A question for the church

...Medical and surgical means are taken into consideration if they are necessary to save life and/or reestablish a state of health...

...It is sufficient to read the numerous letters to the editor in religious journals from priests and lay people Confidence is shaken...

...One does not use medicine or undergo a serious operation when health can be fostered better by a reasonable diet and by a healthy lifestyle...

...A further question [for the commission] might be the following: In its opinion, is it enough for the pope to express once again his own conviction, while inviting the interested parties not to accuse each other of heresy, but instead to carry on the dialogue...

...What hurts the most is not so much his intolerant and surprisingly simplistic theology, as the way he puts himself forward as the front line of defense in the fight for orthodoxy and adherence to the papacy...

...Besides, there is no doubt that John Paul II gives this problem a clear priority...

...If they would pause a moment in silence, perhaps the Lord could give them the efficacious grace to doubt their own "tutiorism.'' [The term ' 'tutiorism'' refers to one of the traditional moral systems...

...People no longer answer the intransigents' hymn of victory with valid arguments, even though that is still possible.but rather with anger, irony, and sarcasm...

...Such an objective is well worth the effort and the expense...

...This would have to be done in a way that takes account of the current mutual lack of trust...

...Two fundamentally different ways of thinking are at issue...

...Obviously, I do not ask that Monsignor Caffarra throw himself into the sea during the storm...

...There is no question here of abortion...

...Pope John Paul II is devout, just as St...

...The commitment not to tolerate any more anonymous denunciations or special inquiries on this matter should also be reflected in how the lists of candidates for episcopal appointments are drawn up...

...If we want to keep the earthquake that shook the ground of moral theology from producing further tremors, probably of even greater violence, it is necessary to take a position against the following affirmation of Monsignor Caffarra: "Here is why man, having been raised to the ethical level, is no longer interested, minimally or ultimately, in the possibilities, the consequences, the historical results of his activity...

...He has always been indiscreet-as is well known in Rome-and, in various ways, has made known his own influence on the reigning pontiff...

...The event that occasioned his protest was an international meeting' of moral theologians, "Humanae vitae: 20 Years After," which took place November 9-12, 1988, in Rome...

...Married people make this decision before God and after a patient dialogue, above all about transmitting life in an atmosphere of faithful conjugal love that is intimately affectionate...

...The position so violently attacked by Caffarra and his friends can be briefly described in the following way: 1. Basically, the question is not just one of a method of controlling births, but rather has to do with the authentically responsible and nobly courageous transmission of life...

...The first position has been clearly expressed by Monsignor Caffarra...

...We are dealing with our common destiny...

...At the conclusion of the inquiry, the results would have to be published in full detail...

...For some weeks, I have forced myself to quiet the swells of emotion with moderating statements, especially in front of religion teachers and priests with pastoral responsibilities...

...To reestablish an atmosphere of mutual confidence and trust as effectively and as quickly as possible, the Vatican would have to declare unequivocally from the beginning of such a world consultation that for its duration we must abstain from any type of mutual accusation of heresy and expressions of preconceived hostility...

...THE EDITORS The earthquake in the Caucasus is a striking image for a similar earthquake provoked in the church by a certain monsignor...

...The reaction has been striking...

...We must find a way out of this blind alley...

...Commonweal, January 27, 1989...

...The debate must be conducted openly on the basis of a dialogue without violence, and with mutual love...

...According to news reports, Monsignor Caffarra, a moral theologian, has compared contraception to committing "homicide in the heart...

...But we also have to foster boundless confidence in God...

...Attempts to smooth over the dimensions of the tragedy may only make the situation worse...

...An inquiry of the type proposed, conducted on a world level, would be expensive both financially and operationally, although less burdensome than the necessary relief efforts after the earthquake in the Caucasus...

...A process of polarization unknown up to now is becoming apparent and has already taken the shape of a psychological schism...

...Concretely, I propose the following: in order to reestablish in the church that indispensable bond of trust, the pope should establish a special commission, whose members would be beyond any suspicion...

...I can already hear possible objections...

...What is most painful in the present situation is that the most unyielding advocates of the most uncompromising position consider themselves alone to be trustworthy...

...The two positions need to be set forth briefly and substantially...

...It is indeed true that, whatever one's opinion on the matter, the problem of prohibiting artificial means of contraception does not occupy a preeminent position in the "hierarchy of truths...

...The text has been translated with the assistance of the Reverends Anthony DiRusso and Paul Dinter, and is reprinted with the permission of the author...

...The well-known weekly, Christ in der Gegenwart (December 18, 1988), usually very restrained in its style, writes apropos of the current situation in the church: The problem touches the church in its entirety...

...First, we need the courage to make a brutally honest diagnosis...

...One of these "Benignis," teamed up with his allies to collect these denunciations, is Monsignor Carlo Caffarra,'who has emerged unexpectedly on the stage of world opinion...

...But couldn't all these descendants of Monsignor Benigni show more discretion and intervene less frequently as "prophets of doom" with the pilot of the bark of Peter...

...He was a member of the Papal Birth Control Commission (see Commonweal, September 6, 1968...

...Does it favor that love and harmony which are so basic to mutual fidelity and so necessary for raising children...

...But my answer is the following: some people, for example Monsignor Caffarra, have raised the issue to such importance that the conflict is unavoidable...

...If this basic decision is morally corrupted because of serious selfishness and the erroneous refusal to have children, it cannot be corrected solely by using natural methods...

...At the same time, we must unceasingly try to recreate the spirit of mutual confidence that is now threatened...

...In fact, we must do something even if we pay a price...

...The polarization is such that, after the November congress of moralists, it is very difficult to put together a mutually respectful dialogue...

...John Paul H's talk to the moralists seems to me very close to Monsignor Caffarra's...

...However, the congress of moral theologians which he organized, his own intervention at the meeting, the popes discourse that followed it-with the highest recommendations for Caffarra, and the final press conference have definitively brought the stakes of the game into the open...

...Monsignor Caffarra is also a consultant for the Congregation of the Doc-trine of the Faith and the Pontifical Council on the Family, and a member of the International Theological Commission...

...Different consequences follow from them...

...It should strictly prohibit all collecting of anonymous denunciations...

...That obviously holds even for spouses who use artificial means of contraception to preserve their marriages and to prevent the estrangement of their partners from the church...

...We are dealing with a question of maintaining a responsible and deliberate Christian ethics that will allow the church to be a prophetic, believable voice in the effort toward peace, justice, and the safeguarding of creation...

...It was organized by the John Paul II Institute at the Lateran University (Monsignor Carlo Caffarra, president) together with the Roman Academic Center Santa Croce (Opus Dei...

...It is these views that Haring refers to as having caused an earthquake in the church...

...It is a protest against the inflexible position the Vatican is taking on the question of artificial contraception and against anonymous denunciations of theologians and other inquisitorial methods-techniques deployed early in this century by the Vatican curia under the guidance of Monsignor Umberto Benigni to discredit the so-called "modernists" (see John Coleman, "Who Are the Catholic 'Fundamentalists...

...He is elevated above all of this calculation...

...He should entrust to it an inquiry to be conducted among all the bishops, all the theological faculties, and the most important associations of lay people, asking, after mature reflection before God, which of these they consider the better model, or even whether they are undecided...

...Do they have the nerve to consider themselves the only safe recipients of the pope's confidence...

...The meet" ing was financed by the Knights of Columbus...

...The question whether, and to what extent, the doctrine currently espoused by the pope should be considered as revealed by God can no longed be avoided...

...Pius X was...

...Nonetheless, it seems to me that such a course is unavoidable in order to clarify these two positions and to achieve a new and deeper climate of mutual trust in the church...

...Obviously, the problem facing us is more than mere "calculation .'' We are trying to assess accurately the consequences that may well flow from this problem, and to do so in the light of the commandment of love, understood in the wide sense, and of the mission of the church to proclaim the joyful news to all people...

...He has made his position well known...

...I myself have seen a list of such "trustworthies" that circulates in the Vatican...

...However, the idea that he could proceed nowadays in the same way against a possible modernism-, as Pius X did in his day by having Monsignor Benigni collect anonymous denun-ciations, wounds us to the heart...

...Only in the cases where this cannot be achieved would it be reasonable to have recourse to epikeia [an exception justified by special or unforeseen circumstances], applying by analogy normal medical morality...

...The author of the essay, the Reverend Bernard Haring, C.SS.R., is a retired professor of Rome's Alphonsianum Academy and the distinguished author of numerous books on moral theology...

...Whoever doubts it, even in extremely difficult circumstances, sets himself against God and his holiness, wants to be like God, and renders meaningless the teaching of the magisterium and of conscience...

...They reply courteously but firmly, "In our situation, this doesn't give us any help at all...

...3. In all cases where both spouses maintain they cannot take the responsibility of another pregnancy and they must choose a contraceptive method, we must seriously consider the following: Will that method foster the marriage in its broadest sense...

...At the November meeting the pope said that the teaching against contraception is not a man-made doctrine, but that it was "written by the creative hand of God in the nature of the human person" and confirmed by God's hand...

...What should we do to stop the silent and sometimes explicit abandonment of the church and to heal an anti-Roman feeling that is growing virtually intractable...

...2. As far as the method of controlling births is concerned, the elementary and common rules of medical ethics are relevant...

...The earthquake creates even more dangerous landslides...

...What follows for our question is that one would not have recourse to artificial methods if the goal of responsible parenthood and faithful conjugal love could be attained by natural family planning...

...This tenet expresses a law written clearly by God in everyone's moral consciousness and is confirmed by divine revelation...

...Nevertheless, recourse to artificial methods for responsible family planning represents a more serious problem than taking a pill for a headache...

...After describing a contrary position held by other theologians including himself, Haring concludes by calling for a new worldwide consultation on the question of birth control...

...The bishops should be consulted individually as well as every Catholic faculty of theology, asking them to take a position on the two theses...

...Let me express a wish and formulate a proposal...

...According to this position, artificial methods of contraception constitute in every human and cultural circumstance, without exception, a grave moral fault...

...Wish: When the prophet Jonah was fleeing his responsibility and the ship on which he had embarked was ready to sink, he offered to abandon it...

...The inquiry would also have to consider the common opinion of the churches separated from Rome, especially the Orthodox church, and their way of conceiving the economy of salvation...

...An inquiry of such a nature and such dimensions is in open conflict with a proper understanding of the "hierarchy of truths," the now classic notion that different truths of the faith vary in their centrality...

...The issue at stake is twofold: to try to prevent the numbers of those leaving the church from reaching catastrophic proportions, and to establish instead a climate of credibility without which a new evangelization carried on with common accord is unthinkable...

...Finally, it is urgent that we do something to prevent further disastrous consequences...

...This is all the more true when a person's central preoccupation concerns not simply individual piety but rather the capacity to believe in communion with the whole church in which the bishop of Rome has a decisive role...

...Its fixed rule was that the safer position was always obligatory and the literal application of the law must prevail over every doubt.] Proposal: I hope our beloved pontiff understands that we are dealing with a conflict of epic proportions, no less than the one at Antioch between Peter and Paul...