Strengthening Paul's Hand

Ever since the Second Vatican Council ended in 1965, one of the pet words of Catholic liberals has been "collegiality"--the idea that the Pope shares authority with his bishops. The current Synod of Bishops in Rome (TIME, Oct. 11) is a reminder that collegiality can well backfire on the liberals.

Though there may be some surprises by month's end, it looked last week as if the gathering of representative bishops from around the world was strengthening the Pope's hand on matters of the priesthood and church authority. Some liberal bishops, though eager to take home something hopeful to their restive priests and laity, almost fatalistically accepted the prospect that the meeting would produce nothing new on internal church controversies.

Considering Celibacy. The Vatican, of course, was glad to promote that view. At his weekly audience, Pope Paul described his church as "tenaciously conservative. It is necessary to say this even if this word is not liked. But precisely because it is conservative, the church is always young. If it had changed all the time, it would have grown old." Meanwhile, a Page One commentary on the Synod in the Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano was taking a swipe at "theological speculation," insisting that the "decisive word" comes "uniquely from the magisterium of the church."

Although the Pope had not made celibacy of priests a formal topic for the Synod, it was soon informally discussed. In the first working session, John Cardinal Dearden of Detroit suggested that studies of the sociological and psychological aspects of the priesthood should be taken into account. These include a major study by the American bishops that showed that 54% of the clergy surveyed think that priests should be able to marry if they wish to do so.

Disunited Rite. But even delegates from the Eastern Rite, which has an ancient tradition of ordaining married men, were not united in asking for a change in the celibacy rule. Josyf Cardinal Slipyi, the exiled patriarch of the Ukraine, spoke on behalf of the Eastern practice. But Coptic Patriarch Stephanos Sidarouss declared that the Latin Rite would be unwise to change its rules, because married priests may become too absorbed with family matters.

The Pope has said only that he would be willing, reluctantly, to consider ordaining some "mature" married men in special cases in which priests are scarce. Canada's bishops, among others, strongly support the idea, but it will be a hard fight to get the Synod to ask for even this modest change.

The only real debate in the Synod so far has been between those who consider the priesthood a divine gift defined by revelation and those who stress the priest's duty to be active in social reform. In his opening presentation, Germany's Joseph Cardinal Hoeffner insisted that Jesus Christ did not intend to "establish a purely human solidarity with the less privileged as though he were a 'revolutionary' on the point of overturning existing social conditions." This view was disputed by Bernard Jan Cardinal Alfrink of The Netherlands. In his view, it represented "Christ's priesthood as though it had been exercised exclusively on the cross. The whole of Christ's life was a work of mediation and reconciliation, not only his sacrifice."

Man Is One. The activist view won some powerful support, including that of France's Franc,ois Cardinal Marty. Marty, the leader of the French delegation, appears to be an increasingly influential voice within the hierarchy. He warned the bishops: "It is necessary to avoid the danger of separating theological reflections from practical problems." The Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Pedro Arrupe, made the same point: "Man is one, life is one. The priest is a person and must be treated as a person." Despite these appeals, the Synod leaders instructed the bishops to talk about only the theoretical aspects of the ministry when the meeting broke into discussion groups at midweek. Nonetheless, the group led by Marty plunged into practical issues, including social justice, the other major topic on the month's agenda.

On that score, the five American bishops had something to say. They issued a statement mildly criticizing a Synod paper for saying too little about nuclear war, the arms race, the repression of religious freedom and racial discrimination. American bishops, who are generally conservative on issues within the church, often prove progressive on external matters. Their statement was the first indication that this attitude might also prove true of the Synod in general.

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