Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2 — The Georgia Bulletin, February 8,1990
Father Stallings 'Excommunicates Himself' On TV
BY MARK PATTISON
WASHINGTON (CNS) - Father George
A. Stallings Jr., on an episode of the
“Donahue” talk show aired in nationwide
syndication Feb. 5, declared that “as of to
day, the African-American Catholic Con
gregation is going independent.”
The 41-year-old black Washington priest
said, “We are no longer under the pope or
the aegis of the Roman Catholic Church.”
Eileen Marx, spokeswoman for the
Washington Archdiocese, said Father
Stallings “has excommunicated himself”
from the church by virtue of “his very
public statements on the Phil Donahue
show”- and additional comments made
during Feb. 4 services at his breakaway
Imani Temple in Washington.
“The public declaration on his part that
he is no longer a part of the Roman
Catholic Church is the reason for his ex-
communication,” Mrs. Marx said, “rather
than the church excommunicating him.”
Mrs. Marx said, “There does not need to
be a letter or any kind of formal procedure
occurring because he has declared it
himself.”
A Feb. 5 statement from Washington
archdiocesan vicar general Father
William Kane said, “By his public declara
tion that he has separated himself from the
church and by his renunciation of church
teaching, Father Stallings has excom
municated himself.
“This is what church law means when it
speaks of ‘automatic excommunication,”’
Father Kane said.
Catholics who become “full and active”
members of the African-American
Catholic Congregation “would also incur
automatic excommunication,” Father
Kane said. Excommunication could be
lifted, he added, by receiving the sacra
ment of penance from a Washington arch
diocesan priest.
Father Stallings had been under suspen
sion since July by Cardinal James A.
Hickey of Washington after he celebrated
the first Imani Temple liturgies.
“My hope is not a reconciliation” with
the church, Father Stallings said on the
program, which was taped Jan. 30. But if
church officials wanted to talk, he said,
“we’ll be more than happy to sit down at
the table of brotherhood and sisterhood."
Suspension and excommunication are
“political tactics used by the powerful, the
oppressors, to further enslave and oppress
the oppressed,” Father Stallings said.
“Those terms have no significance to me
whatsoever,” he added. “I cannot be cut
off from Jesus Christ. That’s the only thing
I’m concerned about being cut off from.”
During the program, Father Stallings in
dicated areas where the African-American
Catholic Congregation may differ from
Catholic teaching.
“I think priests should have the option of
deciding whether or not to marry,” he
said. On the issue of birth control and abor
tion, he said life ‘ ‘should be respected from
the moment of conception” but that a
“well-informed conscience supersedes any
decree or law of the Roman Catholic
Church."
Asked whether he had taken the issue of
greater black participation in the church
to the Vatican, Father Stallings replied
that “because of the hierarchical red tape,
it is impossible for a priest to go to the
Vatican.”
On Feb. 1 and 2, when Father Stallings
was on the campus of Vincentian-run
DePaul University in Chicago to give a
speech on racism in the church and to
meet with black students and faculty, he
reiterated his intent to form a separate
church.
He said the new' church “will be indepen
dent” just like the Polish National Catholic
Church, which split from the Roman
Catholic Church at the turn of the century.
“Still Catholic, but independent,” Father
Stallings said.
The Polish National Catholic Church
broke away because of its founders’ long-
held dissatisfaction with Roman Catholic
ideology and administration — non-Polish
pastors were assigned to Polish parishes
— coupled with a desire for religious
freedom.
Father Stallings did not tell Washington
archdiocesan officials of his plans in ad
vance because he "didn’t think they would
care,” he said.
“I exhausted all efforts to make a
change through the church,” Father Stall
ings told reporters following his speech. “I
came to that conclusion after I desperately
sought to work within the confines of the
church and met opposition.”
Father Stallings has hinted in the past
that he would form a new church.
On a Baltimore television interview pro
gram aired Jan. 14, he said of his relation
ship with Cardinal Hickey: “We are mov
ing to a point in the African-American
Catholic Congregation where in every
sense of the word I will be his equal.”
Black Leaders Call Move 'Sad'
WASHINGTON (CNS) -
Black Catholic leaders na
tionwide almost unani
mously characterized as
“sad” Father George A.
Stallings Jr.’s formal
break from the Catholic
Church.
Most also expressed hope
that some kind of recon
ciliation between the ex
communicated Washington
priest and the church
would have been possible,
but some said the break
was inevitable.
“I think it’s a very sad
day,” said Bishop Joseph
L. How'ze of Biloxi, Miss.
“It’s sad that the talent of a
fine young man has come
to this.”
Bishop Howze recalled
when, as a seminarian, he
first met 8- year-old George
Stallings as an altar boy in
New Bern, N.C., then later,
when the bishop was pastor
of a parish in Asheville.
N.C., the 16-year-old Stall
ings was a student in the
Charlotte diocesan semi
nary.
“I saw a great future in
that young man.” Bishop
Howze said. “I think pride
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is the fall. 1 pray for him
every day. I’d love to see
him just to chat with him,
but I’m afraid that would
be difficult.”
New York Auxiliary
Bishop Emerson J. Moore
said, "I’m saddened” and
“I cannot approve of his
course of action,” but later
added, “I presume he’s
following his own con
science.”
Bishop Moore said he has
learned in his travels that
"Father Stallings is cer
tainly the most talked-
about black priest in the
country, and people are
taking seriously some of
the accusations he has
made against the church.
"So in that sense the
issues he has focused upon
are issues that remain with
us still, and issues that all
of us are going to have to
face up to and resolve."
Los Angeles Auxiliary-
Bishop Carl A. Fisher said
Father Stallings was never
kept from adapting the
liturgy or his homiletic
style to meet cultural
needs, "yet he so vocifer
ously complained that
there was racism which
prevented him from exer
cising his ministry. This is
a great mystery to me.”
Bishop Fisher, who at
tended a Washington-area
seminary prior to ordina
tion, said, "I know some
people who have joined Im
ani Temple,” and told of
his attempts at dialogue
with one woman who in
formed him before
Christmas she had joined
the temple.
‘‘Unfortunately, she
believes the statements of
overt, hostile racism
Father Stallings claims
was so present ’ in the
church,” Bishop Fisher
said. "My heart bleeds for
this woman.”
The National Black
Catholic Clergy Caucus
had offered mediation be
tween Father Stallings and
the Washington Arch
diocese, but Father Stall
ings never responded to the
group's overtures.
"Our only concern (at a
recent caucus meeting)
was that we had not made
enough overtures.” said
Father Warren Savage of
Springfield, Mass., caucus
vice president.
He called for a nation
wide convention to "ham
mer out a very pastoral,
constructive response to
Father Stallings and his
church."
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