Letters

Bishop Power (letter)

Fr G.H. Duggan SM

Contents - Dec 2002 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Christmas 2002: the state of the Church - Peter Westmore New Vatican Instruction on priesthood: the challenge to be another Christ - AD2000 Report News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 Education: Most teachers reject Church teaching: ACU professor - Michael Gilchrist Books: Biography of Archbishop Pell launched in Melbourne: author interviewed Thomas Groome: his influence on religious education continues - Eamonn Keane Brisbane Synod 2003: a leadership challenge - Peter D. Howard 'New' ecumenism fights secular culture: Protestant theologian Archbishop Chaput: what makes a good leader? - Archbishop Charles J. Chaput The sound of thunder and laughter: Hilaire Belloc re-considered -  A.G. Evans Letters: The Pell case (letter) - Alan A. Hoysted Letters: Clergy support (letter) - Peter R. McNamara Letters: Anti-Catholicism (letter) - Glenn Talaue Letters: Women's Commission (1) (letter) - Sr Breda O'Reilly Letters: Women's Commission (2) (letter) - Dr Myles M. Kehoe Letters: Bishops' initiative (letter) - Therese Vassarotti Letters: Bishop Power (letter) - Fr G.H. Duggan SM Letters: St Maria Goretti (letter) - Anne Buchan Letters: 'Misandry' (letter) - Name and address supplied Letters: Forgiveness (letter) - John Schmid Letters: Visionary (letter) - Tom King Letters: Newman (letter) - Rev Julius C. Stonehouse Letters: Apologetics (letter) - Geoff Storey Poetry: The New Year - D.C. Craig Books: Bio-Engagement: Making a Christian Difference through Bioethics Today - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: Eucharistic Devotion : renewing a timeless tradition / Heart of St Alphonsus - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: Barb of Fire: Twenty Poems of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: Beyond the Blue Glass: Catholic Essays on Faith and Culture, Aidan Nichols OP - Tracey Rowland (reviewer) Books: Top Ten AD2000 Books for 2002 Books: Ideal Christmas Gifts from AD Books Reflection: John Paul II on Christmas: 'the mystery of humanity redeemed by Christ' - Pope John Paul II

In your measured comments on the views of Bishop Power (October AD2000), you hit several nails on the head.

As you pointed out, the Pope's teaching on the impossibility of conferring the Catholic priesthood on a woman was definitive. Indeed, it is enough to read the definition of the First Vatican Council to see that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis fulfilled all four conditions laid down by the Council for the exercise of the Pope's prerogative of personal infallibility conferred on St Peter, for whom alone Christ prayed, as He said at the Last Supper (Luke 22:32). These conditions, it may be remarked, did not include prior consultation of his brother bishops or an explicit statement that he was exercising this prerogative.

I am afraid that the plea for "optional celibacy" is really a plea for a married priesthood. In those churches in which the ministers may marry, some choose celibacy, exercising that option.

As for homosexuality, this is an ambiguous term. It may designate the orientation, or the homosexual act called sodomy. That this action is strictly forbidden by God is very plain (Leviticus 18:22), and St Paul is equally clear (Romans 1:27; 1 Corinthians 6:9). Boswell and others have tried to explain away this teaching, but their sophistry will deceive only those who want to be deceived.

In his Summa (P. II-II, q. 154, a. 11) St Thomas explains why God has forbidden sodomy. It is because this use of the genital organs is contrary to that for which they were intended by God, the Author of nature. They belong, as any textbook of anatomy makes clear, to the reproductive system, that is, their purpose is the transmission of human life. In sodomy, this purpose is frustrated. That is why St Thomas remarks that sodomy, unlike fornication, is rightly described as an unnatural vice.

FR G.H. DUGGAN SM
Silverstream, New Zealand

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 15 No 11 (December 2002 - January 2003), p. 14