Celibacy. Celibacy. Celibacy. Today’s world of communications brings instant publication of statements. (Soon thoughts might not be safe!) The newly appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, landed in Rome having stirred the pot prior to his arrival. Albeit out of full context, let me post several of the statements His Eminence has had to make in the recent few weeks. 1] Dec 1st: "Celibacy is a discipline, not a dogma of the Church.... the absence of priestly vocations could cause the Church to discuss the ordination of married men." This statement was made in Brazil prior to the Cardinal’s departure for Rome and his new life ... and way of making statements.
2]Dec 4th: In Rome, the former Franciscan issued a "statement of clarification" through the Vatican press office: the norm of celibacy "is very ancient and based on solid tradition and strong reasoning–both of a theologico-spiritual and practical pastoral nature–which has been confirmed by the popes as well."
3] Before leaving Sao Paulo: "The Church is an institution that changes when it is necessary to change." At the same press conference with the local Folho de Sao Paulo, he indicated that priestly shortages might prompt Church leaders to "discuss whether it is necessary to reconsider the celibacy norm." He reiterated that the ban on priestly marriages is not a dogma issue, citing the fact that several of the Apostles were married men.
As you can imagine, zucettas (the "beany" that clerics can wear but seem to be the "sign" of episcopal presence) were spinning in Rome and elsewhere. The President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts (a council exists for almost every "hot spot") , Cardinal Julian Herranza, acknowledged that celibacy is not a "defined dogma" but that it is "a most ancient tradition, becoming law already in the early centuries" of the Church’s history. He also noted that the discipline was endorsed firmly by Vatican II documents.
It can be said that Cardinal Hummes is discovering very quickly that there is no softball around the Piazza San Pietro. Hardball is the name of the game. There is an adage that most priests sometimes, laughingly, reiterate in circumstances that seem to work in some places and not others: "the farther you are from headquarters, the less care you use in choosing your words or actions." Perhaps Sao Paulo was far enough away. In Rome, do as the Romans!
An interesting thought or observations: this is not the first of the recent appointments by Pope Benedict XVI to find himself in "hot print." Even the renowned mind and mouth of the Pontiff himself, has stirred up much anger and protest from the Muslim world. A question comes to my feeble mind: Is the selection of the new leadership team of the Pope determined with the awareness of the "thinking" the new appointments bring with them? Conservatives has quietly groused that former CDF (Congregation for the Defense of the Faith) Prefect, Cardinal Ratzinger, has not been the hatchet man many expected. Can we ask if the new appointees are being brought to the Holy See with special expectations? Interesting ... at least for my mind.
