Another Voice

Waiting for a flight from Washington DC to Brussels, a couple days ago, I was re-reading Quest for the Living God by Elizabeth Johnson. A young passenger, with earphones tucked into his ears and texting on his iPhone, looked over at my book and me. “I used to believe in that God stuff,” he said. “I can’t believe in the old guy up there in heaven, running the show down here,” he continued. “I can’t either,” I replied with a chuckle.

Then he glanced at my nametag dangling from my attaché case, which identified me as an ‘historical theologian.’ (The fellow had good eyesight!) “But you are a theologian,” he said. “But you don’t believe in God?” “I do,” I said “but not the old image of God we inherited from the Middle Ages….I think God is right here with you and me and all the people waiting for the flight to Brussels.”

He pulled his earphones from his head, put his iPhone down, and for the next half hour we talked about faith experiences, contemporary life, his lack of interest in any religion — he was raised a Belgian Catholic — and yet his real desire to experience something ‘deeper in life….something spiritual.’

I told the young guy, on his way home after two weeks in Washington DC, that I meet a lot of people who are turned off by institutional religion. They are turned off by the institution because it does not speak to them in a language they understand; nor does it speak about human life issues they find important. As one of my friends said, we need to change the conversation……

Over the noise in the airport, our boarding group was called. We were both in group three but our seat numbers were far apart. As we started walking to the gate, I remembered a quote from my spiritual guide, Richard Rohr: “In solitude, at last, we’re able to let God define us the way we are always supposed to be defined—by relationship: the I-thou relationship, in relation to a Presence that demands nothing of us but presence itself. Not performance but presence.”

“You know,” I said to the young guy as we got closer to the agent checking boarding passes, “I really think you will find the divine presence  you are looking for if you put yourself on ‘airplane mode’ from time to time. We all need quiet time to simply be and reflect. We need to disconnect, occasionally but regularly, from all the noise around us.”

“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living,” Richard Rohr once said.  “We live ourselves into new ways of thinking…”

Sometimes it takes a long time for us to ‘really get it’: What makes something secular or profane is precisely whether one lives on the surface of it. It’s not that the sacred is here and the profane is over there. Everything is profane if you live on the surface of it, and everything is sacred if you go into the depths of it

On October 11, 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council. I still remember that historic moment and especially these lines from his opening address:

“In the daily exercise of our pastoral office, we sometimes have to listen, much to our regret, to voices of persons who, though burning with zeal, are not endowed with too much sense of discretion or measure. In these modern times they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin. They say that our era, in comparison with past eras, is getting worse and they behave as though they had learned nothing from history, which is, none the less, the teacher of life. They behave as though at the time of former councils everything was a full triumph for the Christian idea and life and for proper religious liberty.
“We feel we must disagree with those prophets of gloom, who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world was at hand.
“In the present order of things, Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by human efforts and even beyond human expectations, are directed toward the fulfillment of God’s superior and inscrutable designs. And everything, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the Church.”  

Pope John’s words, over the years, have animated and encouraged me in my educational ministry. I have never felt at home with the prophets of gloom, who “have learned nothing from history.” Jesus brought good news. The church too should be about good news.
As I continue checking news updates about the Synod on the Family now meeting in Rome, what strikes me most is the developing polarization — often fierce — that is reflected in the remarks of some influential Synod “fathers.” (What a sad commentary on church leadership and what an irony for a Synod on Family Life that there are no mothers who are high level participants in the discussions and no mothers who can vote about synodal decisions. Does Father always know best?)
It was certainly refreshing and hopeful to read about Quebec Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher’s intervention at the Synod on Octber 6. He noted the “sad and dramatic reality” that women “continue to suffer discrimination and violence at the hands of men, including their spouses.” He asked the bishops to state clearly that there is no scriptural justification for such a bias; and noted as well that New Trstament passages in which the Apostle Paul speaks about wives submitting to their husbands “can never justify the domination of men over women, much less violence.”
Archbishop Durocher, who recently ended his term as president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, then asked that the Synod recognize that women can and should be given “decision-making” posts in the church, and in the Roman Curia, the papal bureaucracy. Finally, he said the Synod should establish a process for opening the diaconate to women. Encouraging indeed. 
But then, a few days later, we began to hear strong (overly exaggerated) reactions from the other side of the hierarchical divide.
Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, and head of the powerful Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Vatican’s top liturgical post, told the Synod that divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage in the West, and Islamic fundamentalism in Africa and elsewhere, both had a “demonic origin” that the Synod had to combat. Adding more emphasis to his remarks, he stressed that “What Nazi-fascism and communism were in the 20th century, Western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic fanaticism are today.”
As Robert Mickens reported in his Octber 14 Letter from Rome, “It has been known for quite some time that a number of cardinals and bishops, both in Rome and abroad, are—to put it mildly—uncomfortable with the way Pope Francis’s pontificate is unfolding. Well, this week it all spilled out into the open when it was unveiled that several cardinals—including three top Vatican officials (Cardinals Pell, Müller and Sarah)—wrote a letter to the Pope that basically criticized the way he is running the Synod of Bishops.”
New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who signet the letter, is also one of those “uncomfortable” with Pope Francis
I really have no idea what the Synod will end up saying. Regardless of the synodal outcome, the contemporary Roman Catholic leadership divide is serious, deep, and very real. This is a major turning point for the church. If no good news comes from the Synod, the Roman Catholic exodus will accelerate for sure.
While the debates continue in Rome, the Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, John Myers, has already made up his mind and has given his priests strict guidelines about refusing Communion to Catholics who, for example, support gay marriage or whose own marriage is not valid in the eyes of the church. In a two-page memo, Myers also ordered parishes and Catholic institutions not to host people or organizations that disagree with church teachings. So much for being merciful and inclusive in encounters with the other. Myers is obviously an “uncomfortable” archbishop.
We have a polarized Roman Catholic climate for sure. One can survive in a such a polarized climate, however; but only by observing some spiritual survival strategies:
(1) Truly believe and act on the belief that the Spirit speaks to and through everyone in the church, and that the hierarchy must listen to more people than just themselves.

(2) Be anchored in contemporary life not in an antiquated vision and cultural understanding of the human person that is more medieval than modern.

(3) Continue to educate yourself and insist on continuing education for everyone in the church, starting with your local bishop. Everyone needs a better understanding of Sacred Scripture, of Christian tradition, and contemporary psychological and socio-cultural understandings of the human person in all its variety and richness.

(4) Practice the way of Jesus that calls us to mutual respect for everyone in the church. At the same time, dialogue, question, and challenge perceptions and beliefs that appear to be unfounded, antiquated, or simply wrong.

(5) Understand that the old RCC status quo is finished. The church is headed down a new road; and there will be bumps along the way. 

(6) Realize that being critical is also the way to be constructve.

(7) Realize that speaking the critical word is not enough. We need to be prophetc change agents, or just keep quiet and let those who have learned nothing from history take control.

A great number of people responded to my request for their personal reflections about living the faith today. I cannot use all of them here but offer a selection. I greatly appreciate the thoughtful responses of everyone who took time to write. Some people indicated I could publish their names others asked that I not publish their names.

We begin with reflections by Patricia:

Greetings, and thank you for the opportunity for me to communicate some thoughts toward what I believe should be important to all Catholic Christians, and to all Christians.  My name is Patricia Squires, and I am a 65 year old Catholic Christian.  I am a convert of 30+ years and I must admit I have been very disappointed by my Church in recent years.  This is primarily due to American Bishops/Priests seemingly aligning themselves with the far political right of America, leaving me, a liberal American, feeling a bit lost in “my” Church, and wondering if there is a place for me, as a Catholic, any longer.  Then, along came Pope Francis, and he gave me a bit of hope.  I continue to search for others, in our faith community, who consider the following thoughts/issues of utmost importance.  Please feel free to use my name should you wish to…..the Catholic Church seemed to be side-tracked, with John Paul II and Benedict XVI, from the progress begun in Vatican II. They seemed to be more “rules” oriented, rather than showing love and compassion.  Pope Francis seeks to bring us back to that path, and I believe that we desperately need to return to being a more loving, compassionate, and welcoming group of Christian people.  We need to concentrate more on what Jesus taught us.  If we are truly Christians, we must be followers of Christ, and his real teachings, rather than what the hierarchy from centuries ago, deemed to be most important.

A few older priests sent often touching observations. Here I give one example. The other asked me not to publish his name:

I am a retired priest and I am angry and disappointed. I studied philosophy and theology for eight years and more than fifty years after ordination, I find myself in an organization which has grossly lacked leadership and intellectual integrity. The clergy are not required to keep current with the best theological thinking of the day nor assisted in doing so. Bishops feel safer this way since what you don’t know will mean that you won’t think for yourself or challenge anything the Church says. This means that traditional formulations of doctrine are perpetuated without any development and encourages unthinking careerism…..So with parishes closing or consolidating and average clergy becoming older and fewer, ranking hierarchy stand firmly against allowing the divorced and remarried to receive the Eucharist and we cannot even discuss the discipline of celibate clergy. Instead of discussing the glaring problems within the Church, the hierarchy are campaigning against same sex marriage, with no success, and the perceived loss of religious freedom…..”

Sister Joyce from New York offered a nine-point reform program:

1. Addressing Climate change and accompanying environmental issues in systematic ways. I think this to be the most critical in our times…2. Gender equality and all that it can mean for decision making and for ministry at every level, including ordination of women to the deaconate and priesthood. 3. Restructuring of the papal office and the teaching magisterium so that it reflects a horizontal approach, so that invited to the table of conversation are theologians of every discipline and in conversation with scientific, economic and psychological scholars of some repute today. 4. Getting rid of the hammer of excommunication and replacing it with ongoing conversation on all thorny issues…. 5. Banishing all clerical titles such as Monsignor which one thought was supposed to have been eliminated after Vatican II and all excessive medieval garb a la Burke style who is an embarrassment to the church. 6. Providing a comprehensive pastoral response and welcoming of people whose fundamental sexual orientations are varied…. 7. Think and respond differently to homiletics. It is a well-known fact that homilies are terrible in many local faith communities. Create a policy requiring a priests to get real training in homiletics. Also invite the laity with some background in theology to participate in homiletic training. 8. Make social justice a priority in every parish and provide diocesan training….9. Require all pastoral staff to get training in ethics and morality a la Vatican II plus. To that end, rethink and reverse the church’s teaching on birth control. It makes no sense at all.

Joris reminds us

…Jesus of Nazareth realized that to be devout in any way at all, one must first be adult–authentic, self-actualized, contrite, grateful, and aware.

Pamela, a few years younger than I, introduces herself as

…a 69 year old Catholic woman who reads a lot. My sources are Global Pulse, Commonweal, America, NCR, NY Times. I live in the diocese of Phoenix, so while I support my diocese, I have asked them not to send me the diocesan paper so as to avoid aggravation. What is the biggest challenge facing Christians today?  My answer: welcoming the stranger. What is the biggest challenge facing Catholics today?  Ignorance of the broad richness of the church’s thinking…..

And I conclude this week’s reflection with keen observations from my good friend, Sue, who is a very fine historical theologian:

It won’t surprise you to know that I think the deep-level misogyny lurking in our Church is the most important issue to address — and the thorniest. The research I’ve done on the old churching rite of women after childbirth turns up a 2000-year-long history of fear of women’s bleeding anywhere in proximity to holy places.  I believe there’s a direct tie-in to the utter refusal to even countenance any discussion of ordaining women.  I suspect that a fear of women’s bodies results in the overemphasis on “pelvic” issues in moral theology and, at least in the U.S. church, the embarrassing overemphasis on “religious liberty” as reinterpreted to cover the teaching on contraception to which only an infinitesimal number of Catholics would assent. Until the Church fully accepts that males and females have received the same Baptism (you wouldn’t think that would be an issue!)  we cannot hope for a level of credibility that will permit us as a Church truly to preach the Gospel and be heard.

“Once people start to believe change is possible, 

the drive to achieve it accelerates.”

Patrick Edgar, President, Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church

Following up on my thoughts last week about the importance of ENCOUNTER, I am writing this week to invite you to share some thoughts with me.

Please write – you can send your thoughts to me at jadleuven@gmail.com – I would appreciate your telling me who you are and whether or not you want your observations identified or simply listed as anonymous.

I want to know what YOU think are the important issues for Christianity today. Your concerns. Your hopes and wishes. I will publish what I consider the most thoughtful and/or original pieces that come my way…..or I may summarize if I get a lot of responses.

In October 1517, Martin Luther issued his own observations about Christianity in his day……..

I await your observations.

Jack

During a mid-day prayer service with American bishops, on Wednesday September 23,  at Washington’s St. Matthew Cathedral,  Pope Francis told the U.S. bishops that they should not close in on themselves but engage in dialogue as promoters of a “culture of encounter.”

Good advice for all bishops, for all popes, and for all of us: building bridges, learning together through constructive dialogue, as we engage in and promote a culture of encounter.

Interested in trends and movements, I see at least four areas for a contemporary Roman Catholic cultural encounter: a polarized church, institutional discomfort with an historical-critical understanding of scripture and tradition, an institutional blindness toward women priests, and a questionable institutional environmental morality…..Of course there are many other areas for “encounter.”

A POLARIZED CHURCH

Writing in the Boston Globe on September 21 (“Pope Francis’ balancing act”), historian Gary Wills observed that there are now two Roman Catholic churches and each is in some degree alien to the other: “our church” which is people-oriented and “the other church” which is hierarchy-oriented.

Our church wants married priests (72 percent in a March 2014 Pew poll), wants women priests (68 percent), and uses contraceptives for family planning (77 percent). The “other church” remains opposed to these realities. Priests in “our church” know that their parishioners do not agree with the official positions of the “other church,” but they do their best to listen, support, and minister to them. Priests committed to “other church,” as Wills notes, “do not look around at their congregations. They look up at the hierarchical ladder they mean to climb. They are not pastors but careerists.”

AN INSTITUTION DISCOMFORT WITH HISTORICAL-CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING

Our religious knowledge, ideas, and beliefs are not static. One cannot correctly understand Sacred Scripture without an historical-critical understanding: how the culture, language, and life environment of people back then affected the meaning of the texts back then.

But this holds true as well for all official doctrinal pronouncements. They too need to be understood in their own historical contexts, over the centuries.

We do not have the same cosmology, philosophy, or cultural world view of the churchmen who wrote the Nicene Creed, for instance. We really could use a contemporary creed. (In one of my theology classes, I asked my students to write their own creeds. The results were wonderfully uplifting because they gave witness to genuine belief.)

When it comes to an historical-critical understanding of Catholic belief, “other church” people really need some in-service updating. I have often thought that bishops (including popes of course) should be required to take and satisfactorily pass a certain number of continuing education courses every couple years, in order to maintain their certification as trust-worthy and knowledgeable leaders in the church. If they don’t pass, they could be given a year’s leave of absence for further study, or be simply asked to retire.

All doctrinal formulations are provisional. They worked yesterday. Some work today. Others need to be reformulated in the light of contemporary theological understanding and the continuing growth in human understanding. Contemporary people, for instance, would not follow the advice of a medical doctor anchored in nineteenth century medical practice and understanding. Why then should it be good religious practice to follow the prescriptions of church leaders still anchored in an antiquated culture, language, theology, and world view?

AN INSTITUTIONAL BLINDNESS TOWARD WOMEN PRIESTS

In his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis wrote: “The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion.” Here of course we need a bit of historical-critical reflection.

Certainly the historical Jesus did not ordain any women. On the other hand, he didn’t ordain any men either. A man of his time, the idea of ordination probably never entered Jesus’ mind. We do know that in the early church those who presided at Eucharist were the leaders of small Christian communities. We know as well that among those leaders were men and women. Just as we know that among Jesus disciples were men and women; and among the early apostles there were men and women.

Of course women presided at Eucharist in the early church. And of course they do so today.

Women’s ordination is a contemporary reality, as it should be. It is a reality that institutional leadership needs to “encounter,” acknowledge, accept, and promote. With all due respect to those who still repeat it, asserting that women cannot be ordained ministers (priests) is an ignorant observation. And we all know that such ignorance is never bliss.

A QUESTIONABLE ENVIRONMENTAL MORALITY

Pope Francis has been a strong advocate for human responsibility for the environment. He regularly urges the world to phase out highly-polluting fossil fuels. In his encyclical Laudato  si’ (dated 24 May 2015 but officially published on 18 June 2015) he stressed: “We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels … needs to be progressively replaced without delay.” Some of his fellow U.S. bishops, however, are still not getting the message.

According to Reuters (see September 22, 2015, “In clash with pope’s climate call, U.S. Church leases drilling rights.”), in the very heart of U.S.A. oil country, several dioceses and other Roman Catholic institutions are leasing out drilling rights to oil and gas companies to bolster their finances. In the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, for instance, church officials have signed three new oil and gas leases – and this after Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical.

A Reuters review of county documents in Texas and Oklahoma has found 235 oil and gas leasing deals signed by Roman Catholic Church authorities since 2010. These two states, most recently, have been at the forefront of a boom in U.S. energy production. Church authorities receive a royalty ranging from 15 to 25 percent of the value of what is taken out of the ground. Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley signed the most recent deal on September 3, 2015, giving privately held oil company Comanche Resources rights to operate on 160 acres in Major County in exchange for 18.75 percent of the value of the oil and gas produced.

During his September 23 address to the group of about 300 U.S. bishops, Pope Francis told the bishops to dialogue fearlessly. Indeed, we must all do that if we will promote “encounter.”

Genuine dialogue only happens, however, when the dialogical partners accept two principles of co-operation:

(1) No one is excluded because of gender, sexual orientation, or theological stance.

(2) No one has all the truth.

We dialogue because we humbly acknowledge that we still have a lot to learn from the other, about the other, and about ourselves.

This week end….A very brief meditation before the pope arrives in the USA

He is 94 years young and one of the very last of the “Jadot bishops.” Francis A. Quinn was bishop of Sacramento from 1980 to 1994 and gained a reputation for his concrete and practical pastoral ministry and strong support for lay leadership. Just a few days before the arrival of Pope Francis in Washington DC, Bishop Quinn wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times — “How the Pope Might Renew the Church,” September 18, 2015 — that the Roman Catholic Church should consider optional celibacy for priests, the ordination of women, and allowing Catholics who are divorced and remarried to receive Communion.

In an interview published in America magazine – “California Bishop Voices Support for the Ordination of Women,” September 18, 2015 — Quinn spoke with unabashed frankness about the changes he would like to see.

“I personally think the Spirit is calling women to be deacons and priests, but the Spirit hasn’t yet communicated it to the teaching church….I can’t see any reason why women shouldn’t be priests,” Bishop Quinn said. “The church would benefit greatly.” Quinn acknowledged that he has had “personal ideas” about the ordination of women for decades; but in the past he “would never preach about it or say it publicly,” since Pope John Paul II had taken it “off the table.”On several occasions, Pope Francis has reiterated the position of John Paul II. In his apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis wrote: “The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion.”

Francis Quinn, however, is now courageously saying to Pope Francis and to his other brother bishops that it is time to put women’s ordination back on the table.

In Acts of the Apostles (2:17) we read: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”

Bishop Quinn has good dreams for the church but he is greatly concerned about the future of the church and its young people. They too need a vision. An increasing number of young people either belong to no church, are agnostic, or have an overly individualist spirituality, without understanding the need for community. “The main challenge facing the church today is not simply to resolve questions like celibacy,” Bishop Quinn wrote, “but to relearn how to communicate a deeper, more intelligent, more relevant religion that leads to a life of acceptance and love.”

Holy Wisdom for sure……..Thank God for Bishop Francis A. Quinn!

Pope Francis, drawing on an old RCC tradition, is proclaiming a Jubilee Year of Mercy. It will begin officially on December 8, 2015 and conclude on November 20, 2016. “I am convinced,” Francis said, that the whole church…will find in this jubilee the joy to rediscover and render fruitful the mercy of God, with which we are all called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time.”

The year-long jubilee, according to Vatican officials, will include a number of individual “jubilee days,” for groups such as religious men and women, deacons, priests, catechists, the sick and disabled, teenagers, and prisoners. (Nothing has been said about “jubilee days” for gays, divorced and remarried, nor for those excommunicated because they support women’s ordination.) Young people, however, will be able to celebrate their own special jubilee days with Pope Francis at World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, at the end of July 2016.

The last big Jubilee Year was 2000, but as Robert Mickens observed in the National Catholic Reporter (March 16, 2015) it was not all that great. “If John Paul II’s intuition was to usher in an era of mercy and forgiveness,” Mickens observed, “he lacked the physical and mental energy as well as the necessary support of his closest aides to do so with any real creativity or boldness.”

Maybe Francis will do better this time around? I hope so and have some positive suggestions.

The notion of a Christian jubilee year goes back to the Book of Leviticus (see Leviticus 25:8-13). It called for a jubilee year every fifty years, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and God’s mercies would be especially demonstrated.

The first Christian jubilee year was proclaimed in 1300 by Pope Boniface VIII, for pilgrims visiting Rome and offering the full pardon of all their sins, if they visited the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul and fulfilled other requirements. The granting of special indulgences was always a key feature of earlier jubilees. (It is hard to say today just what exactly an indulgence means. I will bypass that topic this week.)

Clearly what Pope Francis has in mind for the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy is that the institutional church and individual Christians extend forgiveness, compassion, and a welcoming back to the church of those who for various reasons have been excluded or have felt abandoned.

I have twelve suggestions (just like there are twelve gifts of the Holy Spirit) for the Jubilee of Mercy. In every diocese, starting with the Bishop of Rome (i.e. Pope Francis) I suggest that bishops go out of their way to accomplish the following:

1. For those excommunicated for their active support for women’s ordination, the bishop will lift the excommunication and welcome back to the church those women and men who had been thrown out.

2. For those excommunicated for their active support for same-sex marriage, the bishop will lift the excommunication and welcome back to the church those women and men who had been thrown out.

3. For those children not allowed to attend parochial schools because their parents are a gay couple, the bishop will order that no parochial school in his diocese will continue to exclude these children. He will apologize for earlier exclusions or expulsions.

4. For those who have been fired from their teaching positions or from parish ministries because they entered into a same-sex marriage, the bishop will announce a major change in diocesan policy and welcome back those women or men who had been fired.

5. For those divorced and remarried but not accepted as full members of the church, the bishop will welcome them back to the church, and he will authorize that their second marriages be accepted and blessed.

6. Recognizing the importance of being generous and merciful toward the tens of thousands of nonfunctioning married priests, bishops in the Jubilee of Mercy will allow and welcome back to full ordained ministry those men who wish to do so.

7. Recognizing the importance of qualified ordained ministers, bishops in the Jubilee of Mercy will begin to ordain already ministerially qualified married men.

8. Recognizing the importance of opening ordained ministry to women, bishops in the Jubilee of Mercy will begin to ordain women to the diaconate.

9. Recognizing that bishops must break out of the trappings of power, authority, money, and privilege, bishops in the Jubilee of Mercy will establish a “Jubilee Committee” of lay and ordained advisors to determine how bishops can best do this.

10. The Jubilee Committees in every diocese will supervise the removal and selling of outrageously expensive episcopal croziers, miters, crosses, rings and other episcopal ornaments. Money will be used to support refugees.

11. As a symbol of the needed change, and respecting Pope’s Francis’ frequent admonitions that bishops adopt a simpler life-style, all bishops will immediately cease wearing ornate Renaissance robes; and they will cease using all medieval episcopal titles of power and privilege.

12. Titles of “eminence” or “excellency” will no longer be permitted or used. Bishops will be called “bishop” or “archbishop” or “cardinal.” The preferred title will be either “father” or “reverend.” For example, people will begin to speak about “Father Timothy Dolan the Archbishop of New York.”

In 2007 about 24% of Americans identified themselves as Roman Catholic. Today that figure is 20% and some studies say it is even lower than that. Of those roughly 20%, just 17% are practicing Catholics. One of the largest religious groups in U.S. society is now the group of former Catholics. And that number is growing: Four-in-ten (41%) of U.S. Roman Catholic adults under age 30 say they could easily see themselves leaving the church.

A Jubilee of Marcy, as I outline it above, might change the statistics. Whether it does or does not, the patterns of Roman Catholic life in the United States need a major overhaul because it is the just, appropriate, and authentically Christian thing to do.

Jubilee Committees now have two months to get their plans in motion. Then… let the Jubilee of Mercy begin! 

Back next week. Enjoying Labor Day weekend with family and friends.

Almost fifty years ago, a young fellow from Michigan went to study theology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. His academic advisor was Edward Schillebeeckx, the well-known Dominican theologian. Schillebeeckx was masterful; but he gave the young man many headaches and some sleepless nights.

Thanks to Schillebeeckx, I began to question my belief in God, my undersigning of Jesus Christ, my understanding of divine revelation, my ministerial career, and my own identity as a person. I walked out of his classes each week with more questions than answers. One day, after class, I confronted Schillebeeckx and told him that, thanks to him, I was questioning everything! He chuckled and said: “Then perhaps I am a good teacher. Now you must be a good critical-thinking student and pursue the answers.” For me that was a moment of grace. I gradually began to realize that questioning is a virtue.

Socrates said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I learned from Schillebeeckx, and many others over the years, that far too often unexamined belief, sanctifies ignorance and leads people astray. We read distorted-religion stories in the news each day: Islamic fundamentalists in Syria, doing God’s will, raping and decapitating “infidels;” Roman Catholic bishops in Nigeria, safeguarding Catholic belief by condemning homosexuality and supporting Nigerian legislation criminalizing it; and in Kenya Roman Catholic bishops telling their people to boycott immunizing children against polio. The bishops, in their consecrated ignorance, argue that the polio vaccines were secretly designed to stop Kenyans from being able to have babies. They said similar things when the government began a campaign to immunize people against tetanus. Not so holy ignorance really.

Is something true because people believe it, want to believe it, or have vested interests in believing it? I ask this question about contemporary church leaders but also about contemporary politicians with presidential ambitions.

Far too often, people who reject critical thinking become slaves to their own unreflected conformity and then endeavor to en-slave others.

Slaves don’t ask questions……Slaves to the church consider it their duty to NOT ASK those questions that might give the church or church leaders “a bad name.” For decades, slaves to the church (bishops, priests, lay institutional administrators) refused to acknowledge and effectively deal with clerical sexual abuse. Other slaves to ecclesiastical conformity refuse to question the church’s official opposition to women’s ordination, finding it more comfortable and more secure to not rock the ecclesiastical boat.

Many people, who are slaves to power and position, are unable or unwilling to ask the questions that might render themselves powerless. One evening, after dinner, a bishop friend and I were talking about religious experiences. I asked my friend (he is still a friend and now an archbishop) “when was the last time you really felt close to God?” At first he didn’t respond; but I asked him again with honest sincerity. He thought. His eyes began to water a bit. Then he looked at me and said: “forty years ago when I was a newly ordained priest. I was in love with God.”  “And today?” I said. He thought for a while then rather sadly said: “Everything has changed…I owe my soul to the company store.”

Questions…….for church leadership men and women:

1. In my ministry do I build bridges between people or construct barriers, by reinforcing old prejudices or creating qualitative classes of people?

2. Do I strengthen or weaken a basic sense of trust and relatedness to people?

3. Do I encourage and promote other people’s personal responsibility; or do I block it, because I find it personally threatening?

4. Do I oversimplify the human situation or do I help people deal with life’s often tangled complexity?

5. Do I encourage intellectual honesty and stimulate interest in learning and exploring?

4. In what I say and do as a church leader, is my primary concern surface behavior — good PR packaging for the church — or the underlying welfare and health of the people to whom I minister?

5. In what I say and in my own behavior, do I emphasis love, compassion, and growth? Or do I promote fear and anxiety?

6. Do I cry and laugh easily?

7. Can I ask for personal forgiveness when I fail; and can I forgive others unconditionally?

Questioning is a virtue. It opens us to authentic life and genuine Christian belief.

Jesus of Nazareth of course was a good questioner. Just a few examples from the Gospel According to Matthew:

1. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? (Matthew 5:46)
2. If you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? (Matthew 5:47)
3. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3)
4. Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? (Matthew 9:4)
5. Do you believe that I am able to do this? (Matthew 9:28)
6. What did you go out into the desert to see? (Matthew 11:7)
7. If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?  (Matthew 12:11)
8. Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? (Matthew 12:48)
9. Why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:31)
10. Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? (Matthew 15:3)

Due to a Micrsoft 10/Wordpress/JDick problem,  some people received multiple listings today….Sorry about that! I know it is annoying!
What I intended to send was this:

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Seduction by Religious Fever and Fervor

AUGUST 20, 2015 J. A. DICK

    
Each day we learn of the fierce fanaticism of the Islamic State. As I write this, the morning news reports that 82-year-old Khaled Asaad, who worked for about 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra, Syria has been beheaded by ISIS militants and his body has been hung on a column in a main square of the historic site. His crime: idolatry by managing Palmyra’s collection of “idols.” To date ISIS has carried out sweeping anti-idolatry campaigns, laying waste to vast amounts of precious artefacts in the areas of Syria and Iraq under its control.
Nevertheless, young people from England, Europe, and the United States are joining ISIS in ever increasing numbers. Efforts by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria to recruit young Americans are raising concerns with U.S. law enforcement, warning of the effectiveness of their fundamentalist social media message, which urges young people to travel to Syria and engage in jihad. According to a United Nations report, more than 25,000 foreign fighters have now travelled to join militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Countries around the world are being confronted by the reality of their young people eagerly trying to get to Syria and Iraq to play their part in the establishment of the “caliphate” ISIS is seeking to establish. The process has been going on for some time. Last October for instance, three teenage girls from Denver, sisters aged 15 and 17 and a 16-year-old friend, were apprehended in Germany, en route to Syria. And there are many others….
But why?
Certainly conditions of poverty and feelings of cultural alienation are strong factors in motivating some young people to join ISIS. They believe it will give them a greater sense of self-worth and a better life. Their ignorance is their bliss.
On the other hand, there are a number highly educated young people from around the world, with strong self-images, who are enthusiastically joining ISIS. A few weeks ago I read about three 15 & 16 year old girls from London England — all at the top of their class — who have traveled to Syria to become “ISIS brides.” Islamic State fighters want young “unblemished” girls for their wives. For these new brides, their ignorance, I suspect, may be a rather temporary bliss.
It is easy to label would-be recruits to ISIS as naive and misguided. The ever-increasing number and diversity of youth willing to join, however, leads one to ask deeper and more uncomfortable questions.
What is happening in OUR neighborhoods, communities, schools, and parochial outreach for young people? Islamic fundamentalism, channeled to young people via a very well organized and youth-focused propaganda network, is highly appealing and seductive. Young people are being seduced by the appeal of an all-life-encompassing fervent fundamentalism that denigrates the “decadent” West.
For young people, being recognized and validated by others is very important. And they have a strong need to belong. ISIS propaganda and propagandists enthusiastically befriend and welcome new recruits, promising instant affirmation and supportive community engagement.
Young people find assurance and security in such fundamentalism:
For people who feel unimportant fundamentalists say: “you are important because you are God’s special messengers.”

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

For the confused, fundamentalism says one doesn’t have to think about doctrine just believe and obey.

Questioning is dangerous and disloyal.

Fundamentalist membership makes a recruit feel good about himself or herself.

It is self-stroking. If one is following the path of truth, self-doubt is silly.

Fundamentalism justifies hatred of one group of people for another;

It believes that God hates those who do not conform to their worldview.

ISIS soldiers have no qualms about killing non-Muslim men and boys or raping “infidel” women.

Fundamentalism exempts people from responsibility for situations or actions that cause guilt and shame.

Fundamentalism says: “if you are one of us, you are OK. No questions asked.”

Fundamentalism excuses people from honest self-examination.

It justifies their prejudices, zealotry, intolerance and hatefulness.

Regardless whether it is Islamic, Jewish, or Christian fundamentalism, all religious 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 the very values so basic to the world’s 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.
And so what do we do for young people who experience lives of pain, emptiness, hopelessness, violence, addiction, and self-harm?
What mission and vision can we offer them that attracts and appeals to their youthful zeal and energy?
Doesn’t Christianity have a better and far more healthy and humane answer to the mysteries of life

than ISIS fanaticism…..

Shouldn’t we be working to promote healthy religion?
In many ways, the ball is really in our court.