Jeffrey Miller

In a USA Today article on the investigation of Fr. Peter Phan.

The process of debating theology can be messy, but better to endure the messiness than stifle thought, said Reese, who was forced to resign as editor of America magazine after it published articles challenging church teaching.

That is true up to a point, but when you start denying or diminishing Christ as the unique and universal savior of the world you can cause real damage and lead people to indifferentism – then something needs to be done.

"If you knew a company where the executive leadership was not on speaking terms with the research division, would you invest in that company?" Reese said. "That’s what we have in the Catholic church today. The hierarchy is very suspicious of the theologians and the theologians are very suspicious of the hierarchy. And that’s a very unhealthy situation."

This is just not true that there exists a hierarchy against theologians mindset. Though there might be a progressive theologians against the magisterium mindset. Fr. Reese seems to think all theologians are in the same camp which is funny since previously in this article he complains about an echo chamber mentality in the Vatican. Just because the theologians he surrounds himself with all align together for the most part he seems to think this is the case with all of them.

If you look at the cases the CDF has taken on over the last 30 years you only find a handful of theologians that were investigated and in many cases problems were rectified without disciplinary action. Besides using Fr. Reese’s example if you had a company with a research department that was saying that the products of other companies were superior or equal to their own – which is what Fr. Phan and some others are doing – would you invest in that company? Fr. Reese is talented with the sound bite and so it is no wonder he frequently shows up in the media.

Notice though how Fr. Reese does not take up any aspects of Fr. Phan’s theology and to defend them. This is understandable since so far Fr. Phan has also not defended himself by answering the questions posed by both the CDF and the Bishop’s conference. But I guess asking theologians to explain themselves is unhealthy.

The Rev. Joseph Fessio, a former doctoral student of Pope Benedict whose publishing house is the primary publisher of the pope’s writings in English, said the Vatican is neither heavy-handed nor close-minded in weighing questionable theology. What often fails to be disclosed, he said, is the long process allowing all sides to be heard.

"It’s important for theologians to talk to each other, reflect and try to reformulate and understand more deeply what the church’s belief is," Fessio said. "But if they move outside the realm of the church as soundly defined, then it’s a sign that they have gone beyond their competence as a theologian."

"You can boil it down pretty simply," Fessio said. "Who has the final say in on what Catholics must believe? The answer is, ‘not the theologians.’"

Paragraphs liked that make me admire Fr. Fessio all the more. This is a very succinct and a nicely put explanation of the situation.

(CNSNews.com) – The Miller Brewing Company, a sponsor of this weekend’s homosexual “leather” street fair in San Francisco, has asked to have its logo removed from an advertising poster that has offended some Christians.

The advertisement portrays Christ and his disciples as half-naked sado-masochists.

“While Miller has supported the Folsom Street Fair for several years, we take exception to the poster the organizing committee developed this year. We understand some individuals may find the imagery offensive and we have asked the organizers to remove our logo from the poster effective immediately,” the company told Cybercast News Service on Tuesday.

The group behind the ad said it was not intended to be either “pro-religion or anti-religion,” but the poster — a parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper” — continued to draw fire from Christian organizations on Tuesday.

Of course the response of the Folsom Street Fair was not "to be particularly pro-religion or anti-religion with this poster; the image is intended only to be reminiscent of the ‘Last Supper’ painting." I wonder if somebody printed images throughout San Francisco using the half-naked sado-masochists displayed as the The Damned in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment if they would not think that this was an attack?

Brian Saint-Paul at Inside Catholic had commented on this story.

Maybe I’m jaded, but these artists are running out of ideas. As far as I can tell, all they do is take some recognizable pose or staging from a famous work, and then replace the figures with a bunch of trussed-up gay guys. I mean, that’s the formula here, right?

Well that’s original.

I’m not overly offended, though. This is the kind of tired “provocative” art you’ll find every week, in every City Paper in the country.

He is quite right. Using Jesus in images in a blaspamous way is all to common and about as surprising as seeing commercials while watching TV.

BRUSSELS Compiled from (AFP) and BBC � Catholic bishops in Belgium have protested a TV ad depicting a pot-bellied, hippy Jesus performing miracles and picking up scantily-clad girls up in a nightclub, a church spokesman said Friday.

The ad shows a long-haired hippy Jesus grooving along as he tries to get into a nightclub and is refused entry by the bouncers. Jesus makes the sign of the cross and sweeps aside the bouncers, shrinking them so they are left in his wake as dwarves. This Plug TV version of Jesus then drinks whisky at the bar and magically turns two brown haired frumpy women into blonde babes wearing bikini tops and red horns. The Jesus character then disappears into a huge limousine with the women but his attention is distracted by an advertisement for Plug TV before he is recalled by God who is standing on a cloud, wearing a T shirt with “Number one dad” written on it.

Boooor-ing. The reason that Christians don’t get really realy riled up about this is that there attemps at blasphemy are all so boring. Though once again it is a left-handed compliment towards Christianity. As G.K. Chesterton noted in Heretics.

Blasphemy is an artistic effect, because blasphemy depends upon a philosophic conviction. Blasphemy depends upon belief and is fading with it. If any one doubts this, let him sit down seriously and try to think blasphemous thoughts about Thor. I think his family will find him at the end of the day in a state of some exhaustion.