Jan Kerkhofs, perhaps Europe’s leading religious sociologist, is a professor emeritus of the University of Louvain, a Jesuit, and a writer of clarity and distinction. 

Kerkhofs is a Belgian. He addressed the first Congress of the International Federation of Married Catholic Priests in Rome in 1987. It was he who told us that almost half of Catholic parishes worldwide had no present pastor and that lay leaders serving in the absence of a priest had very different ideas about a married priesthood, the ordination of women, and sexual ethics. 

As we gathered for the semi-annual meeting of the Executive Committee of the International Federation, I inquired about Kerkhofs. I was given an interview from "The Standard" (30 September 1999), a Belgian paper. 

In that article, Kerkhofs observed that the five most urgent questions facing the Church were: 

1. credibility (the Church for most modern people is not where they seek their values and meaning; this is true for Catholics as well as people at large.) 

2. collegiality (the structures of authority are in crisis.) 

3. ministry (Kerkhofs gave as one example of the pastoral shortage a 70 year old priest responsible for ten parishes.) 

4. sexual morality (there is an abyss between the teaching of the hierarchy and the convictions of the people at large.) 

5. ecumenism (this is a universal hope and a contemporary disappointment.) 

Kerkhofs noted that reactionary forces were in place from the 1971 Synod of Bishops. That Synod turned down a married priesthood by twenty votes (187- 207). Forty bishops had been appointed by the Pope and the Curia. Had the Synod been represented by bishops in pastoral service and by the delegates of national hierarchies, the ordination of married men would have begun in 1971. The ambiguity of Paul VI strengthened the reactionary forces, stung and angry by the widespread rejection of Humanae Vitae (the 1968 encyclical prohibiting all means of artificial contraception, in all cases). 

A target of reactionary bishops was the International Synod, set up by Vatican II as a balancing voice to the Curia and as a means for bishops in pastoral service to influence Rome and the papacy. These Synods were described as "sterile" by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin after they had been altered by John Paul II. Similar comments were made by Cardinal Danneels of Belgium, and by Archbishop John Quinn, former President of the United States Catholic Bishops. 

Kerkhofs criticized the Pope for making the Synod an instrument of Vatican policy rather than a collegial structure of the world-wide Church. The result has been what Kerkhofs calls a "sociological schism" between the "Holy See and a world moving into its future." As the schism gains energy and the Vatican feels powerless to control it, the papacy relies on authority to settle what only consensus can achieve. "If the Church needs infallibility to answer a question, it has nothing to say." The prophetic leadership this Church requires is not a counter-cultural, lonely voice seeking to clarify everything but a call for people to search for answers together in communities of conscience and concern. 

The secularization of the moment is not necessarily an evil. It has raised old questions with a new urgency. Who is God? Why is Christ important? Is there life after death, for Jesus and for us? Secularization makes good spirituality a priority. In the final analysis, spirituality preserves us in truth and in life far more effectively than all other alternatives. 

 Federation Report 

For the first seven years of its existence, the International Federation held its Executive Committee Meetings in Paris (1986-1993). For the next seven years it moved its meetings to different cities of Europe in an effort to meet with local priest groups, to give interviews in the media and to worship with concerned reformed Catholics on the European continent. These dialogues enriched the Federation and made it possible for local groups to feel connected to the Federation. We met in Austria (Vienna), Belgium (Brussels), England (London) Germany (Mainz), France (Marseilles), Ireland (Dublin). Italy (Rome; Livorno) Netherlands (Amsterdam). and Spain (Madrid). During these years we convened two Congresses outside Europe (Brasilia, Brazil, 1996 and Atlanta, USA 1999). We had meaningful dialogues in these visits with Cardinal Schonborn of Austria, Cardinal Hume of England, the Bishops of Ireland and the Vice President of the Italian Bishops Conference. 

The present meeting (March 30-April 2, 2000) marked a return to Brussels. We chose Brussels for a number ofreasons. The first of these was a desire to meet with the local Belgian groups (Hors les Murs, French-speaking, and Inspraak, Flemish-speaking). A further reason was to acquaint ourselves with the culture and law of Belgium since the Federation will seek incorporation under Belgian and European Union law and will also file for Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status with the United Nations through Brussels. United Nations recognition will give us international status, legal stability and recognition, access to grants and funding, and use of United Nations buildings and facilities for our work. 

Some of our work was internal and complex. Working in a number of languages (English, French, Italian on occasion, Spanish) we began a close scrutiny of our Statutes on the basis of Belgian law and United Nations requirements. This work will require attention at the next two meetings of the Executive Committee before it is complete. 

Delegates to the Executive Committee included Paul Bourgeois (Belgium), Claude Bertin (France), Heinz Vogels, (Germany, delegate by invitation), Mauro del Nevo (Italy), Lambert Van Gelder (Netherlands), Aitor Orube and Julio Pinillos (Spain) and Anthony Padovano (U.S.A.). 

Of more immediate interest were the initiatives we made to meet in Madrid in 2002 at a special Conference sponsored by the International Movement: We Are Church (IMWAC) and the International Federation of Married Catholic Priests (IFMCP). Various other international reform groups, yet to be determined, will co-sponsor the event. Elfriede Harth of IMWAC met with us through one morning and afternoon. This Conference will serve as a millennial celebration seeking to give common voice to the many reform organizations created in the 35 years since the close of Vatican II. 

The next Congress of the International Federation will take place in 2005, quite possibly in Rome. Thus, after an absence from Europe since 1993 (Madrid), the Federation will meet again in Europe in 2002 (Madrid) and 2005 (Rome). 

The Italian representative (Mauro del Nevo) has made a formal proposal for a ritual of reconciliation and solidarity between married priests and the official Church. We are awaiting a reply from the Bishops Conference of Italy for a meeting in Rome to celebrate this Event in the present calendar year. We are asking for this meeting in the light of the jubilee spirit of the millennium. 

The remainder of the Committee agenda concerned plans for future issues of Ministerium Novum, our superlative publication; connections with emerging international reform associations (e.g., European Network; Woman’s Ordination World-Wide; Catholics for the Right to Decide); and a review of correspondence and requests from around the world (Austria, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Poland). A Polish married priest, Roman Kotlinski, author of a best seller in Poland (100,000 copies) The Church: a Clerical Bastion, wrote to us about his desire to connect with married priests world-wide. 

The International Federation has now completed fourteen years of work, some 30 Executive Committee meetings, and five international Congresses (Rome, Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, U.S.A.). We have had formal dialogues with Cardinals and Bishops throughout Europe and published documents on canon law and ministry, bishops and their call for reform of ministry, final declarations of international congresses, and years of Ministerium Novum We have kept up a rigorous correspondence with the Vatican and given interviews in the Americas, Asia and Europe. We have gathered national groups together, inspired their newsletters, and supported them with a sense of solidarity. Bert Peeters, our first President, has written a history of the Federation; our Archives have been accepted by the University of Louvain (Belgium), the University of Koblenz (Germany) and the University of Nijmegen (Netherlands), (pending). Before the Federation came into existence, there were two synods on international assemblies of married priests, both in Italy (Chiusi in 1983 and Ariccia, near Rome, in 1985) 

It has been a journey of grace and a pilgrimage of peace. As a new millennium begins, we have every reason to look back with humility and gratitude and foreward with hope and commitment. 

Anthony T. Padovano, 
President Emeritus and CORPUS Ambassador