Woman priest causes Roman headache

by Timothy Elphick THE future of at (cast one woman Catholic priest and a married bishop, secretly ordained by Czechoslovakia's pre-revolutionary church, is being considered by the Vatican, the Archbishop of Prague confirmed this week. Previously Rome had denied reports that up to 300 married clergy had been ordained when the Czechoslovak church was being persecuted and driven underground by the communists. Embarrassed curial officials at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, trying to find a solution consistent with canon law, have even suggested that married clerics from the Czechoslovak underground church should now join the ranks of the Greek Catholic church, which allows married priests, according to Archbishop Miloslav Vlk, the new Czechoslovakian primate.
In an interview with the Viennese daily, Die Presse, Archbishop Vlk made clear that the current problems of the church in Czechoslovakia over
the role of the underground church before the communists were swept from power in 1989 stemmed from the actions of a number "of over-excited people who were unable to evaluate the reality of the situation they faced".
"They thought that the communists would destroy the priesthood and so they set up parallel structures to allow the church to continue whatever happened. But they overestimated the real dangers, and that led to some married men being made priests and one or two women", the archbishop explained.
A number of married priests had been "made" bishops by the underground church, he confirmed, but it was "open to question whether or not this was done with the consent of Rome Leading article, page 4 and within the framework of the apostolic succession," said Archbishop Vlk. But it was now for the Vatican to decide what action to take, he said.
Officials in the Holy See have been adamant that any Czechoslovak women priests will not be permitted to continue administering the sacraments as their ordination was in defiance of canon law. And although Rome is currently said to be exploring the possibility of transferring the married men to the Greek Catholic church, one of its senior figures, Bishop Jan Hirka von Presov, has already made clear that he would be unhappy to accept them as they do "not possess the mentality of children of the eastern rite".
Playing down the church's dilemma over the secret ordinations during communist rule, Archbishop Vlk denied that the status of the clandestinely ordained priests amounted to a crisis.
The Vatican denied in January that it was investigating the validity of several hundred priestly ordinations in the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, of which as many as 50 were said to be of married men, and the consecration of some 30 bishops. Curial officials stressed at that time that the ordinations appeared to have been the legacy of "a person who was mentally ill", namely Bishop Felix Maria Davidek of' Czechoslovakia's Brno diocese, who died in 1988.
Canon law makes no reference to either women priests or married priests, a leading expert in this country said this week. Mgr Daniel Shanahan, of the Canon Law Society of Britain and Ireland, said that the ordinations in eastern Europe has taken place when the church "had its back up against the wall" and was unable to communicate freely with Rome. Priests who marry face automatic suspension under canon law, he noted, but the status of married men who were then ordained was not covered.