Synod petition campaign grows; Boston parishes call married priests

Whether your state was blue or red in the 2004 election, it can be GREEN in the Corpus Christi Synod Petition Campaign!

In only seven months the International Synod on the Eucharist will be held in Rome. The synod petition requests open discussion of ending mandatory celibacy, welcoming back married priests and opening the diaconate to qualified women now ministering in the church. CTA and FutureChurch are challenging U.S. Catholics to get 2,005 signatures from every state in the U.S. The map below shows how your state is doing, and will be updated regularly at www.futurechurch.org, where states reaching 2,005 will be colored green to symbolize new life and hope for the Church. Minnesota got a jump start with 6,500 signatures gathered from 23 parishes by the group Welcoming Vocations.

Petition organizers hope to at least double the 20,000 signatures collected so far. In mid-September, copies of the signatures will be delivered to all U.S. bishop-delegates to the Synod. In October, if funding is available, FutureChurch’s Chris Schenk will personally take the petitions to Rome to draw media attention to the issue.

CTA regional leaders, FutureChurch activists and several church reform organizations have pledged to promote an email and online petition that their constituents can pass along to all Catholics in their address book. It's available at http://www.futurechurch.org/fpm/corpus/petitionEmail.htm  Many are circulating petitions and organizing kits at their events. Others plan educational programs and celebrations on May 29, the feast of Corpus Christi.

In six Cleveland parishes, signatures are being gathered, 13 house meetings have been held, and six more are scheduled.  Another parish built a workshop on the future of the priesthood into their parish mission.

In Australia, since the National Priests’ Council in December publicly asked the synod to open discussion about mandatory celibacy, three Australian bishops have spoken out on the need for a married priesthood.

Boston parishes call married priests

High profile parish closings are adding momentum to the campaign. In Boston, four of the seven congregations refusing to accept closure by Archbishop Sean O'Malley asked him for a priest for Easter Mass. He said yes to two, but turned down “Friends of Star of the Sea Church” in Quincy and Sacred Heart Church in Natick. These two congregations then invited married priest members of CITI (Celibacy is the Issue) to preside, citing canon law saying when celibate clergy are unavailable, married priests can be utilized. Perhaps because the Quincy mass was planned in a Protestant church, O'Malley relented and sent his own priest to say mass in a public school. But Sacred Heart's outdoor liturgy in a local park had the services of two CITI married priests. In lengthy Boston Globe coverage, a spokesman for a coalition of parishes resisting closure predicted that other congregations would now call on married priests. CITI Ministries (www.rentapriest.com) is happy to oblige. Jesuit author/theologian William Clark said the Boston situation could move the idea of reactivating married clergy from the a fringe movement to center stage

Orthodox Church opens diaconate to women

Our call for Catholic women deacons got a boost by October’s decision of the Greek Orthodox Church to open the diaconate to women. The Catholic Church has acknowledged the validity of Orthodox sacraments and orders. According to Dr. Phyllis Zagano, “Despite the distinction in Canon 1024 that “a baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly,” one can presume the possibility of a derogation from the law, as suggested by the Canon Law Society of America in 1995, to allow for diaconal ordination of women. The history of Canon 1024 is clearly one of attempts to  restrict women from priesthood, not from the diaconate.”

Both FutureChurch and CTA emphasize that they are committed to the full ministerial equality of women in the Catholic Church. We see petitioning for women deacons as a doable next step and one way of reopening the conversation about women’s roles in the Church.

Meanwhile impromptu remarks by Vatican Cardinal Walter Kasper at a March 16 talk in New York on ecumenism provided both good and bad news for our campaign. He said any strong expectation of a change in the requirement of priestly celibacy would only lead to frustration. And while the question of ordaining women to the diaconate is “not settled,” Kasper believes women are already doing what they would be able to do if they were ordained as deacons.  Yet in the U.S. women pastoral ministers are rarely permitted to preach or preside at weddings and baptisms as are permanent deacons. Kasper also expressed surprise at the vigor of the church in the U.S. He ain’t seen nothin’ yet!