"Arlington Diocese Parishioners Question Need for Fidelity Oaths" by Michelle Boorstein,/" Will Catholic Teachers Be Forced by Bishops To Throw Away Their Birth Control Pills? " Reflection by Bridget Mary Meehan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/sunday-school-teachers-balk-at-oath-agreeing-to-all-church-teachings/2012/07/11/gJQAcAvGeW_story.html
Will Catholic teachers be forced by  the Catholic hierarchy to throw away their birth control pills?  How will a diocesan bishop, like Paul Loverde, check out compliance? In response to "Arlington Parishioners Question need for fidelity oaths" in the Washington Post July 12, 1012, I argue that church mandated fidelity oaths are a violation of freedom of conscience.  


Primacy of Conscience is a core Catholic moral belief that even the pope himself affirms. Fr. Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) expressed the Church’s understanding of the primacy of conscience – an understanding which he stated  while serving as Chair of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Tübingen in 1968.


“Above the pope as an expression of the binding claim of church authority,” writes Ratzinger, “stands one’s own conscience, which has to be obeyed first of all, if need be against the demands of church authority.” St. Thomas Aquinas, a major medieval church theologian, whom conservative church officials often quote, once said that he would rather be excommunicated than violate his conscience. 


It is hard to believe that a church embroiled in a global cover-up of sexual abuse of hundreds of thousands of youth by thousands of priests can get away with attempting to intimidate those who have dedicated their lives to teaching the faith in Catholic schools. How about a loyalty oath for priests and bishops to stop protecting pedophiles? Now there is crime and a scandal to address. See Philadelphia conviction of Monsignor Lynn and the current case against a Kansas bishop if you think this issue has been addressed. Go to www.bishopaccountablity.org ( This web site gives overview and details of the horrific sexual abuse crisis in the United States. Roughly two-thirds of top U.S. Catholic leaders have allowed priests accused of sexual abuse to keep working.)


The Arlington diocese is in clear violation of Catholic Church teaching that affirms primacy of conscience with these forced loyalty oaths. No one should demand that you violate your conscience in order to keep your job. Ask yourself what would Jesus do? Recall how he challenged the religious leaders of his time for their enforcement of rules and regulations that had nothing to do with true religion.   It sounds to me like these loyalty oaths are a local example of a Vatican -inspired, modern day Inquisition!  We, the people of God, are the church, and no church official can cancel our baptism or keep us from living our faith with love and compassion at the heart of the Gospel. 


This is yet another reason we need a renewed priestly ministry in an inclusive Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered Catholic church that includes women priests in every parish today!


Recommended articles:
Haring, Bernard. “Building a Creative Conscience: Resisting Moral Rigor Mortis”,Commonweal, August 11, 1989.
 Kennedy, T. Who Is Worthy? The Role of Conscience in Restoring Hope to the Church (Pluto Press, Annandale, 2000), pp. 84-85.


Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp
www.arcwp.org
sofiabmm@aol.com




Washington Post article by Michelle Boorstein July 11, 2012
"Kathleen Riley knows her beliefs on the male-only priesthood and contraception put her at odds with leaders of her church. But as a fifth-generation Catholic who went to a Catholic school and grew up to teach in one, Riley feels the faith deeply woven through her. So when her Arlington parish asked for volunteers last summer to teach Sunday school, she felt called by the Holy Spirit to say yes.
A year later, the 52-year-old computer scientist feels the same spirit calling her to say no.
Last month, Riley joined at least four other Sunday school teachers and resigned from her post at St. Ann’s parish after a letter arrived at her home requiring her — and all teachers in the Arlington Catholic Diocese — to submit “of will and intellect” to all of the teachings of church leaders.
Although the St. Ann’s teachers represent a tiny fraction of the diocese’s 5,000 Sunday and parochial school teachers, the letter went out to parishes just as classes were finishing for the summer and diocese officials says they do not know how many teachers have received it.
The Arlington Diocese, which includes nearly a half-million Catholics across northern and eastern Virginia, is one of a small but growing number that are starting to demand fidelity oaths. The oaths reflect a churchwide push in recent years to revive orthodoxy that has sharply divided Catholics.
Such oaths are not new for priests or nuns but extend now in some places to people like volunteer Sunday school teachers as well as workers at Catholic hospitals and parish offices.
One in Baker, Ore., reiterates the sinfulness of abortion and says, “I do not recognize the legitimacy of anyone’s claim to a moral right to form their own conscience in this matter.” One in Oakland, Calif., requires leaders of a group doing outreach to gay and lesbian Catholics to say they “affirm and believe” official church teaching on marriage, hell and chastity.
The Arlington “profession of faith” asks teachers to commit to “believe everything” the bishops characterize as divinely revealed, and Arlington’s top doctrine official said it would include things like the bishops’ recent campaign against a White House mandate that most employers offer contraception coverage. Critics consider the mandate a violation of religious freedom.
The Arlington Diocese is considered among the most conservative in the country and was the next to last in the nation to say girls could serve at the altar. Teachers must give the new oath in front of a priest.
“The church is foremost a communion, not a building,” said the Rev. Paul deLadurantaye, Arlington’s head of education and liturgy. “And the church’s teaching is meant to be a service, not to coerce or oppress. . . . This is just to say the church is a reliable guide, more reliable in these matters than what I read elsewhere. There’s something more transcendent than just my own judgment.”
Diocesan spokesman Michael Donohue said the letter was sent to parishes this spring in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s direction that churches worldwide celebrate this year’s 50th anniversary of the start of Vatican II in various ways, including those that “profess our faith in the risen Lord.”
He said the oath is meant to be a positive sign to parents and called it uncontroversial.
“I can’t imagine there are many [teachers] who have issues with the church’s teachings on faith and morals,” Donohue said. Asked about polls showing that the majority of American Catholics use artificial contraception, forbidden by church doctrine, he said he “found it hard to believe” that anyone who had concluded that a church teaching was wrong would want to teach it..."