Cardinal rebukes 500 priests for going to the press with call to resist change to church teaching

By Christopher Lamb
Tablet
March 24, 2015

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/1909/0/cardinal-rebukes-500-priests-for-going-to-the-press-with-call-to-resist-change-to-church-teaching-

Cardinal Vincent Nichols has rebuked the almost 500 priests in England and Wales who have signed a letter resisting any change to church teaching at the Vatican’s next Synod on the Family, saying that discussions around the Synod are "not best conducted through the press".

The 461 priests were responding to two letters, seen by The Tablet and now to be published in the Catholic Herald, sent by a group of a dozen conservative-minded clergy. As The Tablet first reported, the first letter was a draft to be submitted for publication in the press, while the second, signed by the 12 clergy, set out the reasons for agreeing to the first.

The first letter urges those who will participate in October’s synod of bishops to end the “confusion” that was caused at last year’s gathering, where some bishops put forward ways for the Church to be more welcoming to gay Catholics as well as for remarried divorcees to receive Communion. The letter states fidelity to the Church’s traditional doctrines of marriage and sexuality, and affirmed the traditional discipline of the reception of the sacraments (which bars Communion for the divorced and remarried). 

In a statement, the cardinal took issue with the priests' decision to air their views in the press. He said on Wednesday: “Every priest in England and Wales has been asked to reflect on the Synod discussion. It is my understanding that this has been taken up in every diocese, and that channels of communication have been established. The pastoral experience and concern of all priests in these matters are of great importance and are welcomed by the bishops. Pope Francis has asked for a period of spiritual discernment. This dialogue, between a priest and his bishop, is not best conducted through the press.”

One signatory, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Catholic Herald there “has been a certain amount of pressure not to sign the letter and indeed a degree of intimidation from some senior Churchmen”.

The priests’ second letter, however, contended that the media’s reporting of the 2014 synod had left a “distorted sense” that the Church’s moral teaching could be changed and Catholic practice altered “regardless of doctrine”. It states: “Even some committed Catholics are making statements that do not appear to reflect the settled teaching of the Church nor the clear message of the New Testament.”

The 12 priests – who include the Dominican theologian Fr Aidan Nichols, Fr Daniel Seward, Provost of the Oxford Oratory and Canon Luiz Ruscillo, head of the Diocese of Lancaster’s education service – said they are committed to serve all who struggle to live out the demands of the Gospel in modern life.

They stress, however, that clarity in teaching is never opposed to pastoral practice and argue that the synod has left many to whom they minister confused.

Other priests supporting the move are: Fr Julian Large, provost of the London Oratory, Fr Alexander Sherbrooke of St Patrick’s, Soho Square in London, Fr Tim Finigan, parish priest in Margate, Kent; Mgr Edwin Barnes, former Church of England bishop and a priest of the ordinariate; Mgr Gordon Read, chancellor of the Diocese of Brentwood; Fr Andrew Pinsent, research director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford; Fr John Saward, a theologian who is priest-in-charge of an Oxford parish; Fr Robert Billing, spokesman for the Diocese of Lancaster, Fr Roger Nesbitt, parish priest of St Bede’s in Clapham, south London, where the old rite is regularly celebrated, and Fr Neil Brett of the Diocese of Brentwood.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who attended the last synod and will be at the next one in October, has said divorced and remarried people could be readmitted to Communion under certain conditions.