'Burning Books' or 'Karma Bites Back' - Therese Koturbash
/Newspapers and social media these days are brimming with details of the controversial and just released book From the Depths of Our Hearts. It claims to be co-authored by Cardinal Robert Sarah and the former Pope Benedict. The book issues ‘an ardent defense of clerical celibacy. (Sidebar: It also includes a chapter denouncing ordination of women as deacons or priests.)
As such, the book puts both Francis and Benedict in awkward positions. In breaking his pledge to silence on church affairs made when he abdicated the papacy, Benedict does so just as Pope Francis is considering opening the door to married men to priesthood. 1 The predicament of a former pope publicly contradicting the actual Pope puts the Church in an awkward space. Benedict’s speaking out creates inner-church tension that many worried about when he stepped down seven years ago. Benedict’s vow of silence on key issues was made out of respect for Francis who is the pope.
That was yesterday’s news.
Drama heightened today as Benedict’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein says that Benedict (who is declining) never agreed to participate as co-author and that his name must be removed from the book. 2
A practical question comes to mind: What does one do with published books after one of the supposed authors asks to have his name removed? Burn them?
This brings us to the theme of this post — karma bites back.
Women at the altar : the ordination of women in the roman catholic church by Lavinia Byrne
In 1994, Sister Lavinia Byrne, IBVM (as she then was) learned that under pressure from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (whose prefect at the time was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — as he then was — he went on to become Pope Benedict), the Liturgical Press of Collegeville, Minnesota would be burning all 1300 copies of her new book, Women at the Altar: The Ordination of Women in the Roman Catholic Church. The book is an account of reactions to the ordination of women priests in the Church of England. 3 It argues that since the key building blocks for such progression are already in place, tradition could appropriately be developed to encompass women's ordination in the Roman Catholic Church. By 1993 when Byrne was completing the work, biblical scholars commissioned by the Vatican had discerned that scripture held no impediments. Tradition had been revisited and was found not to be absolute. Byrne writes, ‘The ordination of women to the priesthood is the logical conclusion of all the recent work of Catholic theology about women and in particular about the holiness of all the baptised. It is not an aberation from what the Church teaches, but rather a fulfillment of it so that not to ordain women would now be to compromise the Catholicity of the church.’ 4
The ordination of women to the priesthood is the logical conclusion of all the recent work of Catholic theology about women and in particular about the holiness of all the baptised. It is not an aberation from what the Church teaches, but rather a fulfillment of it so that not to ordain women would now be to compromise the Catholicity of the church.4
- Lavinia Byrne
Byrne’s intention for the book was not to attack or be directive to the Vatican. But, given his order for destruction of the published copies, Cardinal Ratzinger made obvious that he perceived her academic work to be a threat.
The journey is my home, autobiography of Lavinia Byrne
Byrne responded by pointing out that the book was written in good faith and during a time of free and open discussion about women’s ordination. But shortly after the order for burning, John Paul II issued his Apostolic Letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. In what is now known as ‘the Papal No’, JPII prohibited discussion of the issue by the faithful and formally restricted priestly ordination to men only. He said that should anyone even discuss the subject of women’s ordination, they should consider themselves to be out of communion with the Church.
The CDF demanded that Byrne recant her work and make a public statement supporting the ban on women priests. Instead of recanting, on January 6, 2000, ‘with deep regret’ 5 she asked to be dispensed from her vows. Weary of the saga and the fact that the Vatican refused to deal with her as an individual (the CDF insisted on communicating with her through her community's Superior General in Rome thus creating tension affecting others, and Byrne's relations with them), Byrne decided to leave her Order. ‘I am resigning because of the pressure from the CDF. I'm being silenced as a member of a religious order. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith won't to talk me directly but to my religious superiors, and that strategy of not dialoguing with me has become untenable.’ 6
Byrne thereby became one of the first ‘survivors’ of the Vatican’s campaign against any work for women’s ordination.
Her work was not an ‘act of subversion [but instead] an informed attempt to place the changing role of women into context.’7 She makes no secret of her childhood wish to be a priest. ‘When I was little I had no idea that being a girl debarred me from ordination. It was a painful truth when I realised at around the age of 10 that I could not be ordained because I was a girl.’8
Byrne’s more recent work is an autobiography, The Journey Is My Home. It is described this way:
‘Lavinia Byrne entered her convent at the age of seventeen. Her writing and broadcasting have made her a popular and much-loved figure, and therefore it was a huge shock when, in January 2000, she announced her decision to leave her order. This is the powerful story of one woman's struggle to keep her integrity in a Church still using techniques reminiscent of the Inquisition.’
Women at the Altar: The Ordination of Women in the Roman Catholic Church continues in publication today.
-Therese Koturbash, Women’s Ordination Worldwide Communications Team
Therese Koturbash, BA, LLB, GDCL served as Canadian Delegate to Women’s Ordination Worldwide from 2008 to 2013. For all five of those years, she was elected member of WOW's four person International Leadership Circle. She has also been the National Coordinator of Canada's Catholic Network for Women's Equality. Today, Therese serves on WOW’s Communications Team and is a volunteer with WOW member group, Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research. Her paid work is as a family attorney.
Notes:
‘Benedict defends priestly celibacy as Pope Francis considers changes’, Chico Harlan, The Washington Post, January 12, 2020
‘Benedict wants his name removed from book about priestly celibacy’, Chico Harlan and Michelle Boorstein, The Washington Post, January 14, 2020
‘The Accidental Rebel’, The Irish Times, February 24, 2000
ibid.
ibid.
ibid.
ibid.
ibid.
