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Wills’ ‘Papal Sins’—full of old arguments and new bitterness By Colt Anderson Gary Wills’ book, “Papal Sin,” will disturb or mislead many Catholics. Though it calls for married priests, women’s ordination, approval of abortion and a more democratic church, these positions are nothing new. What is upsetting is the way Wills attacks doctrines concerning the Eucharist and apostolic succession as part of what he called “structures of deceit” in the Catholic Church. He argues this deceitfulness supports priestly celibacy, is causing the shortage of priests, and allows the admission of men to sacred orders who would have been ineligible in the past. Wills would have us believe the Vatican uses the idea of the consecration of the Eucharist to control the supply of priests. He claims the emphasis placed on the Eucharist as central to the life of the Church started with St. Athanasius’ attempt to make monastic movements dependent on the clergy. To bolster clerical control and superiority, subsequent bishops and popes promoted Eucharistic devotion. In this conspiratorial view of history, celibacy was a means to show that only the ordained had the purity necessary to consecrate the elements. Wills implies that before that, laity consecrated the host. Once the bishops established the need for celibacy and purity in priests and bishops, Wills claims the hierarchy was able to shift the process of selecting bishops and priests away from community election to episcopal and papal ordination. How did the hierarchy manage to perpetuate such a distortion? His answer is by a selective and fundamentalist reading of Scripture. Wills indicates there is no evidence the apostles laid hands on their successors for ordination. While admitting St. Paul and Barnabas laid hands on presbyters, he explains Paul never underwent ordination and wasn’t an apostle. However, it is easy to find scriptural evidence supporting the role of the bishops, the significance of the Eucharist and the value of a celibate clergy in the Vatican II documents. While the use of scriptural texts is selective, so is Wills’ use of Scripture. He ignores Galatians, where Paul claims he too is an apostle and describes trips to Jerusalem where he sought and was given recognition from the apostles. Perhaps the apostles laid hands on Paul and he assumed his readers knew it. The text does not, Wills points out, say they ordained Paul, but doesn’t say they didn’t. The New Testament speaks of the laying on of hands in the Epistles as well. In 1 Timothy, Paul warns Timothy not to neglect the charism he received from the laying on of hands by the presbyters. Ordination has probably changed since the First Century, but Catholics believe the Holy Spirit guides the church through its growth and development. In fact, the early church had no New Testament until St. Athanasius’ time. Since the Holy Spirit guides the church, this is not a problem; however, if you start from the cynical category of power, you can interpret the formation of our Bible as an act of oppression. Wills indicates Paul says a bishop should have one wife. He neglects to mention that Paul also said the bishop should be above reproach and that the married clergy fell into scandals in the medieval church. It was the laity, not the bishops or popes, who demanded a more qualified celibate clergy, insisted upon removing the election of bishops from local politics, and began eucharistic devotions in the 12th century. Today we have the most qualified clergy we’ve ever had. We no longer appoint bishoprics to the highest bidder. Luther’s bishop bought his office and we can see the result. Perhaps the decline in the number of clergy is due to the higher demands we make on them. Perhaps it is due to the scandalous attacks against the clergy by people like Wills on one side and devotees of The Wanderer on the other. It is time to look at the structures of deceit among those who sow discord in Christ’s church. Anderson is professor of church history at the University of St.
Mary of the Lake, Mundelein.
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