[Music] [Music] [Music] we are your people Lord and we have come to give praise to you we have gathered also to give witness to your convictions that reform and renew must come from the whole church from the people of God inspired by the spirit we have come together to give support to one another in our time of pain we are leaving an environment in the church which we have had for many years we are leaving an environment of monarchy and we are leaving the King subject relationship that was very very helpful for an immigrant Church was very helpful for illiterate people that came to United States at the turn of the century and who wanted to be guided and who did not want to ask questions we do intend to use our voices and our talents as laymen in full support of the efforts of individuals priests or laymen and of groups civil or church public or private who are working to bring Christ into the modern world Johanna O'Brien from st. Francis Xavier parish and I don't consider myself clergy I'm a layperson the church must find you had more effective means because it is a matter of history that we're even though the church remains the same she can change her methods there are parts of her church structure that she can change and that evidently she must change in order to meet the challenges of this era we are all in this together Pope bishops clergy religious and laity or we are not in it at all we need each other we are members of the same community we are one in Christ we are joined by him or we shall be torn apart by him I think one of the biggest things that has to change is the idea that religion proceeds from the Pope down through the bishops to the people religion if if it has to be all relevant must begin with the people and move from there to the Pope I have some friends that had kind of drifted away from the church and since talking two of them and tell him explain them you know the new ways those Catholic Church said come back to see what it was like and have gotten to like it a lot better I like it I like to change I feel happier I mean this is a modern day and age and I think the church has a right to change the changes that are coming in are are going to help the church very much I think they're inspired and I think they're going to help the people to be better Catholic well I'm gonna be a Catholic whatever it will be to me you know I'm not really too worried what people say it is I'm more worried what I think it is and would I make it discussing the current changes within the Catholic Church and within the churches generally I think it's safe to say that one of the big occasions probably the principal occasion for changes in the church today has been the convoking and the discussions resulting from the Second Vatican Council can vote by pope john xxiii I would say that John is the occasion within the Catholic Church not the cause but the occasion for focusing the attention of the church and the attention of the world on the necessity for change within the church John himself in converting the Second Vatican Council was in fact responding to the need for changes within the church as its rightful or legitimate response to the changes going on within society today the church is by definition a conservative agency in society particularly the Catholic Church which takes its origin from divine revelation which has the teachings of Christ as the given substance of the faith however in order to keep faith with the teachings of Christ the spokesman for the church must be certain that their mode of presenting Christ to the world or their stance or their posture at any given time is faithful to Christ and is also in tune with the needs of the persons of that day who are receiving the message now this is a very complex phenomenon and it can't one can't do justice to it any one speaker or any one thesis but just to try to talk about it the Second Vatican Council in its constitution on the church in the modern world raises the question of secularity the secular world its value its problems its identity and that document calls churchmen priests religious and all Catholic laymen to re-examine the needs of mankind in the real situation question of civil rights the question of nuclear warfare the morality of war conscientious objection poverty wealth the haves that have nots this document raises many questions for the church which are not ecclesiastical questions and in effect bids churchmen and those who claim to be spokesmen for christ in the modern world to concern themselves with those areas in which humanity is hurting or humanity is bleeding and this is a difficult period it's a time that's trying the whole church and it's it's trying all of the different authentic spokesmen within the church for conserving the substantial tradition of the church at the same time that the church changes its style in order to bring the message of Christ to the world and to mankind as man is now but this is simply another way of saying that we are having difficulty acquiring the new style that's called for by the decrees of the Second Vatican Council we are trying to keep faith with those decrees and trying to translate them into intelligible terms for the church and for society now and this is one of the reasons that at the present time we have an emotive oftentimes acrimonious debate within the church extremely conservative positions being advanced with fervor and with heat and extremely progressive sometimes revolutionary opinions being advanced at the other end of the spectrum first of all as far as change is concerned there can be no change in the divine institution and constitution of the church the church exists as it has been established by Christ and it will always continue that way it was founded on Peter and the Apostles and upon their successors and it will always continue throughout the ages in that form unfortunately church authorities and lay persons are late are all too often becoming unduly fearful when they face the challenge of the trauma which is upon us they do not reflect enough on the reality that though crisis means danger even more it means the providential creation of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for creative Christians and creative Christianity to offer the church new dimensions of love and of service there can be no change in the Apostles Creed or in the Nicene Creed or in any of the Creed's of the Catholic Church there can be no change in the essentials of the mass and of the seven sacraments there can be no change in the ten commandments there can be no change in the infallible dogmatic decrees of the ecumenical councils of the church if we know unreformed tales in the Church of the United States it will not be enough for us to wring our hands and point fingers at share of shame at our leadership on the other hands we must make no mistake about it bishops and pastors in particular have an inescapable leadership role leadership is their office it's their full-time function in the church it is said although it hasn't been historically proven that Pope John opened the windows to let in fresh air into the Catholic Church I say I can't find the historical confirmation of the story but if it is true it is evidence is that when you open windows you can let in not only fish here but you can let in some queer bird who will mess up everything inside the times cry out to us today to stop this foolishness of playing Church the same as we used to play house or cowboys-and-indians of children we are adults in the church as Saint Paul warns us that we must put away the things of childhood and begin acting as adults the concept of the people of God all of us together is pilgrims seeking our eternal rendezvous together in a community of believers this concept is freed our imaginations and forced many of us for the first time to think creatively about our religion and our church as we have never done before we are very much in need in the church right now of a greater degree of rapport between these two different forces the very reactionary who are of a mind that any change is bad and those at the other end of the spectrum who would say that any change is good regardless of its substance we are in need really of those voices who will bring these ends of the spectrum together so that we might keep faith with the tradition which we are obligated to keep this is the fundamental substance of the teaching of Christ I'm really not happy with the change because I was born and raised a very strict Catholic and and was taught that it could not be changed it was infallible and I find this very hard to accept and to explain to my children I would imagine older people so it's going too fast but the church is gonna have to redefine herself her very basis from the concept of authority to legalism in the church and even to certain sacred doctrines that apparently many people continue to hold that's right it's very distracting this new modern method they have or man's I prefer the old Latin like were you raised in your childhood and it's more religious you have to have moved ass this day and age you just can't be slow like we used to be I'm real happy with it the decrees of the Second Vatican Council call us not only to a review of our style and our mode of addressing ourselves to the world but also call us to create several new structures within the Catholic Church one of the most promising of these experiments and one that we're all looking to because we need some pilot programs that blaze some trails we need to have some success stories at this time and one of them that we're watching with the great deal of interest is the experimental parish or as it's called the community of john xxiii in oklahoma city why did this all come about in Oklahoma probably the atmosphere of religious freedom here gave us the courage to think for ourselves and a lot of people ask what motivated you people in Oklahoma to start the community john xxiii and there are lots of reasons but probably I would say the most significant points number one our frustration with the slowness of renewal from a grassroots level at the close of Vatican two secondly as Americans we just felt the need to be involved in a community in which we were instrumental in shaping its destiny in order to be sure that we weren't tied to the old traditional structures we named ourselves the community of john xxiii we don't only land or buildings as a matter of fact we rent a school hall for our Sunday morning meetings we hire father Naren to be our priest our servant we govern ourselves by means of an elected late chairman and elected board of directors of which I myself am a member and we meet right here in this rented office I think one thing we should discuss is a question that bill talked to me about last week he called me on the phone was a little concerned about a couple problems that we he thinks we have and would you mind kind of filling them in a little bit on what they are let me talk about it one of the things that that is really bugging the church is the role of the priest so I have one particular vision of what it is is I experienced it in this community of course one of the things that really intrigues me would be could I handle another john xxiii or a third john xxiii and what this would do in my human relationships to the people here I'm very happy in my life as a priest because after some 16 years of trying to figure out what Christianity is all about and what I'm all about in it I think that in some way some limited way we've discovered something here we're searching group and I can help lead them to search and to come up with things that would really express their life their ups and downs their sins and their love [Music] let's at this time 3/4 our prayers of petition it wants to pay for a grandfather so his back will be better she wants to ask you for God's blessing on her forthcoming marriage which is May the 30th Almighty God may you accept all of the petitions that you have heard from us this morning gathered around this banquet table we ask you to remember all of our thoughts besides those articulated we ask you to be mindful of the groups that have been working this morning trying to solve some of the problems in the world we ask you to help we first heard about 30 families through an announcement at John the 23rd I was just wondering what where's a group could do to to foster some type of ordinance that might help 30 families is a group that hopes to obtain approximately 30 families to move back into an area that is integrating hoping to stop resegregate as it has happened in almost every place that a Negro has moved into I have come to decide that you are not a Christian unless you act that going to church on Sunday you know you can go to church for error and not really be a Christian now I feel this is where john xxiii played an important part the fact that there are Negroes in the area and even a high person has problems and so conscious of Christ and the Holy Spirit we praise you Father by saying together holy holy holy Lord God of hosts some of the rewards of this tutoring program are difficult to explain that the builders here mark the 2 percent state sales tax so an understanding finally that I learned that people are important and it's only in dealing with a people one person that you really do any good in the world but this is part of I think what john xxiii is trying to say that it's a person and another person respecting and loving each other are you thank you minute I'm gonna to get from the federal government should be enough for when supper was ended he took the cup into his hands and again giving thanks to his father in heaven he blessed it and he gave it to his disciples saying take all of you and drink of this for this is my blood the blood of a new covenant a mystery of faith we change that john xxiii we're kind of getting sick and tired of sitting back and watching the adults do all the work so we decided that we were going to get our own group and go out and do something ok now you kids know it this is kumbaya I might try it and it's just old and this is Lord it's just crying and shouting and praying ok come on Star Search Bob [Music] so one of our projects is to come down - wanna grow which is a forum area and we play with the kids we've really never had this experience in other youth groups but here at John McArthur we can give of ourselves to the members of the community and - well even these children here behold the lamb of God behold him who takes away the sins of the world lord I am not worthy that you should come under my roof think about the word of my syllable Dieguito the lord I am not worthy from under my think about the word of my soul will be you [Music] like the body of Christ raining the body of Christ all the body of Christ the body of Christ all this could not come about if many other forces weren't operating within the church and certainly one significant person in this whole picture is Bishop Reid whom I think stands today unrecognized as most profits are unrecognized in their own hometown in some way I think I love them it's not surprising that father Naren who followed this subject very carefully evolved certain ideas in regard to the formation of a parish structure that would form a basis of experiment in some new mode of community it's it's well recognized that a bishop may exempt his people as a group from their attendance at mass at a particular parish church and all that is involved in this instance is that exemption is that permission substantially the church is the same now as always because her founder is the same and her mission to mankind is the same in every generation but generations change and as Pope John pointed out to the bishops in his address at the very beginning of the council although the church remains the same nevertheless the means that the church uses in order to be effective in the life of man must be constantly upgraded [Music] the church has got to allow the people that have meaning in their lives they are struggling forth they're crying for it they keep it from them any longer is a sin one of the questions which has come to the front for a great deal of discussion in the Catholic Church since the Vatican Council is the question of authority each year since I've been a bishop I've been asked to conduct retreats for priests in one or two or three dioceses and one of the things I do in these retreats is ask the priests to write on slips of paper topics that they would like to have discussed in a public open meeting and in every one of these retreats that I've given one of the questions that's very near the top of the list each time is the question of the proper relationship within the church to authorities it is a big question it's a cosmic question that cuts across many of the other questions in the church today and I suppose the man who has done the greatest amount of writing and research and is one of the most respected voices in the Catholic Church on this subject today is father John McKenzie the Jesuit scholar who is professor of theology at Notre Dame University Catholics this country and in many other countries for the last hundred years or more have lived fairly successfully in a democratic political society while there were members of a church with an absolute government I am Not sure that this generation and the next will be able to do this quite as successfully what they want to do is to support the church and they do not believe that support can be thought of simply as submission they are more educated they are more independent and really they are more interested in what the church is and does they feel they have more to give than mere submission and that the church is impoverished if that is all that is asked of them we ought to realize that this desire to be more active members of the church is not a threat to church authority it rather enlarges it it gives church authority more with which to work a greater field in which to exercise its leadership it's very hard to generalize about the American hierarchy one rather recent development which I know bishops don't like is that criticizing bishops seems to have become one of our major indoor and outdoor sports in the church I think we ought to remember that our bishops themselves grew up in a certain church structure their education occurred within this church structure their previous experience as all occurred within this given church structure it is precisely that which seems to be a per modification and this development is wholesome it's not a threat to Church authority at all it's not a danger it should be that the church will be more what it ought to be and more what it can be both for its members and for the world at large in the new church bishops religious superiors and priests 10 today to think of the virtue of obedience on the part of a priest not only is that quality for by he obeys orders and works cooperatively as a member of the parish or the diocese or the church but also as the virtue which would incline a priest in proper fashion and with respect to express his own opinions to his bishop to his diocesan Senate making recommendations for changes in procedures or techniques in other words stressing a two-fold aspect of obedience not just compliance but obedience as comply with decisions that have been made but obedience which also inclines a respectful priest within the community of the diocese or the religious order to share his thoughts his wisdom his recommendations his desires with his bishop the rule in favor of freedom we'll discuss it the chair recognizes microphone number three whereas the church's mission is to the whole world without regard to race creed color or natural national origin be it resolved that is the mind of the ACP that service institutions of the Archdiocese of Chicago for example schools hospitals etc be open to all without regard to race creed or color be it FURTHER RESOLVED that those who do or would like to avail themselves of these facilities not be forced to undergo and undergo instructions in the Roman Catholic faith or be forced to attend Roman Catholic worship services as conditions to the use of these facilities many priests are reviewing their own identity and the role which they serve in the church and are finding an unexpected kind of tension between what I would call it an original tradition that put greater focus on just the prayer life and the life of piety of the individual priest then on service in the secular realm in a ghetto in the city in a rural community in the country in a very rapidly changing dynamic social situation let me say a few things first of all I'm a man and also a priest I'm concerned about injustice it is my role as a priest to condemn in justices wherever I see it and to preach the brotherhood of man although I will not have any part of teaching Brotherhood without justice because to me this is sheer pietism and it's a really a horrible way of distorting the teachings of Jesus Christ all I do is speak out of what I see I live in a black community I see children hungry everyday I see children being deprived of a good education I see children receiving improper medical attention I see children going to bed every night I know there's a danger of them being bitten by rats I see black people who are being deprived of the dignity as men because of the tremendous amount of discrimination in our society I think that a certain amount of creative tension is needed in the Catholic Church as it is needed in the entire Christian community now you're asking what do I think about the Catholic Church to tell you the truth I don't even think about it I live in an appalling situation where I look at the black poor every day that man is the man that concerns me he determines all of my actions his sensitivities are the ones that I am concerned about what happens in the church because I am concerned about the black poor doesn't bother me if I am doing the work of Christ whatever result that comes forth must be good the new era of permissiveness for example or of freedom of discussion which has not been characteristic by and large of the climate of opinion within the church in recent decades has given rise to a whole new style of discussing openly and freely many questions which have not been discussed openly and freely in the past one of them is the question of the celibacy of the priesthood I'm Bob Duggan - last November I was a diocesan priest in New York stationed in the parish in Westchester and before that in a poverty area on the Lower East Side I've also worked and studied in Rome in the field of canon law last November I resigned from the diocese I'm now on leave of absence and I'm working with the National Association for pastoral renewal a group of mainly priests but with many laymen who have raised the discussion in the Catholic Church of clerical celibacy and seek to raise for public discussion many of the issues that were spoken of before in whispers quietly secretly but which we feel should be spoken out in public so that there can be the wisdom of all of the members of the faith participating so that we can arrive at a deeper understand the role of priesthood the role of marriage of the role of the individual priests in his society as a person the Catholic directory for this year will indicate for the first time a decrease in the number of Catholic priests in the United States priests are leaving the ministry for many many reasons in Farkle celibacy is a symptom of a much deeper problem of identity in the role of the priests in society today we feel that the public discussion of these things will give us a greater understanding of the role of the priests will give us a greater understanding of the meaning of Christian community of the relationship that exists between the people and the priests and the whole life of the church as it moves into an entirely new age one for optional celibacy but as far as I'm concerned I enjoy very much what I'm doing I think it's very important and I could not see how I could possibly get married and do the kind of a job that I would want to do for my wife and children that takes a lot of time a lot of energy and a lot of thoughtfulness and right now I'm giving all my energy and thoughtfulness and time to this work in the church and so celibacy fits me perfectly I think the opportunity should be made you know for the priest to marry if he so desires the day may come when I'll accept it that's not the best thing in saying a year ago I would have just said Horrors and today know i ayam obably would be able to accept it I think the priests would lose respect a lot of the respect that people have always given and I think that if trees began to get married I think I would kind of use respectfully they should be allowed to marry and I think that they can only only give intelligent guidance to married couples and to people with questions about sex and marriage and that type of thing that they have to be married to have a qualified answer at the present time on several levels in the church there are reasonable doubts and questions about whether we should give our allegiance to some traditions of the past which have been required of us or to the new directions asked by the Second Vatican Council the decree on the religious life calls for a review by all of the religious orders of their constitution their regulations their bylaws their their code of life they are being asked to engage in a democratic process seeking the counsel of all members of the community on whether or not this religious community is keeping faith today with its original purpose the implementation of that decree is giving rise to new tensions within the church for example in Los Angeles the sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary many people are curious to know how a chapter and his decisions come about we were told in the instruction issued by Pope Paul the sixth in the fall of 1966 that each community was responsible for a special chapter of affairs and we began as soon as the invitation was issued to announce to the community at large to our five hundred and forty members that we wanted to have our chapter of affairs in the summer of 1967 almost immediately we began to form commissions study groups which would begin to talk about the chief issues in religious life to issue questionnaires to the sisters to conduct interviews and in every way possible to do what Pope Paul the sixth had suggested to renew the spirit and form of religious life the sisters of the Immaculate Heart have been deeply interested in education ever since their foundation in 1848 and in their work in California they have been deeply involved in innovation and new methods of education one of the sisters who is most deeply involved in the renewal program and is a member of the special general chapter to which I referred if sister Mary carita Kent she has certainly a most gifted artist well known outside our own community but she's also a most creative teacher and a beloved member of our community I think that sister Corita draws much of her inspiration from the community and she herself is one of the first to admit this it's not just that she brings us her gifts which he does most generously but that our sister teachers have brought to her and our sister companionship has brought to her I think a richness of personality which she doesn't hesitate to attribute to the Immaculate Heart atmosphere I think that the part in the center section with the leaves has a kind of life to it I feel terribly pseudo Indian and four designs that is part of the life that you see at Immaculate Heart it's a life which is that of a group of people who have the same goals and ideals who want very much to serve people today and who want to make themselves relevant and of course I suppose that leads us directly into the question of the habit those of us who have changed into contemporary clothing I think would find it very difficult to return to the habit and that's not because we didn't reverence the habit when we wore it when we received it and that we haven't cherished it all these years but somehow now with the changing into contemporary clothing the habit have become a symbol of a whole system of uniformity and conformity in which we no longer believe as we did before I personally would find it very difficult to return we all wear a Christian symbol which distinguishes us in some way but we like very much the notion that we can become relevant to our society and really enter into our society and participated in it wholeheartedly without being in any way set apart we have come to serve not to be served and so we prefer to be dressed this way the clothing before was a kind of costume as we look back on it sometimes the medieval costume and we prefer to be thought of as women of century that we are deeply interested in and to which we belong we at Immaculate Heart feel that we should dedicate ourselves to those aspects of life to which the Christian mind and heart are drawn the burning issues of peace poverty race relations the missions of healing comforting counseling the challenge of expanding the imagination of man and the joy of helping him to celebrate perhaps it is for us as dedicated women free to invest our total energies sharing our material goods with each other and the poor to engage in you in a genuine search for encounter with God [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] many sisters I think for many years especially sisters who've been in the convent for a decade or two have begun to think Ashley that they could be better sisters if they were out of the content and many sisters who have left the comet have left not because they did not want to be sisters but because they did want to be sisters and they thought they could be better sisters outside the structure and all than I think sisters feel that there is not sufficient freedom to make a choice in religious life about how they will serve or even about their own person how I as a unique individual need to serve according to my temperament which is after all one of God's first gifts to me and it is because that they do want to be sisters that many many have formed into small groups still working in a dedicated celibate community ly so that they can give a total and unique Christian dedication to the world there we've had the fallacy that the only way to be a sister was to be one in a giant institution where you found often that instead of serving the world which was your ideal when you entered you were serving the system we call groups of people who live under the same rule of community community means kind of a sharing of one's personhood one's talents and the way one stands in front of God and this cannot be done with several hundred or several thousand other women and it can be done only in a small group where you really share a live this is resulted in the formation of many small groups most of them without much publicity at all just very quiet small group this is from Paul's letter to the Romans [Music] he says don't cherish exaggerated ideas of yourself or your important but try to have a sane estimate of your capabilities but a lot of the faith that God has given to you all for the grace of God we have different gifts if our gift is preaching that is preached to the limit of our vision if it is serving others that is concentrate on our service if it is teaching let us give all we have to our teaching and if our gift be the stimulating of the faith of others let us set ourselves to it we do know that other people do want to join this group and it will be essential for us to keep the group small so when other members are you know belonging to it and probably we will break down again into other smaller groups so that we can keep these two things very authentic and very non rigid very unstructured and we hope that way also the most Christian dear God please help us to to avoid selfishness in any decisions we make especially decisions that concern people outside our group and help us to do what Paul advises us in the Epistle to him to really serve without stand and to be genuine in our charity yes this through Christ your son now in regard to the sisters I feel that they are by and large going through a period of considerable tension and that many of the sisters who leave they recognize religious groups still wish to devote themselves dedicate themselves to the work of the church I feel if there's anything the church needs it is dedication you see on the part the church religion can't very well get along without dedication on the part of people on the part of groups on the part of individuals and I feel it as long as the persons involved are persons of good reputation and their expressed intentions are good those in authority should permit them again to experiment and perhaps find a new and better way in which to serve the Lord than that to which they have been accustomed and in which they have found some personal difficulties you were talking about the difference between just being in the school with a lot of white kids and accepted so in the class we have this kind of deal down a tussle know between Liberty Washington and the all-white school down there I'm always yes and the paper say the white kids walked away they said I play like Negro just like me no we call ourselves sisters for Christian service and it's been interesting to us that many other communities have formed have used the words service and community in their titles those are the two key words to describe the framework for the new religious communities of this sort that we are trying to make because many sisters feel like they have not given service or have not been unable to give service that's valid or Reedy is needed most desperately or is most honest in terms of their own temperament in this way they can choose their own service there is no one to say you fill this slot they simply see the need and then determine what they can do to fulfill that new one in our current efforts for review and renewal in the Catholic Church we have of course the great advantage of having many other friends who although not members of the church are very reliable observers and wise persons to counsel us in this period of renewal one of them is a very distinguished scholar at Perkins School of divinity at Southern Methodist University in Texas dr. Albert C out ler who attended every session of the four years at the Vatican Council and I think he's one of God's great men as we try to look ahead toward the future it is best to remember that these are bad times for prognosticators in any case it seems reasonably certain that there are difficulties in the days ahead in the Catholic Church and in Christendom in general and yet I see the future as a more hopeful prospector than some of my fellow Protestants or some of my Catholic friends because it seems to me that now how the Roman Catholic Church has opened its heart and its arms and its mind and to the world to the new spirit of freedom and liberty in the world it means that the church is going to make it or fail in the spirit our freedom persuasion love Brotherhood [Music] ah Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]