Punditry

I thought Bishop Lynch’s statement was pretty ironic, but I found this article by Roger Cardinal Mahony to have it’s share. While most of his letter makes some solid points it is hard to read the Cardinal lecturing on obedience.

—Obedience: Today’s society emphasizes personal rights, personal freedom, personal choice — creating a certain self-centeredness that focuses on "what’s good for me, personally." The notion of living in service for others or the common good of society is looked upon as a weakness.

Again, contrast that self-concern with the example of Jesus who came not to be served, but to serve others totally and generously — setting aside personal preferences and desires.

Obedience isn’t the first word that comes to mind when I think of Cardinal Mahoney. Actually the first word that comes to mind is the same word with the prefix "dis" in front of it. If he truly wanted to foster vocations in a diocese in excess of four million Catholics he might try, for example, orthodoxy for a change. Funny how it is that those diocese that do all that reaching out and making the mass more "relevant" to young people also find that they can’t attract priestly and religious vocations. Calling people to a life of sacrifice is pretty hard when you try to make worshipping God more like a get together at Starbucks.

FORT ATKINSON — William J. Smith sparked the curiosity of his neighbors almost from the day he moved to Jefferson County last fall.

It had been years since anyone had tried to start a church in Fort Atkinson, and Smith’s effort was particularly unusual.

He installed an altar in his apartment and invited people for daily morning Mass and evening prayers, calling his undertaking “A Vatican-Free Monastic Community.“

The article goes on to describe William Smith who was convicted of two-counts of sexual assault with a 15-year old boy while he was pastor of Christ the King Episcopal Church of his efforts at starting his own abbey. I though for sure he would be a former Catholic priest with the whole ‘Vatican-Free" thing. The Episcopal Church is already pretty Vatican-Free as it is.

Clayton at the Weight of Glory fisks a interview with Ron Howard and Tom Hanks. As you would expect they take the line that this will help invoke dialogue on the subject, but no mention of the blasphemous aspect of the movie. Something that Methodist Ron Howard and Greek Orthodox Tom Hanks don’t seem to have a problem with.

TOM HANKS: But I think the movie may end up helping churches do their job. You know, if they put up a sign saying, "This Wednesday we’re discussing the gospel," 12 people show up. But if the sign says, "This Wednesday we’re discussing The Da Vinci Code," 800 people show up.

Hey great idea. Let us have movies that put the KKK in a positive light so that we can discuss racism. Or let us make movies that slander historical figures with outrageous lies to help out historians to do their job.

The Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz Fan Club

The Cardinal George Fan Club

The Cardinal Mahony Fan Club (just kidding Quintero)

There is and Interesting twist to the story of retired Bishop Gumbleton going to Colorado to hawk for a bill to unequally punish the Catholic Church. Allegedly members of the Catholic press were shutout of the public meeting he was to have with a senator and that the event was changed because of the presence of these members of the Catholic press. So much for the transparency that the Bishop often calls for.

Blaine later approached Catholic News Agency to say that the reason why the meeting between the bishop and the senators was private was because Bishop Gumbleton had made a commitment to Church authorities not to speak in public about his opinions.

If only this was true that Church authorities (which would pretty much have to be his Bishop) had told him this. What I find difficult to believe that even if this actually happened is that he would actually obey. Obedience is not exactly the term I would come up with in a word association game mention Gumbleton.

Hat tip to Andy K for mentioning the story to me.

Here is part of a Boston Globe ineterview with Cardinal O’Malley.

Q: I was wondering, following up on that. Setting aside your obligation to accept of course the prohibition of women as priests, whether you find the rationale for that doctrine compelling, and what would happen to the Catholic Church were it to be changed?

O’MALLEY: Well, to me it’s a matter of faith. The church’s teaching goes back to the time of Christ and the apostles, and it’s not something that we can change. If I could have the opportunity to say to our Lord, "Well, you know we really need that women priest, it would be so much easier for the church if you changed this for us." But we believe there are certain things that are givens. And this is one of the things that we believe is a given. And in the church we don’t divide the world into warring genders and different factions. We see that everyone had different gifts that they bring to the church. A woman like Mother Teresa is more important than any priest or bishop that I can think of. And the contributions of women in the church; where would the church be? Most of our educations programs and health care institutions are run by our Catholic women, Catholic religious women. I see that it is difficult in today’s climate, and it’s not politically correct, and it’s a place certainly where our faith bumps up against the popular culture, but it’s a place where I think we need to do a better job of trying to get people to understand and accept what the church’s teaching is.

Q: Could that change? How deep is it?

O’MALLEY: Two thousand years deep.

Here is an open letter to Tod Brown, Bishop of Orange. It goes over some of the recent grounds on his refusing Communion to a kneeling woman, but also details his open support for same-sex marriages and the fact that the vocations director he appointed in openly hostile to devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The letter is long and detailed. Once again showing that liturgical abuses just don’t operate in a vacuum. It is almost always a heterodox attitude in the first place that becomes the grounds for them and they are usually symptoms of deeper problems.

Gerald has the goods on a musical called erotica being being staged in Catholic churches in the Diocese of Essen and soon to turn in Germany and Austria. inappropriate and immodest are mild descriptions of this musical of very scantily clad women and what appears to be a scene reminiscent of Flashdance but done with alcohol instead. The piece was written by two women in their 20s who also star in the musical. Now it is not difficult to understand why these two women might have thought this to be a good thing to do, but what is amazing is that it seems nowhere along the way did anybody seem to think it is totally inappropriate to perform this in the church.

The pictures must be seen to be believed.

Retired Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is taking his show on the road. This time to Archbishop Chaput’s diocese to support a sex-abuse bill in Colorado that takes aim only at the Catholic Church and ignores every other institution.

…His visit was arranged through the office of Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Coal Creek Canyon. She and Rep. Gwyn Green, D-Golden, each authored controversial bills that would remove the statute of limitations so that adult victims of childhood sexual abuse could bring civil lawsuits against their predators, even if the incidents occurred many years ago.

Unexpected opposition from the Colorado Catholic Conference and the Archdiocese of Denver led Fitz-Gerald to lay over her own bill to concentrate on Green’s remaining House Bill 1090.

"I’d like for a man of faith to tell his story so state lawmakers don’t believe the position that the Denver Archdiocese has taken against the bill is the only Catholic position in the country," Fitz-Gerald said. "I’d like to point out that some Catholic leaders think it’s a necessary thing to do.

"Bishop Gumbleton strongly believes the state needs to lift the window to get the names of perpetrators in the public forum so the abuse doesn’t continue and to get some sense of justice for victims."
[Via Gerald]

Perhaps the Archbishop could start by naming the priest who had allegedly abused him. After all if the story is true wouldn’t doing this help others that would probably have been abused from the same person and might want support? I have pretty much been skeptical of his recent confession of abuse, but if true it wouldn’t be the first time that homosexual abuse as a minor lead to someone developing homosexual tendencies or become sympathetic to homosexuality.

Of course Chaput and Gumbleton with the same area could lead to catastrophic results. No need for anti-matter to power a starship; I think you could power one with the energy collision of orthodoxy and heterodoxy of of these two bishops in close proximity.

Today being the first anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI here were my initial reactions one year ago.

Right now I am so full of adrenaline I think I could explode. Thank you Lord for Pope Benedict XVI. All of the news build up about Cardinal Ratzinger appearing to be favored I took with a large grain of salt. I have had nothing but admiration for this man as I have read his books since coming into the Catholic Church. His insights and understanding about the problems the Church faces in the modern world are excellent. His book on the liturgy, which I think should be required reading, is magnificent in his presentation of what should be the "reform of the reform" when it comes to the liturgy. His announcement as Pope to me is like Charlie Brown finally getting to kick the football that Lucy was holding. How many times did we hear "enter a pope, leave a cardinal" or that probably somebody who we don’t even expect will be elected pope. I am currently in the middle of his book "God and the World" which is a fairly long book where he answers questions put to him by Peter Seewald. Reading the answers he gave I often though what a magnificent pope he would make.

Of course besides having this wonderful man as Pope we get the added bonus of him really annoying the dissidents. Probably one of the quietest place on earth was the offices of the National Catholic Reporter. For myself I was jumping up and down and screaming with excitement when his name was announced. All those who had hoped for changes in the doctrines of the Catholic Church now know that it isn’t going to happen any time soon. No matter though who was elected this would have been true, it is just that they now realize it and once again will have to fallback to "maybe the next pope." position

One year later is is interesting to reflect on his first year and the slow and steady course he has set. The majority though you read from others on his pontificate is that it was different than they expected. Progressive are surprised that inquisitions didn’t start the following day and I guess some conservatives felt the same way. It seems some have though he would swoop down from the sky correcting liturgical abuses. Those with these positive and negative expectations must not have observed his leadership for so many years as prefect of the CDF. Investigations were always long and thorough and were much more likely to ask for clarifications on something written compared to being disciplined. In the 26 years as the CDF’s head there is are less were only two excommunications with Fr. Tissa Belasuriya later being reconciled to the Church and of course the case of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. In most other cases they just lost their license to teach theology.

I am not surprised at all that the Pope hasn’t initiated drastic reforms. He not only participated in the Second Vatican Council, but experienced the aftermath as the council was hijacked by those not faithful to the Council’s documents. Even very positive changes made in a rush could very well end up causing havoc. This would be the last thing I would expect from his pontificate. Knowing the Gospels as well as he does I am sure that he is laying out a good foundation on which to build such as his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est. The synod of bishops in Rome last year on the Eucharist covered many of these topics requiring reform. The rumor is that Pope Benedict will issue his post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation sometime in October of this year. His views on the reform of the liturgy are quite well known, less known is his roadmap for implementation of them or which ones he would prudently see should be implemented.

What I can say is that I have certainly enjoyed the B16 supplement I have been taking for the last year. His homilies and the off-the-cuff discussions and replies have been quite nourishing and I look forward to the continuing essential part of a spiritual diet. Now if only the Vatican could translate them into English much quicker than than have.

(Picture from my Now with B16 parody)

Amy Welborn also has her reflections.

Sandro Magister writes on Pope’s style of listening to and replying to questions in public and he is also annoyed by the slowness of the transcriptions of the Pope’s talks.

Christopher Blosser as usual has an excellent and extensive roundup.

Gerald also thinks the Pope is setting the tone for future changes.