|

What has the Church to say about justice within the Church?

How did the 40th anniversary of the 1971 Synod on Justice in the World, relate to the current debates in the Church? If you go to the Holy See site and click on Synods, it gives the document inPortuguese which doesn’t help me. It was such an important document as it tacked, to some degree, the area of practicing justice in the church.
Some quotes are below:
40.While the Church is bound to give witness to justice, she recognizes that anyone who ventures to speak to people about justice must first be just in their eyes. Hence we must undertake an examination of the modes of acting andof the possessions and life style found within the Church herself.
41.Within the Church rights must be preserved. No one should be deprived of his ordinary rights because he is associated with the Church in one way or another. Those who serve the Church by their labor, including priests and religious, should receive a sufficient livelihood and enjoy that social security which is customary in their region. Lay people should be given fair wages and a system for promotion. We reiterate the recommendations that lay people should exercisemore important functions with regard to Church property and should share in its administration.
42.We also urge that women should have their own share of responsibility and participation in the community life of society and likewise of the Church.
43.We propose that this matter be subjected to a serious study employing adequate means: for instance, a mixed commission of men and women, religious and laypeople, of differing situations and competence.
44.The Church recognizes everyone’s right to suitable freedom of expression and thought. This includes the right of everyone to be heard in a spirit ofdialogue which preserves a legitimate diversity within the Church.
45.The form of judicial procedure should give the accused the right to know hisaccusers and also the right to a proper defense. To be complete, justice shouldinclude speed in its procedure. This is especially necessary in marriage cases.
46.Finally, the members of the Church should have some share in the drawing up of decisions, in accordance with the rules given by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the Holy See, for instance with regard to the setting up of councils at all levels.
All the best
Gerry Hefferan
Brisbane, Australia

Similar Posts

  • Return of the Servant Myth

    Articles
    2 Comments

    John N. Collins, an Australian theologian, has devoted a great part for his life to studying the real meaning of ‘diakonia’. His thesis has serious implications for our understanding of ministry in church.
    “I was confronted by the need to identify the nature of the ‘service’ of the Son of Man (Mk 10:45). Soon I came to recognise that the English ‘service’ words were totally inadequate to represent the range of meanings ancient Greek authors intended by their use of diakon- terms.”

  • De-centralisation and the selection of bishops

    Articles, Pope Francis, Reform of the Irish Church
    0 Comments

    Robert Mickens in his ‘Letter from Rome’ on Global Pulse Magazine comments on the stresses and strains that surface when trying to attempt de-centralisation in the church. He says “Reactions to the US bishops’ deliberations this week at their fall meeting suggest that Catholics may have drawn the conclusion, unwittingly, that decentralization may not be all that it’s cracked up to be.”
    However he adds ‘it is going to be a rough and rocky road to healthy decentralization in the Catholic Church. It’s not likely to happen until the synodality that Francis is trying to instill in the Church’s way of living and being also embraces and transforms the way bishops are selected.
    Even if a change in the discernment process for choosing our pastors were to be implemented in the next couple of years, it would probably take at least two more generations before we’d get an episcopate that would make decentralized government effective.
    Having said that, there are some men in miters – even those with the august rank of cardinal – who should be doing everything as the pope wishes, both in style and emphasis.
    And they actually do work for him. They are called apostolic delegates and Vatican officials.”

  • Is ‘secularism’ just another ‘religion’?

    Articles
    17 Comments

    Sean O’Conaill raises some very relevant questions about “the dichotomy of ‘secular and ‘religious’ “.
    “In Ireland a militant secularism is obviously bent on ‘binding’ together all those alienated from the remnants of the ‘Catholic state’ into a significant political constituency.”
    But Sean asks “How exactly can something so obviously evangelical, pacifically inclined, moralistic, charismatic, ‘binding’ – and salvational – not qualify as a ‘religion’? “

  • Married priests: call for courageous conversation

    Articles, Editor's Choice
    32 Comments

    Sarah Mac Donald writes in the NCR about recent comments by Bishop Crispian Hollis, the retired bishop of Portsmouth, concerning the ordination of married men to the priesthood which he says “needs to be explored openly within the church in England and Wales at national and diocesan levels.”
    With fewer than 40 students in the national seminary at Maynooth it is an issue that is crying out to be explored in Ireland as well.
    Liamy McNally is quoted as saying “There is no priest shortage!” ….. “We have many priests, but they are married and so are not allowed to have a public ministry,” ….. “in the early church those with a vocation to priesthood were married, whereas today, those who feel called to priesthood must also have a vocation to celibacy.”

3 Comments

  2. JeannieGuzman says:

    What? Are priests just now waking up to the fact that there should be JUSTICE in the Church for priests as well as the faithful and the not-so-faithful? This present day Inquisition is similar to those of yesteryear, without the implements of torture, but that’s only because world governments will not allow the Holy Roman Catholic Church to brutally and barbarically torture those, with whom She has disagreement. This Present-day Inquisition is almost as important as the ones held 400-500 years ago, and I’m saying that as a Crypto-Jew, whose forefathers were forced to convert to Catholicism or suffer death at the hands of the Holy Inquisitors! Now, those IN the Church, especially priests, need to prove that they are “Catholic Enough,” in word and in deed. Similar to the Crypto Jews before them, it wasn’t sufficient just to be baptized Catholic and to be a “Practicing Catholic!” Instead, one must spit out doctrine by rote to please the conservative elements of the Inquisitional Magisterium. It’s time for all priests to stand up to the Church, and not just 10-15% of them. Otherwise, we’ll just experience another Catholic Inquisition, and the repercussions will last for another block of 400-500 years! Surprisingly, if they do, they will have masses of faithful, lining up behind them to protect their flanks!

    Reply

  3. Speaking of justice within the Church, here is a probably incomplete and out of date list of the ‘Silenced, Banished, or Expelled’. May they forgive us for our silence.
    1. Jon Sobrino, S.J. (EI Salvador, but born in Spain)
    2. Bernard Haring, CSSR (Germany)
    3. Sr. Lavinia Byrne, IBVM (UK)
    4. Jacques Dupres, S.J. (France)
    5. Thomas Reese, S.J. (USA)
    6. Professor Michael Buckley (USA-denied promotion to full professorship even though Buckley was president of the Catholic Theological Society of America)
    7. Fr. Philip S. Keane, S.S. (USA)
    8. Fr. John McNeill, S.J. (USA)
    9. David Hollenbach, S.J. (USA)
    10. Anthony de Mello, S.J. (Indian Goan priest)
    11. Michael Morwood (Victoria, Australia)
    12. Bishop Thomas Gumbleton (Detroit, USA)
    13. Archbishop Paulo Evaristo Arns (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
    14. Jose Antonio Pagola (Basque)
    15. Fr. Hans Kling (Switzerland)
    16. Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P. (Holland)
    17. Fr. Charles Curran (USA)
    18. Fr. Leonardo Boff, O.F.M. (Brazil)
    19. Fr. Anthony Kosnik (USA)
    20. Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez (Peru)
    21. Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J. (Germany)
    22. Fr. Matthew Fox, O.P. (USA)
    23. Sr. Mary Agnes Mansour, RSM (USA)
    24. Sr. Elizabeth Morancy, RSM (USA)
    25. Sr. Arlene Violet, RSM (USA)
    26. Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen (Seattle, USA)
    27. Fr. Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua)
    28. Fr. Robert Nugent (USA)
    29. Sr. Jeannine Gramick (USA)
    30. Sr. Barbara Ferraro, SND (USA)
    31. Sr. Patricia Hussey, SND (USA)
    32. Miguel d’Escoto, Maryknoll (Nicaragua)
    33. Fr. Edgar Parrales (Nicaragua)
    34. Uriel Molina, O.F.M. (Nicaragua)
    35. Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Haiti)
    36. Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, O.M.I. (Sri Lanka)
    37. Fr. Eugen Drewermann (Germany)
    38. Sr. Ivone Gebara, SND (Brazil)
    39. Bishop Jacques Gaillot (France)
    40. Fr. Fernando Cardenal, S.J. (Nicaragua)
    41. Fr. Roger Haight, S.J. (USA)
    42. Sr. Margaret M”cBride (USA)
    43. Fr. Andre Guindon {Canada)
    44. Bishop Remi DeRoo (Canada, forcibly retired)
    45. Bishop Pedro Casaldliliga (Brazil)
    46. Fr. Paul Collins (Australia)
    47. Sr. Jane Kelly (USA)
    48. Bishop Helder Camara (Brazil)
    49. Fr. Gyorgy Bulanyi (Hungary)
    50. Don Luigi Sartori (Italy)
    51. Fr. Eugenio Melandri (Italy)
    52. Fr. Paul Valadier,S,J. (France)
    53. Don Vittorio Cristelli (Italy)
    54. Bishop Bartolome Carrasco Briseno (Mexico)
    55. Fr. Philippe Denis, O.P. (France)
    56. Bishop Samuel Ruiz (Mexico)
    57. Teresa Berger (Germany)
    58. Fr. Renato Kizito Sesana (Kenya)
    59. Don Leonardo Zega (Italy)
    60. Fr. John Sye Kong-seok (Korea)
    61. Fr. Paul Cheong Yang-mo (Korea)
    62. Fr. Edouard Ri Jemin (Korea)
    63. Jacques Dupuis, S.J. (Belgium)
    64. Luigi Lombardi Vallauri (Italy)
    65. Fr. Jim Callan (USA)
    66. Monsig. Luigi Marinelli (Italy)
    67. Reinhard Messner (Austria)
    68. Fr. Marciano Vidal (Spain)
    69. Josef Imbach, O.F.M. (Italy)
    70. Don Franco Barbero (Italy)
    71. Fr. Cipriano Carini, O.S.B. (Italy)
    72. Juan Jose Tamayo (Spain)
    73. Don Vitaliano Della Sala (Italy)
    74. Rev. Mary Ramerman (USA)
    75. Rev. Ludmila Javorova (Czechoslovakia)
    76. Bishop Felix Maria Davidek (Czechoslovakia)
    77. Rev. Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger (Austria)
    78. Rev. Adelinde Theresia Roitinger (Austria)
    79. Rev. Gisela Forster (Germany)
    80. Rev. Iris Muller (Germany)
    81. Rev. Ida Raming (Germany)
    82. Rev. Pia Brunner (Germany)
    83. Rev. Angela White (Austria and USA)
    84. Fr. Edward Cachia (Canada)
    85. Fr. Clodovis Boff (Brazil)
    86. Fr. Bill Callahan, S.J. (USA)
    87. Fr. Johannes Metz (Germany)
    88. Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. (Spain)
    89. Fr. Alvaro Arguello”(Nicaragua)
    90. Fr. Jacques Pohier, O.P. (France)
    91. Archbishop Oscar Romero (El Salvador)
    92. Bishop George Robinson (Australia)
    (Taken from Matthew Fox’s recent book, ‘The Pope’s War’ 2011, Sterling ISBN 978-1-4027-8629-7)

    Reply

Join the Discussion

Keep the following in mind when writing a comment

  • Your comment must include your full name, and email. (email will not be published). You may be contacted by email, and it is possible you might be requested to supply your postal address to verify your identity.
  • Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Comments containing vulgarities, personalised insults, slanders or accusations shall be deleted.
  • Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.
  • Including multiple links or coding in your comment will increase the chances of it being automati cally marked as spam.
  • Posts that are merely links to other sites or lengthy quotes may not be published.
  • Brevity. Like homilies keep you comments as short as possible; continued repetitions of a point over various threads will not be published.
  • The decision to publish or not publish a comment is made by the site editor. It will not be possible to reply individually to those whose comments are not published.