Catholic reform movement issues call for "holy disobedience"

 Sarah Mac Donald

Catholic Ireland

Nov. 19, 2011

On Friday, the Irish branch of the international Catholic reform movement, We Are Church, launched a grassroots campaign for Church reform with a ‘Call for Holy Disobedience’.

At a press conference in Dublin, We Are Church Ireland (WACI) spokesman, Brendan Butler, said the group’s five reform aims include the removal of compulsory clerical celibacy; full participation of women in all aspects of church life, including priesthood; and the building of a more inclusive Church that would welcome gay Catholics and those in second relationships.

Calling on all committed Catholics to join the group in exercising ‘holy disobedience’, Brendan Butler said, “We will not be cowed down by threats of excommunication.”  Phil Cullen told ciNews that the members are “not dissidents and will not be pushed out of the Church.”

WACI will hold its first public event, an Advent Assembly, on Sunday November 27.  The “inclusive liturgy” will, according to Butler, “be an expression of the five aims, in the same way as the Austrian priests will use every occasion to promote their disobedience.” 

However, he underlined that it would not be a Eucharist.

It coincides with the official introduction of the new translation of the missal, a move WACI described as a, “forced imposition,” and, “another example of how the Vatican operates as an ivory towered centralised authority.”

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Describing the Church in Ireland as, “in a state of crisis,” Brendan Butler said Irish Catholics are appalled at the recent clerical sex abuse scandals and especially by the cover-ups by bishops and senior clergy.  “We despair of any meaningful reform coming from the hierarchy in Ireland or the Vatican,” he continued and added that it was time for lay Catholics to organise themselves and demand the necessary structural changes to save the Church “from a slow death.”

Bishops and theologians, he claimed, are operating in a culture of, “endemic paralytic fear,” and, “absolute obedience to the Pope and even papal opinions.” 

“This absolute obedience is not to God but to the preservation of an institution.”

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Referring to retired bishop of Derry’s Dr Edward Daly’s call for an end to compulsory clerical celibacy in his autobiography, Brendan Butler said, “There are obviously a lot of people in the church, ordained and not ordained, who back this but are so afraid to say it.”

“It is a justifiable fear because look at what happened to the Bishop of Toowoomba and one theologian here whom I can’t name – he has been silenced in a most terrible way.  Sisters and priests have lacked a support structure up to now.  If anything happens to any of our sisters who are members of our group, we will certainly take a very active protest on that,” he warned.

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WACI is committed to the renewal of the Roman Catholic Church on the basis of the Second Vatican Council.  Members are seeking to bring about informed dialogue among the people of God on their five objectives:

1. Equality of all the baptised where decision making is actively shared by all, with appropriate structures for this;
2. Full participation of women in all aspects of church life, including priesthood;
3. Recognition of the primacy of an informed conscience;
4. Removal of the obligation of clerical celibacy and a positive attitude towards sexuality;
5. An inclusive Church, open and welcoming to all, which does not marginalise people who are divorced, in second relationships or gay.

Full article at Catholic Ireland