John Wijngaards replies to questions
1. Where can I buy the book?
As you know I live in France. I tried to buy your book but found that no copy is available in French bookstores. What can I do? [I received similar questions from the Netherlands and Austria.]
Response
Because of the pandemic and other restrictions, copies of the book are indeed not yet available in continental Europe. Your best strategy is to order the book from the UK through Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk. Notice: the book is also available in Kindle format.
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2. Is your petition too ’emotional’, not scholarly?
I agree totally with the sentiments of the petition but I think the ten points are presented in a rather emotive and unscholarly way. This could result in the petition not being taken seriously, couldn’t it?
Response
“Presented in an emotive not scholarly way”. Correct. Now I am a scholar and about half the 34 books I have written are academic. My www.womenpriests.org is the largest online academic archive of arguments for the ordination of women. The Wijngaards Institute which I founded produces up-to-date scholarly research. So I appreciate the need of scholarship in the service of reform.
But this petition is pastoral in nature. I am also a priest. In my latest book “Ten Commandments for Church Reform. Memoirs of a Catholic Priest” I describe the pastoral needs I have come across as a priest. The petition is based on my pastoral experience. I have seen with my own eyes for example what terrible damage the Church inflicts by having narrow-minded bureaucrats in the Curia. Like the English priest I knew who fell in love with a girl in Canada. Both came from devout, committed Catholic families. Rome refused to give them permission to marry for ten years. Very, very cruel. Just because John Paul II appointed bureaucrats in the Vatican who were ordered ‘to keep priests under control’.
The pastoral (emotive?) nature of the petition is, paradoxically, also its strength. For people all over the world – most of whom are not scholars – see the agony and injustice inflicted by out-of-date ‘doctrines’ and practices.
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3. A more democratic process?
I don’t see in these commandments when changes are needed in the Church how are they done? Will they be done through some kind of a democratic process? Will they include laypersons?
Response
You are right. We need a thorough overhaul of how the Church functions. It needs to be much more democratic. That is why the Wijngaards Institute is at the same time working on a massive international research project concerning Church governance. The elements will include true decision-making power for the laity on parish, diocesan and country level.
However, our Synodal Petition to the Pope is pastoral in nature. The ten ‘commandments’/recommendations can be immediately implemented even within the present (regretfully) top-down structures.
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4. Your mother?
From your story I can see that your mother had a strong personality. She was an early feminist! Did you feel your mother’s anger well up in you when you spoke up for women and their rights?
Response
I am sure you are right. The funny thing is that because my mother was somewhat dominant I struggled with her at times and stood up against her on a number of occasions . . . However, later on when I saw with my own eyes what injustices were inflicted on women also by the Church, I was certainly infused with her sense of indignation. Moreover, I owe a lot to my mother in my attitude to work. She was always VERY determined. “Don’t allow anyone to eat the cheese from your sandwich”, she used to say. She always acted FAST. “Don’t do tomorrow what you could have done yesterday!” Such values have been extremely useful to me throughout my life.
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5. Blowing your trumpet?
Reading your book I could not help thinking: “This is an exercise in self-applause. He’s all the time boasting about what he has achieved . . .”
Response
You are quite right in pointing out my lack of modesty. I am sure my life story would not rank high on the ‘Twelve Degrees of Humility’ advocated by some medieval spiritual writers. In fact, I thought about that. But I decided to be bold. And for some good reason.
You must have seen how in our world two factors give some individuals the power to influence other people’s minds: achievement and being known. The achievement factor is best illustrated in sports. Those who get first prizes in contests stand out; others are forgotten. St Paul already commented on this (1 Corinthians 9,24). As to being known, look at so-called celebrities – news presenters on TV, fashion models, pop singers. People listen to them simply because they are known. My agenda is to sell my message to as many people as I can, so I decided to be frank about my achievements and distribute my views as widely as I can. And was this not the advice Jesus himself gave? “You are the light of the world . . . Don’t put your light under a bushel but on a candlestick so that it gives light to all in the house” (Matthew 5,14-15).
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For practical reasons we are not publishing the names of the persons who made these observations. Neither do I feel a need of writing out a reply here.
1. Your petition is heretical
Under no circumstances would I sign such a synthesis of heresy and apostasy. I was truly shocked to read each and every one of the ten propositions in the petition, and disturbed to say the least on reading much of what your eponymously entitled Institute presides over and supports.
I pray that the Spirit of Truth may descend upon you and your collaborators.
Professor of Moral Theology
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2. Women’s ordination? Out of the question!
I utterly reject your contention that women should be admitted to holy orders. The tangential reference to St. Paul’s letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 2.12) made by you is controlling, in and of itself, without any further explanation or support. However, this reference ought to be placed in proper context of the surrounding text, found in 1 Timothy 2.8-15. It is not insignificant that St. Paul cites the unchangeable fact of history “Adam was formed first, then Eve…” and that “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived…”
However, if further apostolic support is required, reference can be made to the comprehensive discussion found in St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11.2-16), as well as St. Peter’s catholic letter (1 Peter 3.1-6).
The fact that angels are offended by feminine disorder (1 Corinthians 11.10) can account for the spiritual anemia of the Church in the west, when contrasted to the Church found in the “less progressive” areas of the world (including Eastern Europe).
Indeed, even in the United States, the vitality of the old order adherents (such as “Latin Mass” adherents), is due in great part to the proper ordering of men and women, and the veiling of women as a sacrament of reverence, submission and worship.
Women cannot be allowed to exercise spiritual authority over men. It is contrary to God’s order – the man was made in the image of God, the woman was taken from man, made to be his help-meet, his subordinate. When the woman stepped outside of this authority and took the radical initiative of entertaining the diabolical, she became the avenue for the entrance of sin and death (although man’s “following the woman” consummated the rebellion – precursing the later case of Ahab and Jezebel). As pain during childbirth is an unavoidable consequence of this act, so is the divine word: “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” I see no relaxation of this edict that might be expected in this present creation – although I would expect some when He “makes all things new…” (Revelation 21.5).
Until then, we must all be willing to submit to the constrictions that the divine order has assigned to us – men must be men, women must be women. The obtuse analogy that comes to mind is “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” Galatians 6.15.
Peace and mercy be upon all those who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God.
3. Homosexuals living together? Never!
You say you follow Christ, well Jesus says, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4-6).
Repent!
“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).
Repent from your allegiance to the devil and return to God.
