Frank Brennan launches Benedict, Me and the Cardinals Three by Bishop William Morris, in Sydney on 23 June 2014.
I am delighted to be asked to participate in the launch of Bishop William Morris' book. Bill was bishop of Toowoomba for 18 years. This book is the story of his forced retirement at the insistence of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and at the instigation of three Roman curial cardinals all of whom have now left the Vatican, having passed retirement age. Naturally, we were not expecting any of those four to be with us this evening. Sadly Bill could not be with us either, being laid up in a hospital bed in wintry Queensland.
In the 1960s, I lived for five years in the Toowoomba diocese while attending Downlands College, a boarding school for boys conducted by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. At that time, I had regularly to deny any relationship to the then Bishop of Toowoomba William Brennan who gave very long sermons on hot and cold days much to the displeasure of the Downlands students. I used to emerge from chapel rightly claiming to be from another branch of the family back there in the bog.
Some of the key priests who appear in Bill Morris' book also were educated at Downlands. The MSCs had a no nonsense style to them, enjoying their independence from the local bishop while being very dedicated to the pastoral care of people in the far flung country diocese and always attentive to the pastoral requests of the parish priests, a disproportionate number of whom went to Downlands.
I remember one MSC arriving unexpectedly at the school mid-year to teach French. It was just after Humanae Vitae and he had expressed some reservations while ministering south of the Tweed River.
One of the ex-Downlanders to appear in the book is Bill Morris' Vicar-General Peter Dorfield who, true to form as one of the world's most punctilious note takers, provided a detailed account to Bill about his unfortunate meeting with the papal visitator Archbishop Charles Chaput who came to the diocese for four days (including Anzac Day) in 2007 to report on the state of the diocese. Chaput told Dorfield that Morris was:
a good, humane and prayerful bishop but innocent and naïve and open to manipulation because of (his) great desire to see good in everyone, and that people had taken advantage of (his) goodness and trust. (He) had been captured, manipulated and misled by a so-called progressive group of priests in the diocese who were in fact 'running the diocese'; as a result of the actions of these priests, (he) had been led astray and now needed to recant, and in effect throw (himself) on the mercy of the Vatican authorities, promising a more orthodox and obedient future.
After discussing Bishop Morris' 2006 Advent Pastoral Letter, Chaput then raised the topic of 'outrageous liturgies' and then made 'a series of denigrating comments about different priests'. When Dorfield had the temerity to defend them, Chaput 'suggested it might be time for a new vicar-general because of (Dorfield's) perceived undue influence over (Morris) as a bishop and (Morris') personal inadequacies in theological practice'.
This gives you some of the flavour of the book. It contains accurate recollections of a sham process instituted in Rome to get rid of Bill Morris at any cost, and regardless of any particular charges.
Speaking with Peter Dorfield in preparation for tonight's launch, I asked him what are the key lessons now for the Church of Toowoomba. He reminded me that Christ's faithful in Toowoomba wanted nothing more than the truth. It is important to remember that William Morris was removed from office; he did not resign. He always displayed the highest pastoral integrity and paid the price for it.
He was the consummate team player who planned his pastoral strategies in close consultation with his presbyterate and the various consultative organs he set up in the diocese. As the people of Toowoomba continue to live faithful lives as Catholics, they still hold Bill in high esteem; meanwhile all the people in Rome are now gone. As Peter says, it was 'a poor decision based on poor advice'.
I first met Bill when he was Secretary to Archbishop Francis Rush, Archbishop of Brisbane and President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. Rush and his fellow Queensland bishops had appointed me prior to ordination as their Adviser on Aboriginal Affairs in the wake of controversy between the Queensland Church leaders and the colourful Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen in the lead up to the 1982 Commonwealth Games.
Even under Bishop Edward Kelly MSC, the Toowoomba presbyterate were quite engaged on justice issues. I remember spending a week motoring all the way out to Quilpie and back with Peter Dorfield to meet with each deanery to discuss Aboriginal rights.
In Toowoomba, we had a formal meeting at the bishop's house followed by a fine meal with silver table service. In Dalby we met at the presbytery and chatted over a meal. In Roma, we gathered on the presbytery verandah over a few beers. And out at Charleville, we had a muster by the river and a fine barbie. Pastoral style became more relaxed and theological niceties less relevant the further west you went.
I well recall attending Bill's episcopal ordination in Toowoomba in 1993. It was a very joyous and participative liturgy. Aboriginal Catholics played a central role. Darling Downs farmers presented some of their produce at the altar. Women were spotted on the sanctuary. The formal reading of the Latin papal bull was performed at an earlier ceremony much to the consternation of a handful of conservatives.
After the mass, the then papal nuncio Archbishop Brambilla called aside the MC who was the parish priest of Cunnamulla with a fairly layback style. His Grace detailed the 35 liturgical abuses which had occurred. The MC heard him out and then said, 'Yes, we must make sure we get it right next time.' All being well, and Bill avoiding further promotion, next time should have come around in just another 26 years.
Shortly after the ordination, I was conducting a day of prayer and reflection for the priests of the Wagga Diocese. I had been invited by their bishop William Brennan, the nephew of the William Brennan at whose feet I had sat as a school boy. After lunch, the bishop and I went for a stroll. I said how much I had enjoyed Bill Morris' episcopal ordination. He said with a smile, 'Actually, I prefer the Roman rite.' Even back then I suspect Bill Morris was a target for the temple police.
In 2010 I was honoured to deliver the Concannon Oration, the premier annual Catholic event for intellectual reflection on the faith in the Toowoomba diocese. I knew by this time that there was trouble brewing in Rome for Bill Morris. In the 2009 Spring issue of the priests' newsletter The Swag, Fr Jeff Scully, the parish priest of Quilpie and one time Roman classmate of Cardinal George Pell, had written with his characteristic light touch and humour:
How can a respected leader of a local church be investigated without ever finding the content of the report based on these investigations? Is this not unthinkable in this age of transparency and accountability? I kid you not, Archbishop Chaput's visit did nothing to increase respect for the way Rome's officials do business. After the Chaput visit, not many Toowoomba people were expecting to find in their mailboxes a wee note from Denver, Colorado, saying how much he enjoyed his visit to our part of the world, how enriching the experience had been for him, and how much he had learnt. Learning did not seem to be part of the exercise.
In the oration, I said, 'As far as we all know, the investigation is ongoing. Is it not time for the open conversation to commence? Is it not time for all of us learn new pastoral ways of being Church before new generations in country areas of Australia are completely denied access to the sacraments?' The MC for the evening was Patrick Nunan, one of Toowoomba's most respected solicitors. He had been school captain of Downlands in my first year there. At dinner, clergy and the legal profession discussed the appalling abuse of process which was occurring in Rome in relation to their bishop. We hatched a plan for putting the spotlight on the administrative abuses being orchestrated from Rome.
Speaking to Jeff Scully in preparation for this evening, Jeff was very upbeat about the new direction of our Church under the leadership of Pope Francis. He is confident that whistle-blowers and the disaffected temple police wouldn't get the same inside run in Rome now as they did when they set out to do in the bishop of Toowoomba. Jeff thinks Francis would have the good pastoral sense to refer the matter back to the Australian bishops' conference. He thinks the bishops would need to show some resolve either siding with the whistle-blowers or with their fellow bishop.
Jeff insists that Morris always took advice of his own clergy and his pastoral team. He was a servant of the servants of God who was welcomed and was welcoming from Toowoomba to Birdsville. Under Francis we can be sure that the local church is not just to be treated as a branch office of Rome Central. Jeff recalls how exemplary Morris was in dealing with child sexual abuse. You will recall that he asked Rome to delay his forced retirement until he could deal with the abuse crisis in a Toowoomba school where he had even had the foresight to engage a retired High Court judge to mediate the issue. Rome had other priorities preferring that the diocese be without a bishop while that matter was resolved.
It's been very difficult to work out why Bishop Morris was sacked. It's been a moving target. At first the concern seemed to be over the third rite of reconciliation and his failure to drop everything and come to Rome when Cardinal Arinze specified. Bill pointed out that he was due in Rome four months after the specified date, so surely things could wait until then. It seems that over time Bill had mended his ways on the third rite to comply with Rome's new strictures. So then there was his Advent pastoral letter of 2006.
We are left confused as to whether Morris was sacked chiefly for what he wrote in that letter, or for what was reported by Chaput in 2007, or for what was reported to Rome by those sometimes described as 'the temple police'. The offending section of his pastoral letter was:
Given our deeply held belief in the primacy of Eucharist for the identity, continuity and life of each parish community, we may well need to be much more open towards other options of ensuring that Eucharist may be celebrated. Several responses have been discussed internationally, nationally and locally
• ordaining married, single or widowed men who are chosen and endorsed by their local parish community
• welcoming former priests, married or single back to active ministry
• ordaining women, married or single
• recognising Anglican, Lutheran and Uniting Church Orders
While we continue to reflect carefully on these options we remain committed to actively promoting vocations to the current celibate male priesthood and open to inviting priests from overseas.
If he was sacked for what he wrote in his Advent letter about the possible ordination of women, married priests, and recognition of other orders 'Rome willing', there would have been no need for Archbishop Chaput later to make his visit and his report. And let's remember that Morris had published a clarification of his pastoral letter on his website saying:
In my Advent Pastoral Letter of 2006 I outlined some of the challenges facing the diocese into the future. In that letter I made reference to various options about ordination that were and are being talked about in various places, as part of an exercise in the further investigation of truth in these matters. Unfortunately some people seem to have interpreted that reference as suggesting that I was personally initiating options that are contrary to the doctrine and discipline of the Church. As a bishop I cannot and would not do that and I indicated this in the local media at the time.
But then again if he was sacked for matters detailed in Chaput's report, we are left wondering why Chaput being apprised of the Advent letter and having completed his visit would have told the Diocesan Chancellor Brian Sparksman how extraordinarily surprising it would be if Morris were to be sacked. As they drove back to Brisbane after the visitation, Chaput told Sparksman, 'I would be astonished if you were to lose your bishop.' The matter is a complete mess reflecting very poorly on a Church which prides itself on a Code of Canon law which provides for the protection of the rights of all Christ's faithful, including priests and bishops.
As Jeff Scully says, 'You wouldn't give Bill Morris full marks for preaching but you would give him 11/10 for teamwork.' If Pope Francis were to refer future complaints back to the bishops' conference, we could at least expect greater sensitivity to the pastoral needs and concerns which preoccupied Bishop Morris. There would still be the occasional outrider like Cardinal Pell who erroneously claimed when speaking to an American Catholic news agency that 'the diocese was divided quite badly and the bishop hasn't demonstrated that he's a team player'. That's quite a claim coming from an archbishop whose own auxiliary Geoffrey Robinson had cause to say, 'He's not a team player, he never has been.' I think part the problem has been that in our Church people have had in mind two separate teams. There is the Roman curia team, and there is the local church team. There are those like Cardinal Pell who have played with the Roman curia team providing exclusive avenues for reporting on the local team, and then there are those like Bishop Morris who have played with the local church team knowing little about the workings of the Roman team. One message of Francis is that it's time to bring both teams together, and the Roman team is not always right.
In Evangelii Gaudium, Francis says:
Here I repeat for the entire Church what I have often said to the priests and laity of Buenos Aires: I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: 'Give them something to eat' (Mk 6:37).
Bill Morris wanted to feed the people with the Eucharist all the way from Toowoomba to Birdsville.
Some of the most heartening remarks out of all this profoundly disheartening saga detailed by Bishop Morris have been the public affirmations of some of his fellow Queensland bishops. Ray Benjamin, the long retired bishop of Townsville, joined issue with some of the Catholic press in Australia labeling his brother bishop a heretic. Benjamin wrote:
I was distressed to read that The Record has associated Bishop Bill Morris with the ugly word 'heresy', especially coming from a publication which I have known and respected for many years. In what sense could he be demoted to such a level? His thoughts on women as priests, (shared with half the Bishops of the world) were always expressed in humble submission to the Church's authority. At no stage did he ever nominate or encourage any woman towards priesthood. Surely no heresy there. Regarding Bishop Bill's attitude to Non-Catholic clergy, we must not find ourselves transported back to the bitterness and name-calling of past centuries. Our Catholic attitude to other church communities has developed in many positive ways. Our Popes and senior Prelates have, for years now, been regularly visiting and sharing with their non-Catholic counterparts, in prayer, preaching and seeking the truth together. Why is Pope Benedict insisting on attending the upcoming Assisi Inter- Faith Conference, against the wishes of his 'safe' advisers? We have a whole Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, with a Cardinal at its head, urging all Catholics everywhere into ecumenical endeavours. Students for our Catholic Priesthood are studying Scripture at the feet of Protestant scholars. With the so-called 'mainstream' Churches we willingly share one-another's Baptisms and Marriages as sacred, binding, and life giving. In sixty-two years as a Catholic Priest and Bishop, after some early years of self righteous superiority (of which I am now a bit ashamed), I have come to accept that the vast majority of non-catholic pastors I meet are truly men of God, committed to a lifetime of humble service, responding not only to the 'vocation' of their communities, but equally responding to the urging of God's Holy Spirit. Who else will care for those waiting Christian communities? In our many ecumenical endeavours, for any Catholic to smile and offer the right hand of welcome and friendship to such good people, while keeping the left hand tightly behind our back, reminding us that they are, after all well-meaning heretics, would, I feel, be more heretical than anything Bishop Morris ever said or even imagined.
After attending the huge farewell mass for Bill Morris in Toowoomba, James Foley, bishop of Cairns wrote:
The reasons, the causes and the motivations for what has occurred may be known only unto God, Who alone may judge. Consistently and officially it has been stated that neither Bill's own integrity nor his pastoral effectiveness are questioned. The fruits — the proof — of this were palpably evident in Sunday's celebration. Now, after almost two decades attending episcopal testimonials and funerals, I have never witnessed so simple yet profound an outpouring of appreciation and love. As one of the other bishops there observed afterwards: The best way to go may be to get sacked!...Never have I been more struck than by the sincerity and depth of Faith at this recent Mass of Thanksgiving. The solid no-nonsense Catholic Faith of the people of the Toowoomba Diocese was un-self-consciously and un-pretentiously on display.
Bill's book highlights especially through the process suggested by the group gathered for dinner after the Concannon Oration — a report commissioned from retired Justice William Carter and the subsequent canonical report by Fr Ian Waters - that Bishop Morris was denied natural justice. As William Carter said at the Brisbane launch, 'Scripture abounds with references to justice and to our need to 'act justly' in our personal lives. Show me the law or doctrine which exempts the pope and the cardinals three from compliance with this same requirement with this same requirement in the circumstances of a case like this? This is why this book had to be written.'
In 2012 on the feast of St Benedict, I was back in the Toowoomba Cathedral for the episcopal ordination of Bill Morris's successor, Bob McGuckin. The presiding prelate was Archbishop Mark Coleridge. Coleridge was very severe in his homily. He said:
[T]here's one point in the Rule where Benedict abandons moderation and speaks with a quite untypical severity. He is describing the four kinds of monk, and he speaks approvingly of cenobites and hermits, both of whom live under the rule of an Abbot, one in community, the other in solitude. But then he lashes the free-wheelers he calls sarabaites and gyrovagues. These are the wandering monks who submit to no authority but their own and call holy whatever pleases them, moving from monastery to monastery and abusing hospitality to gratify their own desires at every turn. They are do-it-yourself monks who are a law unto themselves. In the terms we have heard in the Gospel of John, they do not remain in the love of Christ but stay imprisoned in the love of self which, according to St Benedict, is the way of perdition ...
If a Bishop fails to listen to the words of the Master, he will prove to be a law unto himself, every bit as bad as the wandering monks, or worse since he is the shepherd of the flock ...
Our own situation is different in many ways, but the Diocese of Toowoomba has known turbulence in recent times. St Benedict points the way forward — not just for the new Bishop but for the entire community of the Diocese. The way beyond all turbulence is a new listening to the voice of Christ at the heart of the Church, a new obedience to the Lord, which alone can guarantee that we remain in his love.
Many of us in that Cathedral felt assaulted and we thought the pulpit was being used to commit another wrong on the ever pastoral William Morris who sat there on the sanctuary, dignified, silent and condemned. These were the fading days of Benedict's papacy. Hopefully under the leadership of Pope Francis we will hear no more homilies like that from our church leaders in Australia, and we will treasure the pastoral insights of bishops like Bill Morris as well as the theological acumen of popes like Benedict at his best, spared the reckless lack of concern for justice and transparency shown by the three cardinals and some others on the Roman team who simply thought it was time to teach the Toowoomba team a lesson. Mind you, Benedict was well past his prime when he wrote to Morris that John Paul II 'has decided infallibly and irrevocably that the Church has not the right to ordain women to the priesthood'.
It is no longer appropriate for Church hierarchs to claim that notions of transparency, due process and natural justice are antithetical to the hierarchical nature of the Church or to the primacy of the papacy. The primacy is not to be exercised arbitrarily or capriciously; and defenders of the Church will want to go to great lengths to ensure that the papal office is not perceived to be exercised without sufficient regard to the circumstances and evidence of a case. For the Pope to be totally free in the appointment, transfer and removal of bishops, he and his flock have to be assured that his curial officials exercise their power to recommend appointment, transfer or removal in a just and transparent manner.
The laity, the religious, the presbyterate and the bishops in Australia are sure to have a heightened 21st century notion of justice, transparency, and due process. This heightened notion is a gift for the contemporary Church. As the present royal commission highlights, it is a precondition for the Church's continued institutional existence in this country. It is one of the works of the Spirit. It is not antithetical to the nature of the Church. Lumen Gentium puts it well:
Since the kingdom of Christ is not of this world the Church or people of God in establishing that kingdom takes nothing away from the temporal welfare of any people. On the contrary it fosters and takes to itself, insofar as they are good, the ability, riches and customs in which the genius of each people expresses itself. Taking them to itself it purifies, strengthens, elevates and ennobles them.
The Church of the 21st century should be the exemplar of due process, natural justice and transparency — purifying, strengthening, elevating and ennobling these riches and customs of contemporary Western societies which are the homes and social constructs for many of the faithful, including those most directly impacted by the decision to force the dismissal of Bishop Morris.
While there can be little useful reflection and critique of the final decision of Pope Benedict to force the early retirement of Bishop Morris, there is plenty of scope to review the processes and the evidence leading to the submission of the brief for dismissal provided by curial officials to the Holy Father.
I have followed the Morris saga closely. My one new insight from reading Bill's book is that he was sacked because he was too much a team player with his local church. By sacking their local leader, the Romans hoped to shatter the morale and direction of those who had planned the pastoral strategies of a country diocese stretched to the limits as a Eucharistic community soon to be deprived of priests in the Roman mould. I imagine it is still not possible for Pope Francis to apologise for the wrong done to Bishop Morris and the diocese of Toowoomba. The Roman Curia and its mindset would at least have that much of a hold over him. But wouldn't it be a grace for everyone, including those who perpetrated the wrong if he did? On your behalf, I do apologise to William Morris in the name of Christ's faithful here gathered immediately following the feast of Corpus Christi. I commend the book, urging you to buy it, and I commend the author to your prayers as he continues to minister as a bishop in good standing, convinced that 'the Church is at its best when it is most transparent, when the eyes of justice and the eyes of the Gospel are so clear that all rights are respected for individuals, no matter who they are in the community'.
Click here to read the speech of retired Supreme Court judge Bill Carter QC, at the 19 June 2014 Brisbane launch of Benedict, Me and the Cardinals Three.
Frank Brennan SJ AO is professor of law at the Australian Catholic University and adjunct professor at the College of Law and the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University.