Annie Selak is a Roman Catholic lay minister who is Rector of Walsh Hall at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. A year ago on Valentine’s Day, her reflections about the kind of church young people really want were published in the Washington Post. She had four main points. Sorting through my files, I came across her article and it remains as timely as ever. And of course: what young people want from the church is what a lot of older people want as well!

Annie wrote about a church that: (1) takes people seriously, (2) that is inclusive, (3) that embraces God everywhere, and (4) that struggles with big questions and is open to dialogue.

Annie’s four points launch my reflection for this week.

******

Pope Francis is certainly changing the media’s perception of the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless the Catholic exodus continues. Francis is aware of the problem and focused on it this past July in Rio. “I would like all of us to ask ourselves today,” he said, “are we still a Church capable of warming hearts?”

If someone told you that only 20% of the students that graduated from a particular university could find employment, I suspect you would say that university really needs some shaping up.

This in fact, however, is exactly what’s happening in our American Catholic Church.

Yes. Only 20% of American Catholics, who pass through “our system,” are still with us by the time they reach 23. The other 80% drops out. A bishop friend told me recently that parish closings across the country are due to population shifts and not decreased numbers of Catholics. I agreed that he had a point, but I also suggested that when his gas gauge says empty and his car stalls on the expressway, he is probably out of gas.

The Bishop of Rome is great, when it comes to positive papal PR. Too many of his brother bishops, however, just don’t seem to get the point. Former Speaker of the U.S. House Tip O’Neill said famously that all politics is local. I would like to stress that all church is local; and that is where Annie Selak’s four points do or do not become real.

What about, for instance, the local church in Newark, New Jersey? The local archbishop there, known for his steadfast orthodoxy, is adding an addition to his “retirement home.” Archbishop John Myers’ currently inadequate 4,500-square-foot retirement home has five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a three-car garage, and a big outdoor pool. The new wing on the archbishop’s humble residence (which he currently only uses on weekends), will include an indoor exercise pool, a hot tub, three fireplaces, a library, and an elevator. Perhaps someone should put a plaque in the front yard: “The poor you will always have with you.”

(   

(1) At all levels in the church, I want a church that takes seriously the life experiences of contemporary men and women. When it comes to the shortage of ordained ministers, the closing of parishes, exclusion of divorced and remarried, the firing of gays and lesbians from Catholic schools, or the firing of single parent mothers (to mention just a few recent church events and  issues) the local church seems terribly distant from what is actually going on in people’s lives. The church can recover from institutional sin and mistakes. It cannot, however, recover from being irrelevant.

(2) At all levels in the church, I want a church that embodies the inclusive kind of ministry we see in the life of Jesus. He consistently reached out to the marginalized. Nowhere in the Gospels do we see Jesus banning or excluding people from the community because they are women, or divorced, or have gay or divorced parents. He did say, once upon a time: “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury.” (Were he speaking today he might have added: “…and he had a three-car garage, two swimming pools, and three fireplaces.”) At the rich man in purple’s gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores.  As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores……The story about the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is an exhortation about living a new kind of life. It is an exhortation that the local church be a home (a church capable of warming hearts) for people who have no home: physically, psychologically, financially, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. All church is local.

(3) At all levels of the church, I want a church alert to the Divine presence in other Christian churches and in other religions. The pope emeritus warned about relativism; but diversity and unity are two concepts that go together. Younger Catholics especially, have grown up living with and alongside people from different churches and different religions, or no religion; and they see holiness and signs of the Sacred there. And they ask what the big God picture is really all about.

(4) At all levels of the church I want a church that struggles with the big ethical and religious questions and is genuinely open to dialogue. The hierarchy does not have all the answers to life’s big questions. It doesn’t even hear many of the big questions. And there will be new ones tomorrow. In all of our contemporary “relativism” and “secularity” we meet the living God. All of us in the church – and all of us in dialogue with each other — need to wrestle with the hard life questions. And, with one foot in Scripture and Tradition and the other in contemporary life, we need to engage the world. We don’t need to be spoon-fed static old theology. We need to wrestle with and grapple. We need to use our minds and engage our hearts. We need to debate, to think, and to pray. And we need to do all of this in parishes, schools, and chanceries across the country.

Annie Selak is a Roman Catholic lay minister who is Rector of Walsh Hall at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. A year ago on Valentine’s Day, her reflections about the kind of church young people really want were published in the Washington Post. She had four main points. Sorting through my files, I came across her article and it remains as timely as ever. And of course: what young people want from the church is what a lot of older people want as well!

Annie wrote about a church that: (1) takes people seriously, (2) that is inclusive, (3) that embraces God everywhere, and (4) that struggles with big questions and is open to dialogue.

Annie’s four points launch my reflection for this week.

******

Pope Francis is certainly changing the media’s perception of the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless the Catholic exodus continues. Francis is aware of the problem and focused on it this past July in Rio. “I would like all of us to ask ourselves today,” he said, “are we still a Church capable of warming hearts?”

If someone told you that only 20% of the students that graduated from a particular university could find employment, I suspect you would say that university really needs some shaping up.

This in fact, however, is exactly what’s happening in our American Catholic Church.

Yes. Only 20% of American Catholics, who pass through “our system,” are still with us by the time they reach 23. The other 80% drops out. A bishop friend told me recently that parish closings across the country are due to population shifts and not decreased numbers of Catholics. I agreed that he had a point, but I also suggested that when his gas gauge says empty and his car stalls on the expressway, he is probably out of gas.

The Bishop of Rome is great, when it comes to positive papal PR. Too many of his brother bishops, however, just don’t seem to get the point. Former Speaker of the U.S. House Tip O’Neill said famously that all politics is local. I would like to stress that all church is local; and that is where Annie Selak’s four points do or do not become real.

What about, for instance, the local church in Newark, New Jersey? The local archbishop there, known for his steadfast orthodoxy, is adding an addition to his “retirement home.” Archbishop John Myers’ currently inadequate 4,500-square-foot retirement home has five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a three-car garage, and a big outdoor pool. The new wing on the archbishop’s humble residence (which he currently only uses on weekends), will include an indoor exercise pool, a hot tub, three fireplaces, a library, and an elevator. Perhaps someone should put a plaque in the front yard: “The poor you will always have with you.”

(   

(1) At all levels in the church, I want a church that takes seriously the life experiences of contemporary men and women. When it comes to the shortage of ordained ministers, the closing of parishes, exclusion of divorced and remarried, the firing of gays and lesbians from Catholic schools, or the firing of single parent mothers (to mention just a few recent church events and  issues) the local church seems terribly distant from what is actually going on in people’s lives. The church can recover from institutional sin and mistakes. It cannot, however, recover from being irrelevant.

(2) At all levels in the church, I want a church that embodies the inclusive kind of ministry we see in the life of Jesus. He consistently reached out to the marginalized. Nowhere in the Gospels do we see Jesus banning or excluding people from the community because they are women, or divorced, or have gay or divorced parents. He did say, once upon a time: “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury.” (Were he speaking today he might have added: “…and he had a three-car garage, two swimming pools, and three fireplaces.”) At the rich man in purple’s gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores.  As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores……The story about the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is an exhortation about living a new kind of life. It is an exhortation that the local church be a home (a church capable of warming hearts) for people who have no home: physically, psychologically, financially, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. All church is local.

(3) At all levels of the church, I want a church alert to the Divine presence in other Christian churches and in other religions. The pope emeritus warned about relativism; but diversity and unity are two concepts that go together. Younger Catholics especially, have grown up living with and alongside people from different churches and different religions, or no religion; and they see holiness and signs of the Sacred there. And they ask what the big God picture is really all about.

(4) At all levels of the church I want a church that struggles with the big ethical and religious questions and is genuinely open to dialogue. The hierarchy does not have all the answers to life’s big questions. It doesn’t even hear many of the big questions. And there will be new ones tomorrow. In all of our contemporary “relativism” and “secularity” we meet the living God. All of us in the church – and all of us in dialogue with each other — need to wrestle with the hard life questions. And, with one foot in Scripture and Tradition and the other in contemporary life, we need to engage the world. We don’t need to be spoon-fed static old theology. We need to wrestle with and grapple. We need to use our minds and engage our hearts. We need to debate, to think, and to pray. And we need to do all of this in parishes, schools, and chanceries across the country.

On January 7, 2014, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law new draconian anti-gay legislation.

The new Nigerian legislation mandates: a 14-year prison sentence for anyone entering a same-sex union, and a 10-year prison term for “a person or group of persons who supports the registration, operation and sustenance of gay clubs, societies, organizations, processions or meetings.” Public displays of affection between gay men and lesbians are also criminalized.

Despite the fact that Pope Francis, has struck a charitable tone toward gays and lesbians, the Roman Catholic bishops of Nigeria appear to be socio-sexually tone deaf and blind to contemporary understandings of human sexuality.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country. About 48% of its more than 170 million people are Muslims and close to 50% Christians, out of whom about 24% are Roman Catholics. The country has 9 archdioceses and 43 dioceses. The head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria is Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, 55 years old, and a strong supporter of Goodluck Jonathan’s repressive anti-gay legislation.

As the New York Times reports, since Nigeria’s president signed the harsh law criminalizing homosexuality, arrests of gay people have multiplied, advocates have been forced to go underground, some people fearful of the law have sought asylum overseas, and news media demands for a crackdown have flourished.

Key members of the Nigerian Roman Catholic hierarchy, however, have fully supported the country’s new law. In a January 2014 letter on behalf of the Catholic hierarchy of Nigeria, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama praised Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan for his leadership in signing the new legislation.

“We commend you for this courageous and wise decision,” the archbishop’s letter states, “and pray that God will continue to bless, guide and protect you and your administration against the conspiracy of the developed world to make our country and continent, the dumping ground for the promotion of all immoral practices, that have continued to debase the purpose of God for man in the area of creation and morality, in their own countries.”

Fortunately not all African bishops side with the narrow-minded Nigerians. A few days after Archbishop Kaigama’s pastoral letter, a strongly worded editorial in the The Southern Cross, a newspaper run jointly by the bishops of South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, took aim at the new Nigerian law, calling on the Catholic Church in Africa “to stand with the powerless” and “sound the alarm at the advance throughout Africa of draconian legislation aimed at criminalizing homosexuals.” The Southern Cross, however, speaks for the minority.

In South Africa gay marriage and same-sex adoption are legal (and Mozambique and Botswana have outlawed forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation) but harassment and attacks against gays in Africa have surged over the past decade. Gay men and woman say discrimination and danger persist throughout Africa. They have trouble getting housing, jobs, and even medical care. They continually face extortion and abuse from police.

Same-sex acts are illegal in 31 sub-Saharan countries, and punishment ranges from years in prison to the death penalty.

The push for tougher anti-gay legislation and policing across Africa in recent years has been accompanied by mob violence, the murders of activists, and street protests.

Defenders of anti-gay legislation in Africa, like Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, emphasize that homosexuality is a threat to society; and that anti-gay laws are about upholding fundamental religious and cultural values.

For further reflection:

“In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from material cooperation on the level of their application. In this area, everyone can exercise the right to conscientious objection.”

Joseph Ratzinger, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons, July 31, 2003

Archbishop Kaigama

Shaela Evenson, an unmarried teacher at a Roman Catholic middle school in Montana, has been fired after getting pregnant. According to the middle school Principal Kerrie Hellyer, she was an “excellent teacher” and taught sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade literature and physical education for just over eight years.

Wonderfully pro-life that Catholic school. What a strong and lasting teaching moment for those young boys and girls. I wonder what they would have done with a pregnant and unwed Virgin Mary.

Patrick Haggarty, the superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Helena, fired Evenson on January 10, after learning about her pregnancy. It takes years to dismiss a sexually abusive priest, with a history of raping boys and girls. But just a matter of days to dump an exemplary teacher because she is unmarried and pregnant.

It is a strange kind of Catholic conscience. The children at that school and their parents will long remember this.

A couple weeks after the firing of Shaela Evenson, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to resolve more than 350 sexual-abuse claims.

Bankruptcy, of course, comes in two styles: financial and moral.

While Bishop George Thomas up in Montana was working on his bankruptcy papers, down in the Midwest, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City was finishing his diocesan newspaper column condemning the National Catholic Reporter.

Bishop Finn noted in his column,”The Bishop’s Role In Fostering The Mission Of The Catholic Media,” that, as Bishop of Kansas City – St. Joseph, he has the canonical duty to “call the media to fidelity.” Fidelity is an important Catholic word…..Specifically, the Missouri bishop condemns NCR for editorial positions “officially condemning Church teaching on the ordination of women, insistent undermining of Church teaching on artificial contraception and sexual morality in general, lionizing dissident theologies while rejecting established Magisterial teaching, and a litany of other issues.”

In September 2012, please recall, Bishop Robert W. Finn became the first American prelate convicted of failing to report a pedophile priest; and priests, lay people, and victims’ advocates have repeatedly called for his resignation.

As the New York Times reported, at that time, the Bishop Finn case began when Shawn Ratigan, a charismatic parish priest, who had previously been known for inappropriate behavior with children, took his laptop computer in for repairs. A technician reported to church authorities that the laptop contained pornographic photos of young girls’ genitals, naked, and clothed.

Ratigan attempted suicide. He survived and was sent for treatment. Bishop Finn assigned him to a convent and ordered him to stay away from children. But Father Ratigan continued to attend church events and take lewd pictures of girls for five more months, until church officials reported him in May 2011, without Bishop Finn’s approval. A silent Bishop Finn….

Another case of a strange Catholic conscience. Why is Robert Finn still the Bishop of Kansas City -St. Joseph? And what about all the other Bishop Finns scattered around the country and across the globe?

Robert Mickens, the respected Catholic journalist, observed recently: “The Holy See has never removed a bishop – not one – for covering up clergy sex abuse. Cardinal Law was removed, not to punish him, but to protect him. And arguably the worst priest offender, Marcial Maciel, was never laicised. He was merely sent away in his old age in order to protect his Legion of Christ, not his victims.”

For conscience sake, we need to re-examine the very strange case of contemporary Catholic conscience. Otherwise — the last person out of the church, please turn off the lights.

PS I do suspect the UN report on the Vatican and sex abuse may indeed hurt the reform cause. It raises questions.

The Bishop of Rome is condemning the tyranny of capitalism and the idolatry of money. The bishops of Poland are condemning the tyranny of gender theory.

Over the Christmas holidays, a strongly-worded pastoral letter, issued by the bishops of Poland, was read in parishes across their country. The bishops have branded gender theory a mortal danger to families, child sexual orientation, and humanity. Inspired by Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks in late 2012 about the “falseness” of gender theory, the Polish bishops are campaigning about a host of contemporary evils created by and falling under the umbrella of gender theory: homosexuality, pedophilia, feminism, marital breakdown, and sex ed programs for children and youth that promote masturbation, pornography, eroticism, birth control, and abortion.

Posters have appeared in Polish schools proclaiming: “Protect Your Child Against Gender.”

The Polish bishops cite Marxism, feminist movements, and the sexual revolution as having inspired the theory, which they say is “contrary to the traditional view of man.” That means against natural law.

Last summer one of Poland’s best-known bishops, Tadeusz Pieronek, gave an indication of Polish episcopal thought when he argued during a cultural festival on the Baltic coast that “the ideology of gender presents a threat worse than Nazism and Communism combined.” He is really heated up about this.

Perhaps the bishops and others in the church need a refresher course and some updating about natural law. They will have to study and scratch their heads because it obviously doesn’t come to them naturally.

When thinking about natural law, I suspect many people would say that is a God-given body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct. As a general perspective it is helpful and makes sense. Good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided. The issue becomes more complex, however, when we get down to concrete specifics.

If, for instance, the natural purpose of sex is procreation, any use of or enjoyment of sex that is not procreative is unnatural. All those things problematic for the Polish bishops are unnatural: masturbation, birth control, and homosexuality. But what if procreation is not the primary purpose of sex? What if human sexuality is also about intimacy, affection, bonding and pleasure?

What then is natural or unnatural?

Thomas Aquinas (1224 – 1274 CE) was convinced that a pyramid social structure was the natural order for human societies: on top emperors, kings, and the pope, then dukes and bishops, then knights, priests, and religious men and women. Down at the bottom: the serfs. If every person would respect and adhere to his or her natural rung in society, there would be peace and tranquility. In varying degrees I suspect many churchmen and some church women still believe that. Although, with the current pope they have to put some of their colorful threads and golden trinkets back in the closet.

Aquinas also taught that women are, by nature, incomplete human beings and inferior to men. For Thomas it was a matter of natural law and natural “heat” or, as far as women were concerned, insufficient male heat.

A fetus Thomas asserted, develops its full potential (meaning its maleness) if it collects sufficient “heat” or “vital spirit” in the early stages of development. Femaleness results from insufficient heat being absorbed by the fetus. Thomas himself says: “A female is deficient and unintentionally caused. For the active power of the semen always seeks to produce a thing completely like itself, something male. So if a female is produced, this must be because the semen is weak or because the material [provided by the mother] is unsuitable, or because of the action of some external factor such as the winds from the south which make the atmosphere humid.” Thomas saw a woman’s deficiency confirmed by her inferior intellectual powers; and therefore a woman could not fully be an image of God. Only males could do that.

Thomas believed, therefore, that a woman could not represent Christ because women are incomplete males. He therefore was convinced women could never be priests, because the priest in the Eucharist is a sign of Christ: “Since it is not possible in the female sex to signify eminence of degree, it follows that she cannot receive the sacrament of Holy Orders.”

Shades of the old Thomistic viewpoint still cloud the minds of more than a few higher-placed ecclesiastics. Many, like the Bishop of Rome, are fine and pastoral people but still theologically time-bound in an old anthropology.

Any understanding of natural law must take into account the fact that we are all progressing and evolving: in who we are and in our understanding of who we are.

Truth is not relative, but our truth statements and doctrines cannot be forever chiseled in stone. Maybe on an iPad with a continually updating screen….

As we gear up for the 2014 Super Bowl on Sunday February 2nd., a new survey reveals that 50% of American sports fans see supernatural forces at play in the games. According to the January 2014 Religion and Politics Tracking Survey, conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, contemporary Americans either pray for God to help their favorite team, believe their team has been cursed, or believe God plays a role in determining the outcome of major sporting events.

The Super Bowl has become an American civil religion ritual. According to sociologist Robert Bellah (who died last year), Americans embrace a common “civil religion” with certain fundamental values, holidays, and rituals, parallel to, but independent of, their chosen traditional religion. They believe the nation is under God’s benevolent protection; and the nation provides semi-religious honors to its martyrs and athletic and political heroes. We are a nation of Halls of Fame and Super Bowl football is the liturgy that captures it all.

Former President Richard Nixon (who was very fond of football as well as tape-recording Oval Office conversations) expressed it perfectly, when commenting about the Super Bowl: “What does this mean, this common interest in football of Presidents, of leaders, of people generally? It means a competitive spirit. It means, also, to me, the ability and the determination to be able to lose and then come back and try again, to sit on the bench and then come back• It means basically the character, the drive, the pride, the teamwork, the feeling of being in a cause bigger than yourself. All of these great factors are essential if a nation is to maintain character and greatness for that nation.”

Supernatural involvement in major sporting events, is an old tradition of course. In ancient Greece, for example, the Olympics were just one set of athletic contests which were performed in honor of the gods. Among the Mayans in Central America, the stadium was attached to an important temple; and the stands were adorned with images of the gods and sacred animals.

Contemporary Americans also believe that being-a-believer greatly enhances an athlete’s performance on the field. Close to 65% of U.S. Protestants believe that God rewards athletes who have faith with good health and athletic success. Catholics are a bit less credulous. Only 50% believe that God rewards athletes who have faith. Perhaps they have forgotten the “Hail Mary Pass:” a very long forward pass in American football, made in desperation with only a small chance of success. The expression originated in the 1930s at Notre Dame; but its use became more widespread, after Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach (a Roman Catholic) said about his game-winning touchdown pass in a December 28, 1975 playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings: “I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.”

That American sports is a religion and professional football its leading ritual expression is not a new notion, but one that has achieved growing currency among American scholars and cultural observers. Sports have become the sacramental expression for the American way of life at a time when “traditional” religion is waning.

Over the past ten years, research surveys show a gradual decline in traditional religious commitment in the U.S. public as a whole. The number of Americans who do not identify with any organized religion has also grown significantly. One-fifth of the overall public — and one third of adults under age 30 – are religiously unaffiliated. A third of U.S. adults say they do not consider themselves a “religious person.” Two-thirds of Americans – affiliated and unaffiliated alike – say organized religion is losing its influence in Americans’ lives. The Super Bowl Sunday observance, however, is more popular than ever.

While about 12% of Americans think Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife, more importantly on a personal level, more Americans admit that they are wrestling with how to navigate a culture increasingly comfortable with violence. Here of course one must see the Super Bowl as sacred violence in controlled and acceptable form: as heads clash, bodies collide, tendons rip, and bones break.

In any event, when the Denver Broncos meet the Seattle Seahawks on Super Bowl Sunday, we know God will smile on and reward the better team. After-all: In God We Trust.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has become a national hero for racial equality and justice. Since 1986, three years after President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law, Americans have celebrated Dr. King’s legacy as a federal holiday, on the third Monday of January.

A survey conducted last year, however, revealed that civil rights in the United States still has a ways to go…. Fewer than half (45%) of all Americans surveyed said they believe the United States  has made substantial progress toward racial equality since 1963, when Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Roughly half of Americans (49%) said “a lot more” needs to be done to achieve racial equality. Broken down by race, a higher share of blacks (79%) than Hispanics (48%) and whites (44%) felt that way, according to a Pew Research Center report.

Thinking about the civil rights movement (I participated in one of the great Detroit civil rights marches in the 1960s) I started wondering about black American Catholics.

There are today 78.2 million self-identified Roman Catholic Americans and only 3% of them are black. We have 270 active bishops and 184 retired; and among them are 10 active black bishops and 5 retired.

An unprecedented national survey of African American Catholics, conducted from July 7 to August 1, 2011 and sponsored by the National Black Catholic Congress and the University of Notre Dame, revealed that black American Catholics have generally positive feelings about being Catholic but are not completely satisfied with the scope of racial inclusiveness in the American Catholic Church:

About one in four African American Catholics experience racism in their parishes. A total of 31.5 percent say they are uncomfortable because they are the only people of color in their parishes: 25.9 percent saying that other Catholics avoid them because of their race, 23.6 percent say that other parishioners reluctantly shake their hands; and 24.9 percent say they have experienced racial insensitivity toward African Americans from their priests.

African American Catholics, therefore, see much room for race-relations growth in their church. Maybe the next U.S. cardinal should be a black American…..

An historic note: Augustus Tolton (April 1, 1854 – July 9, 1897), was the first Roman Catholic black priest in the United States. A former slave, who was baptized and raised Catholic, Tolton studied formally in Rome and was ordained there in St. John Lateran on Easter Sunday 1886. Assigned to the Diocese of Alton (now the Diocese of Springfield), Tolton first ministered in his home parish in Quincy, Illinois. Later when assigned to Chicago, Fr. Tolton led the development and construction of St. Monica’s Catholic Church as a black “national parish church” and completed in 1893 on Chicago’s South Side.

In 1990, Adrian Dominican Sister Jamie T. Phelps, from the Catholic Theological Union, launched the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program, in consultation with CTU President Fr. Don Senior, to prepare, educate, and form black Catholic laity for ministerial leadership in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

On the 2nd March 2010 Cardinal George of Chicago announced that he was beginning an official investigation into Tolton’s life and virtues with a view to opening the cause for his canonization. This cause for sainthood is also being promoted by the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, where Tolton first served as priest, as well as the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, where Tolton’s family was enslaved.

Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George is now two years over the usual retirement age for bishops. Maybe it is time for Francis in Rome to appoint a black cardinal to replace him.

Father Tolton

Pope Francis has announced that nineteen new cardinals will get their red hats on February 22, 2014. As John Allen pointed out in NCR, several new cardinals from the “periphery” are a break from the past.

Bishop Chibly Langlois will become the first cardinal from poverty-bound Haiti. Pope Francis has ignored the old Vatican tradition that if the Caribbean was to have a cardinal, the red hat would go to one of the region’s three Catholic powerhouses — Cuba, Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. More noteworthy: Langlois’ diocese of Les Cayes Haiti is NOT one of the two archdioceses in Haiti. Langlois represents an option for the periphery even within his own country.

In the pope’s letter to the new cardinals, we see a new focus as well. The days of red-packaged old men processing around grandly in Renaissance splendor are on the way out:

“The cardinalship does not imply promotion; it is neither an honor nor a decoration; it is simply a service that requires you to broaden your gaze and open your hearts. And, although this may appear paradoxical, the ability to look further and to love more universally with greater intensity may be acquired only by following the same path of the Lord: the path of self-effacement and humility, taking on the role of a servant. Therefore I ask you, please, to receive this designation with a simple and humble heart. And, while you must do so with pleasure and joy, ensure that this sentiment is far from any expression of worldliness or from any form of celebration contrary to the evangelical spirit of austerity, sobriety and poverty.”

In Seattle, Washington, Catholic high school students protesting the firing of a popular gay teacher have already made their Catholic reform imprint as well.

Students at Eastside Catholic High School have led protests recently over the departure of vice principal and swimming coach Mark Zmuda. The school and Zmuda have disputed the details about his departure. Zmuda said he was fired. The school says he resigned after acknowledging that his same-sex marriage violated Catholic teaching and therefore the terms of his contract.

Students held a second day of protests in the Seattle suburb just before Christmas and have launched an online campaign urging the Roman Catholic Church to retreat from its opposition to same-sex marriage. The growing Catholic student protest also received strong support from Seattle Mayor-elect Ed Murray, who is a practicing Catholic and long-partnered gay.  Murray married husband Michael Shiosaki at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral last summer.

Students from Eastside Catholic have now linked up with students from other Catholic secondary schools and have sent a message to the Archdiocese of Seattle: We are not going away, and we are taking our protest to a new level. Switching to social media in a big way, Eastside students plan to organize, nationwide, a  “Z-Day” on January 31st to protest the forced resignation of Mark Zmuda.

“We encourage students, at Catholic schools or otherwise, as well as any other impassioned individuals, to proudly wear the color orange [the Eastside school color, JAD] on that day. In so doing, we will be showing solidarity with Mark Zmuda, as well as expressing our hopes for an enlightened perspective on issues of sexuality in the Catholic Church….We firmly believe that the decision to marry, or not marry, should never preclude any otherwise qualified individual from working at the school,” said the students’ statement.  “When Pope Francis opines that the Church is big enough for homosexuals, one would hope Catholic institutions begin to reflect those sentiments…..The Gospel compels us to demonstrate compassion and love in all our actions, and Mark Zmuda has always done just that.”

And in Pope Benedict’s Germany, Roman Catholic theologians are calling for theological and institutional change as well.

Well known and highly respected German theologians have strongly outlined how contemporary Catholic Church teaching does not align with the concerns and lifestyles of most European Catholics, responding to a Vatican questionnaire on Catholic attitudes about issues like contraception and same-sex marriage. Current Roman Catholic Church teaching about human sexuality, say representatives from both the Association of German Moral Theologians and the Conference of German-speaking Pastoral Theologians, comes from an idealized reality and needs a fundamental and new evaluation.

“It becomes painfully obvious that Christian moral teaching that limits sexuality to the context of marriage cannot look closely enough at the many forms of sexuality outside of marriage,” say the 17 signers of the statement. The German theologians propose that the Catholic Church adopt an entirely new paradigm for its sexual teachings.

And finally………

The Diocese of Stockton, California intends to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week in Sacramento Federal Court, after more than six months of discussing the possibility with its members. Bishop Stephen Blaire said two days ago that the diocese’s financial difficulties (due to sexual abuse legal settlements) can only be resolved by filing for bankruptcy protection.

And the NEW YEAR has just begun………:-)

An Epiphany reflection to start the New Year……

Professor Eberhard Möbius of the University of New Hampshire has published a report that galactic “winds” that flow around the solar system have been changing direction over the past four decades. Comparing results from measurements obtained from eleven spacecraft since 1972, Möbius and colleagues have concluded that the direction the “winds” are coming from has shifted and our own movement through the solar system is producing great changes in a relatively short time.

Galactic winds in the church have shifted as well. There is no turning back now. Some call it the New Reformation. Erasmus, Luther, and Calvin could never have imagined what is happening today. (Some of our bishops can’t imagine it either; but that is a temporary problem.)

We are beginning to see the signs of a galactic change in our understanding of God and traditional Christian belief. Today I offer just a few signs of changing times.

(1)   GOD: According to the Pew Research people, a growing percentage of young people under 30, from the so-called “Millennial Generation,” are coming to doubt or question the existence of God as traditionally understood. Many older people, of course, resonate with them and are leaving organized religion in an increasing stream of “believers” who no longer feel at home with the doctrine and rituals of organized religion. 20%¨of Americans now belong to the spiritual but not religious group. A danger sign? I don’t think so. It is rather a challenge to re-think our experiences of God and church.

I remembered a discussion with an American archbishop at a November meeting of our USCCB in Baltimore. I remarked that God is just as much “mother” as “father.” Suddenly his face turned red and he angrily shouted at me that “God is Father and that is UNCHANGEABLE TRUTH!”

(2)   TRUTH: I would not say that truth is relative. I do suggest that we often see the truth through highly contextualized and often foggy lenses. (Since my recent cataract operations, I keenly understand and appreciate these old and new kinds of vision.) Great numbers of Catholic believers today do have new visions and new perspectives on Christian belief, human understanding, and moral behavior. Perhaps they – we – see things better today. Better perhaps than many church leaders who still need Catholic cataract surgery.

(3)   ORDAINED WOMEN: I really don’t think we need a Vatican document about a “theology of women.” I get annoyed when I hear that because it smacks of antiquated clerical patriarchy. We simply need an up to date theology of the human person. More and more people today understand that women are not inferior to men and that women can be…..that women ARE……effective, competent, and wonderfully pastoral ordained ministers (priests) in today’s Christian communities. Some institutional religious leaders still fulminate that such ordinations are not possible. With all due respect, I would suggest that these negative antagonists are theologically ignorant and blind to contemporary realities.

(4)   CHURCH BIGGER THAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: When I was a young man, I firmly believed that Catholics were the real and only authentic Christians. My Dad was a Protestant. It bothered me greatly that (as a priest told my seventh grade religion class) he followed a “false religion.” Years later of course, the mist in my eyes cleared and I could see that the Church of Christ….the Body of Christ……is much greater and more dynamic than just the Church of Rome. Today, we are still working-out major the implications of this truth. More galactic change. The implications touch on sacramental life, Christian moral teaching, and of course the teaching authority of the church. It is time to drop the old Roman Catholic hegemony.

(5)   SEX AGAIN: As people begin to look through today’s lenses, they see that human sexuality is far richer, more wonderful, and much more complex than just connecting genitalia and producing babies. Human sexuality is the way we are as men and women, and the way we express ourselves……affectively, psychologically, physically, and socially. It is the way we relate to each-other, and the way we relate to the Divine. Hetero-Sexual marriage can be wonderful; but so can same-sex marriage. More than 60% of today’s U.S. Catholics support same-sex marriage. Despite episcopal attempts to stop it, support among Catholics continues to grow. The morality of all sexual relationships is based on respect for the other and respect for self. Jesus told us that is the golden rule.

(6) NATURAL LAW:   My old archbishop friend told me not so long ago that I no longer respect natural law. Indeed, what is natural law? Is it natural that men use and oppress women! Is it natural that rich people take advantage of and ignore the poor? Is it natural that straights denigrate gays? Is it natural that getting a girl pregnant is more important than preserving and maintaining her life? Perhaps human nature is evolving as well…..certainly our understanding of human nature is continually evolving. Natural law is not carved in stone it echoes with the beatings of  human hearts and the reflections of human minds. There God is very close indeed.

(7)   PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY: We live today in societies that are culturally and religiously pluralistic. What then is the appropriate response of believers in such societies? Is it appropriate that the public morality mirror Christian or Muslim morality? Is it appropriate that U.S. Catholic bishops try to impose a narrow-minded Catholic morality on the entire population?

(8)   POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY: And what about Catholic legislators? Is it appropriate and proper Catholic political leaders be banned from Eucharist, because they are trying to formulate a broad-based public morality, in a pluralistic society? Are we really so sure that the Catholic position is the ONLY legitimate position?

Well friends these are a few quick thoughts at the start of a new year.

The new reformation — a truly contemporary Catholic change is underway — and it is much greater than what I sketch here. We are believers and explorers in a time of galactic change. The issue is not dissent but discovery.

It is indeed a new age. We are indeed new explorers. Everything is not neatly worked out. The days are exciting but can be fearful as well. Nevertheless….we read in the Gospels that Christ is with us till the end of the world; and thanks to him, Christianity gives us the courage to live with integrity and hope in the sometimes radical insecurity of daily life.

Happy New Year!