors and teachers, with her doctrine and discipline, with her sacramental life, with the entire people of God,” the pope said, speaking in English. South Africa Detained Priest PRETORIA, South Africa (NC) - Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, the 47-year-old secretary general of the southern African bishops’ conference, will retain his post despite his continued deten tion by the South African government, the conference said. A May 14 statement signed by con ference president Bishop Wilfred Napier of Kokstad said Father Mkhatshwa's term of office will be extended to the end of 1987. The term was to have expired in May. The statement also said the bishops reiterate “their vehement protest” against the priest’s continued detention. It said that a deputy secretary general is being sought because of the “overwhelm ing administrative demands placed on the general secretariat at the present time of crisis in South Africa.” Father Mkhatshwa, the first black to hold the conference post, was detained June 14, 1986, two days after the South African government declared a state of emergency which is still in effect. He is be ing held in the Pretoria Central Prison 'Sign Of Vitality' The International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office is a coordinating body for the Catholic charismatic renewal move ment. The pope spoke to participants at the sixth international conference for charismatic leaders, May 11-16 in Rome. Organizers said 850 delegates from almost 100 countries attended, represen ting 20 million Catholics. Father Michael Panter, liaison to the charismatic renewal for the archdiocese, and David Runnion of Stone Mountain, a member of the National Advisory Committee for the renewal in the U.S., were among about 50 people representing the U.S. at the meeting. “The vigor and fruitfulness of the renewal certainly attest to the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit at work in the church in these years after the Second Vatican Council,” the pope said. “Because of the Spirit, the church preserves a continual youthful vitality. And the charismatic renewal is an elo quent manifestation of this vitality today,” he said. To Keep Post without having been charged and without having been tried, the statement said. “Despite five Supreme Court applica tions" the bishops have been unsuccessul in securing the priest’s release, it said. Sister Brigid Flanagan, the associate secretary general, has filled Father Mkhatshwa’s post during his detention. She said she will continue as acting secretary general until a deputy is hired. The nun said Father Mkhatshwa is “well, physically and morally.” He is visited regularly by relatives and the prison chaplain, Msgr. John Magennis, she said. However, Sister Flanagan said Bishop Napier was recently denied permission to visit the priest. Last summer, Father Mkhatshwa said he was tortured by police during a 30-hour interrogation. In an affidavit presented to a Pretoria appeals court Aug. 27, 1986, he said that shots were fired close to his head and a “creepy creature or instrument” was applied to his legs and bit his genitals as he stood naked and blindfolded.
