Letter Calling for Plenary Council for US Church

by Several Bishops

17 July 2002
Your Eminence/Your Excellency,

Along with this letter we are forwarding a copy of a Varium we ask that you consider signing. It is a request for our US Bishops' Conference to take the steps that could lead to the celebration of a Plenary Council for the Dioceses and Eparchies in the United States. We have consulted with a significant number of the leaders of the Conference, and they have encouraged us to bring this idea forward so that its merits can be debated and a determination made about its value.

In the last hours of our meeting in Dallas, several of the bishops reminded us that our "Charter" and "Norms" are only a first step in dealing with the crisis of the sexual abuse of minors. What remains for us now is to address the root causes of this crisis. Convoking a Plenary Council seems a most appropriate next step to consider in order to ensure that "this time of trial will bring, as the Holy Father said, "a purification,…a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, a holier Church" (Discourse of 23 April 2002).

We would envision this Plenary Council working in three dimensions to accomplish this purification and growth in holiness:

1) Solemnly receiving the authentic teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar Magisterium:

a) on the identity, life and ministry of bishops and priests (cf., Lumen gentium, Christus dominus, Presbyterorum ordinis, Ordinatio sacerdotalis, Pastores dabo vobis, The Directory for the Life and Ministry of Bishops, The Directory for the Life and Ministry of Priests).

b) on matters of sexual morality in general (cf. Gaudium et spes, Humanae vitae, Veritatis splendor, and Familaris Consortio).

c) on celibate chastity, as an authentic form of human sexuality renewed by grace and a share in Christ's own spousal love for His Church, a powerful expression of that pastoral charity which is the very soul of the holiness required of those who are, at ordination, configured to Christ, Head and Shepherd of His Church.

2) Giving unequivocal endorsement and normative force to the means outlined in the documents of the Council and in the post-conciliar Magisterium to foster the acts of virtue required of pastors and the means needed to achieve those virtues, especially celibate chastity, e.g., daily celebration of the Mass, frequent Confession, spiritual direction, daily meditation, regular acts of asceticism, obedient submission to Church teaching and discipline, simplicity of life.

3) Confirming the bishops in the authoritative exercise of our ministry for the health and well being of the Church, and strengthening our coworkers in the Presbyterate in their ministry of teaching the Gospel, especially in regard to sexual morality, so that we can give support to the lay faithful in responding to their call to holiness.

We see these results as the significant achievements that we could look for from a Plenary Council:

1) It would provide a galvanizing focus that is authentically evangelical and true to the Church's identity and tradition.

2) It witnesses unambiguously to the fact that the Church relies on the grace of the Holy Spirit as her preeminent resource in confronting the causes of this crisis.

3) It would involve all strata of the People of God in the experience, and this would help create a wide ecclesial consciousness about the direction set for the Church by the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar Magisterium.

4) It would offer the clearest and fullest modality for the US bishops to act collegially, at a time when common thought and action are most needed.

5) As an authoritative body, a Plenary Council would have maximal impact in shaping the ecclesial culture throughout the United States — across all regions and in dimensions — into a culture of reform and renewed adherence to a Gospel way of life.

6) It would give a definite stamp to identifying what is the authentic heritage of the Second Vatican Council in regard to a central element of ecclesial life, viz., the life of her pastors and our relation of service to our people.

Enclosed you will also find a document entitled "Exposition on a Plenary Council Proposed for the Church in the United States." Some of us developed it to offer a more detailed discussion of the topic, along with background on the nature of a Plenary Council. We forward it to assist you in your further reflection as you decide how you will respond to this initiative.

Our motive in writing is to share with our brother bishops an inspiration that we think is worthy of your consideration. We invite you to join us in asking that the Action Items outlined in the enclosed Varium be placed on the agenda of our November 2002 meeting, for debate, possible amendment, and all other processes that are in order, through to bringing the proposals to a vote. If you, too, think the Varium should go forward, we ask that you sign the enclosed and return it as indicated at the bottom of the page.

Fraternally yours in Christ,

Varium Regarding the Convoking of a Plenary Council by the USCCB

I, the undersigned member of the USCCB, ask that these "Action items" be on the agenda for the November 2002 meeting of the Conference:

1. Do the members of the USCCB agree to convoke a Plenary Council for the particular Churches in the United States, and to request the approval of the Holy See for this action, according to the norms of canons 439, 441, 443-446 (CIC).

A) Solemnly receiving the authentic teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar Magisterium:

i) on the identity, life and ministry of bishops and priests

ii) on matters of sexual morality in general

iii) on celibate chastity, as an authentic form of human sexuality renewed by grace and a share in Christ's own spousal love for His Church;

B) Giving unequivocal endorsement and normative force to the means outlined in the documents of the Council and in the post-conciliar Magisterium to foster the acts of virtue required of pastors and the means needed to achieve those virtues, especially celibate chastity;

C) Confirming the bishops in the authoritative exercise of our ministry for the health and well being of the Church and strengthening our coworkers in the Presbyterate in their ministry of teaching the Gospel, especially in regard to sexual morality, so that we can give support to the lay faithful in responding to their call to holiness.

2. Shall the members of the USCCB proceed immediately to electing a President for the Plenary Council?

3. Do the members of the USCCB designate all the Metropolitan Archbishops in the United States, or their equivalent in law, as the General Preparatory Commission to work with the President in preparing for the Plenary Council? This General Preparatory Commission is charged with:

a. Naming the Secretary for the Council

b. Establishing an Executive Committee to which the Preparatory Commission shall delegate the authority it judges appropriate,

c. Establishing these preparatory sub-commissions it deems needed to prepare for the Council and designating the scope of the work given to each.

d. Presenting to the members of the USCCB at our June 2003 meeting a proposal for the Council's agenda, its place, and the date and duration for its meeting — about which items the Commission will have consulted with the Holy See.

e. Determining who, in addition to bishops, shall be invited to the Council, in accordance with canon 443, and determining what qualifications in addition to the Profession of Faith and the Oath of Fidelity shall be required for such (text missing)

4. Do a (text missing) the resources of the Conference at the disposition of the Plenary Council (text missing) Commission in planning for and celebrating the Council?

Signature

Exposition on a Plenary Council Proposed for the Church in the United States

A. This Moment in the History of the Church

With the gracious help of Almighty God, at our meeting in Dallas we agreed to a "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" and a set of "Norms" to make the course we charted particular law in the US. We trust that, with the Lord's unfailing assistance, we have started on the road that will ensure the safety of children and young people, while restoring the confidence of the faithful in their pastors.

In our efforts to respond to the crisis caused by the abuse of minors by clergy we experienced in a profound way the support of our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, and of those who work with him as officials of the Holy See. In their meetings with our brothers — the Officers of our Conference and the Cardinals of the United States, we witnessed once more the fulfillment of the Lord's prayer that "Peter would strengthen the brethren" (cf. Lk. 22:32).

Now that we have left Dallas, we turn to the more far-reaching challenge that the Holy Father set for us in his address of 23 April: "That this time of trial…bring a purification of the entire Catholic community… So much pain, so much sorrow must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, and a holier Church."

This admonition from the Successor of Peter is rooted in the Apostolic faith we all share: that God never fails to work in the history of His Church. St. Paul affirms in his Letter to the Romans that "for those who love God, all things work unto the good" (Rm 8:28). In what can surely be recognized as an echo of this admonition, many of the great doctors and saints of the Church have never tired of calling their hearers to abandon themselves to Divine Providence. And on our last day in Dallas, we heard this Gospel summons restated with compelling simplicity by Archbishop Wilson. Some of the spiritual writers have offered a particularly gripping formulation of this call by inviting their hearers to recognize "The Sacrament of the Present Moment." In the midst of the difficulties the Church is currently experiencing as a result of clergy sexual wrong doing, we like you, have been giving a great deal of prayerful attention to trying to understand how, for the Church, this moment is a sacrament of God's loving presence, how for those of us who love God, this is one of those "things that work unto the good."

One way to grasp how this very painful moment is a "Sacrament" is to understand that it is a "crisis" in the sense that this word is used in St. John's Gospel. There "crisis" is the name for the time in which the Lord invites his listeners to make a decision which leads to new life. In fact, a significant number of the bishops' interventions — especially toward the end of our Friday session — made this very point.

Such an evangelical interpretation of the current "crisis" makes clear that our response must be measured by the Gospel. In confronting this fork in the road along the path to the New Jerusalem, we must make the choice that advances us in the way of holiness and eschew any detour or by-way. All of this is to say that we must cooperate with God's Providence to transform these events into a "kairos," and occasion to work for the renewal of the grace-life that is the real life of the Church.

Now to invoke this larger theme is not to deny that we bishops had first to be about responding to the immediate matters that confronted us: all the work we did on the way to Dallas, what we accomplished there, and what we are doing to follow-up on the solemn pledges we made. However, as many of us have said, there are side issues to face: What has happened to the life and ministry of bishops and priests that makes us vulnerable to the failings that have humiliated us all? What things need to be going on so that in this cultural milieu priests and bishops will preserve their celibate chastity along with all the other virtues that constitute the life of holiness proper to pastors? How can the purification upon which we shepherds have embarked help us, in turn, support our people in achieving greater holiness. And these questions can only find their proper answers by recourse to the truths witnessed to in Scripture and Tradition.

Already in the April meeting the Holy Father pointed out the inevitability of this recourse to revealed truth in order to get at the roots of our crisis, when he affirmed that "Bishops and priests [must be] totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life." And this same principle was echoed by our brothers the next day when they affirmed that "the pastors of the church need clearly to promote the correct moral teaching of the church and publicly to reprimand individuals who spread dissent and groups which advance ambiguous approaches to pastoral care" (Cardinals' Statement, 24 April 2002).

We know that in the revelation of Jesus Christ we have all the resources we need to transform this time of trial and distress into a "day that the Lord has made." Our only hope is meeting, and leading our clergy and people to meet, the living Word of God. This moment is one more of those occasions when God calls his spouse "back out into the desert to fall in love again" (cf. Ho 2:14-16). We must witness with all the authority of our Apostolic ministry to bedrock Gospel principles, and we must chart a course of action on the basis of these principles.

B. Responding to the Moment.

Given the interpretation of the "Sacrament of this Moment" offered above, what is the proper way to respond? In addition to the usual avenues available to us nationally and locally, we are proposing a Varium to have the USCCB request the convoking of a Plenary Council for our nation to meet as soon as is reasonably possible. (The last Plenary Council in the United States was Baltimore III, held in 1884.) Such an approach comes to mind as one needed at this moment, because in the long experience of the Church the taking of action by bishops through a council or synod has been a tried and true strategy to advance reform.

This approach has born great fruit through the ages because a Council is the clearest and most solemn way for a group of bishops to witness to the Gospel truths whose light marks out the path for renewal Christ wills for his Church. When the bishops of the United States address the long-range implications of this crisis in a Plenary Council, we will testify to our faith about what counts for success in dealing with our problems, and to our hope that in the power of the Holy Spirit Christ will triumph.

We would envision this Plenary Council working in three dimensions to advance that purification which will be the ultimate measure of whether or not we have succeeded in meeting the current crisis:

1) Solemnly receiving the authentic teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar Magisterium:

a) on the identity, life and ministry of bishops and priests (cf., Lumen gentium, Christus dominus, Presbyterorum ordinis, Ordinatio sacerdotalis, Pastores dabo vobis, The Directory for the Life and Ministry of Bishops, The Directory for the Life and Ministry of Priests).

b) on matters of sexual morality in general (cf. Gaudium et spes, Humanae vitae, Veritatis splendor, and Familaris Consortio)

c) on celibate chastity, as an authentic form of human sexuality renewed by grace and a share in Christ's own spousal love for His Church, a powerful expression of that pastoral charity which is the very soul of the holiness required of those who are, at ordination, configured to Christ, Head and Shepherd of His Church.

2) Giving unequivocal endorsement and normative force to the means outlined in the documents of the Council and in the post-conciliar Magisterium to foster the acts of virtue required of pastors and the means needed to achieve those virtues, especially celibate chastity, e.g., daily celebration of the Mass, frequent Confession, spiritual direction, daily meditation, regular acts of asceticism, obedient submission to Church teaching and discipline, simplicity of life.

3) Confirming the bishops in the authoritative exercise of our ministry for the health and well being of the Church, and strengthening our coworkers in the Presbyterate in their ministry of teaching the Gospel, especially in regard to sexual morality, so that we can give support to the lay faithful in responding to their call to holiness.

C. About the Nature of a Plenary Council.

1) According to the Code of Canon Law, Plenary Councils are convoked by a conference of bishops with the approval of the Holy See, whenever the conference thinks it necessary or useful (Cans. 439, 441). The conference also selects the place for the celebration of the Council, the president of the Council, and the agenda and questions to be treated, the opening, duration and any eventual transfer, extension or dissolution (Can. 441)

2) The following persons must be invited to a Plenary Council: diocesan bishops, coadjutor bishops and auxiliary bishops, titular bishops performing a special function committed to them by the Holy See or the conference of bishops. These have a deliberative vote. Other titular bishops in the territory can also be invited and given a deliberative vote (Can 443 1-2).

3) The following persons must also be invited, and have a consultative vote: vicars general and Episcopal vicars of all the particular churches in the territory, major superiors of religious institutes and societies of apostolic life in a number determined by the bishops (and elected by religious), rectors of ecclesiastical and Catholic universities, deans of faculties of theology and canon law in the territory, and some rectors of major seminaries (elected by their peers). Priests and faithful can also be called in a number not to exceed half of those previously mentioned, and their vote is consultative (Can 443.3-4).

4) A Plenary Council provides for the pastoral needs of the faithful and has the power of governance, especially legislative power. It can decide what is opportune for the increase of faith, the organization of common pastoral action and the regulation of morals and common ecclesiastical discipline (Can. 445).

5) Following a Plenary Council the acts are sent to the Holy See. Decrees can be promulgated after review and recognition by the Holy See (Can. 446).

D. Our Rationale

We acknowledge that there are some negative aspects to our proposal:

1) This modality for common action by the bishops can seem little different from our acting as a national conference, and so appear not only redundant but more cumbersome.

2) If we operate in a Plenary Council with leaders and staff that are markedly distinct from the USCCB, does this call into question the credibility of the conference? At a minimum, would this approach be wasteful of scarce resources?

3) The time required to prepare for a Plenary Council might needlessly delay action required sooner rather than later.

4) If we gather in Plenary Council and produce no effective result, the Church is worse off.

5) And perhaps, more significantly, there is the danger that the bishops at a Plenary Council could have their freedom impeded by public opinion, e.g., the holding a sort of parallel Council, with experts and pundits, outside of the aula.

However, we feel that the goods to be achieved outweigh these problems:

1) A Plenary Council would provide a galvanizing focus that is authentically evangelical and true to the Church's identity and tradition.

2) It witnesses unambiguously to the fact that the Church relies on the grace of the Holy Spirit as her preeminent resource in confronting the causes of this crisis.

3) It would involve all strata of the People of God in the experience, and this would help create a wide ecclesial consciousness about the direction set for the Church by the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar Magisterium.

4) It would offer the clearest and fullest modality for the US bishops to act collegially, at a time when common thought and action are most needed.

5) As an authoritative body, a Plenary Council would have maximal impact in shaping the ecclesial culture throughout the United States — across all regions and in dimensions — into a culture of reform and renewed adherence to a Gospel way of life.

6) It would give a definite stamp to identifying what is the authentic heritage of the Second Vatican Council in regard to a central element of ecclesial life, viz., the life of her pastors and our relation of service to our people.

We understand that some might well ask, "Why go to all this trouble, when we bishops can cover the same topics during a meeting of our Conference?" Yes, but we would act under a very different formality. Gathered in the semi-annual assemblies of our Conference, we can with great benefit take up matters of policy and the direction of the Church. Acting as Fathers of a Council, we would clearly be engaged in a common act of teaching and governing. As the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council reminds us,

From the earliest ages of the Church, bishops in charge of particular Churches, inspired by a spirit of fraternal charity and zeal for the universal mission entrusted to the Apostles, have pooled their resources and their aspirations in order to promote both the common good and the good of individual Churches. With this end in view synods, provincial councils and, finally, plenary councils were established in which the bishops determined on a common program to be followed in various Churches both for teaching the truths of the faith and for regulating ecclesiastical discipline (Christus dominus, 36).

In fact, we can understand our request for a Plenary Council as nothing other than a response to the vision of the Council Fathers, for they wrote, "This sacred Ecumenical Synod expresses its earnest hope that these admirable institutions — synods and councils — may flourish with renewed vigor" (ibid.) Living the mystery of the Church to which they bore witness in Lumen gentium, we would show that teaching the Gospel is the first act of governing in the Church and that governing in the Church is always nothing less than an act of transmitting revealed truth, since the deposit we safeguard is the Christ-life entrusted to the Church (see Dei verbum, 8). For bishops of the United States to come together in this most solemn common act of teaching and governing the Churches entrusted to our care is an answer to Christ's challenge: "Duc in altum".

This item 4365 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org