It is the fruit of the reflection of a dozen people from the Diocese of Liège – laity, priests, and religious sister, who have met each month, for more than a year, “to reflect on the way in which the sacraments are lived today.” The authors say, “because the sacraments as we celebrate them, as we symbolize them, are only one stage in a long historical journey.”
Various subjects are discussed: the place of women in the Church, clericalism, abuse of power, the priesthood… And it is about the priest that the text proposes a permanent reform. “Few of them are capable of true, egalitarian, and therefore fraternal relationships with the Christians around them,” the authors state.
“The ordination of clerics, as currently proposed and lived, is one of the weights that slows down the dynamism and prophetism of the Church. It is urgent to put in place a more authentic practice of Christian communities which goes beyond the too strict barriers of canonical legislation testifying to bygone eras and which often gets in the way of believing the gospel it serves. “Therefore, in order to suppress clericalism, it is necessary to suppress the clergy,” they conclude radically.
These authors then invite each baptized person to take their responsibilities because “it is a false good idea to believe that the ordination of married women or men would come to solve the breakdowns that the Church is experiencing.” There is a more effective way in their eyes to overcome these “breakdowns”: “It is the paradigm that must be changed, the spirit of the gospel must be revived, the responsibility of each baptized person must be privileged.”
Bishop Jean Pierre Delville immediately published a press release on February 17, on the website of the Diocese of Liège, protesting against this brochure which “challenges the ordination of priests and passes a conclusive judgment on them.” The Bishop of Liège denounced these words which “many priests, deacons, and lay Christians find to be insulting and unjust.”
He adds that he considers them to be “totally false, when I think of the amount of dedication that I have seen among the priests and other pastoral actors of our diocese in my episcopate of almost ten years.”
Bishop Delville emphasizes “the caricatural nature of this booklet,” which “condemns two thousand years of Christian life,” before reiterating his attachment to the synodal approach requested by Pope Francis, and encouraging everyone “to live his ministry or his service with zeal and fraternity.”
The Bishop of Liège seems to think like most of his colleagues that synodality is the remedy for all current ills, which is called a panacea… or a utopia.
“They want to abolish the priesthood and the priest,” so “Let us return the Church to Him whose bride it is,” launches an online petition against the brochure published in Liège. In response to “the pamphlet ‘Let’s return the Church to the people of God,’” the organizers of this petition wish to pay a real tribute “to the priesthood and to our priests.” They emphasize the “vein of Protestantism” that runs through the pages of the vindictive pamphlet.
The development that follows the presentation of the petition recalls that the suppression of the priesthood is not urgent, but rather: faith, resistance to the temptation of ambition, knowledge of the Magisterium, and spiritual accompaniment, an authentic communion in the sacraments, the support of priests. It emphasizes how much “this pamphlet encourages a (r)evolution within the Church, advocating ways specific to the fashions of the time.”
And to reaffirm that “denying the legitimacy of the priesthood would amount, sooner or later, to destroying all the sacraments, starting with the Eucharist itself – already so abused by those who see it only as a ‘symbol’ and no longer believe in the real presence of Christ in the consecrated host.”
The petition highlights the possible isolation of priests and the support they need. “Why not create priest communities to allow them to live and pray together? If this is impossible, invite them to dinner, listen to them, break their isolation when they are confronted with it.” – Which is reminiscent of the happy intuition of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre installing priests in priories, in communities, and not alone in a presbytery.
It is also proposed to “relieve priests from activities that weigh down their ministry or change them into social actors … Thus, they will be more available to respond to the sacramental requests addressed to them. And to quote Padre Pio who “did not hesitate to affirm that the place of the priest is at the altar and in the confessional, adding that all the rest is useless to his ministry.”
“Let us return the Church to the people of God! To put an end to clericalism.” Under this provocative title a document of about fifty pages is being published and distributed in Belgium, which is intended to be “a daring brochure of pastoral theology accessible to all.”