Communiqués in Face of the Decision of the Roman Hierarchy to Break Communion with Us
On August 15, 2006, Solemnity of the Glorification of Saint Mary, we sent two communiqués to all the members of our Communion in face of the Roman Church Hierarchy’s decision, which was sometimes explicit and sometimes indirect, to the effect that our Communion is outside of the communion of the Roman ecclesiastical structure.
The two communiqués have the same message. The first is complete; the second is an abbreviated version.
In our communiqués we set forth the effects of a sentence of excommunication and our attitude toward it. We hold firmly to the principle that excommunication implies only the break of our submission to the authority of the hierarchy and its jurisdiction. For where the Spirit is present, there is the Catholic Church and as long as we hold the Catholic faith in its fullness and deliver it and trust radically in the Lord, there is no human power that can separate us from the full communion with the Catholic Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.
Complete Version of the Communiqué
From: Monsignor Eduardo Aguirre Oestmann
General, Coordinator
The Communion of “Saint Mary of the New Exodus,” the Nazareth Community
Communiqué in the Face of the Decision Made, with the Approval of the Vatican, to Declare Us Not to Be in Communion with the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church, to Members and Communities that Are in Alliance with the Communion of “Saint Mary of the New Exodus”
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Archbishop of Guatemala informed the clergy of the Archdiocese through the deans that with the approval of the Vatican it has been decided to decree that priests who participate in our Communion as well as the faithful who are allied with us are outside the Communion of the Catholic Church Hierarchy.
This is the end of a series of events that has drawn out over several years and may be briefly summarized:
* From February 2003 to March 2006 we kept in contact with the hierarchy and wrote numerous letters to the Archbishop and other members of the hierarchy.
* Between October 2004 and March 2005, on four occasions I expressed in writing to the Archbishop our trust that our communion would be institutionally recognized under the canonical rubric sui generis.
* Then, on June 10, 2005, we sent a letter to the Archbishop imploring that the Pope personally become aware of our situation and make a discernment to see the meaning and significance of the mission we are carrying out.
* Before these communications, namely on February 13, 2005, the Archbishop had a dialogue with me in which it was decided to wait for events to unfold.
* On May 10, 2005, he called me to notify me of the decision made on March 18 by the then Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, and now Pope Benedict XVI, ordering the suspension of our pastoral activities and prohibiting the Archbishop from issuing any sort of decree approving our Communion.
* On May 28 he called me to notify me that on that day he would issue a declaration with regard to the verbal communication he had made to me on May 10.
* In face of the decision not to suspend our pastoral work, based on spiritual and pastoral arguments and conscience, clearly explained in the above-mentioned letter of June 10, 2005, the only response was a copy sent to us of the decree of suspension, issued with the date of 18 June 2005.
* There ended the Archbishop’s communication with us, except for a very brief phone call on March 18, 2006, asking if we had sent out any documentation of which he was unaware.
* At the end of January 2006, through an international Catholic television news, we learned of the imposed sentence dictated by the Bishops Council of Guatemala in which we were declared schismatics. The bishops made this declaration without inviting us to dialogue beforehand, or to any other kind of appointment. The sentence was official and explicitly made public in the statement issued at the end of the Plenary Meeting of 2006. In accord with what Canon Law establishes, the penalty imposed on those declared to be schismatic, according to Canon 1364, is automatic excommunication from the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which we knew we had to keep in mind from then on.
* On February 22, I wrote to Monsignor Ramazzini expressing to him my surprise over the procedure. He responded on June 29 with some rather ambiguous explanations, and ended that he would be willing to enter a dialogue once “my” archbishop agreed.
* Apart from the contacts listed above, the hierarchy has had no dialogue or communication, written or oral, with us nor any approach toward us.
Although the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy’s decree declaring the break of communion with us was not officially communicated to us, nevertheless, considering the series of above-mentioned facts and specifically:
a) that the Vatican completely ignored our request imploring the Roman pontiff to
consider our situation and make a discernment about it;
b) the condemnation by the Guatemala Bishops Conference, declaring us schismatics;
c) and the recent communication from the Archbishop with respect to our clergy;
therefore: we consider ourselves notified of the excommunication dictated by the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy against us.
For us, the sentence fundamentally amounts to a grave wrongdoing: it is wrong to violate persistently the principle of territorial jurisdiction, established in the Canonic Code of Rights, and to respond in this negative way to the cry of hundreds of communications and hundreds of thousands of brothers and sisters. How wrong that as a result of their decision to be faithful servants of the Lord, or their decision to practice with the liberty of the children of God the gifts that they have received, or their decision to preserve and support their ethnic, organizational and cultural identity, these catholic Christians have been abandoned, marginalized, maltreated, rejected and in many cases deprived of access to the sacraments, and thus are like sheep without a shepherd! Furthermore, not only have we always taught, preached and celebrated the Liturgy in the wholeness of catholic faith as the Holy Scripture and the Tradition have transmitted it to us and as the Spirit witnessed to it and made it actual through us, but also we are firm in our resolve to remain unconditionally faithful to this same catholic faith.
Since we find ourselves in a new situation, we believe that it is our duty to inform you what the consequences of the excommunication decision are and what our position toward it is:
1. We want to insist that when we began to serve all communities that at present are in the Communion our reason for doing so was that they sought us out because they had been abandoned and felt extremely anxious. Aware that such circumstances gravely endangered their catholic faith and also aware of our own mission, we gladly took them in and began to serve them.
2. With respect to the decision to declare us outside the ecclesiastic communion, the excommunication only means, as we told the National Assembly in Huehuetenango last November, that the hierarchy declares that we are not in communion with them, that is, we are not under their jurisdiction or authority, and for that reason we cannot celebrate the sacraments or practice the ministry in their name.
3. It is a purely canonical or juridical measure, and we accept it without appeal. We do so because we recognize that there is no place for our ministry within the canonic regulations in spite of the fact that the ministry that we practice:
* is in response to the mission that the Lord has entrusted to us;
* is clearly confirmed by the Spirit with the abundance of fruits and gifts;
* is, we are convinced, part of the renewal that the Lord is inciting throughout the
Church.
We recognize that there cannot be a place for our minisry until the juridical norms and organizational structures of the Church are revised to reflect the true catholicity of the Church. We recognize that our numerous calls that an ecclesial space be opened for us have gone unheard and unanswered.
4. From the spiritual point of view, the excommunication changes neither the relation that we have with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit nor our full membership in and complete communion with the One, Holy, Catholic Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ.
5. From the sacramental point of view, we are also unaffected; neither the validity of our priestly ordination, nor the validity of the sacraments that we celebrate is affected. The only thing that is affected is the canonical or juridical validity of the sacraments. That is, through the sacraments the efficacious grace and effusion of the Holy Spirit continues to be conveyed, although the hierarchy does not recognize its juridical validity.
6. Moreover, we continue to believe and feel that we are in full spiritual and existential communion with the whole Church—with the Pope, the bishops, priests, pastors, ministers and other servants, as well as with the whole People of God, gathered into the diverse communities and denominations throughout the whole world. The fact that the church hierarchy declares a break of communion with us does not mean that we are breaking communion with them. We shall continue loving and praying for them that they may carry out the will of God completely.
7. In face of the decision by the hierarchy to declare us outside their communion, and with a view toward securing the historical apostolicity of the Communion, when the time is ripe, our responsibility will be to begin dialogues with other Catholic Churches that, although they are not under the jurisdiction of the See of Peter, nevertheless are capable of transmitting apostolic succession because their ordained ministry is recognized as valid through the See of Peter and other apostolic sees as well. With the attitude of humility and service and with the recognition of the liberty, plurality, and inclusiveness of the communities, we shall be equally concerned to develop organizational structures that, under the guidance of the Spirit, may keep the catholicity and apostolicity of the Communion and of every community that is allied with us firmly intact.
8. From the beginning we anticipated the situation we are now in, and before each community allied itself with us, we explained to its members clearly and explicitly the risk that was being run and the strong possibility that the hierarchy might break off communion with us. Consequently, the measures taken should not surprise anyone. Nevertheless, we understand that to be warned of a possibility that something may happen is one thing and for that possibility to become a reality is something else. For that reason, with serenity, respect and love we invite persons or communities who are not at peace in their conscience, who have fears or doubts about the situation we are in concerning either our catholicity or the validity of the sacraments that we celebrate, to return, if that is what God asks of them, to the situation they were in before making an alliance with the Communion. We have presented ourselves and have always spoken and served with truth and sincerity. Although we wish to continue serving everyone with the same truth and sincerity, we respect everyone’s freedom. We ask of each one the full confidence and belief that what we are doing is a response to the will of God for us.
9. For our part, we feel called to renew our commitment to carry out the mission that the Lord has entrusted to us and to continue serving unconditionally all those faithful Christians and communities that feel called to remain in alliance with the Communion. In addition, we see in the hierarchy’s decision a real blessing, because it associates us more tightly with the passion of Christ and gives us greater freedom in carrying out the work, which the Lord has assigned to us, of renewing the Church. Knowing Who has chosen us and in Whom we have put our trust, we feel strengthened and energized to continue working and evangelizing, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand among us and that within the catholic Church, as Christ founded it and as Christ wishes it to be today, there is a place for everyone because all human beings have been redeemed and freed by the blood of Christ and have received the seed of the Holy Spirit, which makes us part of his Body and gives us rights of citizenship in His kingdom.
We state moreover not only that our intention has never been to provoke schism, but also that we are certain that the decision taken by the hierarchy in no way reduces us to a sect. Rather, with profound sadness we see that the incapacity of the ecclesiastical structures to recognize the presence of the Spirit that is guiding the ministry that we are carrying out and to perceive the faith of the People of God results from a closed, rigid and excluding attitude, radically the opposite to the inclusive and open character that genuine catholicity requires.
Although we cannot in conscience negotiate either the identity or the goals of our mission or the form of practicing it, we remain open to dialogue in humility and with a spirit of communion, and we pray and trustingly await the day when the excommunication against us will be lifted and the validity and authenticity of our mission will be recognized so that to the spiritual and existential communion in which we constantly remain unbreakably firm may be added the institutional communion that now is broken.
Our heart-felt convictions are that where the Holy Spirit is there is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and that there is therefore no power or institution on earth that can separate us from the love of Christ or from life in the Spirit or from the full and complete communion with his Catholic Church while we are surrendering ourselves to serve the Lord and to fulfill the mission entrusted to us. With these convictions, we take refuge in the motherly intercession of Most Holy Saint Mary and with Her we say a thousand and one times to the Lord, “Be it to me according to your Word,” so that we all may be One, as Father and Son are One in the Holy Spirit.
With deep love I pray for those who stay in the Communion that the Spirit may revive in you the grace to continue living in freedom and to proclaim the Gospel to all people.
In San Lucas Sacatepéquez, August 15, the solemnity of the Glorification of Saint Mary, 2006; may you be blessed.
Monsignor Eduardo Aguirre Oestmann
General Coordinator
Short Version of the Communiqué
Communiqué in the Face of the Decision, Made with the Approval of the Vatican, to Declare Us Outside of Communion with the Ecclesiastical Catholic Hierarchy, to the Members and Communities that Are in Alliance with the Communion of “Saint Mary of the New Exodus.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Although we have not received any official communication, the Archbishop of Guatemala informed the clergy of the Archdiocese through the deans that, with the approval of the Vatican, it has been decided to decree that priests who take part in our Communion, as well as the faithful who are in alliance with us, are outside the communion of the hierarchy.
In face of this situation, it is our duty to inform you of the consequences of said decision and what our position is:
1. We want to begin by remembering that when we started to serve all the communities that today make up the Communion, it was because, as a consequence of their decision to follow and serve the Lord with faithfulness, they had been abandoned, marginalized, rejected, deprived of access to the sacraments and were like sheep without a shepherd. Owing to that situation and to the grave risk that their catholic faith was running in such circumstances, they came to us and we, aware of our mission, gladly served them.
2. With respect to the measures that have been taken at present, as we told the National Assembly in Huehuetenango last November, the excommunication means only that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy declares that we are not in communion with them, that is, we are not under their jurisdiction or authority, and for that reason we cannot celebrate the sacraments or practice ministry in their name.
3. It is merely a canonical or juridical measure, which we accept without appeal. We do so because we recognize that there is no place for our ministry within the canonic regulations in spite of the fact that the ministry we practice:
* is a response to the mission that the Lord has expressly entrusted to us;
* is confirmed by the Spirit with abundant fruits and gifts;
* is, we are convinced, part of the renewal that the Lord is inciting throughout the
Church.
We recognize that there cannot be a place for our mninistry until the juridical norms and organizational structures of the Church are revised to reflect the true catholicity of the Church. We recognize that our numerous calls that an ecclesial space be opened for us have gone unheard and unanswered.
4. From the spiritual point of view, the excommunication changes neither the relation that we have with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit nor our full membership in and complete communion with the One, Holy, Catholic Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ.
5. From the sacramental point of view, we are also unaffected. Neither the validity of our priestly ordination nor the validity of the sacraments that we celebrate is affected. The only thing that is affected is the canonical or juridical validity of the sacraments. That is, through the sacraments the efficacious grace and effusion of the Holy Spirit continues to be conveyed, although the Roman hierarchy does not recognize its juridical validity.
6. Moreover, we continue to believe and feel that we are in full spiritual and existential communion with the whole Church—with the Pope, the bishops, priests, pastors, ministers and servants, as well as with the whole People of God, gathered into the diverse communities and denominations throughout the whole world. The fact that the church hierarchy declares a break of communion with us does not mean that we are breaking communion with them. We shall continue loving and praying for them that they may carry out the will of God completely.
7. In face of the decision by the hierarchy to declare us outside their communion, and with a view toward securing the historical apostolicity of the Communion, when the time is ripe, our responsibility will be to begin dialogues with other Catholic Churches that, although they are not under the jurisdiction of the See of Peter, nevertheless are capable of transmitting apostolic succession because their ordained ministry is recognized as valid through the See of Peter and other apostolic sees as well. With the attitude of humility and service and with the recognition of the liberty, plurality, and inclusiveness of the communities, we shall be equally concerned to develop organizational structures that, under the guidance of the Spirit, may keep the catholicity and apostolicity of the Communion and of every community that is allied with us firmly intact.
8. From the beginning we anticipated the situation we are now in, and before each community allied itself with us, we explained to its members clearly and explicitly the risk that was being run and the strong possibility that the hierarchy might break off communion with us. Consequently, the measures taken should not surprise anyone. Nevertheless, we understand that to be warned of a possibility that something may happen is one thing and for that possibility to become a reality is something else. For that reason, with serenity, respect and love we invite persons or communities who are not at peace in their conscience, who have fears or doubts about the situation we are in concerning either our catholicity or the validity of the sacraments that we celebrate, to return, if that is what God asks of them, to the situation they were in before making an alliance with the Communion. We have presented ourselves and have always spoken and served with truth and sincerity. Although we wish to continue serving everyone with the same truth and sincerity, we respect everyone’s freedom. We ask of each one the full confidence and belief that what we are doing is a response to the will of God for us.
9. For our part, we feel called to renew our commitment to carry out the mission that the Lord has entrusted to us and to continue serving unconditionally all those faithful Christians and communities that feel called to remain in alliance with the Communion. In addition, we see in the hierarchy’s decision a real blessing, because it associates us more tightly with the passion of Christ and gives us greater freedom in carrying out the work of renewing the Church that the Lord has assigned to us. Knowing Who has chosen us and in Whom we have put our trust, we feel strengthened and energized to continue working and evangelizing, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand among us and that within the catholic Church, as Christ founded it and as Christ wishes it to be today, there is a place for everyone because all human beings have been redeemed and freed by the blood of Christ and have received the seed of the Holy Spirit, which makes us part of his Body and gives us rights of citizenship in His kingdom. Our heart-felt convictions are that where the Holy Spirit is there is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and that there is therefore no power or institution on earth that can separate us from the love of Christ or from life in the Spirit or from the full and complete communion with his Catholic Church while we are surrendering ourselves to serve the Lord and to fulfill the mission entrusted to us. With these convictions, we take refuge in the motherly intercession of Most Holy Saint Mary and with Her we say a thousand and one times to the Lord, “Be it to me according to your Word,” so that we all may be One, as Father and Son are One in the Holy Spirit.
With profound love I pray for those who stay in the Communion that the Spirit may revive in you the grace to continue living in freedom and to proclaim the Gospel to all Peoples.
In San Lucas Sacatepéquez, August 15, solemnity of the Glorification of Saint May, 2006; may you be blessed.
Monsignor Eduardo Aguirre-Oestmann
General Coordinator |