Peter Hünermann's Assessment of ‘Ordinatio Sacerdotalis’

 
	  Peter Hünermann, professor of the Catholic Theological Faculty
		of Tübingen, Germany 
	  
		These books are among Peter Hünermann's publications:

		  * Streitgespräch um Theologie und Lehramt
		  (1991)
 * Wissenschaft, kulturelle Praxis, Evangelisierung (1993)

		  * Das neue Europa (1993)
 * Demokratie (1993)
 *
		  Armut (1993)
 * Jesus Christus, Gotteswort in der Zeit. Eine
		  systematische Christologie (1994)
 * Ekklesiologie im Präsens.
		  Perspektiven (1995)
 * Gott, ein Fremder in unserm Haus? Die Zukunft
		  des Glaubens in Europa (1996)
 * Diakonat. Ein Ambt für Frauen
		  in der Kirche (with others, 1997)
 * Papstamt und Ökumene. Zum
		  Petrusdienst an der Einheit aller Getauften (1997)
 * Und dennoch . .
		  . (1998)
 * Das Zeite Vatikanum. Christlicher Glaube im Horizont
		  globaler Modernisierung (1998)
  
	 In a book on ‘The discussion on Women Priests in the Catholic
		Church’ (Frauen Ordination. Stand der Diskussion in de Katholischen
		Kirche, ed. Walter Gross, Erich Wewel Publications, Munich 1996), Peter
		Hünermann judges Rome's position in three chapters (see pp. 83-96;
		120-127; 129-146). He rejects Rome's scriptural, tradition and theological
		reasons. He expresses his dismay and surprise at the claim of an
		‘infallible decision by the universal ordinary magisterium’. Finally
		he considers the need of a further ‘refinement’ in the understanding
		of the magisterium, precisely because it has so often failed - as it is doing
		now. 
	 Here follow some extracts (translated by John Wijngaards): 
	 “The historical experience of the Church with regard to its own
		faithfulness to the Gospel shows that it has been characterised by frequent
		failings and misinterpetations. It is true that the collective Church did not
		lose faith altogether. The Holy Spirit has kept it somehow in the truth of the
		Gospel. But this does not mean that the Spirit preserved the Church from
		falling into numerous errors and confusions. The promise of the Holy Spirit to
		the collective Church refers clearly to the central and fundamental truths of
		the faith. From this core the Church has always -- through the help of the
		Spirit and thanks to the commitment of many saintly men and women -- found the
		strength to distance itself from sidetracks and errors, and to renew
		itself.” 
	 “Since the ‘indefectibility’ [=‘unfailing
		nature’] of faith in the Church corresponds to the
		‘infallibility’ of the magisterium, should not to both be applied a
		similar interpretation regarding the promise of help by the Holy Spirit? The
		promised assistance of the Holy Spirit, on which the First and Second Vatican
		Councils base themselves when they justify infallible acts of the teaching
		authority in order for the Church to stay in the truth, could then be seen to
		relate to the most central questions of faith and moral practice and not on all
		possible more peripheral and derived questions of faith and morals.” 
	 “Such a thought makes all the more sense if we consider that the
		many examples of mistaken judgments by the magisterium I have discussed
		earlier, concerned this kind of more peripheral issues of faith and morals.
		However painful the process was for life in the Church, these failings could
		then have been corrected in a relatively short period without the faith of the
		Church as a whole being brought seriously into peril. With all respect for the
		ministry of the present Pope, the constantly mounting insistence in recent
		years on the infallible magisterium of Pope and bishops makes this trend of
		thought ever more urgent.” Frauen Ordination, pp. 145-146. 
	 Peter Hünermann 
	 Go to A lecture by Peter Hünermann? 
	  `
Peter Hünermann's Assessment of ‘Ordinatio Sacerdotalis’

Peter Hünermann, professor of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Tübingen, Germany
