by John Ayang
“Your Holiness, the process of the young man’s conception was as irregular as the rest of them using the new technologies go,” Bishop Caravaggio de Pietro responded, lugubriously. “First of all, the gametes, that is, the sperm and the egg, were from different persons other than the couple who later became his father and mother. The egg was fertilized in a petri dish and then put back into the womb of the woman who gestated him.”
“That would be the surrogate?” Bishop Fuller asked.
“Yes, My Lord Bishop,” Bishop Caravaggio de Pietro replied, emphatically. “After he was born, the McCarthys signed papers and adopted him at birth.”
“Hold on, My Lord Bishop,” Bishop Fuller interjected. “Did the McCarthys have full knowledge of the procedure that took place right from the start, or did they simply receive news about a newborn baby who needed to be adopted?”
“From all indications, My Lord, it seems that they solicited the surrogate,” Msgr. Renzo responded before Bishop Caravaggio de Paula could. “Although the papers they signed as indicated to us by the Director of the Hospital Clinic state that they adopted the baby.”
“There is full evidence of complicity as it stands,” Bishop Jose de Alonzo said.
“And a clear act of deviance from Catholic teaching on the matter,” Cardinal Bertone concurred.
“So, the facts of the case lined up are as follows: The gametes were harvested from a man and a woman who were not married to each other,” Bishop Caravaggio de Pietro stated. “They were merged together for fertilization in a petri dish, and then implanted in the womb of the surrogate mother, who carried it to term and gave birth to the male child who would later be Fr. Cletus Nicholas McCarthy.”
“And the Church’s moral teaching flouted are those concerned with the right of the child to be conceived by two parents who are validly married,” Bishop Fuller said, as though briefing the gathering. “As well as the right of the child to be conceived through the natural process of intercourse that does not separate the unitive and procreative purposes of marriage,” he concluded, somewhat professorially.
“There is information which indicates that the surrogate was paid for her ‘services’,” Msgr. Renzo iterated.
“If so, would that mean that the McCarthys bought the child, instead of adopting him? Because that is what it sounds like,” Cardinal Bertone said, looking around the group, astonished at the extent to which the McCarthys’ action seemed to flout all the Church’s moral dictates against the reproductive technology of IVF. “I know that is always referred to as compensation, but when does a sum of money constitute compensation and when is it a purchase price?”
“Brothers, I understand all the analytical angles of the case,” Pope Benedict, who had stopped pacing and had taken his seat behind his desk, said in a more somber, but fraternal, tone. “What we are now facing is the fact that the die is cast. The deed is done. How do we clean it up?”
“I suggest an overhaul of the seminary faculty where the young man attended,” Bishop Fuller visited his first point. “And, a laicization process…”
“Your Excellency, with due respect,” Cardinal Felice, who, all along had sat silently, while listening to the serious discussion, interrupted Bishop Fuller. “I do not feel that we have to be unduly hard on the seminary authorities or call into question their judgment on the vetting of candidates for ordination. The seminary authorities acted on all the information available to them at the time, and I think that my predecessor accepted Cletus McCarthy to Holy Orders in good faith. What they did not know, they could not judge. I would rather suggest that we respond to the Holy Father’s question on what to do and how to proceed from here.”
At this juncture, four nuns came into the library bearing a tray of cookies, two pots of hot water, and a basket of assorted teas and coffee bags. They began silently serving the victuals. Cardinal Bertone conferred with the pope and then announced a fifteen-minute break in the discussion. The members of the ad hoc advisory group sat munching their snacks and sipping their tea or coffee, filling the library with a low din of small talk. They finished their unofficial snack break in no time and resumed their deliberations.
“Brothers, the option of an annulment came up earlier,” Cardinal Bertone was the first to speak. “Maybe the young man’s ordination could be annulled and he could be returned to the lay state of life.”
“And what grounds could we cite to back that up, Eminence?” Cardinal Felice asked.
“The grounds that all the conditions for a valid ordination were not met,” Cardinal Bertone replied, tendentiously.
“It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly that condition is in this context,” Bishop Caravaggio de Pietro interjected. “Being conceived by validly married parents is not stated as such a condition.”
“Neither is being conceived, say, irregularly as by a surrogate mother or a single parent, a sufficient condition for denial of ordination. To say it in the official way, canon law is silent on the matter,” Bishop Jose de Alonzo interjected.
“Then, in that case, the pope must give an authoritative ruling,” Cardinal Bertone said. “I think the ruling should be in favor of an annulment because of other implications.”
“Yes. I can see one of those implications very clearly,” Bishop Fuller replied. “I agree with you, Eminence, though we need to make sure that an annulment will be the appropriate correction of the situation.”
“On the other hand, brothers, annulling the ordination of a priest who, on his merits, had fulfilled all the other conditions for a valid ordination, and is discharging his priestly duties well, would be like punishing that priest for the sins of his parents,” Cardinal Felice observed matter-of-factly. The room was silent. He had offered a different perspective. Up till then, the attention was not on Fr. McCarthy himself, but on the moral dictates breached and what to do to fix the situation.
“Cardinal Bertone had likened a priest’s ordination to a marriage. Maybe we can pursue the problem along that line,” the pope said, pensively. “What are the different kinds of dispensations that we give in situations of irregular marriage? How can we explain the situation to the faithful?” He addressed the question directly to Bishop Jose de Alonzo.
“Your Holiness, I think the best principle to apply in this case would be a sanatio in radice.” Bishop Jose de Alonzo offered what he perceived as a reasonable compromise. “We do that in marriage to avoid scandal, when a union is already consummated, but it is later found that there had been an impediment.”
“Based on what we know about the circumstances of his conception and birth, was the young man factually impeded?” Bishop Fuller asked, raising a quandary. “Whenever that happens in marriage, it is always directly concerned with the married couple and the case is always confidential, known only to the pastor and the couple. A widely publicized case of the ordination of a young man conceived via IVF is a different situation altogether. In any case, does the world understand radical sanation? On the other hand, to uphold his ordination would mean that the Church implicitly endorses IVF as a method of reproduction for Catholics. I am just playing the devil’s advocate here.”
“Thank God you’re not playing the devil himself, Bernhard,” the pope jabbed humorously. “Only his advocate. That’s a big relief. Thank you,” Everyone laughed at the Holy Father’s unexpected jocularity.
“Don’t mention it, You Holiness. Just doing my duty, helping in any way I can,” Bishop Fuller replied, gracefully lapping up the Holy Father’s humorous jab with his own quip. He drew brief laughter, too.
“If I may come in here. Whether we annul or dispense Fr. McCarthy’s ordination, in my opinion, is not the immediate solution to the issue,” Fr. Lombardi interjected, speaking for the first time, also raising his hand for permission, but assuming the permission by speaking, anyway. “I think His Holiness is asking for an interim measure to give assurance to the faithful and, to some e
xtent, as it falls within my area, to protect the image of the Church from the media. I need to relay the official position of the Church in the matter before the media hijack the situation and project all sorts of wild conjectures on the Church.”
“An interim measure, Federico, an interim measure,” the pope echoed. “But we will still have to face the substantial question of doctrine and pastoral directive to the Bishops and the people of God. Let us first help Federico to craft a statement to send to the press, and then we can discuss how this new development affects doctrine and morals in the Church. But before that, pardon me Umberto, I should have asked how the young man himself is doing.”
“Under the circumstances, he is doing fine, Your Holiness,” Cardinal Felice replied, glad that the focus was eventually shifted to the truly pastoral, rather than still battling to dissect how the problem was affecting the Church doctrinally. He believed there should be some concern about how it was affecting the person at the center of it all. “Realizing how stressful the situation may be for him, I advised him to take a vacation while we sort things out.”
“Good. Good idea, Umberto,” the pope said, and straightened up, pushing against the back of his seat, apparently tired of hunching. He looked frail and drained. And Cardinal Felice thought he knew why. Benedict XVI had a lot on his plate, so to speak. Barring the fact that he was not very popular with the progressive phalanx of the Church, who always portrayed him as a kill-joy, ultra-conservative, especially when he headed the CDF. On assumption of office, he barely stepped into the Fisherman’s Shoes when he was beset with extremely controversial issues which demanded pressing answers. He inherited the pedophile scandal that caused a moral quake in the whole of the Western Church. Then there was the vexed issue of recalcitrant nuns fighting to be called to Holy Orders. A gay lobby clique in the Vatican’s rank and file posed a thorny problem and a tinderbox scandal. Then there was the massive corruption and financial irregularities, both in the Vatican Bank and some of the offices. His sensitive official and personal documents had been stolen and leaked by his butler, Paolo Gabriel, and a host of other very irksome, and not in the least minor, problems existed, which exacerbated issues further. Families were crumbling with the astronomical increase of divorced and remarried Catholics falling away from the Sacraments. Combining all this with the day-to-day administration of the Vatican, as well as problems of poverty and social injustice everywhere, indeed made being the pope a difficult role to fulfill. It seemed to have been too much for one person to handle and, being primarily an academician, he, most often, took refuge in his private library and his books. There were times when he would confide in Cardinal Bertone regarding his personal doubts about his ability to lead the Church through these problems. There were simply too many forces pulling him every which way. And besides, he wasn’t getting any younger. He wished for the mettle and courage of his predecessor and, sometimes wondered how he managed to handle it all. He recalled that when he was Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, John Paul II would sometimes confide in him and seek his opinion on difficult issues. Yet, he thought the pope really drew his strength from some mysterious source in making decisions, rather than from whatever pittance of advice he presumed to offer.
The thing of it was that Pope Benedict was anxious to reform and give the world an image of himself as a pastoral pope, rather than the harsh doctrinal bureaucrat who, at least in his opinion, he had been unfairly judged to be. But perceptions, like habits, die hard and it became increasingly obvious each day that that was going to be a tough act to pull off. And there he was, faced with having to sort through conflicts in reproductive technology and the validity of the ordination of the product of that technology. He had no other option, but to reach into the storehouse of Catholic moral teachings over the years, some of which he was the primary architect for. He stretched out his hand and stroked the bronze crucifix, as if to draw inspiration and comfort from doing so. “Good, idea, Umberto,” he reiterated. “When you go, reach out to the family, too. Let the parents know of my solicitousness for their wellbeing and that of Fr. McCarthy. Though they have fallen short of the Church’s moral expectations, they could not have foreseen what God would do with their son, who he would be. Perhaps this is one more case in which God may be teaching us that He can bring good from evil.”
“Yes, Your Holiness,” Cardinal Felice responded, touched by the pastoral tone the pope was using. “I will surely let them know how concerned you are for them. I am quite sure they will genuinely appreciate it.”
“We could take a cue from your press conference, too,” the pope continued. “I watched it transmitted live on BBC America.” Then the pope turned to address Federico. “You know, sometimes calming down the people may not necessarily be due to the fact that you have anything of substance to say. Rather, it may just be a matter of assuring them that you are on top of the situation. So, since the next court date is in January, you might like to let the press know that the matter is under investigation by the Vatican, and a statement of clarification will be made soon.”
“Is Your Holiness then moving in the direction of annulment?” Bishop Fuller inquired, ambiguously.
“No, Lord Bishop,” the pope replied with indulgent patience. “I am moving in the direction of Psalm 51, Ecce in peccatis meis. Peccator homo sum, and the Genesis creation story. Everyone is created in the image and likeness of God. If everyone is born a sinner because they were conceived in sin, then no one is qualified to judge the other. We have all sinned and fallen short of the grace of God, according to the Apostle Paul. And if everyone is created in the image and likeness of God, then no one is to be deprived of that to which God calls him, provided that he responds from deep down in his very being. I think Fr. McCarthy responded to God’s call in his heart. And as I wrote in Donum Vitae, many years ago, and reaffirmed in Dignitatis Personae, ‘Every human being is always to be accepted as a gift and blessing from God’, even when conceived in a manner that is morally culpable.”
“Sanatio in radice is what Your Holiness advises then?” Bishop Jose de Alonzo inquired, hopefully.
“No, Bishop. There is nothing to purify or sanitize,” the pope said, again disappointing the council. “Fr. McCarthy is not responsible for his manner of conception. He had no say in the matter and, thus, incurred no impediment. As imago dei, he is to be respected for himself because his human dignity is not contingent upon his manner of conception. We do uphold that in all three documents that deal with the issue: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Donum Vitae, and Dignitatis Personae. Therefore, he is entitled to the vocation to which he responded. He cannot be punished for the impropriety of his parents. His parents breached the Church’s moral teaching on conception, not him. So, Umberto, I advise that you call Fr. McCarthy’s parents and the grieving party and absolve them in the internal forum after they have acknowledged their error with due penitence. Return the grieving party to the reception of Holy Communion and initiate a dialogue with them for a settlement out of court. The end does not justify the means. But both sides erred in their moral obligation. They are the ones who need the sanatio, not Fr. Cletus. The Legislative Council must soon sit to address the novel situation and develop an appropriate canon for guiding the Church. God works in manifold ways. What has happened is probably meant to wake us up to new realities. So, my brothers, let us get to work. The Church must go on bearing authentic witness to the world in an uncompromising, but compassionate, way.”
The standing applause he received caught the pope off guard. Started by Cardinal Bertone, all the bishops stood and joined in the clapping with cheers of “Bravo, Papa Benedito,” and, “Petreus locuta est – Peter has spoken.” Pope Benedict was almost overwhelmed by the show of solidarity and stood up, waving his hands in a gesture of acceptance and nodding his gratitude. Achieving such a consensus of agreement on a ruling was very rare within the Curia. For Benedict XVI, it was most significant and he was determine
d from then on to always approach issues from an earthy pastoral standpoint, rather than allow doctrinal constraints or demands to continue to mar his image and that of the Church as being heartless and cold.
The Cardinal was true to his name, Felice, as he deplaned from the American Airlines Airbus at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. He looked happy and contented. It was December 18, four days after the meeting with Pope Benedict. He was particularly happy about the way things were going, and caught himself a couple of times smiling at nothing in particular. Nothing pleased him more than coming home from a meeting with the pope and the Curia, armed, not only with a credible policy idea, but also with a solution that was going to be pastorally effective. The concerned parties were not irreparably condemned, as the sanction on the Eshiets was to be lifted and they and the McCarthys would be absolved and returned to the Sacrament. Fr. McCarthy was not going to lose his priesthood, and the Church was not going to have to embark on a face-losing revision of its doctrines, but would hold that Fr. McCarthy was adopted. His manner of conception prior to his adoption by Catholic parents—the McCarthys—did not detract from his person or his ministry as an effective pastor of souls.
There was a spring in his step as he walked the airport concourse to the exit where Fr. Brady Callahan was waiting to pick him up. On the way to the Chancery, he filled Fr. Brady in on the meeting at the Vatican. He called Bishop Montano to apprise him of his success and to set up a brief meeting with him and Stacy before heading back to his residence to rest and get ready for the usual annual Priests’ Christmas Party that evening. The following day, Fr. Brady would set up a meeting of the entire Chancery staff so that the Cardinal could address everyone. Thereafter, letters would be sent to pastors of all the parishes to be read to the congregation after Mass. It was a carefully laid-out plan.