"Whoever can be convinced that the absolute forbidding of artificial means of birth control as stated by Humanae vitae is the correct interpretation of divine law must earnestly endeavor to live according to this conviction.  Whoever, however, after serious reflection and prayer is convinced that in his or her case such a prohibition could not be the will of God should in inner peace follow his/her conscience and not thereby feel her/himself to be a second-class Catholic." 

Here is a true saint of the REAL Church, and I am lighting a candle -- my first communion candle which is now about 51 years old -- in his honor.  Häring may have affected my life much more profoundly than I had realized until last May.  That's when I discovered, talking to Professor Egger -- the priest who helped me learn to love the church in the 1950s because of his deep faith, his unconditional caring and his lack of legalistic rigidity -- that his hero in the church, the one all of whose books he read from the very beginning, had been Bernard Häring. Reinhold Stecher, the retired Bishop of Innsbruck -- my home town -- also spoke of Pater Häring with deep affection and respect when I interviewed him a few days before Häring. Both Stecher and Häring are passionately opposed to blind obedience to authority because they experienced the dark side of  unthinking submission to power during the Nazi era.  

We had a wonderful meal and conversation.  As we ate and drank and talked I thought to myself, this is communion, this is a form of Eucharist. There was no sadness. Father  Häring was clearly ready to die.  He said that he considered himself blessed that he had lived this long and been able to accomplish much of what he felt called to accomplish. His heart had already stopped for five minutes last September when he passed out in the elevator and was not resuscitated for a while. Since then he had to take daily shots to keep from fainting again, and there were lacunae in his memory. However, he recalled Arlene Swidler, Leonard's wife, who was his assistant when he taught at Temple Univerity in 1968. He mentioned what a brilliant translator of his books she had been, and I found myself swallowing tears, thinking of Arlene today, deep in the fog of Alzheimer's. Life isn't fair!  And yet, sitting across the table from this great and simple man there was no way not to sense the presence of God's goodness and grace.  

He was so very happy and proud about the webpage Joyce Gadoua, CSJ, had dedicated to him, and he gave me a copy of the most recent printout from the guest book she had faxed him. He enjoyed the (delicious) food, including a bottle of non-alcoholic beer, and spoke with fiery enthusiasm about the church that could and should be.  After lunch, we went to another room and talked for about 40 minutes, going over a 60 page bibliography of his 106 books, including translations. The volumes take up eight meters of shelf space in the monastery library. Finally, he walked us out to the car, and I will always remember his slight figure in black, with a cane, standing in the sun, waving goodbye to us.  He was surrounded by a glow, and I will never be quite sure if it was only the sun playing tricks with my eyes.   

I can imagine Häring's reaction to the recent papal attack on dissent. I quote from My Witness for the Church (concerning the way the CDF treated him): "No open criticism is to be permitted, and critical theologians are to be silenced through doctrinal trials and by their religious superiors if in the smallest matters they think other than what has been expressed by the Magisterium. Thus, not only dissent, but also every critical expression is seen as a punishable action" (172).   

The following citations should be taken to heart:   

Theologians, especially those who exercise the official Magisterium, along  with their immediate collaborators, constantly must watch over the purity of  their motives: "all for the greater honor of God and for the salvation of men and women." They can sin gravely and defame theology through cowardice as well  as through arrogance.  They can distort the approach to truth for themselves  and others by striving for offices and positions or titles of honor, which was  so radically forbidden by the Lord. Such sins can be institutionalized, indeed all sins carry within themselves the tendency to "incarnate" themselves  in history. A theologian or group of theologians becomes inauthentic when, rather than suffer for the truth, they allow themselves to be frightened and choose to bury the talents of creative freedom and creative loyalty in favor of "safe" repetition of old formulas.   

Theologians will become useless and inauthentic not only through cowardice, but also if they allow themselves to become embittered and--instead of proclaiming the good news--struggle for their cause out of resentment and with bitterness. A theologian can likewise betray the Church and truth when he denies his conviction of the truth "out of obedience," just as when he goes his own lonely way in rebellious disobedience and battles embittered (even when such a battle is necessary); for one can be authentic in life, in learning and in teaching only in the peace of Christ. 

The Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. Freedom of this kind means that all men should be immune from coercion on the part of individuals, social groups and every human power so that, within due limits, nobody is forced to act against his convictions nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his convictions in religous matters in private or in public, alone or in associations with others.(sec. 2)  

It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons, that is, beings endowed with reason and free will and therefore bearing personal responsibility, are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. (sec. 2) 

Ingrid Shafer 
July 4, 1998