There can be no doubt whatever that the Spirit calls no person to do what the Word dictated by him, forbids. The Spirit cannot contradict himself. No human being is entitled to advance a specific call of the Spirit for him individually to do or teach something contrary to or beside the Scriptures previously given to the church… Hence, when a woman preacher professes to have felt this call that the Word distinctly precludes from the work…although we may ascribe her mistake to an amiable zeal, yet we absolutely know she is mistaken; she has confounded a human impulse with the Spirit’s calling.
Robert Dabney

Progressive Roman Catholics

Progressive Roman Catholics

PROGRESSIVE ROMAN CATHOLICS

DEFINITION Roman Catholics who gladly embrace the liturgical changes of Vatican II and the ecumenical advances of these days. They go further, modernizing Roman Catholicism in many ways: using women in liturgical functions, calling priests by their first names, decorating churches with “evangelical” slogans instead of statues, shunning conservative words like limbo and purgatory. Many also urge the ordination of women to the priesthood, relief for divorced and re-married Catholics, some question the virgin birth and original sin and do not believe in a personal devil or angels. Some progressive priests use “do-it-yourself liturgies” that use Ry-Krisp and whiskey instead of bread and wine. Others attack traditional teachings on contraception, clerical celibacy, the necessity of baptism and the physical resurrection of the body.

CHRISTIAN COMMENTS They are widely diverse, but easy to witness to because they are so open. They usually believe all sincere people will get to Heaven, so it is difficult to establish a basis for discussion with them.

CATHOLIC BOOKS From INTRODUCING CONTEMPORARY CATHOLICISM by Theo Weston. “(They) tried to hammer out improvements in Christianity in order to restore the relevance of it to our age, which it had quite obviously lost in rather frightening proportions.

“Pope Greogory condemned freedom of conscience as a dangerous error; it is a relief that this has now been put straight.

“As `Mass’ became less communal, it became more ritualistic with greater emphasis on actual body and blood. This led to superstitions (biting the host, etc.,”) and was explained by St. Thomas Aquinas in Aristotlian terms substance and accidents.

“When Cardinal Alfrink of Holland cooly observed in defense of his Dutch theologians that Holland has over 75% practicing Catholics and Italy only 15%, he was asked not to explain any further.

“The Curia is a body without theological significance but a purely human institution which has grown up around ther Papacy during the Middle Ages. 41 of 47 are still Italian (1967).

“Many Dutch theologians intimate that the perpetual virginity of Christ’s mother may be a myth. `It is more modern,’ says one, `to believe that Christ was the son of Mary and Joseph.'”

SECULAR JOURNALS Progressive Priest Andrew Greeley in TV GUIDE, 10/27/84, said, “Some of us like our vocations so much that we will not leave even if the clowns presently running the church try to throw us out.”

From TIME, 9/28/70. Report of The Brussels Declaration. “225 theologians, mostly Catholic, met to discuss `The Future of the Church.’ They called for more democratic methods of choosing the Pope, bishops and priests, for pluralism in both theology and church structure, and urged investigation of a role for women in the ministry. The congress proved an array of theologican superstars including Edward Schillebeeckx and Hans Kung. They expressed solidarity with those working for the liberation of men; among the prisoners singled out were seven Dominicans accused of being members of a terrorist group and the Berrigan brothers, now in prison for destroying US Govermnment draft files. They further suggested that the church should examine seriously the possible role of women in the ministries, and sought for a recognition that the magisteriumn of the church and the theologians serve one same Christian message.”

From TIME, 8/18/67 re Dutch Catechism. “Conservative Dutch laymen objected to the Catechism’s comments on the Virgin Birth and original sin. The Dutch theologians deliberately left open the question of Mary’s biological virginity. Conservatives say that the new catechism contravenes official church teaching on the Eucharist, birth control, man’s soul and the existence of angels.”

From INDEPENDENT PRESS-TELEGRAM, Long Beach, CA 7/24/74. Quotes are from Rev. Peter Riga, theologian of St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA. “`True Christianity neither needs nor should it desire such a fallacious prop. As we move further into modern history, belief in a personal devil will only prove more and more an embarrassment to true Christianity.’ He says that although the Bible includes many references to angels and devils, modern scripture study indicates that they are not necessarily `personal entities’ and `probably are symboolic of reality.’ He says belief in a personal devil `has never been officially defined by the Church.'”

From NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, Fall 1982. GOING MY WAY by Andrew Greeley. “As many as a fifth of the priests and nuns in this country have left the active ministry, and a higher proportion of nuns have withdrawn from religious life, while the number of young men enrolled in seminaries is less that a third of what it was in the early 1900s. Bishops can no longer count on pastors to obey them. Pastors cannot assume that their religious associates will do what they are told. And many parish priests have learned that they must consult with, and not command, the laity. In direct defiance of Rome many parish priests permit women to act as Acolytes at Mass.

“`If the Pope comes to our parish we won’t use them that day,’ says one pastor. Elected Parish Councils challenge the authority of pastors. Local school boards demand the right to set policies and budgets, even to hire staff. . . Ry-Krisp and whiskey instead of bread and wine are taken for granted in many places.”

From TIME, 3/31/67. “`Orthodoxy is the tragedy of Christianity’ says the Rev. Joos Arts, the priest-editor of a Catholic weekly called DE NIEUWE LINIE. `What we need is a re-thinking of all the basic Christianity. We must break away from the formal dogmas of the Catholic Church.’ Methodical Dutch theologians are doing just that. Among the first to attack the Church’s traditional teaching on contraception and clerical celibacy, priests and laymen are now questioning everything from the virginity of Mary to the traditional view that premarital intercourse is sinful.

“Dominican theologian Edward Schillebeeckx, an expert at the Second Vatican Council, proposed that the Resurrection of Jesus may not have been a physical recomposition of his body but a unique kind of spiritual manifestation. `One generally likes to consider his Resurrection,’ he says, `as being the impact of his personality on his disciples and his presence in the hearts of all Christians.'”

“`Dutch theologians also reject original sin as an inherited spiritual stigma on the soul, instead regarding the doctrine as a symbolic way of expressing the truth that man exists in a sinful, imperfect world. For that reason, some thinkers question the need to baptize infants.

“`To say that a human being is born damned and continues to be damned unless he is baptized is utter nonsense,’ says Lay Theologian Daniel de Lange, secretary of the Netherlands’ ecumenical center. Heaven and Hell? Dominican theologian William van der Marck shrugs them off as a myth. `Heaven and hell just do not pre-occupy us any more.'”

CATHOLIC JOURNALS From THE CATHOLIC VOICE, Oakland, CA 11/1/76. Report on Call to Action Conference in Detroit 10/21-23/76. “Participants called on the U.S. Bishops to push for the oridination of women to the priesthood, grant relief to divorced and remarried Catholics and stopped just short of urging unilateral disarmament.”

Reader’s comment in THE CATHOLIC VOICE, Oakland, CA. “The recent Vatican `directive’ on liturgical abuses will insure a revival of triumphalism. It seems like the Roman bureaucracy succeeding locating the window opened by John XXIII to let in the light of day and, of course, fresh air. Needless to say, they are proceeding to shut that window. We are being shoved back through time. A few more `shoves’ and we might make it back to the Council of Trent. This trend makes me somewhat less than enthusiastic. One wonders when the `directive’ will arrive instructing the hierarchy to admonish the laity to practice the virtue of humility by accepting their authentic role in Church, namely, to pay, pray and obey.”