Cardinal Walter Brandmuller, an esteemed Church historian, has called for a new level of cooperation between bishops and committed lay Catholics to renew and revive the Church. This is the subject of a full-page editorial by Robert Moynihan in the November issue of Inside the Vatican. As the Cardinal urges and as Moynihan agrees, this could be very helpful. “The more the hierarchy, from the Pope down, feel supported by the effective resolve of the faithful to renew and revive the Church, the more a true housecleaning can be performed, he (the Cardinal) says.”
Certainly we agree. From our experience, however, a question arises. Where are the bishops going to find these laity resolved to renew and revive the Church? According to surveys, 95% to 98% of fertile-age Catholics are using unnatural forms of birth control. As Martin Luther pointed some 500 years ago, unnatural forms of birth control are a form of sodomy. And the sin of marital sodomy is in the same class as sins of mutually acceptable sodomy by the unmarried, whether lay or priests. Both marital sodomy and priestly sodomy are violations of their respective covenants, both take apart what God has put together as the norm for human sexuality, and thus both are intrinsically dishonest.
Thus it is important that a screening process takes place before numbers of laity are called upon to work with the bishops for authentic renewal within the Church. At the very least, all prospective lay cooperators should sign a statement of full acceptance of the teaching of Humanae Vitae. And, of course, that should be required of all bishops who are engaged in any effort to bring about authentic renewal within the Church.
John F. Kippley