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‘I cannot keep silent’: Benedict XVI and Cdl Sarah defend priestly celibacy in new book
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<div class="gmail-article-subtitle"><a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/i-cannot-keep-silent-benedict-xvi-and-cdl-sarah-defend-priestly-celibacy-in-new-book">https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/i-cannot-keep-silent-benedict-xvi-and-cdl-sarah-defend-priestly-celibacy-in-new-book</a></div><div class="gmail-article-subtitle">Benedict: 'Married men could only receive the sacrament of Holy Orders if they had committed themselves to sexual abstinence.’</div><div><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><br></span></div><div><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">ROME, January 12, 2020 (</span><a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/catholic">LifeSiteNews</a>)
— <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah have co-authored a new book on
priestly celibacy,</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>taking a firm stand against <span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)">the priestly ordination
of married men</span> in the Latin Church. </b></span></div><div class="gmail-single-article-ctr"><div class="gmail-col-sm-10"><div class="gmail-article-text-wrapper gmail-single-article-body">
<p>The timing of<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b> the new volume i</b></span>s significant. It<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"> <b>comes ahead of Pope
Francis’s highly anticipated post-apostolic exhortation on <span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)">the recent
Synod of Bishops on the Amazon</span></b><span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)">.</span></span> The meeting, which took place in October
at the Vatican, proposed creating an exception to celibacy in the Latin
priesthood.</p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">Titled,
“From the Depths of Our Hearts,” [De profoundeur de nos cœurs] the new
book by the pope emeritus and the prefect of the Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments will first be released in
French on January 15.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b>“The
ability to renounce marriage in order to place oneself totally at the
Lord’s disposal is <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">a criterion for the priestly ministry</span>,” Benedict XVI
writes in the new book. “</b></span></span>As for the concrete form of celibacy in the
ancient Church, it should also be pointed out that married men could
only receive the sacrament of Holy Orders if they had committed
themselves to sexual abstinence, that is to say, to a Josephite
marriage. Such a situation seems to have been quite normal during the
first centuries.”</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)"><b>During the Amazon Synod last October, the synod fathers discussed the
possibility of ordaining married men (viri probati) in the region as an
exception.</b></span></p>
<p>In the wake of the synod, <span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)"><b>key members of the German hierarchy openly
said that if such an exception is created, they too will make a push for
married priests in Germany.</b></span></p>
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<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">It
is unknown where exactly Pope Francis stands on the issue of opening an
exception for married clergy in the Latin Church. On January 27, 2019,
during an inflight press conference on his return from Panama, Francis </span><a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2019/january/documents/papa-francesco_20190127_panama-volo-ritorno.html">said</a>
he “personally” believes “celibacy is a gift to the Church” and does
“not agree with allowing celibacy as an option.” But he added that he
might envisage “some possibilities for very remote places,” like the
Pacific Islands, where there is a “pastoral necessity.” </p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">This stance was reflected in the </span><a href="http://www.sinodoamazonico.va/content/sinodoamazonico/en/documents/final-document-of-the-amazon-synod.html">final document</a>
of the Amazon Synod. In section 111 of the document, which passed by a
two thirds majority, the authors state: “We appreciate celibacy as a
gift of God (SC1967 1) to the extent that this gift enables the
missionary disciple, ordained to the priesthood, to dedicate himself
fully to the service of the Holy People of God.”</p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">However, the </span><a href="http://www.sinodoamazonico.va/content/sinodoamazonico/en/documents/final-document-of-the-amazon-synod.html">document</a>
went on to note that “some [of the synod fathers] were in favor of a
more universal approach to the subject” and therefore proposed that
“suitable and respected men of the community with a legitimately
constituted and stable family, who have had a fruitful permanent
diaconate and receive an adequate formation for the priesthood” be
ordained “in order to sustain the life of the Christian community … in
the most remote areas of the Amazon region.” </p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">The
new book by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah
therefore comes amid a discussion on married priests opened by Francis
and allows their voices to be heard. </span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">“I
cannot in conscience, as a son of Africa, support the idea that the
peoples on the road to evangelization should be deprived of this
encounter with a priesthood lived to the full,” Cardinal Sarah writes in
the new book. “The peoples of Amazonia have the right to a full
experience of Christ the Bridegroom. They cannot be offered ‘second
class’ priests. On the contrary, the younger a Church is, the more it
needs to meet the radical nature of the Gospel.”</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">The
book also comes in the wake of a crisis in priestly formation and
homosexual corruption that enabled prelates such as former cardinal and
convicted sex abuser Theodore McCarrick to ascend the ranks of the
hierarchy unchecked.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">In
the introduction, the pope emeritus and the Guinean cardinal explain
that the volume was born out of silence, prayer, and a series of
conversations and letters they exchanged in recent months.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">With
the fourth century doctor of the Church, St. Augustine, they affirm: “I
cannot keep silent! I know how pernicious silence would be for me. For I
do not wish to wallow in ecclesiastical honors, but I think that it is
to Christ, the first of the Pastors, that I will have to give an account
of the sheep entrusted to my care. I cannot keep silent or claim
ignorance.”</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">Once
news of the book broke in French, Mark Brumley took to Twitter
announcing that Ignatius Press will be publishing the volume under the
title: “From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy, and the
Crisis of the Catholic Church.” The book will be available for pre-order
on Monday, January 13 and will ship on February 20. </span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">“Their
book is not just about priestly celibacy, important as that is in
itself,” said Ignatius Press founder and editor Father Joseph Fessio in a
press release on Sunday. “It is about, as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
describes it in his first paragraph: ‘the lasting crisis that the
priesthood has been going through for many years.’ But it is about more
than that; it is about the nature of the Church and of Christian
discipleship. This is a book that all should read. It is powerful and
personal — from the depths of their hearts.”</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">Key passages from the new volume were published as an exclusive by the French daily <a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/celibat-des-pretres-le-cri-d-alarme-de-benoit-xvi-20200112">Le Figaro</a>
on Sunday. Here below we publish an unofficial English translation of
several excerpts. Passages taken from the introduction and conclusion of
the book were written jointly by Benedict XVI and Cardinal Sarah. </span></p>
<p align="center">* * *</p>
<p><strong><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">I CANNOT KEEP SILENT</span></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">In
recent months, as the world resounded with the din created by a strange
media synod that was taking precedence over the real synod, we met. We
exchanged ideas and concerns. We prayed and meditated in silence. Each
one of our meetings gave us a sense of comfort and calm. Our reflections
in different ways led us to exchange letters. The similarity of our
concerns and the convergence of our conclusions led us to put the fruit
of our work and our spiritual friendship at the disposal of all the
faithful, following the example of St. Augustine. Indeed, like him we
can affirm: “Silere non possum! I cannot keep silent! I know how
pernicious silence would be for me. For I do not wish to wallow in
ecclesiastical honors, but I think that it is to Christ, the first of
the Pastors, that I will have to give an account of the sheep entrusted
to my care. I cannot keep silent or claim ignorance.” (...) We do so in a
spirit of love for the unity of the Church. If ideology divides, truth
unites hearts. Studying the doctrine of salvation can only unite the
Church around its divine Master. We do so in a spirit of charity.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><em>—Introduction</em> </span></p>
<p><strong><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">ONTOLOGICAL ABSTINENCE</span></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">The
daily celebration of the Eucharist, which implies a permanent state of
service to God, does not spontaneously leave the impossibility of a
matrimonial bond. It can be said that sexual abstinence which was
functional has transformed itself into ontological abstinence. (...)
Nowadays, it is too easily claimed that all this is simply the
consequence of a disregard for corporeality and sexuality. (...) Such a
judgment is erroneous. To prove this, we need only recall that the
Church has always considered marriage as a gift granted by God from
heaven on earth. However, the conjugal state concerns man in his
totality, and since the service of the Lord also requires the total gift
of man, it does not seem possible to realize the two vocations
simultaneously. Thus, the ability to renounce marriage in order to place
oneself totally at the Lord’s disposal is a criterion for the priestly
ministry. As for the concrete form of celibacy in the ancient Church, it
should also be pointed out that married men could only receive the
sacrament of Holy Orders if they had committed themselves to sexual
abstinence, that is to say, to a Josephite marriage. Such a situation
seems to have been quite normal during the first centuries.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><em>—</em></span><em><span>Benedict XVI</span></em></p>
<p><strong><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">RENUNCIATION OF ALL COMPROMISE</span></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">Without
the renunciation of material goods, there can be no priesthood. The
call to follow Jesus is not possible without this sign of freedom and
renunciation of all compromise. I believe that celibacy has great
significance as the abandonment of a possible earthly domain and circle
of family life; celibacy even becomes truly indispensable so that our
journey towards God can remain the foundation of our life and express
itself concretely. This means, of course, that celibacy must permeate
all the attitudes of life with its demands. It cannot attain its full
meaning if we conform to the rules of property and the attitudes of life
commonly practiced today. There can be no stability if we do not put
our union with God at the center of our lives.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><em>—</em></span><em><span>Benedict XVI</span></em></p>
<p><strong><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">THE MISSION OF THE PRIEST</span></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">What
does it mean to be a priest of Jesus Christ? (...) The essence of the
priestly ministry is defined in the first place by the fact of standing
before the Lord, to keep watch for Him, being there for Him. (...) This
means for us to stand before the Lord who is present; that is, it points
to the Eucharist as the center of priestly life. (...) The priest must
be someone who watches. He must be vigilant in the face of the
threatening powers of evil. He must keep the world alert for God. He
must be someone who stands on the edge: straight in the face of the
current of time. Straight in the truth. Straight in commitment to the
service of good. Standing before the Lord must always also mean taking
care of men before the Lord who, in turn, takes care of all of us before
the Father. And this must mean supporting Christ, his Word, his truth,
his love. The priest must be upright, courageous and even willing to
suffer insults for the Lord. (...) The priest must be a person full of
rectitude, vigilant, who stands upright. To all this is added the need
to serve. (...) If the liturgy is a central duty of the priest, it also
means that prayer must be a priority reality which must be learned ever
anew and ever more deeply at the school of Christ and of the saints of
all times.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><em>—</em></span><em><span>Benedict XVI</span></em></p>
<p><strong><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">WHAT DOES THE WORD “HOLY” MEAN?</span></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">The
word “holy” expresses the special nature of God. He alone is the Holy
One. Man becomes holy in the measure that he begins to be with God. To
be with God is to set aside that which is only the "I" and become one
with the whole of God's life. However, this liberation of the self can
be very painful, and is never accomplished once and for all. However,
the term “sanctify” can also be understood in a very concrete way to
mean priestly ordination, in the sense that it implies that the living
God radically claims a man in order to make him serve Him.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><em>—</em></span><em><span>Benedict XVI</span></em></p>
<p><strong><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">NO SECOND-CLASS PRIESTS</span></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">Priestly
celibacy well understood, if it is sometimes a trial, is a liberation.
It allows the priest to establish himself coherently in his identity as
spouse of the Church. The project of depriving communities and priests
of this joy is not a work of mercy. I cannot in conscience, as a son of
Africa, support the idea that the peoples on the road to evangelization
should be deprived of this encounter with a priesthood lived to the
full. The peoples of Amazonia have the right to a full experience of
Christ the Bridegroom. They cannot be offered “second class” priests. On
the contrary, the younger a Church is, the more it needs to meet the
radicality of the Gospel.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><em>—</em></span><em><span>Cardinal Robert Sarah</span></em></p>
<p><strong><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">IT IS A LIE TO TALK ABOUT EXCEPTIONS</span></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">The
ordination of married men, even if they were previously permanent
deacons, is not an exception, but a breach, a wound in the coherence of
the priesthood. To speak of exceptions is an abuse of language or a lie
(...). Moreover, the ordination of married men in young Christian
communities would forbid the fostering of priestly vocations of
unmarried priests. The exception would become a permanent state
prejudicial to the proper understanding of the priesthood.</span></p>
<p><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><em>—</em></span><em><span>Cardinal Robert Sarah</span></em></p>
<p><strong><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">THE CHURCH IS NOT A HUMAN ORGANIZATION...</span></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53">We
live in sadness and suffering in these difficult and troubled times. It
was our sacred duty to recall the truth of the Catholic priesthood. For
through him the whole beauty of the Church is called into question. The
Church is not just a human organization. She is a mystery. She is the
mystical Bride of Christ. This is what our priestly celibacy constantly
reminds the world of. It is urgent, necessary, that everyone, bishops,
priests and lay people, no longer allow themselves to be impressed by
bad pleas, theatrical productions, diabolical lies, and fashionable
errors that seek to devalue priestly celibacy. It is urgent, necessary,
that all, bishops, priests and laity, rediscover a gaze of faith on the
Church and on priestly celibacy which protects its mystery. This will be
the best defense against the spirit of division, against the political
spirit but also against the spirit of indifference and relativism.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-4e2e1ab3-7fff-5573-d1ec-236891450d53"><em>—</em></span><span><em>Conclusion</em></span></p>
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