Punditry

More complaints about orthodox seminarians.

"I am concerned, and I don’t want to isolate this clericalism to Rome," said the Rev. Tom Splain, an American professor of cultural anthropology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. "It’s on the increase in all of our seminaries. Kind of a return to piety, kind of a superficial piety. … What happens in Rome is you have a greater percentage of those types."

Splain, who teaches many of these students at Gregorian, believes the church should discuss issues like ordaining female priests and permitting condom use. He and other critics, including some cardinals, worry the strict doctrine enforced by John Paul has left the church increasingly out of touch with modern realities, especially in the developed world, where in some countries church attendance fell during his 26 years as pope.

The young seminarians and priests who come to study in Rome are "careerists," he said, who spend very little of their careers in contact with regular parishioners and their problems.

The Rev. Gerald O’Collins, an Australian professor of theology at Gregorian, said he had noted a "shift to the right" among students.

"I think there is a doctrinaire feeling among a lot of seminarians," said O’Collins, who has been teaching 35 years and, in spite of his anxiety over the seminarians of today, is not a particular advocate of liberalism. "And a bishop sending someone here is going to pick the reliable, safe ones. … I think pastoral experience is a great reality teacher. They can’t live like that. In the pastorial situation, they’ve got to be wise and helpful."

You would think by the opinions of these men that believing what the Church actually teaches is some kind of disease. Orthodoxy is passed of as "those types." If these professors had their way "those types" of seminarians would be forced when walking through the streets to shout our "unclean" as they go. To the modern mind what is more leprous than orthodoxy, the contagion to be avoided an any cost. That "pastorial experience" will cure them of silly ideas about fidelity, chastity and the moral teachings of the Church.

It is no surprise that Newsday takes a sneering approach to the seminarian interviewed who gave what they say is the "party-line approach" and "spoke as one voice." They must have been especially frustrated that the seminarian from the Sudan would not bite on the question about condom approval. "

One young deacon, from Ireland, forcefully told a reporter that he didn’t think an interview should focus any longer on the issue of condoms and HIV.

I do wonder what they consider forcefully as, I doubt if it would coincide with mine.

From another article about what people want the new pope to be:

Here’s my question:

Once the mourning ends, a new pope is chosen and this great yet diverse body of believers begins to look ahead, can unity flourish again?

Final answer, or a start?

Bishop Peter Jugis offered the quiet dignity appropriate for the first Sunday after the death of Pope John Paul II.

He struck just the right soft-spoken note in praising the pontiff as a man whose gift for language and love of people helped him touch the world. The pope’s physical suffering and death, Jugis told the St. Patrick gathering, deepened our affection for him.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. And harder.

Jugis said he has already been asked what direction the church might take now.

His answer?

"The direction of Jesus Christ," he declared.

Now that is a great answer. The rest of the the article is typical boilerplate, though he did have to wait for the third Catholic he interviewed to get someone who might agree with him on "celibacy for priests, women in the priesthood, birth control, gays, stem-cell research, Holy Communion for politicians who support abortion rights"

Students will have the chance to reflect about the Virgin Mary and her role in the Christian church on Wednesday and Thursday.

Vanderbilt theologian Robin Jensen has organized a Mary conference, "The Virgin Mary in Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Traditions," which will be held at the Vanderbilt Divinity School and two local churches.

Jensen is a professor of the history of Christian art and worship at the Divinity School and teaches a popular course about Mary. She said she believes that as Christian women expand their leadership within the church, they are looking to Mary for inspiration.

"We’ve moved away from Mary as the feminine face of the church to Mary as a model of Christian discipleship. This creates a way for women to see themselves in leadership position in churches," Jensen said.

Jensen says that writings by the late Pope John Paul II and books like "The Da Vinci Code" have helped spark interest in Mary as the feminine icon of Christianity.

"If you look at what Mary says in Luke 1, it’s quite astonishingly powerful, independent-minded and prophetic," Jensen said. "It’s hardly the words of someone who is submissive." [Source]

While I like the concept of this conference calling Mary "independent-minded" has got to be one of dumbest things I have ever read concerning her. "Let it be done according to they word" is independent-minded? Total submission and faithfulness to God is actually dependent since we all are totally dependent on God and Mary fully lived that truth. When Mary was forthright in her request at the wedding of Cana it was because she had absolute trust that Jesus would answer her intercession and not because she was being daring and independent. Some people try to pigeon hole Mary as some kind of proto-modern-feminist which just totally misses the point. I just can’t imagine modern feminists saying they were the handmaiden of anyone, much less God. It is of course easier to try to paint her in the light of modern sensibilities instead of following the blazing trail of her total discipleship, humility, and trust in God.

The comment about the Da Vinci Code is also just plain strange. As far as I know Dan Brown avoided any mention of Mary and concentrated on his twisted view of Mary Magdalene’s relationship with Jesus. His writing about the "divine feminine" avoided the issue of the Mother of the divine Jesus Christ.

None of this is surprising considering that this is sponsored by a "Religion, Gender, and Sexuality" program which links to such fun stuff as "Cabrini: a Pacific Northwest gathering lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Quakers" – who knew?

As we now look forward to the start of the conclave and the election of a new pope our minds naturally ponder the attributes of what we think are the important qualities for the new pope to have and what are the most important issues that need to be addressed. First and foremost is that he is able to answer the same question Jesus put to St. Peter, "Do you love me?" and to be able to answer truthfully "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." That he would love God with all his heart, soul, and might. This is of course also the basic requirement that all of us should have. Whenever we see lists of what makes a good bishop we should also see that largely they apply to us, though possible on a smaller scale. Whether we are in charge of a diocese or a family the same basic requirements hold forth.

Jesus goes on to tell St. Peter "Feed my sheep" so obviously this is a major part of the charism of the Pope. I think that one of the greater issues that confronts the life of the Church is catechesis. There has definitely been improvements since the "God is love" Jesus coloring book approach to teaching the faith in the sixties and seventies. Many sheep have spiritually died of starvation from the measly diet from some Catholic schools, theologians, and homilies. Bad enough is the watered down version of the faith, though worse is the injection of theological poisons that not only do not nourished but can hasten spiritual death. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) put out by our late Holy Father was a good start. If only it was implemented into more curriculums. I know one priest in my diocese who runs a Catholic school who has admitted and perhaps even bragged that he has never read the CCC and complained of it being 800 pages long. I guess we can leave out the Bible if the main criterion is page count. This dismissal of the CCC is from what I have read and heard unfortunately common.

I have often heard that heterodoxy is its own cure, that it dies off naturally as evidenced by religious orders who embrace it. This view though encourages a laissez-faire approach to dissent since it almost ignores the importance of the souls of those who embrace it or those they influence. That as long as a heresy is not spreading it is no problem. This is a serious lack of charity to those holding these views. A new Pope though is not going to be able to solve these problems by himself. The Pope gave us Ex Corde Ecclesia to try to reign in the problems of dissent in our Catholic Universities, but since the large majority of bishops have done nothing to implement it this movement for reform has been ineffective. A good shepherd when he sees that one of his sheep is sick will first remove him from the rest of the flock so that the disease might not be communicated to the flock. The shepherd then does what he can to heal the sick sheep and when it is again healthy allows it to return to the rest of the flock. A good shepherd must chase the wolves away from his flock and not invite them in especially to teach. Too many Catholic institutions are willing to give honors to wolves. This is I think a good parallel of what should be done to known dissenters. That out of love we hopefully only temporality remove them from the flock to care for them. This is both charitable to the dissenter, but also to those they might infect. This does not mean a start of a new inquisition or the pope going "all medieval" on some dissenters (though the thought of Fr. McBrien in an Iron Maiden gives me some (disordered) pleasure), but that he make known to the various congregations and their heads that he appoints that dissent should not be ignored. The National Catholic Reporter published a list of people who had been disciplined by the Vatican in the last 26 years and to my mind it is unfortunate that this list is way too short for such a long period of time. Any efforts along this way of course will be labeled by the media as a crackdown or other pejoratives, but getting the disapproval of the media to my mind is positive affirmation that you are on the right track. Pope’s generally have to die first to get the media to say something nice about them.

Another major issue is secularism and Fr. Jim Tucker makes a good case for why he says this it the "Number One Challenge for the Next Pope." This is of course an issue that effects both evangelism and those who already identify themselves as Catholics. We are increasingly able to pretend that we are totally independent of God and our spiritual life is smothered by this radical independence and consuming materialism. Also of course dangerous is this idea of being "spiritual" without any real commitment or any kind of accountability. Fr. Jim though goes more in depth and says it much better and also includes some good suggestions.

Anything that impedes the spread of the Gospel to all corners of the world also needs to be addressed. There is a total lack of religious freedom in many parts of the world. Countries like China with their faux government sponsored churches such as the Patriotic Catholic Church allow you only to believe what they consider to be in their best interests. In Europe actually believing that homosexual acts is gravely disordered will also keep you from being appointed a commissioner such as the case of Rocco Buttiglione. In many Islamic countries not only is the Gospel not allowed to be preached, but conversion can result in your arrest and execution. Christian-Muslim relations will become increasingly strained especially in Africa with expanding Christian churches side by side with heavily islamic cultures. In the U.S. we have freedom of religion unless you are up for appointment as a federal judge and you actually believe that abortion is morally wrong.

From the beginning the Church has always battled the culture of death that surrounds it. The largely Pagan culture that Christianity was birthed in had to be preached about the dignity of human life. Not much has changed it is just that we just kill our newborns in a more antiseptic environment. There are increasing threats to the dignity of human life with abortion, euthanasia, cloning, and the use of embryonic human beings as mere parts for treatments.

I do not envy the great responsibility that the Cardinal-electors have in selecting a new pope. I can only say that if I were a Cardinal that I would immediately take off the list anybody who wanted to be pope. Wanting this gigantic weight surely shows that they do not have the full understanding of what being the Vicar of Christ truly means. The weight of responsibility for parish priests and even more so for bishops is heavy enough in working to guard the flock. A world-wide flock is an order of magnitude that would weigh heavily on the shoulder of the one to carry it.

There have been many comments on the Clinton comments on Air Force One in regards to the Pope saying he had a "mixed legacy", but not much on the following comment.

Clinton was also asked about his first flight aboard Air Force One since the end of his presidency: "I never thought I’d be on this plane again – I had a good time.

Wow that’s a ringing endorsement of how much hope he has in Hillary winning the presidency if he never thought he would fly on Air Force One again. For once I hope he is right.

I have been considering how silly it is to get worked up over the suggestions of non-Catholics in the qualities of the next pope and what should be changed. If you are not
a Catholic or possibly even a theist why should you believe that the Holy Spirit both guards and inspires the Catholic Church.
You would see it as only a human institution and human institutions change with time in what they believe as truth. If modern society sees no problem with same-sex activity or same-sex marriage then why should a human institution be any different. All the things accepted in modern society they believe should also be accepted in the Church.

To accept the fact that the Catholic Church is something totally different and that it does not respond to the winds of societal change in regards to the truth is a fact that they are not willing to accept, at least as of yet. The reason that the Catholic Church receives most of the broadsides of negative opinion is the very fact that they see in some way the odd quality of it in that it does not bend to the pressure of modernity. The Church will not always teach the fullness of the truths from its treasury, but it will not replace the treasury with a bowl of pottage as these commentators might wish. Sometimes a shining city set on a hill must be stamped out to conform to the rest of the dingy environment around it. In a way these attitudes are a back-handed compliment to the Church. Once when Cardinal O’Connor was a little down about homosexual activists from Act Up who were desecrating the Eucharist. Fr. Groeschel told him to "Cheer up, at least they know it is the Catholic Church they must attack."

So it is really quite understandable the opinions of these pundits who see the Church as nothing more than a club and that some rule changes need to be made. So it is quite understandable their commentary considering the understanding they have and it would only be odd if non-Catholics actually understood the nature of the Church. Some will understand what the Church believes about itself, but this does not necessarily lead them accepting it. For example writer extraordinaire Mark Steyn "gets it" about the Church, though he isn’t Catholic.

Dissident Catholics though are another story since they are suppose to accept that not only is the Holy Spirit guarding and proclaiming the truth through its Church today, but that it has done so since it came into existence as blood and water flowed from Christ’s side. They are always saying that they have a prophetic voice, as if any Old Testament prophet was ever killed because they were preaching the same message as the society around them. They were killed precisely because they were calling the nation of Israel back to the truth since they had fallen to the idolatry of their neighbors. I could just hear Call To Action in the context of those times. "We will not have equality until women Levite’s can enter the Holy of Holies. In fact all tribes should be able to offer sacrifices and not just this Male Levite dominated hierarchy that suppresses the gift of women and of other tribes." At least then the earth would have opened and swallowed them up.

When you just ignore the teaching authority of the Church over your own "prophetic" understanding then you no longer need a magisterium. When you can ignore that the Pope had closed the subject concerning women’s ordination, then you also have no need of a pope. Why do they look on the election of a new pope hoping that he will change doctrines when they don’t even accept the authority of our late Holy Father? Obedience only when you agree with someone is no obedience at all. When you can ignore Church tradition and also ignore the writings of the Fathers of The Church (or only selectively parse them) then you also don’t have any need of tradition. Cardinal John Henry Newman famously said "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant." The opposite is also true. To be shallow in history is to cease to be Catholic. If you truly believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church in the acceptance of homosexuality, abortion and women’s ordination, then you must also believe that the Holy Spirit is working in just about every Church but the Catholic and Orthodox churches. That these other church’s are more spirit filled. Why would you want to be part of a church that you believe to be fundamentally wrong on some of the most important questions concerning life and marriage. A church they believe has been discriminating against women and those with same-sex attraction for two thousand years. A church that automatically excommunicates those who are involved in the direct procurement of an abortion. A church that calls contraception gravely sinful To them this is not a church that needs just a little theological bondo to make it look nicer to the modern world, but one that need a whole new chassis and totally different accessories. Of course if you can ignore the Pope and the magisterium then you can discard them and the landscape is littered with churches that have done exactly that. So why don’t they simply join an Episcopal church that might have some Catholics trappings that they are comfortable with and none of that teaching authority jazz that interferes with their own understandings? Or if no church currently teaches what they want then start their own? Especially since they believe they are being guided by the Holy Spirit and that they know better. Martin Luther was at least honest in understanding that his view of the nature of the church was at odds with the Catholic Church. They need to understand that even if they haven’t left the church there are in virtual schism. I have no desire that anybody leave the Catholic Church, only that they truly join it in its fullness.

BRASILIA, Brazil – A Brazilian cardinal criticized President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for defending abortion and gay rights, calling Silva "chaotic, not Catholic," in an interview published Wednesday.

"A Catholic cannot be in favor of abortion," Rio de Janeiro Cardinal Eusebio Scheid told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper in Rome, where he arrived Tuesday for the conclave to chose a new pope.

Scheid, 72, said he was perplexed by the defense of gay rights by Silva and his leftist Workers Party.

"His relations with gays – who approved all that? He left us all rather confused," Scheid was quoted as saying.

Silva is to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II, amid speculation that Sao Paulo cardinal Claudio Hummes could be chosen the next pope. Silva has said he is hoping a Brazilian will be named.

Scheid praised Silva for attending the funeral, but added: "He expects political dividends from this."

Considered a conservative, Scheid said Silva – a grade-school dropout from Brazil’s poor Northeast – had an "illogical" and "uncultivated" Catholic faith.

"He was born in the working class, with all its confusions. He never had a proper formation and deepening of his faith," Scheid told Estado. "He and the Holy Spirit don’t understand each other."

Scheid, who has good relations with Silva, said politicians in general were untrustworthy.

"They say one thing now and something else tomorrow," he was quoted as saying. "The left never brought benfits to anyone. Look at Russia, China and Cuba."

Silva’s office said he had made no comment on Scheid’s remarks. [Source]

Roman Chaoticism would be an apt term since there is so much disorder or confusion among those of the Catholic faith. Chaos is a disordered state and many Roman Chaotics openly endorse behavior that is objectively disordered. I nominated the National Catholic Reporter as the Catechism of the Chaotic Church.

Diogenes of CWN points to and comments on this statement by Bishop Lynch. Doing some computer forensic work I was able to reconstruct the first draft of this statement. The text in blue is the reconstructed text and the rest is the posted statement.

STATEMENT FROM BISHOP ROBERT N. LYNCH ON THE DEATH OF TERESA SCHINDLER SCHIAVO

“I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of Terri Shiavo of which I did nothing to prevent or even spend the time to spell her last name right before I released this statement. I know that you join me in praying that Terri finds a warm welcome in eternity with Our Lord. I ask you, as well, to keep Terri’s family in your prayers who rightly see me as personal non gratis. The many years during which Terri was incapacitated took a great toll on Terri’s family and loved ones especially her husband who suffered from her staying alive. It was my sincere hope that while Terri was still in nursing care her family members would find a way to put their differences aside after all starvation and dehydration is such a small family dispute, and come together in agreement about Terri’s on-going care or actually the total lack of basic care and rehabilitation. At this time, now that Terri has gone to meet our Lord, I continue to hope and pray that all of Terri’s family members may seek and find healing and peace from God, our Creator.

There are a number of significant issues that have been highlighted by Terri’s health problems and her death. A number of people have mentioned to me that they now see a necessity to have a formal conversation with their family members about their personal desires regarding health care in the event that they become incapacitated. And I just have no problem with people writing living wills and allowing themselves to be put to death when they are not actually at an end-of-life stage. Normally I would talk about this being a teaching moment, but I really don’t want to go into the nuances between basic care and extraordinary means used to prolong life.

I have given a great deal of thought and reflection to these comments after all I had much time to think when I skipped town during Holy Week and the days leading up to Terri’s death while in Jakarta, Indonesia (obviously Canon 395 does not apply when you need to dodge the media and pesky Catholics wanting me to uphold the Church’s teaching). My recommendation to you is this: never miss an opportunity to spend time with your loved ones and friends; never let a day pass without telling your parents and children that you love them since you never know when a relative might get the state to help kill them; cherish each day as a gift from God, and keep your hearts fixed on that day when you will see God face to face, in fact I am looking forward to getting fitted with a millstone and being tossed into the sea. We live a very fast-paced life; it’s easy to forget that life is short, especially when you are prevented from eating or drinking. The only certain formula for a happy life is to live each day in gratitude for God’s goodness and being thankful for those of you who don’t live in my diocese. For, at the end of a life lived in gratitude, we can be assured of Our Savior’s loving embrace because while on earth you can’t rely on your own Bishop to help you from being executed for the crime of being incapacitated.”

On the Laura Ingraham show yesterday they played the following quote from NPR’s Juan Williams on Fox News Sunday "In the age of Aids he was very slow to respond on the issue of condoms, on what rights gays should have in society."

In response to this quote she framed what Juan Williams had said and asked Fr. Rutler to respond. I transcribed the following from her show.

Laura Ingraham: "If only the pope was for birth control, if only the pope was more modern, if only the pope wanted women to be priests. Tells us about your thoughts in hearing that."

Fr. Rutler: If only the Pope had done all those things nobody would be covering his funeral now. For a man who was so out of touch with times and so irrelevant he is getting the biggest funeral in human history. That would not have been the case if he had just gone with the flow. Look at all the religious sects, the denominations which have fallen apart because they have followed exactly the prescriptions of some of these commentators. Everyone has a right to his observations on matters of religion, but sometimes when I hear people speak off the top of their heads on these matters of theology and as a theologian I sense what the dean of the John Hopkins Medical School must think if a Christian Scientist were to discuss medicine with him. These issues that people talk about very glibly have been tried and failed miserably. That is why Pope John Paul the second said that we are living in a culture of death. Some of these issues have been reduced to political terms and they cannot be. They are not political matters. A reporter the other day, a major media reporter, said was the first non-Catholic to be elected to the papacy. These are the people who are advising the Cardinals on who the next pope should be. I have been astonished though at the coverage which is unprecedented and I think in a different way and in a different scale the media was absolutely breath taken at the popular reaction to the death of Ronald Reagan. They couldn’t understand it. Well this is on a universal scale, the death of this Pope. I think the people who have been quiet are sending a very clear message that what the Pope stood for, what he said and did, what his successor will do, contradicts the spirit of the age.

I wish this article was an April Fools joke.
GetReligion says "The bottom line: The Terri Schiavo case proves that John Paul II is a heretic and an idol worshipper."

People of faith routinely speak of the body and the soul as distinct entities. Paul wrote of his desire to cast off the body to enable his spirit to be closer to God.

Those who define life as any biological function that enables the body simply to exist confuse the spirit and its temple and cause extraordinary moral confusion.

The pope has for years insisted that the most elemental biological definition of the body’s existence is, in fact, life. He argues to preserve a zygote as a human being at the beginning of the human process and the body, devoid of spirit, at its end.

He has chosen to combat contraception, abortion and euthanasia in such a way as to make life, as he understands it, the ultimate good. No situation, no medical condition can justify modifying his absolute interpretation. That is simplistic thinking in the face of terribly complex issues.

Notice that when anybody talks about "terribly complex issues" that they are also able to explain them correctly for us. Terribly complex for us simple minded folks, so it is a good thing they come around to ‘plain fur us. Not to mention the fact that the soul animates the body and where there is no soul there is no longer biological life. A respirator might help to maintain life, but it can maintain a lifeless body.

The life of a human being is precious, unique, to be preserved and honored.

Unless of course your in the womb or a hospice. Terry Mattingly also asks "And why aren’t local Roman Catholic authorities up in arms about this?" Good question.