San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, November 7, 1989
Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer

At first glance, the agenda for the four-day bishops' meeting appears to be dominated by issues that would boggle the mind of the nation's first Catholic prelate -- AIDS, abortion, black Catholics and Middle East politics.

But behind such agenda items is the question Carroll faced while founding the first U.S. Catholic diocese: How can the American Catholic church pursue its own interests while remaining loyal to the authority and theocratic rule of the Vatican?

FRIEND OF FRANKLIN

Carroll, a close friend of Benjamin Franklin, had more radical ideas about U.S. church autonomy than any bishop today would dare propose.

"No authority derived from (the Vatican) will ever be admitted here," Carroll wrote to a friend in Europe. "No congregations existing in (the papal) state shall be allowed to exercise any share of spiritual authority here."

Bishop Carroll was the leader of a church in which many parishes were run by lay "trustees" who selected their own parish priest.

'PRIESTLESS Sunday'

The ordination of priests is now closely controlled by the local bishop, but the issue of role of the laity in local church affairs cropped up in a discussion of "priestless Sunday" worship services yesterday.

Such services, with nuns and lay people leading the worship and distributing Communion, are becoming common because of a shortage of Catholic priests.

Archbishop Francis Hurley, of Anchorage, sought authorization yesterday for nuns and lay Catholics to perform weddings when no Catholic priests or ordained deacons are available. Carroll, whose Baltimore-based diocese once covered the entire United States, would undoubtedly have sympathized with Hurley, who flies his own airplane in an effort to cover his vast 139,000-square-mile Alaskan territory.

But other bishops said Hurley's plan would dilute the special character of the Catholic priesthood, arguing that it "raises questions about the authority of the Holy See, individual bishops, and the conference of bishops."

Action on the proposal was delayed.

SHADOW OF THE VATICAN

Vatican sensitivity over the U.S. bishops' position on political and social issues was reflected in other discussions yesterday.

In an apparent reference to a controversial statement the bishops are considering on Middle East politics, for example, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the Vatican Secretary of State and close papal adviser, warned the bishops to give "due attention to the positions and the attitudes of the Holy See."

"This is especially necessary when it comes to issuing statements regarding questions which relate to countries other than one's own," Casaroli said.

The Middle East statement, scheduled for a Thursday vote, calls for an independent Palestinian state and criticizes Israel's handling of the uprising in the occupied territories. While not a significant departure from the Vatican's position, the U.S. statement has a more critical tone than has been expressed by Rome.

MORALITY AND AIDS

Vatican concerns also figured in the bishops' decision to issue a new statement on AIDS, entitled "Called to Compassion and Responsibility." It is scheduled for a Wednesday vote.

Two years ago, the bishops' administrative committee issued "The Many Faces of AIDS," a statement that gave qualified support to educational programs that include information about how condoms can reduce the risk of infection by the AIDS virus.

Introducing the new statement yesterday, Archbishop Roger Mahony of Los Angeles noted that the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and other groups "strongly encouraged us to be forthright in presenting the church's moral teaching with clarity."

"We caution young people not to be trapped into following the 'safe sex' myth, which is both a lie and a fraud," Mahony said. "Abstinence outside marriage and fidelity within marriage are the only morally correct and medically secure ways to prevent the spread of HIV infection."

At a press conference, Mahony was asked if condoms would be morally approved in the case of a married couple where one partner has acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

"There may be certain situations where the lesser of two evils needs to be dealt with," he said.

ATTACK ON ABORTION

In other action yesterday, Archbishop John May, the outgoing president of the bishops' conference, issued a strong condemnation of abortion rights advocates.

"Don't the forget the baby. That's all the Catholic church is saying to America. To say that abortion is an issue of 'choice' distorts it," May said in a speech to his fellow bishops.

"If it were the choice to poison an elderly person, or to smuggle drugs, or to embezzle from a bank, no one would defend that choice. In this case, it's the choice to take a child's life."

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