KARL KEATING'S E-LETTER

March 8, 2005

TOPIC:

THE REPRESSION THAT WASN'T

Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:

How many of these folks do you remember? How many have you never hear of?

1. Fr. Jacques Pohier, a French Dominican with heterodox views on the
Resurrection, lost his license to teach theology and left the Dominicans
in 1984.

2. Fr. Hans Kung lost his license to teach in 1979, partly because of his
erroneous teaching about papal infallibility.

3. Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx questioned the virginity of Mary and received
"notifications" from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)
saying that his writings conflicted with Church teaching.

4. Fr. Charles Curran lost his license to teach in 1986. He was the most
prominent American opponent of "Humanae Vitae."

5. Fr. Leonardo Boff, a proponent of liberation theology who taught a
skewed Christology, was silenced twice, then left the Franciscans and the
priesthood in 1992.

6. Fr. Anthony Kosnik formerly taught at Detroit's seminary and was forced
to resign because his writings on sexuality conflicted with basic Catholic
teachings.

7. Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez, another proponent of liberation theology, had
his writings criticized by the CDF.

8. Fr. Karl Rahner was silenced by John XXIII and was rehabilitated by
Paul VI. In later years he became heterodox on contraception and priestly
ordination. He also was at odds with the CDF.

9. Fr. Matthew Fox taught pantheism and eventually was expelled from the
Dominicans. He joined the Episcopal Church in 1994.

10. Sr. Mary Agnes Mansour was the director of the Department of Social
Services in Michigan, where she oversaw funding of abortions. She was
forced to choose between that job and the religious life, and she chose
the former.

11. Srs. Elizabeth Morancy and Arlene Violet served in the Rhode Island
government. Told to choose between their jobs and their lives as members
of the Sisters of Mercy, they chose the jobs.

12. Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, of Seattle, was investigated by the
Vatican after numerous allegations of liturgical abuse. An auxiliary
bishop was appointed, and Hunthausen lost much of his authority.

13. Fr. Ernesto Cardenal was the minister of culture in Nicaragua's
Sandinista government. He was chastised by John Paul II when the Pope
visited that country in 1983. Cardenal refused to quit his government post
and lost his priestly faculties.

14. Fr. Robert Nugent and Sr. Jeannine Gramick, proponents of
homosexuality, were forced to leave New Ways Ministry in 1984. In 1999 the
Vatican levied additional sanctions on them.

15. Fr. John McNeill was investigated by the CDF in the 1970s for his
views on homosexuality. He was expelled from the Jesuit order in 1987.

16. Srs. Barbara Ferraro and Patricia Hussey signed a 1984 "New York
Times" ad that backed abortion and refused a Vatican order to retract
their support for the ad.

17. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre ordained four bishops without papal consent
and thereby suffered automatic excommunication.

18. Fr. Tissa Belasuriya published heterodox writings on Christ's
divinity, Mary, and original sin. The CDF notified him of errors and
ordered him to sign a profession of faith. He refused and was
excommunicated in 1997. A year later he was reconciled to the Church.

19. Fr. Eugen Drewermann questioned the Virgin Birth and the reality of
the Resurrection. He was expelled from the priesthood.

20. Sr. Ivone Gebara publicly advocated legalized abortion. She was
silenced for two years.

21. Bishop Jacques Gaillot lost his position as bishop of Evreux, France,
in 1995 because of his promotion of contraception and homosexuality.

ORIGIN OF THE LIST

This list comes from the February 25 issue of the "National Catholic
Reporter." I have reduced the information about each person but have
included everyone on the list. The paper introduced the list this way:

"Following is a list of Catholic theologians and others disciplined by the
Vatican during the papacy of John Paul II. Though not an exhaustive list,
it is a substantial representation of the range of people subject to papal
discipline during the past 26 years." The list was compiled by an
assistant to the paper's editor.

I confess I had forgotten some of these names, and I am not sure now
whether I ever heard of the case involving Ivone Gebara. The list may not
be exhaustive, but I suspect other names would have been added if the
"National Catholic Reporter" could have come up with any. I think it is
fair to say that the list includes anyone of note who has been disciplined
while John Paul II has been pope.

IMPLICATIONS

On the list are 24 names. All but one (Lefebvre) were left-wing. Among
them there appears to be not a single case of improper investigation or
discipline.

The people on this list vary in culpability and cupidity. Some of them
might be able to be defended with a straight face, at least by the
"National Catholic Reporter," but some were indubitably off the
wall--Matthew Fox, for example. I never could understand how even the most
liberal Catholic could say that guy was on the up and up.

But let's look at the big picture. What does this list tell us? The
"National Catholic Reporter" thinks it demonstrates the repressive style
of the current papacy. "Look at all these good people who were pounded
into the ground by the Vatican!" That is the kind of attitude a reader is
expected to leave with.

I found remarkable two things about the list: the reasonableness of the
discipline (these folks deserved what they got, and most of them deserved
to get a lot more) and the shortness of the list.

Here we have a "repressive" papacy that has been around for 26 years, and
the best the "National Catholic Reporter" could do was to come up with a
list of only 24 people who have been disciplined under this pope. That is
fewer than one per year!

If we were talking about 24 cases of discipline in a storefront
denomination, maybe there would be cause for concern, but the Catholic
Church boasts 1.1 billion members. This means that, on average over the
last quarter century, the Vatican has disciplined only one out of a
billion members per year.

That is about as close to zero as you can get. Is there any social,
commercial, or governmental organization that disciplines such a small
percentage of its people?

If the Church had the kind of inquisitorial bureaucracy that its critics
imagine it has, the Vatican would be disciplining 24 people each week, not
24 each 26 years. Even then, at 24 per week the total number disciplined
during this papacy would be less than 7,500--not a large number when one
thinks about the population and internal disarray of the Church.

However you look at it, 24 cases in 26 years is de minimis, even
laughable. It means that nearly every error-pushing writer and speaker has
gotten a free pass. It means that the Vatican has given the heterodox
plenty of leeway--and then it has given them some more. It means there has
been no persecution by Rome, no generalized heavy-handedness. If anything,
it means the Vatican has been lax.

If there is a scandal here, it is not that so many have been disciplined
but that so few have been.

Until next time,

Karl