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May
28, 2011
Dear Bishop
William M. Morris, former Bishop of Toowoomba,
Although Canada is far away from Australia, you
should know that an association of Canadian
Catholics were very disappointed and angry to
learn that Pope Benedict XVI had removed you
from office May 2, apparently on the basis of
your Advent 2006 pastoral letter in which you
had suggested that, in the face of severe priest
shortage facing the Australian church, the
Church may have to be open to such options as
the ordination of married men and women if the
«primacy of the Eucharist» was to be maintained
as a distinctive element of Catholic worship.
Our group, whose name is «le Réseau Culture et
Foi» (Culture and Faith Network) is a national
forum for the critical examination of Church
matters, for freedom of expression within the
church and for the promotion of a renewed
language in liturgy and theology. Our web site
is very popular and receives visitors from all
over the world :
http://www.culture-et-foi.com
We
deeply regret that you were forced to retire
after being the bishop of Toowoomba for 18 years
and despite the fact that you had the support of
the vast majority of your people and priests.
The Pope’s decision came after complaints by a
group of dissidents of your diocese and suggests
that the ban on women’s ordination is part of
the set of church teachings that lie beyond
debate, since Pope John Paul II’s 1994 document
on women’s ordination, Ordinatio sacerdotalis,
has declared that this teaching is irrevocable
and infallible. Such an extension of the
infallibility could be seen by many as a
questionable source of control on the people of
God.
We
strongly believe that a vast majority of women
and a large number of men are of the opinion
that the women’s ordination should be open to
discussion. We are deeply convinced that a local
bishop has a legitimate magisterial authority in
his diocese and that he should never be removed
from office as long as he is in communion with
the Pope and other bishops with whom he shares
the responsibility of the entire Church.
Following your Advent 2006 pastoral letter, you
were notified by the Vatican, in March 2007,
that an Apostolic visitation would take place
and, in April 2007, Archbishop Charles Chaput of
Denver showed up to conduct the visitation and,
according to reports, he met with you, your
council of priests, diocesan officials and
individual Catholics of your diocese. In May, he
sent his report to the Vatican’s Congregation
for Bishops, a report that you never had the
opportunity to see. Like the National Council of
Priests of Australia, we are appalled at the
lack of transparency and due process that led to
this decision by church authorities.
Since you never read the report prepared by the
apostolic visitor, you have been denied natural
justice without being given any possibility of
appropriate defense and advocacy. We deeply
regret that canon law does not make provision
for a process regarding bishops with the result
that the Pope nominates them and may remove them
from office.
We have great admiration for you and for what
you have been standing for. We fully agree with
you when you say that the Church is the people,
as it was made very clear by the Second Vatican
Council : «The Spirit dwells in the Church and
in the hearts of the faithful, as in a temple.
In them He prays on their behalf and bears
witness to the fact that they are adopted sons.
The Church, which the Spirit guides in way of
all truth and which He unified in communion and
in works of ministry, He both equips and directs
with hierarchical and charismatic gifts and
adorns with His fruits. By the power of the
Gospel He makes the Church keep the freshness of
youth. Uninterruptedly He renews it and leads it
to perfect union with its Spouse. The Spirit and
the Bride both say to Jesus, the Lord, "Come!".
Thus, the Church has been seen as "a people made
one with the unity of the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit".» (Dogmatic constitution
Lumen Gentium, 4).
You wanted to make sure, as a bishop, that the
people of God in your diocese had a voice and
that their voice be heard in the Church and in
the world, so that the Spirit speaks through the
total Church and not presumably just through a
few. That is why you have been encouraging
dialogue and collaboration throughout your
diocese with such measures as the creation of a
personnel board that consulted with people of
the parishes prior to recommending a priest as a
pastor, and authorization of the the communal
rite of confession and general absolution .
Even if you have been removed from office
because you have mentioned that our Church might
have to consider in the future such options as
the ordination of married men and women, these
options are considered as possible or probable
by many people, priests and bishops. So far,
those alternatives will be possible only when
Rome allows them.
Since the «primacy of the Eucharist» has been in
the past and is to be maintained as a
distinctive element of Catholic worship, many
changes that seem impossible now might become
possible.
Réjean
Plamondon
au nom du Réseau Culture et Foi
[
RETOUR ]
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