ARTICLES

Rome Has Spoken

LOCAL RESPONSE TO VATICAN DOCUMENT ON THE LAITY

By George Neumayr

One might have expected an immediate, energetic, and public response from Bay Area dioceses to the Vatican's new document condemning widespread "abuses" such as the "habitual use" of extraordinary eucharistic ministers. After all, the instruction--entitled The Collaboration of the Non-ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priests--carries full papal authority and the signatures of eight Vatican dicasteries heads (Congregation for the Clergy, Pontifical Council for the Laity, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Congregation for Bishops, Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Pontificial Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts).

Moreover, the document is entrusted to the "pastoral zeal" of bishops and concludes with the statement, "All particular laws, customs and faculties conceded by the Holy See ad experimentum or other ecclesiastical authorities which are contrary to the foregoing norms are hereby revoked." In other words, the document's norms trump any pre-existing practices permitted by sleepy or ideologically liberal bishops.

But pastoral zeal is difficult to find--that is, at least after more than a half a dozen phone calls to local chancery offices. Sister Barbara Flannery, chancellor for the Oakland diocese, reached on December 16, more than a month after the document's release, knew of no diocesan plans to implement it: "I don't think anything has happened yet." Asked if the diocese ever holds priests' workshops on Vatican documents, she responded, "Over the last three years, we haven't had any," adding that she couldn't remember "any workshops around Vatican documents," but could remember "workshops around USCC documents" and a workshop on the "Bishops' Pastoral Letter on Economics."

Sister Patricia Mulpeters, head of the pastoral ministry office for the San Jose diocese, reached on December 18, knew of no plans to implement the document either. "There are no plans afoot." She said, "We will review it," but didn't "anticipate too much" feedback. "There is no new ground broken here," she said. And who will "review it"? That is, who makes up the office of pastoral ministry? "All of our associates are lay," she replied. Mulpeters, asked if the San Jose diocese has ever held a priests' workshop to examine a Vatican document, said, "I can't remember...I'm not sure."

The San Francisco archdiocese's response to the document is also fuzzy. After two inquiries, the archdiocesan communications office did not have a response. Meanwhile, Dr. Kenneth Weare, the director of the San Francisco Archdiocesan School of Pastoral Leadership, which trains "lay ministers," said that he won't incorporate the document into the school's curriculum. "There is no need to do that." The only section in the document worth highlighting for his students is the one that "thanks the laity," he said.

Lay Catholics and priests interviewed on this subject, however, indicate that local dioceses could profit from a vigorous, rather than leisurely, application of the Vatican's directives.

A San Jose Catholic speaks of fleeing from a parish which was largely run by a lay "parish council," adding, "The priest [was] not even on the organizational chart."

Two San Francisco priests say that the "habitual use" of extraordinary ministers is now the norm at most parishes. "That's a bad one," says a priest. "They have all bought into the notion that you should get the laity involved as much as possible in the liturgical actions....I don't know of any parish where I haven't been told to sit and let the extraordinary ministers distribute communion."

The other priest agrees that sometimes "priests sit down while the extraordinary ministers give out communion...."

A San Francisco Catholic says that after mass he occasionally wonders, "Is this Catholicism or Protestantism?" He continues, "I went to mass one day and instead of getting a homily from the priest we heard from a lay woman. As she climbed into the pulpit, the priest crawled into a pew to join the congregation. I was a bit dismayed that this woman appeared to be giving the sermon. I mean, if that's not a back-door attempt to clericalize the laity, then what is?"

Phil Sevilla, an Oakland Catholic, sees the same tendency to clericalize the laity in the East Bay: "Extraordinary ministers are virtually ubiquitious, no matter how many priests are serving a parish...And we have at least one instance where a lay person is acting like a de facto pastor."

Finally, calls made to local Catholic hospitals reveal that the Vatican text's section on "appropriate terminology" deserves special attention. "It is unlawful for the non-ordained faithful to assume the titles such as 'pastor,' 'chaplain,' 'coordinator,' 'moderator' or other such similar titles which can confuse their role and that of the Pastor, who is always a Bishop or Priest," states the text. But Fr. Ives at O'Connor hospital in the South Bay uses the term: "We do have lay chaplains." As does Deacon Olson at Seton Medical Center in Daly City: "We have two lay chaplains...." Asked if the "lay chaplains" would receive a copy of the Vatican document from the chaplaincy office, he said no. And as for the document itself, he said, "I would just as soon not comment on that."

TOP