A Progressive Voice in the Catholic Church in the United States: Association of Pittsburgh Priests, 1966–2019
Ebook
In the summer of 1966, one year after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, a group of nineteen Roman Catholic priests met clandestinely in a church hall in a suburb of Pittsburgh to discuss forming an independent group of ordained clergy. Fearful that meeting publicly might be viewed as a threat to the authority of the local bishop, thus potentially risking sanctioning from him, they used numbers, not names, when circulating the minutes of the first two meetings. Once the word spread among the local clergy that such a group was meeting, and they realized there was widespread interest, they went public and invited all of Pittsburgh's Catholic clergy, including the bishop, to their third meeting. They chose a name, the Association of Pittsburgh Priests (APP), and the group was launched. Shortly after forming, and with interest from among over two-hundred clergy, APP began advocating for major church renewal and involvement in any number of social justice issues. Regarding church renewal, they grounded themselves in the documents of Vatican II, most especially Gaudium et Spes, Church in the Modern World, and soon lobbied for optional celibacy and married priesthood, women's ordination, lay empowerment, including the promotion of the early church notion of the priesthood and prophethood of all believers. To this day, APP remains a force for change in the church and in society, ever true to its initial intuition to fully implement the renewal of church and society called for by the bishops at Vatican II.
“Theologians, historians, sociologists of religion, and
especially reform-minded Catholics should give deep thanks to
Arthur McDonald for telling in print the story of the Association
of Pittsburgh Priests (APP). The APP started in 1966 after the
Second Vatican Council, bringing together study and activism to
carry out the reform work of the church. This study has relevance
especially today in the light of the ongoing developments in the
Catholic Church.”
—Charles Curran, author of Diverse Voices in US Moral
Theology
“What happened to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council? The
history of the birth and development of the Association of
Pittsburgh Priests narrates at the micro-level the efforts of
courageous, prophetic priests and laity to implement the Council’s
reforms while their bishops worked to maintain traditional
hierarchical structures and stifle many of the Council’s efforts.
McDonald’s work makes an outstanding contribution to understanding
Catholic Church history.”
—Charles W. Dahm, OP, author of Power and Authority in the
Catholic Church
Product Details
- Title : A Progressive Voice in the Catholic Church in the United States: Association of Pittsburgh Priests, 1966–2019
- Authors:
- McDonald, Arthur J.
- Gumbleton, Thomas J.
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Publication Date: 2019
- ISBN: 9781532691492
Arthur J. McDonald wrote his doctoral dissertation on liberation
theology in Peru at the University of Pittsburgh. Ordained a Roman
Catholic priest in 1978 by the Dominican Order of Preachers, he
served as a priest in the South Bronx until 1982. After leaving the
Catholic ministry and marrying, he has served two Unitarian
Universalist congregations, one in Pittsburgh, the other in Essex,
Massachusetts, for twenty-six years until his retirement in 2017.
He has also taught theology and religion at several colleges and
universities. He now serves as minister emeritus at the
Universalist (UU) Church of Essex.