Notebook
Hoyt, Robert G.
NOTEBOOK THE CATHOLIC CONSCIENCE MOVING TO THE NEXT PARISH? ubterraneously (that is, by phone), someone in this office learned from someone in another office about a suburban parish in another...
...for that matter, with any but the most authoritarian kind of ecclesiology, the most simplistic and fundamentalist moral system...
...I learned that from Sister Alexandrine in the eighth grade, back in the Middle Ages...
...the bishop quotes a speech by John Paul II to prove it: "It is sometimes claimed that dissent from the magisterium is totally compatible with being a 'good Catholic' and poses no obstacle to the reception of the sacraments...
...They don't come to the rectory asking for jobs, clothes, food, money, or help in getting green cards...
...Well, they're not just economic refugees looking for a handout...
...I've never seen it seriously disputed in an intellectually responsible way...
...We know this, the bishop writes, because it is the church's teaching...
...What bothers me most about those newly minted curates who are making some of their flock into refugees, and about the remarks of Bishop Flavin and John Paul II, is not what they say about birth control (it's conceivable that they're right, though I can't see it) but rather what they're teaching about conscience...
...or to believe that speeches and documents in which the magisterium defines the power of the magisterium as essentially without limit have to be taken literally...
...It's unlikely that their tormentors will ever repent (presumably, the curates are just repeating what they were taught in their postpostconciliar seminary...
...ROBERT G. HOYT Commonweal 14 February 1992: 5...
...Should this woman, and her ilk, be deported back to their original parish...
...And there are no loopholes...
...This is a grave error...
...4: 14 February 1992 Commonweal Well, it's not a grave error...
...ubterraneously (that is, by phone), someone in this office learned from someone in another office about a suburban parish in another region of the country that has found itself serving a number of refugees...
...and when the church teaches, Christ the God-man teaches...
...A pastoral letter issued by Bishop Flavin in October of last year (and published in Origins, November 7, 1991) instructed the "dear Catholic spouses" and the "dear Catholic physicians" in his diocese that artificial contraception is intrinsically evil, that those who practice it or who recommend it or who prescribe contraceptives or who advise or perform contraceptive sterilization commit grave sin and may not receive Communion without committing sacrilege...
...This is our Catholic faith: We believe that when Pope John Paul II teaches in matters of faith and morals, the church teaches...
...And what bothers me most of all is that there are any number of bishops who know better than I that what is being taught about personal moral responsibility is at variance with the church's pastoral teaching, practice, and tradition...
...I say: Let the refugees enjoy their refuge...
...And let them count their blessings: Their parish is not in the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, currently pastored by Bishop Glennon Flavin...
...They come to the church for Mass, and (presumably) they give money...
...But an honestly formed conscience is to be followed...
...I learned it again from conservative preconciliar teachers and textbooks in moral and pastoral theology...
...Concern for the church's integrity and health calls for candor...
...They aren't from Haiti or El Salvador but from a neighboring parish, and they are fleeing not from death squads but from a couple of newly appointed curates who are gung ho on Humanae vitae and who regularly assure the assembled People of God that if they practice contraception they must not receive the Eucharist...
...to be a good person you should not let ignorance or laziness or self-interest distort your moral judgments...
...Nor will the persecutors be brought to justice...
...And they're not saying anything...
...One such refugee, a woman with more years, more education, and (I think) more sense than the curates, told our informant, "I'm not going to be lectured by some twentyfiveyear-old about contraception, and he's not going to tell me when I can go to Communion...
...Silence about such a matter is not golden but pewter...
...To be a good Catholic you should take the pope, any pope, seriously...
...If they're forced to go back they face a reasonable likelihood of continued aural torture...
...there is no independent judiciary...
...On the contrary, it's a really grave error to teach that the authority of the magisterium deserves more respect and obedience than the demands of conscience...
Vol. 119 • February 1992 • No. 3
