In a new book, Augustinian Fr Gabriel Daly examines the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 2012 silencing of Fr Tony Flannery and its suspending him from ministry.

Flannery, a Redemptorist, had written in "Reality" journal that Jesus didn't intend the kind of system that is the modern Catholic Church.

"I no longer believe that the priesthood, as we currently have it in the Church, originated with Jesus," Flannery wrote.

Daly told The Tablet, however, that these views "are both theologically and historically unexceptionable".

"His attackers have simply failed to reckon with his qualification ‘as we currently have it in the Church'."

Daly added that it was "abundantly clear" that today's Catholic Church is very different from the gathering of disciples around Jesus.

His new book, The Church: Always in Need of Reform, will put the case for reforming the CDF and will discuss the "meaning of reform in the light of some theological principles and insights".

It is due to be published later this year.

Daly said the CDF seems intent on claiming that everything in today's Church is consonant with the will and intentions of Jesus.

"I can do no more than point out that this cannot be historically true," he said, adding that much depends on one's interpretation of development.

Flannery wrote on his website that the CDF's former prefect Cardinal William Levada once told him during a visit to Ireland that he was "formally in heresy".

But his order has received no notification of this, he wrote.

Flannery stated there is no justification for banning him from ministry, adding that his order is afraid to stand up to the CDF, even though "Pope Francis has created the climate in which this is very possible".

In 2012, former Irish president Mary McAleese labelled as "dreadful" the way the CDF treated Flannery and several other Irish priests who had been investigated.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Tony Flannery.com
• Irish Examiner
• Image: Catholic Ireland

Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Religious, said the lack of discussion over the action against the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) caused him "much pain".

"We have to change this way of doing things," the cardinal said during an open dialogue session with some 800 leaders of sisters' communities at the triennial assembly of the International Union of Superiors General in Rome.

"Cardinals can't be mistrustful of each other. This is not the way the Church should function."

Cardinal Braz de Aviz referred several times to tensions between sisters and bishops on Church authority, questions of obedience, and the future of religious life.

At one point he even called for a wide-ranging review of structures of Church power.

"We are in a moment of needing to review and revision some things," he said. "Obedience and authority must be renewed, re-visioned.

"Authority that commands, kills. Obedience that becomes a copy of what the other person says, infantilises."

Cardinal Braz de Aviz said his congregation first learned of the move against the LCWR in a meeting with the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after the formal report on the matter had been completed.

At that meeting, he said, he told Cardinal William Levada, who has since retired as head of the doctrinal congregation, that the matter should have been discussed between the Vatican offices.

"We will obey what the Holy Father wants and what will be decided through you," Cardinal Braz de Aviz told the sisters he had said to Levada. "But we must say that this material which should be discussed together has not been discussed together."

"I obeyed," Cardinal Braz de Aviz told the sisters. "But I had so much pain within me."

He also said it was the first time he was discussing the lack of consultation publicly, saying he previously "didn't have the courage to speak."

Sources:

National Catholic Reporter

National Catholic Reporter

Image: National Catholic Reporter

This widely anticipated appointment was greeted by the liberal theological establishment in Germany with howls of "Panzerkardinal!" (as though Müller were so belligerently authoritarian that he would arrive in St. Peter's Square in an armored tank) and by ultra-conservative Catholics with the equivalent of a negative ad campaign calling Müller's orthodoxy into question on the basis of a few passages from his voluminous writings.

To paraphrase a remark that G.K. Chesterton once made about the contradictory accusations leveled at the Catholic Church: Bishop Müller must have done something right!

Biography

Gerhard Ludwig Müller was born in Mainz-Finthen on December 31, 1947, one of four children of a working-class family. He studied philosophy and theology in Mainz, Munich, and Freiburg im Breisgau and in 1977 completed a dissertation on the subject of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's sacramental theology. His doctoral advisor was Professor (now Cardinal) Karl Lehmann, who had earned his own doctorate under Karl Rahner, SJ, an influential expert at Vatican II.

After his ordination in 1978 Müller served as assistant priest in three parishes and taught religious education in the secondary schools. In order to qualify as a professor of theology, he wrote a second doctoral thesis in 1985 (again under Lehmann) on Catholic devotion to the saints. He was appointed Professor of Catholic Dogmatic Theology at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich in 1986, a position that he held for 16 years. Read more

Sources

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: The Guardian

Italian daily La Stampa reports that Levada has told Pope Benedict he wants to return home to the United States and that Benedict will accept his resignation.

David Gibson of RNS says the news of Levada's retirement does not come as a total surprise.

"Being the "bad cop" of Catholicism is a powerful and influential position, but it can also be a drag. Moreover, as pope, Ratzinger remains the de facto chief theologian at the Vatican. Levada has never had or desired the influence or stature that Ratzinger had under the late John Paul II."

When 75, it is mandatory for bishops to submit their resignation, and Levada turned 76 on June 15.

La Stampa's Vaticanologist, Marco Tosatti, reports Benedict is likely to replace Levada with fellow countryman Gerhard Müller, the Bishop of Regensburg.

It is said that Müller is a man of remarkable personality and while not in the close circle of Benedict's friends academically he is a significant figure.

In 2007, Müller was reappointed for another five year term to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Considered a defender of Catholic orthodoxy, Mueller is also a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Congregation for Catholic Education and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Müller is bishop of the diocese where the ultra-traditionalist seminary for the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) is located.

Sources

• La Stampa (Translation by Google Translate)
• RNS
• Wikipedia

The President of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Sr Pat Farrell, said that Catholics should be able to search for answers about faith without fear and that raising questions of doctrine should not be seen as a rebellion.

"I don't think this is a healthy environment for the church," Farrell said in a phone interview with Rachel Zoll of Associated Press.

"We can use this event to help move things in that direction - where it's possible to pose questions that will not be seen as defiance or opposition."

These are the first public comments Farrell has made in over a week, since leaving her meeting with Cardinal William Levada, Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Archbishop of Seattle and charged to oversee the nun's reform, Peter Sartain, at the Vatican.

At that time Farrell described the meeting open but difficult, saying the nuns will take things "one step at a time."

"I don't yet feel that we're any further than just the initial conversation," Farrell said.

In response to criticism that he and his office were attacking the nuns, Levada wanted it to be known that some of his best friends are sisters, and this process is not about the sisters.

Levada said the Vatican's issue is with the organisation's leadership which calls itself Catholic but takes up viewpoints in opposition to Catholic teaching.

In an interview with NCR's John Allen, Levada reflected on the four years of dialogue with the sisters' leadership, saying it was "like dialogue with the deaf."

Earlier yesterday Italian newspaper La Stampa reported Levada's possible resignation, as early as the end of the month.

La Stampa's Vaticanologist Marco Tosatti suggested the Holy Father is likely to replace Levada with German Archbishop Gerhard Müller, the Bishop of Regensburg, and a sitting member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Sources

• Boston Globe
• CathNews - Nuns leave Vatican and return home to consider next move
• CathNews - Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith head to resign
• CathNews - Vatican head says it's not about the nuns, but about the nun's leadership
• Image: The Mirror

Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), insists neither he, nor the Vatican is picking on the nuns.

"We're sad if people somehow think that these guys in Rome are trying to bring the hammer down on our nuns, or don't appreciate them. The assessment is actually effusive in its praise of the work nuns have done over the years," Levada told NCR's John Allen.

In an open and frank conversation, Levada, tried to set the record straight.

"I could say that some of my best friends are nuns," he said.

It's "not about the sisters in the United States. It's about the Leadership Conference of Women Religious".

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is a co-ordinating body for about 80% of the religious women in the United States.

According to Levada, the basic issue is LCWR exists because of a Church law that provides the Holy Father to invite them to do this co-ordinating work, and because their position exists at the invitation of the Pope, what they say has to be in sync with Church teachings.

Rejecting criticism of Bishop Blair's investigative assessment Levada said he did not accept the accusations of a lack of transparency or 'unsubstantiated accusations' in the process.

"This is not about people accusing LCWR of anything, it's about observing what happens in their assemblies, what's on their website, what they do or don't do," he said.

Levada said he is concerned that this process has been going on for four years and during that time not much has changed.

"It seems to me like a dialogue of the deaf," he said.

"Sometimes people have different images of dialogue. For some, dialogue is an end in itself, while for some of us it's a means to an end."

"People who have a representative role as spokesperson in and for the church also have a higher responsibility," the said CDF Head.

Calling the Church a "broad umbrella" Levada said its not just a question of different views, but also behaviour.

"It's about keeping faith with Jesus," said Levada.

"Ultimately this is about a group that represents the church doing so in a way that is accountable to the teaching and tradition of the Church."

Sources

• NCR
• Image Idle Speculations

SSPX Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay said doctrinal difficulties with the teaching of the Vatican II and the subsequent liturgical reform were the sticking points to reconciliation.

Earlier, a meeting between Fellay and Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with their assistants, saw the Vatican present its evaluation of the situation, including the opinion of Pope Benedict.

It was the Vatican's hope that an opportunity for reflection would lead SSPX to full communion with Rome.

The Vatican, through its spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ said "the ball is in the Society's court".

Sources

• Washington Post
• Vatican Radio
• CNS
• Image: The Catholic Sun

The nuns, who requested the meeting, told Reuters their next step was to return to the United States and consider their next move.

Leaving the Vatican the two nuns seemed confident, "we'll take it one step at a time," Farrell (pictured on the right) told a Reuters' reporter.

The Vatican, who on Tuesday said it hoped the meeting would bring about "reciprocal understanding" but also according to John Allen of NCR, warned of a possible "dialogue of the deaf".

In a statement after the meeting the Vatican said, the meeting provided an opportunity to "discuss the issues and concerns raised by the doctrinal assessment in an atmosphere of openness and cordiality."

However, Vatican said, Levada and Sartain reinforced to the nuns that their group "remains under the supreme direction of the Holy See".

In April, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Cardinal Levada heads, issued a blistering report on the LCWR, which represents some 80% of the more than 60,000 American Catholic nuns.

The assessment was issued after a Vatican investigation, lasting four years, determined the nuns had "serious doctrinal problems" and they promoted "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."

Sources

• Reuters
• Independent
• VIS
• Reuters video
• Image: Reuters

In his column in NCR, Eugene Cullen Kennedy writes that "While the great achievements for the church of women religious are ignored, as are their lives of personal sacrifice, and they are presumed guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors for such things as allowing speakers at their assemblies to speak of cultural realities that everyone can see, such as feminism, those who claim to see things that nobody else can see, and that, in fact, might not be there at all, are treated far more respectfully."

• Read Eugene Cullen Kennedy's article
• Image: Fr Paul Johnson

At a meeting between Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of SSPX and Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, Fellay received a document detailing the "doctrinal principles and criteria for the interpretation of Catholic doctrine" that SSPX must accept if it is to reconciled with Rome.

The unpublished document is expected to make reconciliation impossible unless SSPX accepts the reforms of Vatican II and the authority of the Pope.

In return, CNA reports, the Vatican has been very generous.

The Vatican has not given SSPX a deadline to sign the agreement, but Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi SJ is expecting a decision within a few months.

Lombardi, scarce with details but said that if all goes well SSPX could be offered the status of a personal prelature in order to continue their pastoral initiatives.

The personal prelature would be similar to the Ordinariate offered to the Anglicans.

SSPX was founded in 1970 in response to what it called errors which had crept into the Catholic Church following Vatican II. Their relationship with Rome became strained when its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops against the direct request of Pope John Paul II.

In 2009 Pope Benedict set aside the excommunications of the Society's bishops in order to begin discussions with a view to restoring SSPX in full communion with Rome.

Sources

• Washington Post
• CNA
• Wikipedia
• Image: Documentation Information Catholiques Internationales

Levada has turned 75 years, and does not wish to continue remain in the position beyond the end of 2011.