By Cindy Wooden
NC News Service
A leading critic of the adult catechism “Christ Among Us” and the book’s author disagreed April 16 over whether the book adequately represented the Catholic faith.
The catechism, published by Paulist Press but withdrawn from circulation at the request of the Vatican, “distorts Catholic teaching,” said James Likoudis, vice president of Catholics United for the Faith, a group of doctrinally conservative Catholics who had taken their criticisms of the book to Rome.
Anthony T. Wilhelm, a former Paulist priest who wrote the original version of the book in 1967 and its three revisions, said he still sees “no doctrinal problems” with the catechism.
Paulist Press announced April 16 that the book was withdrawn at the request of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and that the book’s imprimatur had been removed.
The congregation’s action is “hard to understand,” Wilhelm said in a telephone interview from Berkeley, Calif., where he is a marriage counselor, author and lecturer. “I’m a little numb yet.”
Wilhelm said he had difficulty understanding the Vatican decision on the book, in part because “a couple of years ago some things came up and we made changes” on sections dealing with conscience, sexual ethics and original sin. The changes brought the sections into line –with the congregation’s requests, he said.
The book quotes from documents of the Second Vatican Council, post-conciliar documents and noted theologians, he said. “If anything, it’s not far out.”
But Likoudis, in a separate telephone interview from Buffalo, N.Y., said the book “was very defective” concerning the church’s teaching on contraception, conscience, Mary, original sin, and sexual ethics.
The book, Likoudis said, “casts into doubt the reality of the Blessed Virgin being really a virgin, casts into doubt the existence of angels, distorts Catholic teaching on original sin.”
“Christ Among Us” said that the existence of angels and devils does not “seem to be a part of the strictly dogmatic teaching of the church. The numbers and varieties which are mentioned may well be mythological exaggerations.”
Concerning the story of Adam and Eve, the book said, “The’ biblical story of human origins has been interpreted until relatively recently as meaning one original couple (monogenism). Many current biblical scholars take a broader view and point out that monogenism is not necessarily part of God’s revelation.”
The virginity of Mary, the book said, “should be seen as more than mere physical inviolability. For many today whether Mary is or is not physically a virgin is of small consequence; they see her virginity as symbolizing something far greater, her profound attitude of total openness to God alone.”
Likoudis also criticized Wilhelm for “abandoning the priesthood” in August 1975.
“What can I say?” said Wilhelm, who now is married. “That (the decision to leave the priesthood) was the most difficult decision I ever made in my life.”
Msgr. Colin MacDonald, director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops’ secretariat for priestly life and ministry, said while church guidelines restrict the public ministry of former priests, including teaching in a Catholic university or preaching in a Catholic church, the guidelines do not place limits on their writing.
Wilhelm said that his marriage and reflections on the priesthood, including the value of celibacy, led him to include in the book’s third revised edition, published in 1981, the statement that “most who advocate optional celibacy in the priesthood do not wish to abolish celibacy, -but to make it what they feel is a freer choice.”
The book also said on priestly celibacy, “In giving up the fundamental and deepest human love relationship, marriage, the priest expresses his total attachment to the divine. He is staking all on the reality of God among us.”
Wilhelm said he could see the problems some people had with chapter 21, “Christ Joins a Man and Woman in Marriage.”
Likoudis said the chapter is “very defective” and that it “sanctions contraception,” advocating “the supremacy of conscience over and above the teaching of the church.”
The author said he researched natural family planning with the help of a doctor and could have included more about it in the chapter. Also, he said, “I should have pointed out the dangers of the pill.”
However, Wilhelm does not apologize for the “pastoral approach” he took in regard to artificial birth control.
Likoudis said the book was being used in high school religion classes and he was concerned about “girls getting pregnant and having abortions – a far worse evil.”
The book “sanctions dissent from the church on the infallible teaching on contraception,” Likoudis said.
Wilhelm wrote in the book that “contraceptive birth control as a means of preventing the generation of children has been considered wrong in the church’s teaching.” He also wrote that “in practice there are circumstances in which couples feel that they cannot now comply with the pope’s teaching.”
The book also commented that “the intentions of some couples seem to be. purely selfish, while others are trying their best to live a truly Christian marriage.
“However, this does not mean that each couple can decide the morality of this solely by themselves, however well-intentioned they may be; while their conscience is always their ultimate guide, they must also consider the, objective standards of morality given them by the Church,” the book says.