News Scrapbook 1985

Son Diego, CA (Son Diego Co.I Son Diego Union (Cir. D. 217,32.41 (Cir. S. 339,7881

Solana Beach, CA San Dlegulto Citizen (Cir. W. 19,000)

OCT 3 1985

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----r----:.:-- . -~----~~ Sow~ reflections on celibacy By Cary ;jacy --------- Commentary

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the Roman Catholic hierarchy begun to abandon its reactionary positions. It is significant that many clergy left the ministry at the time of the council to marry. Presumably many felt that celibacy was no longer needed to serve the same purpose it once had in the 12th, 16th and 18th centuries. Many Catholics, inspired by the Second Vatican Council, would agree. Celibacy, from this perspective, can be seen as the administrative rule whereby the last all-male club maintains its control. It is an ana- chronism in the 20th century. Yet for that very reason, it is all the more difficult for the members of this club to give up their power. Psychologically, priests would n~d to see themselves, not as a spe- cially-endowed group holding the l!ne against a corrupt modernity, but simply as one out of many forms of Christian witness. The Catholic teaching that a celibate life has no spiritual advantages over the mar- '.ied sta~e would have to be accepted m practice as well as theory. Celibacy gives both meaning and authority to a group of men who may well feel their own personal worth would be lessened if celibacy were abandoned. Not all priests see mar- riage as a slight to their commit- ment and a threat to their authority, but enough do to oppose any change bitterly. Nor does this attitude reflect all the concerns of the hierarchy in- volved in the issue of celibacy. But the historical background of celibacy can go a long way in explaining why the Roman Catholic clergy clings so tenaciously to this problematic prac- tice. Dr. Macy is a professor of relig- ious studies at USD,_ . /

The practice of celibacy among Roman Catholic clergy remains a mystery to those outside the flock and a frustration to many within it. ~or most Protestants and Anglicans, 1I seems a strange and unjustifiable anachronism, while to Roman Catho- lics themselves, it is becoming evi- dent that this is the leading cause of the rapid decline in vocations to the ministry. The lack of priests is critical and if present trends continue role; tra- ditionally reserved to the ~lergy will have to be filled by the unordained. If this is the case, why does the Roman Catholic hierarchy cling so tenaciously to celibacy? Certainly th~e in power are free to change. Celibacy IS considered purely a disci- plinary matter by the church and applies only to priests in the W~tern rite. The much smaller number of East- ern Rite Catholics have never bad a rule of celibacy and have always been free to marry (although bishops are chosen from among the unmar- ried clergy). The Pope could abolish the practice at any time without the least change in central Catholic teaching. If celibacy plays no central role in Catholic belief, and priests are in such short supply, why does the church continue the practice? The reasons given vary, but many theolo- gians and historians believe that the problem is really more historical and political than theological or re- ligious. Celibacy was not widely enforced in Christianity until the 11th and 12th century, when the papacy came under the control of a group of de- vout Benedictine monks. They enact- ed a set of reforms designed to re-

move control of the church from the hands of the feudal lords. Being monks themselves, they felt that the cle'.gy could better resist the temp-· tations _to wor!dly power by living as monks_ m the world - that is, by not marrymg and by remaining chaste. When the church was again faced with widespread corruption in the 16th century, Christianity split. Lu- theran, Reformed and Anglican Christians renounced monasticism altogether and expected their minis- ters to marry. Roman Catholics re- tained both monasticism and celiba- cy, ~nd established a strict seminary regime, and hierarchical controls on the life of the clergy. By the 18th and 19th centuries the er (Protestant, Anglican 'and Roman Catholic) comprised one of the many all-male "clubs" who con- trolled society. Politics, academics and religion were the private pre- serve of a small group of well-edu- cated men. ~he combination of strict organi- zational control, including celibacy, made the Roman Catholic clergy one of the most formidable of these groups. What had begun as a practice t? address religious and organiza- tional problems had developed into a safeguard for clerical and male con- trol. The great movements for freedom which continue to this present day swept away many of the privileges of the all-male groups (at least in law if not in practice). The Roman Cath~ lie clergy, however, strongly and suc- cessfully opposed these revolution- ~ry movements. Only very recently, m the Second Vatican Council, has.

S n Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. D 127,454)

OCT 3 198:, .Jll/en's P c. B.

I • IH8 Letter from Washington

:zit~ Ansel Adams exhibit, scheduled for San Diego, stirs museum director's praise rious role tomorrow night at a fund- raising ball she coordinated to raise money for Meridian House, a non- profit organization that helps newly arrived foreign diplomats adjust to life in the United States. Diego who formerly practiced law in San Diego, to be U.S. ambassador to the Middle East state of Qatar. Much of his work was centered in the West - Yosemite and Sequoia na- tional parks, the rugged Northern California coast, the deserts of Ari- zona and New Mexico - but the set includes works from Alaska to Maine.

Commerce Department, James M. Waters, 30, a San Diego native and 1981 graduate of thL.!LSD Law School, has been appointed special assistant to Secretary Malcolm Bal- drige. Waters previously was legal counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee. The $53,000-a-year job will make Waters the department's liaison to the White House and other federal agencies. He also will conduct spe- cial studies for Baldrige.

of social prominence in Washington." The Wilsons, alas, did not make the list of "Superstars," which includes the likes of the Reagans, the Bushes and the Tip 'O'Neills. But the Wilsons are nevertheless on a fairly heavy- weight list that includes Cabinet members James Baker, Malcolm Baldrige, John Block and Caspar Weinberger, only seven other sena- tors, and two other erstwhile San Diegans, Attorney General Edwin Meese and his wife, Ursula. "I jumped right in when we got here, but there are times when I look forward to bailing out,' Ursula Meese is quoted as saying in refer- ence to the D.C. social circuit. * * * LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU... It's not hard to see how Wilson, never known as much of a party guy in his San Diego days, made the Washing- ton list of social elite. At a party Tuesday night at the posh J.W. Mar- riott Hotel to raise money for the overseas arm of the Republican Na- tional Committee, several of the senators and wives put on a skit deal- ing with a budget problem in the Land of Oz. Wilson played the role of the Cow- ardly Lion, while Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska played a Straw Man and Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina played Pop, the Magic Dragon. Gayle Wilson had a starring role as a girl named Dorothy. Gayle Wilson takes on a more se-

By William Osborne Copley Nev,s Service Special to The Tribune

Ghougassian, a native of Cairo who speaks Arabic, Armenian, French, Italian and Spanish, has been direc- tor of the Peace Corps in the Yemen Arab Republic since 1982. The nomination will require Sen- ate confirmation. * * * COMMERCE AIDE.. . And at the

COMING SOON. . . Steve Brezzo, director of the San Diego Museum of Art, scanned the 75 Ansel Adams photographs in an exhibit that prem- ieres here tonight and comes to San Diego Feb. 22 - and verily bubbled over. Adams' work, he said, is "epic . . . romantic . . poetic . . almost relig- ious." Indeed, the museum set, titled "Ansel Adams: Classic Images," is unquestionably impressive. And get- ting it for the San Diego Museum of Art marks something of a coup. "Anytime we have an exhibition that has the national attention and scope that this bas, it 1s terrific for San Diego," Brezzo said. "It will be great fun for the city.'' The photographs were selected by Adams in the five years before his death on April 22, 1984, to represent his best work. The set is "autobio- graphical" in that it spans his career. It is augmented by a group of rarely seen large images, mural prints and screens loaned by the photographer's widow, Virginia, and others. The exhibition was made possible by a grant from Pacific Telesis, a California-based telecommunica- tion corporation. The first-ever bowing is at the National Gallery of Art here. Adam , a leading preservationist, is perhaps the be:t-known photogra- pher of the American landscape.

* * * MOVIN' ON UP... President Reagan will nominate Joseph Ghou- gassian, 41, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of San

The most important piece in the exhibition, according to Brezzo, is '·Monolith, the Face of Half Dome," a large print Adams developed in 1965 from a negative he shot of the sheer mountain wall in Yosemite in the winter of 1927. It is generally consid- ered his first masterpiece. "Ansel Adams' signature," Brezzo said, "is that he takes a scene and manipulates it technically " Indeed, Adams, who was also a concert-quality pianist, often com- pared the photographic negative to a musical score, and the print to a per- formance. That dark-room magic is perhaps most evident in "Monolith," but it is clearly there on other works, as well. "He had such an eye for scope and detail," Brezzo said. "You can't help but be moved." * * * THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD.. . The San Diego mayor-turned U.S. senator is doing all right for himself. The latest edition of Washington Dos- sier, the capital's high-society maga- zine, included Wilson and his wife, Gayle, on the "A" list of its first col- lection of the Social 400, a list the magazine said is "a must indic~tion