The Pathology of Catholic Authoritarianism

Something sinister is happening in the contemporary Roman Catholic Church. It is not just that Pope Benedict XVI (like his predecessor Pope John Paul II) is theologically and institutionally old-fashioned. What is happening under Pope Benedict’s rule is the implementation of a pathological regression into a degenerative and destructive Roman Catholic authoritarianism.

Pope Benedict, and bishops around the world who have obediently succumbed to his authoritarian virus, are destroying a contemporary Catholic Church that, thanks to the theological impulse of the Second Vatican Council, had begun to value dialogue, service, critical thinking, and an openness to new human experiences and contemporary realities.

The hallmarks of today’s Catholic Church are now becoming: arrogant episcopal power plays, an exaggerated medieval-style clericalism, institutional self-justification and hypocrisy, and a deceptive re-writing of Catholic belief and praxis that marches triumphantly beneath the banner of “the reform of the reform.”

For those who still really care to see a different kind of Catholic life, I invite you to reflect on the seven forms of pathological authoritarian behavior.

The pathological behavior of authoritarian leaders and followers:

1.Illogical Thinking : The lack of independent, critical thinking.

2. Highly Compartmentalized Minds : Authoritarians’ ideas are poorly integrated with one another.

3. Double Standards : When your ideas live independent lives from one another it is pretty easy to use double standards in your judgments. You simply call up the idea that will justify (afterwards) what you’ve decided to do.

4. Hypocrisy : The leaders of authoritarian movements sometimes accuse their opponents of being anti-democratic and anti-free speech when the latter protest
against various books, movies, speakers, teachers and so on.

5. Blindness To Themselves : self-righteousness.

6. A Profound Ethnocentrism : Ethnocentrism means dividing the world up into in-groups and out-groups…….in-groups are holy and good…out-groups are evil and Satanic.

7. Dogmatism: the Authoritarian’s Last Ditch Defense : By dogmatism I mean relatively unchangeable, unjustified certainty. Loyal followers obey without questions…..

 If we collaborate….we can change the system by refusing to acknowledge

authoritarianism in every form…..

(This week’s in-the-news photo reflection, with commentary, is below.)

“Give me my robe, put on my crown. I have Immortal longings in me.”

William Shakespeare

At today’s (25 May 2011)  weekly general audience Pope Benedict received a golden tiara commissioned by Dieter Philippi (http://www.dieter-philippi.de/), a German Catholic businessman. It was created in Sofia, Bulgaria by Orthodox Christians of the Liturgix studio (http://www.liturgix.com/). A small delegation of Roman Catholics and Bulgarian Orthodox presented the tiara to the him after the audience. (Images from l’Osservatore Romano).

Gloriously Afloat in a Little Sea of  Catholic Fundamentalism

While the Rest of Humanity Confronts Real Issues

Dominus Vobiscum: A new Vatican instruction, issued 13 May 2011,  calls on local bishops and pastors to respond generously to Catholics who seek celebration of the Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal, commonly known as the Tridentine rite. The instruction, issued May 13, said pastors should approve such Masses for groups of faithful, even when such groups are small or are formed of people from different parishes or dioceses. These faithful cannot, however, contest the validity of the modern Mass or the authority of the pope. The instruction said that bishops should make sure seminarians are trained in celebrating the Tridentine rite, or “extraordinary form” of the Mass.

Friday Abstinence: The bishops of England and Wales are re-establishing the practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays as a penance to identify with Christ on the cross. In the resolutions published from their spring plenary assembly, which concluded Thursday, 12 May 2011, the bishops announced the re-establishment of the practice, to go into effect September 16, 2011. The date for the re-establishment of meatless Fridays marks the anniversary of Benedict XVI’s visit to the United Kingdom on September 16^th last year.

Progressive bishops are seen as more dangerous than those engaged in sex abuse: As has been reported, the Vatican has taken decisive action against an “errant” Australian bishop, showing that it has a zero tolerance policy towards deviants. Bishop William Morris, who was forced to resign (for wanting to discuss married priests, women priests and an ecumenical understanding of holy orders) was not guilty of sexual abuse. On the contrary, the Toowoomba, Australia bishop has been a noted supporter of abuse victims in his diocese, and widely admired as a sensitive pastoral leader. At the same time, the Vatican has fast-tracked the beatification of John Paul II, the pope who denied that pedophilia was a problem in the church and gave great support to sexual abusers like his friend Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer of Vienna who abused 2,000 boys over several decades.

Opus Dei liturgy: Auxiliary Bishop James Conley of Denver, Colorado, seems to have already succumbed to the liturgical virus spreading out from Rome. Speaking at the Midwest Theological Forum in Valparaiso, Indiana, on 25 April 2011: “One of his altar servers left us this description of how St. Josemaría Escrivá used to pray the Mass…..For [St. Josemaría], the liturgy was not a formal act but a transcendent one. Each word held a profound meaning and was uttered in a heartfelt tone of voice. He savored the concepts. Josemaría seemed detached from his human surrounding and, as it were, tied by invisible cords to the divine. This phenomenon peaked at the moment of consecration. Josemaría seemed to be disconnected from the physical things around him and to be catching sight of mysterious and remote heavenly horizons.”

Concluding thought for this week:

“There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality,

for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relation with realities outside and above us.

When our life feeds on unreality, it must starve.”

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude.

Central to our Easter Faith is the understanding that resurrection is not resuscitation.

Resurrection is a progression into a fuller and richer life experience.

Resuscitation is bringing a corpse back to its earlier form of life and it is not a movement into eternal bliss.

The resurrection / resuscitation distinction is an important one. It lies at the very center of contemporary Roman Catholic movements and events.

Ideally church reform should be resurrection-focused: encouraging individuals, groups and institution to progress into an ever richer faith life…….

Unfortunately….what we see far too often today is an institution that pushes people backwards.

Contemporay Roman Catholic leadership is more focused on resuscitation: trying to pump life into the dead corpse of a medieval Catholicism.

In Rome this is called “the reform of the reform…”

Two recent events, by way of example……

TOOWOOMBA, Australia

A day after Bishop William Morris of the Australian Diocese of Toowoomba said he would retire early following an apostolic visitation,  Pope Benedict XVI removed him from office. The May 1st retirement announcement and May 2nd removal followed an apostolic visitation led by the American Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput. In a 2006 pastoral letter, Bishop Morris had expressed support for women’s ordination. Following his removal, Bishop Morris blasted the Vatican for conducting an “Inquisition.”

“I believe there is creeping centralism, a creeping authoritarianism and fallibility in the way the church operates and discusses issues,” he said. “It is not just Pope Benedict: it is the whole Curia, with Benedict as the leader.”  “It was like the Inquisition,” Bishop Morris added. “He [Pope Benedict] was immovable. There was no dialogue…..It has been my experience and the experience of others that Rome controls bishops by fear, and if you ask questions or speak openly on subjects that Rome declares closed, . . . you are censored very quickly, told your leadership is defective . . . and are threatened with dismissal,” Bishop Morris told the priests of his diocese.

MUNICH, Germany

The same day Bishop Morris was removed, Hans Kung addressed an audience in Munich. The Catholic Church is seriously, possibly terminally ill, he said and only an honest diagnosis and radical therapy will cure it. Kung argues that the malady of the church goes beyond recent sexual abuse scandals. According to him, the church’s resistance to reform, its secrecy, lack of transparency and misogyny are at the heart of the problem.

He said that the Catholic church in the United States has lost one-third of its membership. “The American Catholic church never asked why,” he said. “Any other institution that has lost a third of its members would want to know why.” He also said that eighty percent of German bishops would welcome reforms.

Pope Benedict has distanced himself from Vatican II and “failed in the face of the worldwide sexual abuse by clergy,” Kung said. Benedict is “in essence a person for medieval liturgy, theology and a medieval church constitution.”

And in conclusion……a visual Easter meditation.

Cardinal Raymond Burke in his Easter Bonnet

Ecclesiastical Resuscitation in Full Glory

Dear Friends

John Greenleaf will return after Easter………Below another brief reflection from T.S. Eliot:

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

The Archbishop of Detroit, Allen H. Vigneron, has issued stern warning to all Catholics in the Archdiocese of Detroit: STAY AWAY FROM THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC COUNCIL on Pentecost weekend because it is heretical and a danger to your faith.

And now the Knights of Columbus have joined the Vigneron crusade:

warning about “the threat from Progressive Modernists within the U.S. Catholic Church.”

What’s going on here?

Archbishop Vigneron has issued a statement condemning the American Catholic Council. Here are the highlights…

(Archdiocese of Detroit) – …Although their stated purpose is to “respond to the Spirit of Vatican II by summoning the Baptized together to demonstrate our re-commitment and the documents issued by the American Catholic Council offer some valid aspirations for the Church, in fact, the goals proposed are largely in opposition to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the Holy Spirit, which inspired the Council.

The archdiocese wishes to commend and embrace all true efforts at Church renewal – the American Church Council’s agenda is not such an effort. Some of the advertised speakers and groups organizing the effort espouse positions which are clearly contrary to Catholic faith, leading to alienation and estrangement from the Church. The Archdiocese of Detroit cautions any Catholic against participating in the American Catholic Council local listening sessions and national gathering in June 2011. Catholic parishes, schools, and institutions are not to host any meetings, gatherings, or “listening sessions” associated with the planning of the June 2011 American Catholic Council. Priests, deacons, and ecclesial lay ministers will want to avoid lending support to such a misguided effort…….

And what exactly are the heretical dangers emanating from the planners of the American Catholic Council?

Their summary of basic Catholic
rights looks authentically Catholic to me:

1. Primacy of Conscience. Every Catholic has the right and responsibility to develop an informed conscience and to act in accord with it.

2. Community. Every Catholic has the right and responsibility to participate in a faith community and the right to responsible pastoral care.

3. Universal Ministry. Every Catholic has the right and responsibility to proclaim the Gospel and to respond to the community’s call to ministerial leadership.

4. Freedom of Expression. Every Catholic has the right to freedom of expression and the freedom to dissent.

5. Sacraments. Every Catholic has the right and responsibility to participate in the fullness of the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church.

6. Reputation. Every Catholic has the right to a good name and to due process.

7. Governance. Every Catholic and every Catholic community have the right to a voice in the selection of leaders and in the manner in which governance and decision making are exercised.

8. Participation. Every Catholic has the right and responsibility to share in the interpretation of the Gospel and Church tradition.

9. Councils. Every Catholic has the right to summon and speak in assemblies where diverse voices can be heard.

10. Guarantee of rights. Church leaders shall respect the rights and responsibilities of the baptized and their faith communities.

Three Closing Observations:

(1) I wish Allen Vigneron would attend the ACC and engage in constructive dialogue.

(2) I plan to attend. I will let you know what I think afterwards…….

(3) Check it out for yourself:  http://americancatholiccouncil.org/

Seminarians in house dress taking a stroll in front of St. Peter’s in Rome……..

Over coffee last week, I had a long chat with a bright and outgoing young seminarian who will be ordained in July. He is dedicated and intelligent. He has a quick smile and is a handsomely athletic young man. And he is totally committed and obedient to whatever requests the Church will make of him.

Future bishop material? Perhaps.…he IS held in VERY high regard by his bishop and is VERY obedient and VERY conservative in a nineteenth century sort of way.

I told Jim (not his real name of course) that I had just written a letter to Fr. Edward Dougherty, Maryknoll Superior, to protest the planned expulsion from Maryknoll of Fr. Roy Bourgeois  and his forced laicization.

Father Roy Bourgeois….

Seminarian Jim was dumbfounded and very surprised that I would defend Roy Bourgeois:  a “dissident and heretical priest.” In fact he launched into a little tirade against all people who support  (in his words) the “pseudo-ordination” of women.

Before I could get a word in, Jim then stressed how delighted he was that our American bishops are once again “showing some muscle.”

Jim, adjusting his Roman collar,  meant of course Cardinal Donald Wuerl and the USCCB’s condemnation of Sister Elizabeth Johnson’s book:  Quest for the Living God. Our bishops with muscle have banned the book because it opposes “authentic Catholic teaching.”

Time ran out. Jim had to get to class. I had to get an aspirin, for a major theological headache………………….

The Vatican has great plans for today’s seminarians. In coming months we can expect to see a new  mandate from Pope Benedict (or the appropriate papal mouthpiece) that all seminarians be trained in Latin so that they can celebrate the Latin Mass of the Council of Trent. And, certainly to the delight of today’s seminarians who love old-style clerical threads, the word coming from Rome is that the Vatican will re-emphasize the importance of “traditional” clerical dress for priests and the “traditional” ornate dress for bishops…… But for now back to heresy!

Sorry to say, there are a lot of Jims in today’s church. I don’t know what happened to them in their seminary programs, but they all need remedial theological education…..along with their bishops 🙂

For the record………………

Father Roy Bourgeois has publicly supported women’s ordination. And there is every good reason why he should and no good reasons why he should not. Jesus’ early disciples were men AND women. Jesus did not ordain anyone! Ordination was a later creation of the early church. Before ordained ministers, the people who presided at Eucharist were the heads of households. We know that men AND women were such heads of households. And we know today that there is a long tradition of women being ordained in the Church right up through the Middle Ages.

AND……What did Cardinal Wuerl and his episcopal colleagues find so problematic with Elizabeth Johnson’s book?

(1) In our contemporary secularized world, Johnson says, we need to think about God and talk about God in contemporary and not medieval language and thought categories.

(2) Johnson reminds us that all of our names for God are metaphors. I would say: but of course! All of my affectionate names for my wife are metaphors as well! We use special language for those whom we love…..More poetic but certainly appropriate.

(3) Cardinal Wuerl was particularly bothered that Johnson wrote that God suffers along with us when we suffer. I guess he forgot that Jesus – Son of God, God from God — suffered under Pontius Pilate…..

(4) Johnson writes that God is present in all religions. Vatican II said that as well. Maybe some US bishops don’t. WHO then is the deviant Catholic?

(5) But perhaps what really rattles Cardinal Wuerl is that Sister Elizabeth challenges the old boys club’s hang up that GOD HAS TO BE A GUY.!

Cardinal Wuerl

Not Cardinal Wuerl

 

What kind of Obama rhetoric will our Catholic bishops use in the next presidential  campaign?

Will they be critical of the Christian Right or stand and watch?

For some time now US right wing Christian websites have been advertising a variety of “Pray for Obama” items:  t-shirts, bumper stickers, hats, etc.

They all have the phrase:   “Pray for Obama” followed by this biblical reference “Psalm 109:8.”

Psalm 109 is an ancient imprecatory prayer.  It implores God to invoke evil, misfortune, or physical harm upon someone. The words of Psalm 109:8 are:

“Let his days be few and let another take his office.”

The next line is:

“Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”

++++++++++

In a free democracy, like our United States, no one is compelled to agree with everything the president says or does.

But no one who dislikes or disagrees with him has the license to incite and encourage people to murder him.

When Christians strand by silently and observe  projects like “Pray for Obama,” they support a deadly abomination…….

NEXT WEEK……a detailed reflection on:

THE CLOSING OF THE ORDAINED CATHOLIC MIND

EQUALLY BLESSED CELEBRATES CATHOLIC MAJORITY

IN LANDMARK MARRIAGE POLL

Coalition asks bishops to realize they can learn from LGBT Christians

March 18, 2011-Earlier this week, two Catholic bishops dismissed a booklet on marriage equality by a member of the Equally Blessed coalition, saying that its author was not authorized to “speak on behalf of the Catholic Church.”

Today, faithful U.S. Catholics spoke for themselves, supporting the legalization of same-gender marriage by a 60-38 margin in a new poll commissioned by ABC News and The Washington Post.

The survey, conducted last week by Langer Research Associates, found that for the first time, a majority of Americans (53 percent) now support marriage equality, and that this change in public opinion has happened with remarkable rapidity. Fewer than one third of respondents favored same-gender marriage when the same survey was conducted in 2004.

“The poll makes clear what we have long known,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a member of the Equally Blessed coalition. “Catholics driven by a desire for justice are at the forefront of efforts to make our country’s marriage laws more equitable, and to extend the legal benefits of civil marriage to same-gender couples and their children.”

DeBernardo is the author of the booklet Marriage Equality: A Positive Catholic Approach, which raised the ire of Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington D. C., and Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland, earlier this week. New Ways Ministry, they wrote, was not authorized to “identify itself as a Catholic organization.”

“The bishops’ approach to this issue is alienating the faithful,” said Mary Ellen Lopata, co-founder of Fortunate Families, another member of the Equally Blessed coalition. “We continue to hope that they will realize they have something to learn from the lived experience of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians, their families and their friends, and come to understand that one can be true to one’s God-given identity, even as one is true to the teachings of Christ.”

Forty percent of Catholics in the survey said they “strongly supported” the legalization of same-gender marriage, while 27 percent said they strongly opposed it.

“I am especially proud of my Church today,” said Nicole Sotelo, communications director for Call To Action, another member of the Equally Blessed coalition. “Catholics who take the social justice teachings of the church seriously know that the issue of same-gender civil marriage is simply one of honoring the dignity of all of God’s children, and treating them fairly as we treat all people.

Are Bishops Now Speaking out of Both Sides of their Mouths?

USCCB: NO WAY for NEW WAYS

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has reaffirmed that New Ways Ministry

dissents from Catholic teaching on homosexuality and is not a Catholic organization.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Bishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a statement:

In view of the recent booklet Marriage Equality: A Positive Catholic Approach, by Francis DeBernardo (published by New Ways Ministry), we, as the respective chairmen of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine and the Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage, wish to reaffirm Francis Cardinal George’s statement of February 12, 2010 and assure Catholics that in no manner is the position proposed by New Ways Ministry in conformity with Catholic teaching and in no manner is this organization authorized to speak on behalf of the Catholic Church or to identify itself as a Catholic organization.

Really it becomes curiouser and curiouser……..

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, retired bishop in the Archdiocese of Detroit, has consistently been a supporter of New Ways Ministry and has encouraged homosexual priests and bishops to “come out” and be truthful to themselves and others.

Conservative estimates suggest that about 33% of today’s Roman Catholic priests and bishops are gay.

Fr. Donald B. Cozens, author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood, wrote that with more than half of today’s priests and seminarians being gay, the priesthood is becoming a gay profession. Many who know the interior of the Catholic Church would argue that the priesthood has for centuries been a gay profession.

“If they were to eliminate all those who were homosexually oriented, the number would be so staggering that it would be like an atomic bomb; it would do damage to the church’s operation,” says A.W. Richard Sipe, a former priest and psychotherapist who has been studying the sexuality of priests for decades. Sipe also points out that to do away with gay priests “would mean the resignation of at least a third of the bishops of the world. And it’s very much against the tradition of the church; many saints have gay orientation and many popes had gay orientations.”

The existence of homosexual bishops in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other traditions is a matter of historical record. As far back as the eleventh century, Ralph, Archbishop of Tours had his lover installed as Bishop of Orléans, yet neither Pope Urban II, nor his successor Paschal II took action to depose either man.

Francis Spellman, the Cardinal Archbishop of New York (died 1967) was rumored during his lifetime to have been gay. Spellman’s biographer, John Cooney, reported that many interviewees took his homosexuality for granted. A book published in 1998 claims that during World War II, Spellman allegedly was carrying on a relationship with a chorus boy in the Broadway revue One Touch of Venus. Ironically,  Spellman defended Senator Joseph McCarthy’s 1953 investigations of subversives and homosexuals in the US federal government.

Eugene Kennedy, a specialist on sexuality and the priesthood and a former priest, wrote in his book, The Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality, that the Catholic Church….

“…had always had gay priests, and they have often been models of what priests should be. To say that these men should be kept from the priesthood is in itself a challenge to the grace of God and an insult to them and the people they serve.”

I agree with Tom Gumbleton…

It is time for bishops to “come out” and be truthful to themselves and others.

Hierarchical Governance : Hierarchical Smokescreens

Cardinal Rigali Incenses

On Ash Wednesday, March 9^th 2011, Michael Sean Winters wrote in NCR:

The announcement yesterday that 21 priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia were being placed on administrative leave demonstrates conclusively that the Dallas norms have failed….Last Sunday, those 21 priests presided at Mass in their parishes. Last Sunday, those 21 priests were in active ministry. The charges against them had been examined before and…what? They were either wrongly exonerated or diocesan officials decided to look the other way….And this is no ordinary diocese. It is led by a cardinal, indeed, by one of the most powerful cardinals in America given his active responsibilities as a member of the Congregation for Bishops. Over the past few years, the fastest way to become a bishop was to be a successful monsignor in Philadelphia….But we now know the man at the helm was not only derelict in his duties, he completely misunderstood the nature and import of the promises made to the faithful at Dallas….To be clear, the entire reputation of the entire American hierarchy, and that of the officials in the Vatican, is being weighed in the balance. There is nothing that has been done or said by SNAP, or by victims’ attorney Jeff Anderson, or by any of the Church’s critics that comes even close to the damage to the Church’s reputation inflicted by Cardinal Justin Rigali.

The New Evangelization? Forget about it. Pro-life activities? Not a chance. Advocacy for the poor? It rings hollow. If the leaders of the Church cannot be trusted to keep their most solemn pledge to protect children, they cannot be trusted at all. If they fail to see this, their moral sensibility is not merely skewed, it is dead. It is not only that they cannot be trusted, it is that they should not be trusted.

Michael Sean sees reality as it is. Frankly I wonder why it has taken him so long!

And then today (the second day of Lent 2011) we read that Pope Benedict has released another book about Jesus (convenient…just in time for Lent and all that…) and he rejects the idea that Jesus was a political revolutionary (e. g. a slap in the face for any remaining liberation theology people) and insists that violent uprisings must never be carried out in God’s name.

Maybe Pope Benedict is growing restless within his own authoritarian regime?

Vatican II (It is starting to seem so very long ago!) filled many of us with hopeful excitement about the future of the church. We seemed to be moving AWAY from an authoritarian and hierarchical church into communities of faith characterized by the radical freedom of Jesus and the Christian Gospels.

Thanks to Benedict-Ratzinger and John Paul-Wojtyla, almost all the Roman Catholic structural gains of the Second Vatican Council are being slowly but surely undermined and reversed.

For people who understand what the church is REALLY about, the Ratzinger/Wojtyla reform of the reform is a formula for demoralization and despair.

Nevertheless…..Christians don’t despair. Events in the Near East are more a stimulus than a warning.

Pope Benedict can publish as many books as he likes. The old gentleman just doesn’t get it: In our postmodern world people are looking for authenticity rather than authority.

Jesus exemplified the values people are seeking today: the values of sharing, solidarity, justice, dignity and service.

On this second day of Lent 2011, we should all set aside Pope Benedict’s new book and turn instead to the Gospel According to Mark:

 “You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you! No! Anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant……..”