Epiphany 2013 Reflection

Some time ago my old friend Sister Joan Chittister observed that change in the church, like all social change, is not an event. It is a process.

Joan continued:

Once it has begun, the change has already happened. Only the process of adoption is left. It is the process of change itself that must be understood if ministers are to be the bridge between the Holy Spirit and the institution.

The fact is that once change has begun in a system, the options for dealing with it are limited and mutually exclusive. We can either simply ignore both the question and the questioners or we can ignore the present state of social shift and its effect on both the question and the questioners.

But neither is possible. Social consciousness is a social force. Major social questions do not go away and change, once begun, will come either peacefully or destructively. Ask the few people who went to the barricades in the French Revolution about the truth of that. Or the sisters who struggled through renewal in the course of Vatican II.

Or the 82 percent of Catholics who consider other practices of birth control, beyond natural family planning, moral. Despite what seemed to be ponderous institutional resistance in each instance, concern for institutional approbation floundered in the end under the tide of change.

It is possible to repress change temporarily — to slow change, to resist change, to deny change — but it is impossible to stop a change whose time has come. It is impossible to ignore change once it has begun to well up through the cracks in the cement of a society, however rigid the barriers to it…..

To suppress the question now can only delay its coming and, at the same time, increase its impact when it does. The question of women’s place in the church, let alone the issue of the ordination of women in the Catholic Church, for instance, has been ignored at the highest levels of the church despite the growing demand for attention among the faithful.

Nevertheless, the sense of inevitability has continued unabated in society at large and affected people’s attitudes toward the church — much in the same way the birth control issue did as well. As a result, both issues have already broken the boundaries of the institution.

Second, openness about emerging issues and good theoretical preparation must fill in the gap between institutional readiness to consider the questions and the resistance fatigue in the people. To deny the question will only, in the long run, reduce the credibility of the minister on other issues as well as on the question at hand.

Change comes in three phases. The numbers of innovators — early adherents of change — who have already left the church over these issues, for instance, have gone from trickle to stream. Second level change agents, early adaptors, comprise about 13.5 percent of a population.

The problem is that we are well beyond that already. Surveys tell us that third level change, the point at which another 34 percent of the population has begun to experience tension between belief and practice, is already here.

Acceptance of the idea of women priests by the majority, if the polls are correct, is then already in the popular psyche. The psychological impact of that kind of spiritual stress between scriptural values and institutional norms takes a toll on people’s sense of commitment.

It is a dangerous time for any institution; it is a time for bridge-builders who will admit the truth of the situation and keep the faith at the same time.

So friends, in this New Year, let’s celebrate Epiphany!

Middle English epiphanie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin epiphania, from Late Greek, plural, probably alteration of Greek epiphaneia appearance, manifestation, from epiphainein to manifest, from epi- + phainein to show.

Our eyes are open, and the vision remains!

THE JOURNEY OF THE MAGI

T.S. Eliot

‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kiking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

—————-

Dear Friends,

My very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year!

I will be on holiday for a couple weeks and return after Epiphany.

John W. Greenleaf

(As reported in The Tablet , 22/29 December)

THE ARCHBISHOP of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has said that intensive reflection is needed on the issue of women’s ordination.

Answering questions put by the 250 pupils of the Mary Ward School at Munich/ Nymphenburg, where he gave the first of six catechetical sessions he is holding during the Year of Faith, Cardinal Marx said the issue “leaves many questions open.”

Asked for his views on women’s ordination, Cardinal Marx replied: “I can understand when people say they cannot comprehend one or the other argument. Questions always remain. We must go on thinking about this intensively. Perhaps we have not yet come to the end of the road we set out on together.”

The cardinal pointed out that men and women have the same equal dignity and that when Jesus had called God “Father” it was not in the gender sense. It was only right that women should have leading positions in the Church, he underlined, noting that three of the seven heads of department in the Archdiocese of Munich were women.

In his class, which was on the Apostolic Creed, Cardinal Marx emphasized that faith was a gift that one could only ask for and not obtain by force. “That is why it is so important for us to express our faith together. No one can say ‘I have never doubted,” the cardinal stressed.

—

One wonders what the German-cardinal-become-pope thinks about all of this…….

In any event we do indeed move forward…….

These days as we move closer to Christmas, Robert Morlino, former Jesuit and Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin, is acting more and more like a theological Ebenezer Scrooge.

Two Madison women religious who lead an interfaith spirituality center, Wisdom’s Well,  have been banned by Madison Catholic Bishop Robert Morlino. They and two other women connected with Wisdom’s Well are forbidden to hold workshops or provide spiritual direction at any Catholic church in the 11-county diocese.

According to a memo sent to Madison priests, on behalf of Morlino, Sisters Maureen McDonnell and Lynn Lisbeth, both Sinsinawa Dominicans, have diverged too far from Catholic teaching.

The memo says Bishop Morlino has “grave concerns” about the women’s teachings, specifically that they “espouse certain views” flowing from such movements as “New Ageism” and “indifferentism.” More specifically the memo states that Sisters McDonnell and Lisbeth as well as is Beth O’Brien, a married mother of two and Wisdom’s Well staff member and Paula Hirschboeck, a philosophy professor at Edgewood College in Madison, who helped found Wisdom’s Well: “are not to be invited or allowed to preach, catechize, lead spiritual or prayer instructions or exercises, or to provide spiritual direction or guidance at churches, oratories or chapels within the Diocese of Madison.” No publicity materials from Wisdom’s Well are to be allowed inside parishes.

Wisdom’s Well, founded in Madison in 2006, offers workshops and retreats on topics such as nonviolence, contemplative living and Christian meditation. The center’s website says it “serves to support those who desire to grow spiritually, seek inner wisdom, and yearn for a transformative spirituality.” Its mission statement says the center is “grounded in the Christian tradition, while embracing the wisdom found in other religious traditions.”

The Madison Diocese memo does not give specific examples of things the women may have said that violate church teaching. Rather, the memo references problematic statements on the center’s website, including that the sisters embrace “the wisdom found in other religious traditions.” So much for transparency and justice in the church.

When it comes to diverging from Catholic teaching, I have “grave concerns” about Bishop Morlino. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Visitors of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA). For decades SOA has trained military officers from Latin America. Former SOA trained officers have been found guilty of thousands of political killings, including the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador.

Enough Infidelity! Submit Your Mind and Will to the Pope!

Bishop Jenky of the Diocese of Peoria is now demanding it. Like a virus, the Catholic Oath of Fidelity is spreading cross the country. Arlington Diocese demanded it last summer. If you are going to be a catechist in today’s church, you must submit your mind and will to the Pope and to your bishop…to all bishops for that matter.

George Orwell just turned over in his grave.

Here is a sample form, that can be printed on nice paper, suitable for framing. The best part comes at the end.

Oath of Fidelity to the Catholic Church

I, ______________________________________________, with firm faith believe and profess each and every thing that is contained in the Symbol of Faith, namely:

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the Word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.

Dennis Coday in NCR reports:

The church reform group that represents about a quarter of Ireland’s Catholic priests issued a statement of support Friday for Roy Bourgeois, the U.S. Maryknoll priest that the Vatican laicization and dismissed from his order because of his support of women’s ordination.

The Association of Catholic Priests (Ireland) called on the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “to cease this type of abuse, to restore Fr. Bourgeois to the full exercise of his ministry and to allow for open and honest discussion on issues that are of crucial importance for the future of the Church.”

“We believe that this type of action, ordered by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and implemented by the Maryknoll Order, is unjust, and ultimately counter-productive,” reads the statement from the association.

“Dismissing people because they have sincerely held views that are contrary to those of the Vatican, but which are widely shared by the Catholic faithful, will not end discussion and debate on these topics,” it says.

The Association of Catholic Priests, which was founded by eight priests two years ago, has grown to represent about 1,000 of Ireland’s some 4,000 priests. The association aims at the “full implementation of the vision and teaching of the Second Vatican Council” and a “re-structuring of the governing system of the Church,” according to the group’s constitution.

………….

John Greenleaf responds: OK so where is the support from US priests?

Just before Thanksgiving, I had an email exchange with an old friend, who is now a member of the episcopal hierarchy… He asked me, with a small dose of annoyance, just what I wanted from the church.

I told him I could think of ten points……..

(1) I want a church that affirms the worth, the dignity, and the autonomy of every woman and man, compatible with the rights of others: a church that supports democracy and human rights and aims at the fullest possible development of every human being.

(2) I want a church that affirms the equality of men and women: that all persons regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation deserve respect and the freedom to live and love in peace.

(3) I want a church that stresses that personal liberty must be combined with social responsibility: that a fair society is based on reason and compassion, in which every person plays his or her part.

(4) I want a church that stresses and practices tolerance and freedom of expression: a church that realizes that all doctrines evolve and that all official teachers (Magisterium) must also be humble learners. We don’t have all the truth. We pursue the truth….

(5) I want a church that rejects intimidation and holds that conflicts must be resolved through patient and humble dialogue.

(6) I want a church that upholds freedom of inquiry in every sphere of human life: the unexamined faith is a childish faith. Adult believers question and probe as they believe.

(7) I want a church that upholds artistic freedom, the value of human creativity, and recognizes the transforming power of art: a church that is not afraid of contemporary art.

(8) I want a church in which the ordained leaders dress and act like healthy contemporary leadership people not museum-piece Renaissance princes.

(9) I want a church in which humility and openness to the signs of the times are the key virtues rather than an arrogant condemnation of all that is contemporary.

(10) I want a church that realizes that the face of Christ is best seen and honored in the face of the woman or man sitting next to me on the bus as I go to work each day.

As Joshua J. McElwee (NCR) has reported, Roy Bourgeois, a longtime peace activist and priest who had come under scrutiny for his support of women’s ordination, has been dismissed from Maryknoll, which he served for 45 years. He didn’t abuse any children. Unlike some bishops, he did not protect and cover up sexual abusers….He simply said it is time to acknowledge women priests.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made the dismissal in October, according to a news release issued a few days ago by Maryknoll. There was no consultation with Bourgeois. Rome does not consult. Rome speaks and Rome expels.

Tom Doyle, a canon lawyer acting on Bourgeois’ behalf, told reporters he was not aware of the move. Doyle said he and Bourgeois met with Maryknoll’s superior general, Edward Dougherty, in June, and the issue of dismissal had not been discussed.

“The idea then was that things would continue and they would not dismiss Roy and they would continue to dialogue,” Doyle said. “And then this just happened, unilaterally. [Bourgeois] had no idea.”

Rome doesn’t like dialogue, and the old boys club is intimidated by women, who minster with self-assurance, dignity, and grace.

I am still a Catholic; but my mind and heart are anchored in Jesus of Nazareth…not in the increasingly strange Jesus of Rome.

May God bess and protect Father Bourgeois.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley announced a new pastoral plan for the Archdiocese of Boston on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012.

O’Malley’s plan aims to stabilize the Boston Archdiocese’s declining finances by combining its 288 parishes into 135 clusters that share staffing and resources.

The plan tries to keep parishes somewhat alive as the church deals with diminishing attendance, a looming priest shortage, and decaying parish finances that have left 4 out of 10 parishes unable to pay their bills.

O’Malley said he sees the reorganization as key to a spiritual revival, and his message to parishes was simple: “They must refocus on outreach and evangelization. … We can’t use all of our resources and time, just to serve the active Catholics in the community.”

…….Just 16 percent of Boston Catholics attend church today……Boston was not so long ago a Catholic stronghold.

……..The Boson archdiocese is also facing a major priest shortage. About a fifth of the 420 active priests are 65 or older; and the number of active priests will fall under 200 in a decade.

……..Thomas Groome, Boston College theology professor, said he doubted the archdiocesan reorganization could alleviate the coming priest shortage. He said it might just postpone an honest reckoning of it, which Groome believes includes accepting that married men should be allowed to serve as priests. “To the people of God, the solutions are obvious,” he said.

Meanwhile, the November meeting of the USCCB is over. High points of the meeting:

(1) Our bishops approved an exhortation encouraging greater use of confession.

(2) They approved the hiring of a director of public affairs to reorganize the conference’s Communications Department. (good idea…but what do they have to communicate?)

(3) Our bishops approved a 2013 budget of $220.4 million and agreed to add a national collection for the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services.

(4) On a voice vote, our bishops endorsed the sainthood cause of Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, neglecting of course what she had said: “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.”

(5) The USCCB proposed economic message failed. (Probably a good thing!.) Opponents were amazed at the shortsightedness of the document and said more consultation was needed!

(6) The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a new document on preaching: “Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily.”

AND………

(7) Just a year after U.S. Catholics began using the new English translation of the Roman Missal at Masses, the bishops agreed November 13th to have work begin on a revision of the Liturgy of the Hours. Our bishops approved beginning work on updates to hymns, psalms, various canticles, psalm prayers, some antiphons, biblical readings and other components of the liturgical prayers used at various parts of the day.

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans, in presenting the request for a vote to the bishops, said the aim of retranslation would be to more accurately reflect the original Latin texts.

There were short discussions of the issue when the formal vote was taken. Among points raised by some bishops were Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s comment about “how pleased I am that the committee wants to revisit the Glory Be,” because laypeople tend to use an older version than the bishops do.

GLORY BE INDEED!
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
ARE ALL THE LIGHTS GOING OUT.

The USCCB is meeting in Baltimore this week (12-15 November) for its annual Fall General Assembly. The bishops won’t be singing alleluias in their hotel corridors.

Despite strong attacks on him, by highly politicized bishops, President Obama has been reelected.

Despite urgent appeals to voters, and threats of mortal sin and refusing Communion to those who disagreed with them, the bishops lost on state referendums on same-sex marriage in Maine, Minnesota, Maryland, and Washington State.

To the bishops great dismay, a majority of American Catholics voted for Barack Obama and gay activists won every referendum.

In Missouri and Indiana, though expected to win, those Republican senatorial candidates, who took the strongest positions on abortion, were also defeated.

This week our bishops will hear addresses by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of USCCB, and Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States. They will vote on several action items, including their strategic plan and documents on preaching, the Sacrament of Penance, and challenges to the teaching ministry of a bishop.

So what now? It is not whether a person is a Republican or a Democrat. Certainly a bishop, like any citizen, has the freedom and the right to hold and express a political position. Bishops have the right — the responsibility — to speak out about contemporary moral issues.

These things being said, there are some fundamental Catholic issues that our bishops must open their eyes, minds, and hearts to. Simply condemning those who disagree with them is not only counterproductive; but it is wrong.

I am 100% pro-life: across the board. Nevertheless I think we must talk about abortion, and about the best way to diminish and eliminate abortion. And as an older historical theologian I know as well that despite the attempts of the Vatican and our bishops to silence open discussion of the morality of abortion, questions persist about precisely when human life begins and our Catholic tradition has been far from univocal on this point. The question is not yet settled. Serious reflection and dialogue are the appropriate Catholic response.

I had a friendly discussion with a bishop, not so long ago, who worries about Islamic fundamentalists imposing their values on civil society. That could be a danger, I said, but then suggested that many of our bishops are trying to do exactly the same thing. He was not amused……..

This week our bishops want to reassert their teaching authority. Good teachers must also and always be good learners. Our bishops seem to overlook, however, that strong currents in the Catholic tradition of moral thinking have always emphasized that moral and civil law are not and should not be synonymous. This teaching goes way back to Thomas Aquinas. A religious community can hold moral positions that it regards as strong and even absolute, without seeking to force a multicultural, pluralistic society to adopt its religiously-based moral judgments.

Note for example…..Catholic moral tradition has long held things like adultery or prostitution to be intrinsically evil, but it has not advocated forcing civil society to change or adopt laws to enshrine in civil law the Catholic understanding of these practices. The attempt to make abortion the exception to all rules of prudential judgment–to make it the fundamental moral issue trumping all other moral issues–flies in the face of Catholic tradition itself.

Same-sex marriage? A majority of Americans and American Catholics now support it. It is a civil reality; and I don’t hear many people saying it should become the eighth sacrament.

Artificial birth control? That issue was resolved fifty years ago. Let’s move on.

Women’s ordination? The number of women bishops and priests continues to grow. The whole scale ignorance of our bishops about the history of Catholic women exercising ordained ministry in the Catholic Church is appalling. They would flunk my introduction to Catholic theology class.

Yes indeed……our American Catholic Church continues its pilgrimage along the tracks of Catholic life. Right now, however, our bishops are more the antiquated caboose than the engine.