NATION

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 18, 1998

Rochester bishop suspends dissident priest

A veteran priest in the Rochester, N.Y., diocese has been suspended after he conducted same-sex weddings, offered Communion to non-Catholics and permitted a woman to perform priest-like duties on the altar.

Fr. James Callan, who served for 22 years at Corpus Christi Church, was reassigned in August for violating church policies.

Bishop Matthew Clark announced the suspension Dec. 7, which means Callan cannot administer sacraments or celebrate Mass.

Clark said the suspension was not meant to be punitive, but rather remedial. It can be revoked if Callan assures the bishop that he will abide by church regulations.

Callan was told not to have contact with members of his old parish but had attended liturgical services there, said Fr. Kevin McKenna, chancellor of the Rochester diocese.

"It puts the pastor who is attempting to lead the congregation in a very awkward situation," said McKenna.

McKenna added that if Callan gives "written assurances that he will follow the bishop's directives, revocation of the suspension will be considered."

It's unlikely such assurances will be forthcoming, according to Callan. "These are issues that are core to me and Corpus Christi," he said.

McKenna said Callan's suspension was open-ended, and that the priest would be given a "reasonable amount of time" to reflect on his stands.

Callan said he would appeal his suspension and had 10 days from its effective date to do so.

Pope names new nuncio to the United States

Pope John Paul II has named the head of the Vatican's diplomatic training school to be the new nuncio to the United States.

The appointment of Colombian Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, president since 1993 of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which trains Vatican diplomats, was announced Dec. 7 at the Vatican.

In Washington, the 68-year-old archbishop will succeed Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, who was named Nov. 5 to be the new president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, which oversees Vatican investments.

Montalvo, who will celebrate his 69th birthday in January, has broad experience as a diplomat in countries tom by violence and where church-state tensions were high. From Latin America to North Africa, then on to Eastern Europe, Montalvo promoted dialogue to end civil conflicts and urged recognition of the rights of the Catholic church.

Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Houston, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, said that with the appointment of Montalvo, "the Holy See has once again honored the United States with the selection of a most experienced and senior diplomat as nuncio."

Chicago cardinal's column rejects inclusive language

Cardinal Francis George criticized inclusive language as an "artificial code" and defended calling God "Father" in a Dec. 6 column in the The New Catholic World, the newspaper of the Chicago archdiocese.

Rejecting the argument that "Father" in reference to God is a masculine image, George said, "Years ago in a grade school catechism class, the sister teaching us explained very succinctly that God is a father who is not a male."

George wrote that softening the Trinitarian understanding of God -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- can lead to "bizarre theories." One sees God as an unknowable force, he said. Another regards names for God as "nonrelational or even merely functional," which George said could undercut the hierarchical nature of the church.

Under such a theory, "The Quakers, it seems, are right and the apostles, captives of their hierarchical culture, wrong," George wrote. "Proper Trinitarian language helps protect us from this sort of heterodox theorizing about God or his people."

Of inclusive terms such as people instead of men, George approved only if they "do not lead to betrayal of the inspired text itself."

"One of the weaknesses of the inclusivist idiom is that it is nominalist and individualistic," George wrote. "Its universe contains only individuals and groups of individuals, whereas Christian discourse predicates natures as such (for example, `He became man')."

George said that sometimes inclusive language resembled an artificial code more than a natural language, because it reduces words such as "man" to a single meaning, a biological male.

McHugh named coadjutor of Rockville Centre

Bishop James T. McHugh of Camden, N.J., has been named coadjutor to Bishop John R. McGann of Rockville Centre, N.Y.

The appointment was announced in Washington Dec. 7 by Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, apostolic pro-nuncio to the United States.

Under church law, a coadjutor automatically succeeds the bishop when the bishop retires or dies. Bishops are required to submit their retirement when they reach age 75; McGann turned 74 Dec. 2. McHugh, 66, is a native of Orange, N.J., who has served as bishop of Camden since 1989.

McGann, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., has been bishop of Rockville Centre since 1976, after first being ordained an auxiliary bishop there in 1971.

McHugh currently is a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family. He previously has served as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and as an adviser to the Holy See's Mission to the United Nations.