This week I would like to congratulate two bishops from Minnesota for their outstanding ministry and witness to Christian values: John Quinn and John Nienstedt.

These two bishops have filed a legal motion to force a survivor
of clergy sexual abuse to pay $132,000 so that the bishops may recoup their
legal costs incurred fighting against his claims in court.

The bishops’ move sends a chilling and intimidating signal to other
sexual abuse survivors who may be considering coming forward after years of
suffering silently with their wounds.

“We know that intimidating tactics like these only serve to perpetuate a
culture of secrecy where truth is not welcome and justice is denied,” says
Jim FitzGerald, Executive Director of Call To Action. “While recouping
legal costs may be a tactic in corporate culture, this is no way for our moral
leaders to behave.”

You can send your own congtratulatory notes to these bishops at:

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt

Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis
226 Summit Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55102-2197

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Diocese of Winona
Most Reverend John M. Quinn

Bishop of Winona
P.O. Box 588
Winona, MN 55987

A Letter from the Editor

(A medieval John Greenleaf)

Dear Readers,

A couple readers of Another Voice have rather strongly reprimanded me for contributing “ever more to the destruction of the Catholic Church.” One reader told me to come out and honestly admit that I am really anti-Catholic and that I must take “great delight in bishop-bashing.

So for the record (once again) let me state a few personal positions as clearly as I can:

(1) I am the proud product of eight years at a Catholic grade school, four years at an excellent Catholic high school, four years at a truly exceptional Catholic college. And I have two doctorates from Catholic universities. I am proud and grateful for the Catholic education I was fortunate to receive.

(2) For almost fifty years I have worked at and for Catholic institutions. I am neither anti-Catholic nor anti-bishop.

(3) I am VERY concerned about what I see as a major leadership failure by our Catholic bishops going all the way from Rome, Italy to New York City, USA.

(4) Our bishops have turned their backs on contemporary people and the contemporary world and now have their heads deeply planted in the sands of a nineteenth century ethos that stresses triumphalist clerical authoritariansm.

———————————

What do we mean by authority in the church?

I           The ability (power) to create specific consequences in the life of another.  The power which affects the public order of the church.  This is: Impersonal: normative and legal authority. We see good contemporary examples in people like Cardinal Raymond Burke and Cardinal-in-waiting Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

II         The ability to motivate and transform people based on trusting relationships.  This is operative and relational authority. We see the best historic example in the life and spirit of Jesus of Nazareth. We see it as well in the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

What behavior do I look for in our bishops?

I           Genuine listening…….not a paternalistic dismissal of what the people have to say.

II         Contact with contemporary reality. In November the USCCB decided to shut down the American College in Louvain. The hallmark of Louvain is that its theologians have always had one foot anchored in Catholic tradition and the other solidly rooted in contemporary life. Closing the American College of Louvain is a sign of the closing of the American episcopal mind.

ÌII        Consonance of word and deed. I am disgusted for instance at new cardinals who spend $15,000 on their red costumes and rings, when most of the world is in a serious economic depression. When this dissonance was brought to the attention of one new cardinal, he chuckled and said: “the poor we will always have with us…”

Unable to Live in the Present and Refusing to Accept the Challenges of Tomorrow

Our Bishops Today have Only Rear-View Mirrors in their Wagons

As they Backup Full-Speed into the Triumphalism, Legalism and Clericalism of a Nineteenth Century Catholic Ethos

A Reflection as the Vatican Provides In-Service Training to the College of Cardinals

How Authoritarian Followers Think: Rome Has Spoken so Shut Up and Obey

1. Uncritical Thinking

Without starting from objective evidence, authoritarian followers uncritically accept conclusions that support their religious and ethical beliefs and prejudices.

• Authoritarian followers do not have a very critical outlook on anything unless their authorities have condemned it for them. Then they can be extremely critical.

2. Compartmentalized Minds

• Authoritarian followers easily endorse inconsistent ideas.
• Just present slogans and appeals to traditional values, and then present slogans that invoke opposite values in the name of tradition…..Yes-saying authoritarian followers are likely to agree with all of them.

3. Double Standards

• When their ideas live independent lives from one another it is pretty easy for authoritarian followers to use double standards in their judgments. They simply call up the idea that will justify (afterwards) what they have decided to do.
• E.G. More black criminals in America are condemned to death than white.

4. Hypocrisy

• E.G. The conservative homophobic bishop who in secret has a boy-friend…….

5. Blindness To Self

• If you ask people how much integrity they personally have, guess who pat themselves most on the back by claiming they have more than anyone else.

6. Profound Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentrism means dividing the world up into in-groups and out-groups, and it’s something people do quite automatically.
• Good guys and bad guys — the holy and the diabolic, the orthodox and the heretical.

7. Dogmatism: The Authoritarian’s Last Ditch Defense

• By dogmatism one means: relatively unchangeable, unjustified certainty.

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(With appreciation to Bob Altemeyer and his book The Authoritarians.)

In our country, the Tea Party People are running wild and
irresponsibly.

In OUR church, narrow-minded bishops from

Rome to Madison

are

running wild and irresponsibly.

The usual refrain from official churchmen is that “the church is not a democracy.”

This is of course ….. Nonsense!

Informed people know that the church – in fact — is more a democracy than a monarchy.

The church is the “People of God” not a hierarchical superstructure in which clerics preside over all the “sheep.”

An archaic and dictatorial monarchy is the style of Pope Benedict and his crop of cardinals and bishops.

Joseph Ratzinger’s institutional style is absolutely alien to the spirit and style of Jesus of Nazareth.

But his style was absolutely the style of Imperial Rome.

The choice is clear:

…….. Do we want the style of Jesus of Nazareth or the style of

the Roman Empire?……

It is time for a change!

An Understanding of Contemporary Church Power

(1) All hierarchical systems are dependent upon the obedience and cooperation of the “faithful.”

(2) The “faithful” have the ability to limit or withhold their contributions and obedience to the system.

(3) If the faithful withhold their contributions and refuse obedience to the system in LARGE ENOUGH numbers and for long enough time, the hierarchical system will have to either negotiate or collapse.

Friends, it is time to act!

The Situation in Madison

Bishop Robert Morlino, Diocese of Madison, defends clericalist priests and

scolds parishioners

Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, WI has scolded people from two parishes in his diocese for demanding the removal of priests that they claim are acting in a paternalistic, clericalist and pre-Vatican II manner.

The bishop has defended the priests who are members of the radically conservative group called the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest.  They were founded in 1957 in Spain.

The society, based in Murcia, Spain, is known for a staunch, traditional approach to Catholic practice. There are now Society priests in several parishes in the Madison diocese.

In churches where they minister, the priests have prohibited girls from being altar servers, dispensed with the common practice of using lay people to assist with communion and have added liturgies celebrated only in Latin.

Morlino has chastised parishioners for waging a letter-writing campaign to the papal nuncio and other authorities.

From Morlino’s reprimand:

“It grieves me to acknowledge that the reputation of three happy, holy, and hardworking priests has been seriously tarnished by rumor, gossip, and calumny (lying with the intent to damage another’s good name) by some within the parish   community….

“Furthermore, activities such as protest-letter-writing seminars, leafleting of motor vehicles, doorto- door canvassing for signatures on a petition, etc (that is, exerting organized political pressure on people, where the end justifies any means) is an appropriate tactic in a political campaign, but not in the communion of faith which is the Catholic Church.

“Groups such as “Call to Action” and “Voice of the Faithful” regularly employ such tactics against legitimate authority in the Church. Because these groups dissent from basic tenets of Catholic Doctrine and Discipline, they are not recognized as Catholic in the Diocese of Madison, much less are they able to exercise legitimate authority. It is my hope that these clarifications will prove helpful.”

NEXT TIME IN ANOTHER VOICE:

Practical strategies for a genuine REFORM of the “reform of the reform.”

Building Cultures of Trust

In the church, in politics, in corporations, in banks and in the courts, trust seems in short supply these days. We have moved far beyond healthy skepticism, which makes building cultures of trust difficult. And ongoing stories of betrayal or victimization undercut efforts to build elements of cultures of trust….

(1)   Trust starts with the individual, having to do with a person’s character, resolve and ability to change.

(2)   Trust must involve others, and it evolves in the context of social cultures, which provide for conditions where the task of building trust can occur and thrive. 

(3)   Trust also involves risk, for without risk there is no need to trust.

In his book “Building Cultures of Trust,” Martin Marty describes “cultures of trust”  in this way: Cultures of trust exist “when there is evidence that through internal or external means the religious, political, economic, artistic, scientific, technological, educational, and linguistic expressions of a group lead participants to count on each other and keep commitments.”

• People of faith play an important part in the civic conversation when it comes to the task of building cultures of trust. 
• Faith is by definition trust, built upon the expectation that God is reliable.
• We must facilitate a conversation that leads to trust, without engaging in compartmentalization that ends in further polarization in church and society.
• Our goal is not to convert the other but to effectively and respectfully collaborate.

 

I would like to think that we can make our churches  into ever stronger and ever more effective creators of cultures of trust……If not, we are dishonest and we are wasting our time calling ourselves followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

Reflections about Religious Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism is Fundamentally Flawed

Fundamentalism is fundamentally flawed because it takes one element of the truth and proclaims it as the WHOLE TRUTH. Religious fundamentalists place such a high priority on doctrinal conformity and obedience to doctrinaire spokespersons that they sacrifice values basic to the great religious traditions: love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance and caring. In their overwhelming seriousness about religion, fundamentalists do not hesitate to intervene in political and social process to ensure that society is forced to conform to the values and behaviors the fundamentalist worldview requires. Fundamentalists are their own justification.

Fundamentalism appeals for a variety of reasons.

(1) For people who feel unimportant or insignificant, fundamentalism says you are important because you are God’s “special messenger.”

(2) For people who are fearful, fundamentalism says “you can’t be saved without us…join and be saved.”

(3) For the confused, fundamentalism says one doesn’t have to think about doctrine nor even be educated in it. Just believe

(4) Fundamentalism makes the fundamentalist feel good about himself or herself. It is slf-stroking

(5) Fundamentalism justifies hatred of one group of people for another, because it believes that God hates those who do not conform to the fundamentalist’s worldview.

(6) Fundamentalism appeals to people burdened by guilt and shame because it exempts them from responsibility for situations or actions that cause guilt and shame. Fundamentalism says…if you are one of us, you are OK.

(7) Fundamentalism excuses people from honest self-examination; and it justifies their prejudices, zealotry, intolerance and hatefulness.

What should we do about fundamentalism?

• The best way to confront ignorance is through real education that emphasizes critical, analytical thinking skills.
• Real education stresses the importance of gathering evidence and then proceeding to conclusions. Fundamentalists work in the opposite fashion.
• We need to establish channels for dialogue and institutions that promote multi-cultural knowledge and understanding.
• We ALL need to practice a genuine humility that enables us to see the broad human picture and the variety of thoughts and understandings about what we call Reality.
• We need to translate our vision-gained-from-humility into concrete and achievable actions and strategies.

Yes We Do Have  A Problem…..Yes We all Share in the Solution

In Church and In General Society

When Civility and Open-Mindedness are Abandoned

Polarization and Ideological Idolatry Set In

The Tea Party people are crusading across America. The mid-term elections campaign rhetoric is angry, strong, and fierce.

Conservative America is vocal, often unfairly judgmental, and on the move. And conservative American Catholcs are angry and aggressively judgmental, and on the move as well.

 

It appears that civility and open-mindedness have been discarded for the battle axes of prejudice, narrow-mindedness, and just plain nastiness.

* I have had more than enough emails reminding me that “Imam Obama” is a baby-killer, is anti-life, anti-family, and establishing extermination centers to liquidate all who disagree with his un-American sociualist strategy for the United States.

 

* And now craziness has consumed the Catholic Right as well. A new breed of theologically conservative American Catholics has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn’t Catholic enough. RealCatholicTV.com, for instance, working from studios in suburban Detroit, is hunting for “traitorous” nuns, priests or bishops throughout the American Catholic Church. John Allen, Vatican analyst for the National Catholic Reporter, calls this trend “Taliban Catholicism.”

 

 

Next time I will have some further reflections about Catholic fundamentalism in the United States — and what to do about it.

UPDATE ON CHARLES CURRAN

Cardinal-elect Velasio De Paolis

Tridentine Rite for the Franciscans of the Immaculate

Cardinal-elect Velasio De Paolis, president of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See and pontifical delegate for the Legionaries of Christ, has ordained deacons in the Tridentine Rite for the Franciscans of the Immaculate.  The order was founded in 1990 and given papal approval in 1998.  

Meanwhile back at the office…..

The Eclipse of the American Catholic Church is Well Underway

Archbishop John Nienstedt has the answer

Around the world the Catholic exodus has begun. Here in the United States, a steadily increasing stream of “had it” Catholics is leaving the Roman Catholic Church. Parish closings around the country have become simply a sign of the times. Roman Catholic dioceses across the country have been struggling for years to maintain aging churches because of falling attendance, a priest shortage, and financial problems. Now they are simply closing shop.

Catholicism has lost more people to other religions or to no religion at all than any other single religious group in the United States.

More than 10% of the adult population in the United States now consists of people who have left the Roman Catholic Church for another religion or for no religion at all. To put it another way, one out of every 10 people in the United States (or 22,725,000) is a former-Catholic.

These are individuals who were baptized and raised Catholic but who now no longer identify themselves as Catholic. Furthermore, if one excludes immigrants and converts from the calculations, the Catholic Church has lost to other religions or to no religion at all, 35.4% or more than one-third of the 64,131,750 of its native born members. This amounts to almost 7 out of every 20 adults who were baptized as Catholics.

So what do we think about the more than 10% of the population that has left the Catholic Church? What has happened to the

more than 22,750,000 people who have left?

Archbishop John Nienstedt has the answer! SMALLER IS BETTER……

A couple days ago, in an interview with The Associated Press, Archbishop John Nienstedt (Archbishop of St. Paul / Minneapolis) talked about plans to close 21 churches in the archdiocese. “A smaller church isn’t a bad thing if the people in it are more strongly committed to Catholic principles” the Archbishop stressed, because “a shrinking church can still be influential on cultural issues.” This is what we call the “holy remnant” idea that is also very popular with Pope Benedict.

Archbishop Nienstedt made headlines earlier this month when he denied Communion to a group of college students from St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict because they were wearing rainbow-colored buttons in support of gay rights. Heaven knows — some of them were probably even gay.

Nienstedt is a popular fellow. He recently angered a lot of Catholics with the mailing of a DVD that opposes gay marriage in Minnesota.

Nienstedt says Jesus directed his followers not to be lukewarm on important issues. Nienstedt said people who are going to be Catholic “have to be 100 percent Catholic.”

Of course. We all know that Jesus said that as well.