Correspondence: Bishop, pastor, layman, minister
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors Stop worrying Commonweal's worried commentary ["Mandate from Rome," December 3] on the Ex corde ecclesiae implementation document, passed by the United States...
...I love freedom of discussion with regard to the arrangement of our social concerns, guaranteed to us by our American institutions...
...I love also, in the sphere of the church, the full freedom of discussion in all things wherein God allows us liberty because this seems to me most fitted to promote the good of souls and the extension of the church in the United States...
...They were criticized and some were silenced by ecclesiastical authorities but much of their agenda is in the approved documents of Vatican II...
...By God's grace I shall always be liberal in regard to others and in regard to God inasmuch as I shall recognize in others their worth, even if they have not the gift of faith...
...lama liberal inasmuch as I love liberty...
...Of interest to me as a pastor, now in my forty-fifth active year, is that the Catholic party applying for a first marriage is often not interested in inviting a Catholic priest to bless or co-officiate at the wedding...
...In my tradition the Eucharist is open for all baptized Christians...
...Many bishops, from the assembly floor and at hotel lunch tables, reported that most representatives of Catholic colleges and universities in diocesan dialogues stated that, while the document is not the kind they themselves would write, they could work with it in a positive way...
...The name liberal does not frighten me...
...I suspect that I hold a record among Commonweal readers...
...In those days "interfaith" was used for Jewish-Christian services and weddings...
...Off and on over the years I have subscribed to any number of Roman journals and magazines...
...MOST REV...
...The recent [November 19] anniversary issue lived up to expectations because of your choice of representative commentators...
...LARRY HANSEN Aloha, Oreg...
...aldo j. tos New York, N.Y...
...Liberalism, then and now Congratulations to the editor and the entire staff for carrying on the great tradition begun seventy-five years ago...
...Catholic colleges and universities are related to norms from accrediting associations, professional organizations, athletic associations...
...Macdonald did...
...In the 1970s I worked with Frederick McManus of the bishops' committee on liturgy and others to draft an ecumenical marriage rite for Christians—Protestants and Roman Catholics...
...Probably one of every two weddings in this parish involves at least one Roman Catholic...
...As one who has read Commonweal for more than forty-five years, I am certain that thousands of readers like myself have benefited greatly from the intelligent writing and stimulation found in every issue...
...These are Christian weddings, presuming Christian baptism of both parties, whether the rite/sacrament is performed in a Catholic or Protestant church...
...Right rites: a Methodist view Re: "Outside the Church: Whom Catholics Marry and Where" [September 10] by James D. Davidson: One does not know whether to laugh or cry at the good professor's archaic notion of "the church" and his ignorance of the real world (a posture or a conviction...
...Congratulations and good wishes on the occasion of the magazine's seventy-fifth anniversary...
...In any event, I have been a Commonweal reader since that time (at least on and off), as well as a sustaining contributor...
...Also on the rise is the number of marriages between two Catholics, usually in their twenties or thirties, who apply to a Protestant pastor for their wedding ceremony...
...Trust and dialogue and cooperation, called for from both the bishops and the Catholic higher education community, can bring promise to the implementation of Ex corde ecclesiae in the years ahead...
...JOHN J. LEIBRECHT Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo...
...For more on this subject, see articles on pages 14 & 16.] Count California in With all due respect, I find the penultimate sentence in Richard John Neuhaus's "Sentire cum Ecclesia" [November 19] ("It is Rome or California") full of the kind of arrogance and tri-umphalism that has driven so many away from the church in the past and will continue to drive thoughtful Christians and others away in the future...
...Ecumenical" was used for marriages among Christians...
...For Professor Davidson's edification, when "lapsed" Catholics request the Eucharist at their wedding, I am always surprised to see dozens and dozens of Roman Catholics for the very first time reverently come forward...
...One person's flexibility, it seems, is another's ambiguity...
...It is part of a reply that Father Richard Burtsell wrote to the Holy Office, in response to charges that he and friends were part of a clerical clique seeking to Americanize the church in this country: "I am a liberal with both God and man...
...We did it...
...Applications from divorced Catholics who do not want to apply for annulments are also increasing...
...A frequent dilemma for me is that Roman Catholics request the Eucharist at their wedding...
...Protestant pastors will not do annulment-pending weddings...
...When the norms of those groups are not adhered to, as occasionally happens, the college or university works to arrive at an accommodation which successfully addresses the problem...
...REV...
...There is a wide range of issues leading hundreds of thousands of younger Roman Catholics to seek the sacraments in U.S...
...Ambiguity" in the bishops' document concerns Commonweal...
...I shall ever seek to make known to them the reasonableness of our church, being aware that only reasonable homage is acceptable to God...
...rev...
...The writer is chair of the Ex corde ecclesiae Implementation Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops...
...Bishops think otherwise...
...I was a freshman at Princeton and all Catholics in the freshman class were given subscriptions to Commonweal courtesy of a Byrnes Macdonald, who, I think, had a son in the class...
...Protestant churches...
...Commonweal is clearly trying to increase its circulation...
...they are also appalled by what seems to them bad manners when the programs Commonweal 1© December 17,1999 at Catholic weddings stipulate that Protestants are not welcome to receive...
...The writer is pastor of Saint Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village...
...When Professor Davidson talks about "interfaith marriages," one presumes he means rites uniting Roman Catholics with Protestants of various denominations...
...And, again, "The bishops may be able, in their own dioceses, to bring about a careful and resourceful implementation...
...The writer is pastor of the Simsbury United Methodist Church...
...Aware of the diversity within Catholic higher education and its different legal environments, the bishops voted for "flexibility" in the norms...
...But if you run essays like Professor Davidson's affected little survey, folks like this new subscriber will be saying, "Is he for real...
...I love very earnestly political liberty which insists that society shall protect the poor and the weak...
...form...
...I think the following from a nineteenth-century priest of the Archdiocese of New York is a significant contribution to the meaning of authentic liberal Catholicism and to continuing discussion of its implications...
...EDMUND T. DELANEY Chester, Conn...
...Difficulties and tensions will at times be part of implementing Ex corde ecclesiae—as exceptions rather than the rule...
...Our recommendation to other readers: Go now and do what Mr...
...You tell me...
...Until the Roman church goes beyond the limited, proscriptive mindset implicit in that kind of rhetoric and realizes that the church is Jerusalem and Rome and Canterbury and Constantinople and Wittenberg and Iona {and, for that matter, California), it will continue to be what Cardinal Francis George so correctly, and somewhat ironically, criticizes in the same issue of Commonweal as an institution "obsessed with particular practices and so sectarian in its outlook that it cannot serve as a sign of unity of all peoples in Christ...
...From the editors: Our thanks to Mr...
...Delaney...
...As a working pastor, I can testify that the number of Roman Catholics coming to Protestant churches to apply for marriage is dramatically increasing, and that the types of these applications are changing as well...
...The author and several other priests, including my predecessor in this parish, Father Thomas Farrell (1857-80), who was their mentor, were part of a group known as the Accademia that met regularly in the rectory of this parish...
...M. LAWRENCE SNOW Simsbury, Conn...
...This trend, too, is growing...
...The dilemma: Should an ecumenically minded "non-Catholic" pastor be respectful of the Roman canons, or not...
...Norms are incompatible with trust and dialogue, Commomveal seems to believe...
...CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors Stop worrying Commonweal's worried commentary ["Mandate from Rome," December 3] on the Ex corde ecclesiae implementation document, passed by the United States bishops at November's annual assembly, contained hopeful statements such as: "In most places, good people will try to make this work...
...and, to Commonweal, "Let's talk sense on the eve of 2000 for all Christendom...
...I first read it in October of 1929—seventy years ago...
...A record...
...They are fully aware that it is against canon law for Catholics to receive the Body and Blood of Christ under a Protestant (non-Catholic, if you will...
...Fear of a heavy-handed individual bishop should not overshadow the evenhandedness and deep appreciation bishops overwhelmingly have for Catholic colleges and universities as treasures both to the church and to American higher education...
...Post-Vatican II there are other churches besides the Roman Catholic one (Continued on page 29) Commonweal 4 December 17,1999 CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 4) when it comes to baptism or marriage, etc...
...How flexibility can be present without some ambiguity, I'm not sure...
Vol. 126 • December 1999 • No. 22
