ARCHBISHOP CALLS FOR MARRIED PRIESTS
Archbishop Jozef De Kesel of
Mechelen-Brussels is once again in the news with his wish that married men also
be able to be priests. While this seems an easy reason to consider the
archbishop a liberal and a progressive, reality is a bit more nuanced.
In an interview for weekly newspaper De Zondag, Archbishop
De Kesel also speaks about his role as archbishop, his choice to become a priest,
being a bishop in Bruges after Vangheluwe, and the refugee crisis. About
priestly celibacy he says the following:
Did
celibacy not discourage you?
“Not when I was eighteen, no. You do
choose for the seminary, but it takes many years before you are a priest. But
once that moment is there, yes… That is a difficult decision.”
Did
you have to choose between a girlfriend and the Church?
“No. I did have good friendships. But
I was never faced with that existential choice. Others have, and I can
understand that it must be very difficult to let someone go. Perhaps I
consciously or subconsciously avoided a relationship.”
Should
the Church hold on to that celibacy?
“I am no supporter of abolishing it.
A celibate life is no meaningless life. I consciously chose it: it was also the
state of life of Jesus. On the other hand I do not think it can be asked of
every priest, especially not in a time when sexuality plays such an important
role. I am in favour of the Eastern Catholic model. There men who are married
can be ordained to the priesthood.”
Pope appoints well-known
‘progressive’ protégé of Cardinal Danneels to major see of Brussels
BRUSSELS, November 6, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- A new archbishop has been
named to Belgium’s main see of Mechelen-Brussels: Jozef De Kesel, 68, is the
successor of traditionally-minded André Léonard whose resignation was accepted
a few months ago by Pope Francis. Archbishop De Kesel has the reputation of
being a progressive: less outspoken than Bishop André Bonny of Anvers, who had
been touted for the post by the Belgian liberal press, but nonetheless a man of
“dialogue” and “openness” toward the modern culture who is seen as a more
discreet version of Bonny.
Several opinion pieces in the Flemish press are
presenting him as “Cardinal Danneels’ successor.” De Morgen went a step
further, saying he owes his nomination to Danneels “who has the ear of Pope
Francis and who insisted that his protégé should be chosen.”
The widespread speculation about Danneels’
influence on the appointment is supported also by the fact that Pope Francis
specifically chose the elderly prelate as one of his special appointees at the
Synod on the Family in both 2014 and 2015.
On several hot-button issues including the Church’s
attitude towards homosexuals De Kesel has adopted progressive positions.
The “Sankt-Gallen cardinal” is known to have pushed
Jozef De Kesel as auxiliary bishop of Brussels in 2002. He became bishop of
Bruges five years ago. He had clearly been Danneels’ choice for the see of
Brussels in 2010 when the cardinal was forced to resign in the wake of sex
abuse cover-ups. Pope Benedict preferred Archbishop Léonard. De Kesel’s
comeback is widely presented as Cardinal Danneels’ revenge.
“He is a man who chooses for renewal from within:
changing minds first, and structures later. (…) The nomination of Jozef De
Kesel as archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels is a real win for Cardinal Danneels.
At last his ‘candidate’ – after an intermission – has become his successor. It
proves, by the way, that under the new pope Danneels is back with a vengeance,”
writes Mark de Voorde in an op-ed in De Standaard.
During a press conference in Brussels today,
Archbishop De Kesel made several noteworthy statements that prove his modernist
inclinations.
Answering a journalist’s question about
“homophilia,” he said: “There is a need for respect and reverence for people
who are homosexual. The Church has her reasons for not calling gay marriage,
marriage. She has a very precise definition of marriage, I acknowledge that.
Respect for the person and for the different way of being of the person is
however an important value of the Gospel, but also of the modern culture. This
respect for the person, whomsoever he may be, whatever his convictions and
orientation, this is a value that the Gospel shares with modern culture. And
that is why they should also be valued within the Church.”
It is in a similar spirit of “respect,” Archbishop
De Kesel said at the press conference, that he attended the funeral of Canon
Pierre de Locht at the cathedral of Brussels in 2007: a proponent of liberation
theology, contraception, and even abortion in some cases, de Locht was a member
of a Right-to-Die society. At the time, De Kesel had said: “I know the Church
made him suffer. He remained faithful. Faithful to himself, open and faithful
to the questioning of man in our time. Faithful to the Gospel and, I can and I
think should say, faithful to this same Church, people of God.”
At the press conference, he said he is “deeply
convinced that the Church in the West is going through a great crisis, a
process of great change. Believing is no longer a spontaneous reaction, while
up to the 1950’s the Church was omnipresent and was in a strong position, with
a great deal of influence.” Archbishop De Kesel sees “the separation between
Church and State as very important”: “Nowadays governments should be neutral,
but society itself is not neutral. Religion is present in society. That is why
it is a big challenge to reflect on the position of religion in a secular,
pluralistic society.”
Archbishop De Kesel went on to say that the Church
has become smaller and has lost her former influence, but that she should not
become withdrawn into herself, exposing herself to becoming a “sect.” “Pope
Francis also pleads for this. For a Church that remains open, that does not cut
itself off from society. For a Church that has convictions, but also great
respect for those who do not share her ideology and who also has feeling for
the great challenges of society,” he said, calling the present crisis
“positive” because it will be an opportunity for change. “There is a shortage
of priests, and we have to think about that, but we should not only look at
what is lacking. There are many people, also lay people, who get involved for
the Church. We are no longer just a clerical Church, and that is very
important.”
Before his nomination to the key position of
Mechelen-Brussels, Archbishop De Kesel is also known to have questioned
priestly celibacy, saying that a number of men who obviously are not “made” for
this state of life should still be able to be ordained.
Strangely, having qualified the Catholic faith as
an ideology during his press conference in Brussels this Friday, De Kesel said
about Islam: “Islam is also confronted with this question: what does it mean to
Muslims to be believers in a society where sharia is not law? The same question
goes for Christians: what does it mean to be Christian in a society that as a
whole is not Christian?”
As bishop of Bruges, he was loath to intervene in
the media. As late as in 2014, says the French-speaking Belgian daily Le
Vif, he was criticized for his lack of firmness and his tardy response with
regard to priests who had been implied in sex abuse and reinstated. He also
remained silent in June last year when the deacon of Wevelgem was accused of
having euthanized a small dozen of patients at the Menin hospital.
In 2009, the French website “Riposte Catholique”
said De Kesel had very little chance of succeeding Cardinal Danneels as primate
of Belgium. The site noted that one of his right-hand men, Canon Herman
Cosijns, was known to have said: “For a Christian, a second marriage should be
considered as an opportunity to grow in God’s love. … The second marriage then
acquires a religious dimension that can become a way of sanctification, a way
proposed by God.”
At the time, all this would have seemed quite
incompatible with a promotion to the archbishopric of Brussels.
A contact of LifeSite in Belgium well aware of the
situation of the Catholic Church there quoted a Belgian priest who had the
benefit of following Archbishop De Kesel’s theology courses when he was still a
professor at the seminary of Ghent and the university of Louvain (between 1980
and 1996) as saying that his courses were a modernist “disaster.”
Sylvain Peeters, president of deMens.nu, a Flemich
freethinkers’ association, was quick to congratulate Jozef de Kesel on his
nomination. “He has a reputation of being careful and quite progressive within
the Church. A good sign. … It was he who brought up the subject of separation
between Church and State, and that is essential.”
PAT SAYS:
The archbishop is correct. No one wants to abolish celibacy or ban it.
Men (and hopefully some day woman) should have the choice.
The archbishop is correct. No one wants to abolish celibacy or ban it.
Men (and hopefully some day woman) should have the choice.
This is going to have to come from the ground up..Bishops allowing married/partnered clergy. Rome can lump it or like it Modern reformation what what tally ho by jove.....
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