Vatican Survey to Select Bishops 'Could be Illegal'

Barney Zwartz
March 12, 2011 from the Sidney Morning Herald

"A SECRET Vatican document used to research possible bishops almost certainly breaches Australian anti-discrimination laws and seems designed to ensure only the most conformist candidates can be promoted.

The questionnaire, sent to trusted clergy and a few laypeople by the Pope's ambassador, asks about the candidate's personal qualities, orthodoxy, loyalty to the Pope, commitment to celibacy and opposition to women priests, and his public image. It asks about predisposition to hereditary illness and the family's "condition"...
"...Its spokesman Paul Collins said the document's deficiencies were more important than usual because several bishops will retire in Australia in the next two years, including the archbishops of Brisbane, Perth and Hobart.

He said the questionnaires were used to assess candidates before the Papal Nuncio (Pope's ambassador) presented a shortlist to the Pope.

Dr Collins said among the objectionable requirements were fidelity to the "genuine tradition of the church'' and ''authentic renewal" promoted by the 1960s reforming Vatican Council, which meant support for the current papal line of reversing these reforms.

The most iniquitous requirement was adherence to the 1998 Statement of Conclusions imposed on Australian bishops.

"The Australian bishops were said to be far too egalitarian and laissez-faire. The views of a tiny unrepresentative group were adopted by the Curia and forced on the bishops without consultation," Dr Collins said.

The present system ensured appointed bishops were conformists whose primary gaze was upwards to the Pope rather than down towards the church. Pastoral aspects took a minor place in the questionnaire.

"The bishops are like Hitler's generals in that their oath of loyalty to the Pope utterly cripples them. They are unable to take any action contrary to Rome, and seem not to be interested in the local church," Dr Collins said."