Attack On Church By Suspended Priest

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31383, 31 May 1967, Page 9

Attack On Church By Suspended Priest

(N.Z. Pres, Association—Copyright)

NEW YORK, May 30.

An outspoken Roman Catholic priest from Michigan who was suspended in 1966 said on Monday that the Church must give up its ban on birth control and divorce, close gradually parochial schools and end the “oppressive” life led by nuns, United Press International reported.

In a magazine adaptation in “Look” of a book soon to be published, the Bev. James Kavanaugh attributed the “madness” of the Roman Catholic Church to rules made over the centuries by “monks and celibates” with little real experience in living ■ to help them understand the problems of the layman. 4f Father Kavanaugh, now a counsellor at the Human Resources Institute in La Jolla, California, said the “weak and the ignorant” listened to the Church’s archaic arguments to support its views on birth control—and the Pope wept for the poor of a country like

India while condemning the “only sensible plan to control Its teeming population.” “I might believe his concern for the warring world if he would relieve the misery of the weak and warring within his Church,” the priest wrote. “We do not need his biassing, we need his openness to honest reform.” View* On Divorce Writing of divorce, Father Kavanaugh urged the Church to let Roman Catholics “go free from the consuming guilt that withers love.” He said the clergy did not realise that divorce was always difficult “save in the minds of celibates ... steeped

in our callowness and inexperience, our smugness and ignorance.” The Church could blame noone for divorce unless it also vigorously blamed itself, said Father Kavanaugh. “It has taught man less than psychology about love, less than group therapy, less than quiet discussions ... less than movies or TV. It has taught men rules, discipline, endurance. It has not taught men friendship, marriage, Icve.” The priest said no modern folly could match that of bishops who continued to build Roman Catholic schools. He said such schools—“one of the landmarks of American history”—had deteriorated and deserved to be “phased out.” To sustain its schools, the Church had neglected its parishes, ignored the poor and alienated its non-Catholic friends, he said. Life Of Nuns “Life in the convent needs renewal more desperately than any form of Roman Catholic life,” he concluded. The nun "must be free enough to make mistakes, modern enough to be a real woman, and human enough to form male and female friendships outside the convent walls.” He said he believed priests would be permitted to marry in the future and to raise families. Such priests were “vitally needed for the church to survive."