Drop the charges
I recently reviewed Dr. Rice's excellent book "What Happened to Notre Dame" and now he has written a new letter to Fr. Jenkins. He starts off thanking Fr. Jenkins for his recent support of the pro-life cause in his recent letter. He then goes on with some advice and some critique and then gets to the main body of letter in regards to the pro-life protesters arrested at Notre Dame. He makes some strong points about some confusion in regards to this and to whether Notre Dame can drop the charges.
The full letter is at insight Scoop and I think it is charitable and not polemic in the criticism.
What gets me about the arrest of the pro-lifers is a couple of things. One Fr. Jenkins decided he could give his own interpretation on what the Bishops said regarding honoring pro-abortion politicians. He has not followed the provisions in Church documents such as Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Yet when it comes to a Notre Dame law in regards to protests - that is hard and fast dogma with no mercy or change possible. Dialog is so much talked about, but making allowances for pro-lifers to peacefully protest is another story. The way that these protesters were treated is sad beyond belief. Handcuffing a elderly priest for the crime of protesting what 80 some bishops said should never have allowed is a sad indictment. Really what should have happened is that the protests should have been given permission in the first place.
Dr. Rice is exactly right in that Fr. Jenkins going to the March for Life while prosecuting pro-lifers for peaceful protests will earn him the scorn of many at the march. Notre Dame is justly proud for the part it played in the Civil Rights movement where there was civil disobedience at times. So why not drop the trespassing charges to promote some healing in regards to the pro-life movement and the administration at Notre Dame. Then Fr. Jenkins can help lead Notre Dame in taking a more active role in the pro-life movement.
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So why not drop the trespassing charges to promote some healing
Obviously the guy is not about healing, but the iron fist of control. He's a politician first and foremost.
OK, not going to be my most charitable moment.
And, maybe it shouldn't be.
How about a letter writing campaign to Notre Dame's bishop? Imagine the pressure of the same 100s of thousands of folks letting the bishop know that this is ridiculous. Or peacefully protesting the ND problem at the bishop's office.
Just thinking out loud.
There is a time for charity, and a time to tell old Aunt Edna that her slip is showing--a lot.
It's not difficult to attend a big March for Life- comfort and security in numbers. Taking pro-life action in your own backyard is much more demanding, and requires greater courage.But it is a necessary witness, in season and out, and all Catholics are called to it.
The problem with pressuring the Bishop is that Father Jenkins has made it clear on multiple occasions that he does not in any way care what Bishop D'Arcy thinks, and Bishop D'Arcy has made it clear that he doesn't support much of what Father Jenkins is doing in any case. Short of extreme measures like stopping masses from occurring on campus (which would only punish the faithful students), I'm not sure what more Bishop D'Arcy can do since I don't believe that he has any administrative control over the university.
Jenkins is just another Order Frat Boy. If he wants to be an academic, he should be laicized. If he wants to be an ordained minister, he should be given an option to be incardinated into a diocese and given a country cluster of parishes. This parallel dimension Church of orders supposedly acting under personal direction of the Bishop of Rome is a joke and has deformed itself so as to be dangerous.
Super post, Need to mark it on Digg
Petition to Notre Dame: Drop the Charges
Spread the word
http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/get-involved/online-petitions/urgent-petition-to-notre-dame-please-drop-the-charges.html
God bless!