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It’s Time to Relativize the Papacy


High on the list of reforms for the contemporary Roman Catholic Church must be a theologically-based reform of the Roman papacy.

Basic Principles for Papal Reform

 

1. The historic Jesus did not establish the papacy. When imperial Roma collapsed, the imperial papacy took its place.

2. The imperial papacy has flourished because an exaggerated self-serving and self-propagating authoritarianism replaced servant ministry as the key  institutional virtue.

3. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have consistently pushed and maneuvered to reinforce the imperial papacy:

      a. The anti-communist Polish Pope replaced communist authoritarianism with authoritarian Catholicism and appointed Joseph Ratzinger to enforce  the  party line.

      b. The post-Nazi German Pope abolished Vatican II collegiality with Rome-centerd (Pio Nono) nineteenth century papal imperialism.

4. Bishops should not be held accountable to the Pope. They should be held accountable to their people.

Now we need to get the word out and launch the reform.

 

 

 

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U.S. Military Archbishop tells Congress: DO NOT repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy


 

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services (right in photo below)  has urged Congress not to repeal the policy banning gays from openly serving in the military.

 

 

In the June 1 statement, the archbishop reiterated church teaching on homosexuality as defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. According to the catechism, “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” but homosexuals must be “accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” 

He said a repeal of the law — which prohibits homosexual activity in the military but eliminates sexual orientation as grounds for dismissal — might have “a negative effect on the role of the chaplain not only in the pulpit, but also in the classroom, in the barracks and in the office.” 

The archbishop, noting that gays already serve in the military, questioned if the repeal would “authorize these individuals to engage in activities considered immoral not only by the Catholic Church, but also by many other religious groups” and if it would cause changes in living conditions. 

The archbishop likened the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with the ways that alcoholics have benefited from Alcoholics Anonymous. “Like homosexuality, there is rarely a cure,” he said. “There is a control through a process, which is guarded by absolute secrecy.”

 The same old episcopal rhetoric…….

Posted on by Dr. John A. Dick · 1 Comment

Reader Reactions about Straight/Gay Catholic Schizophrenia


Reactions to yesterday’s post have been strong and abundant. Most readers resonate with my concerns about the straight/gay schizophrenia in the Church of Rome. A couple readers in private emails accused me of nasty anti-Catholicism and “disrespect for the successors of the Apostles.”

First of all I am really not anti-Catholic. The church has been my nourishment for nearly seven decades. I greatly value the Catholic tradition because it is so wonderfully incarnational and sacramental.

The Catholic tradition says we experience and commune with the Divine in, with, and through our bodies. All the more reason why we should have a healthy and happy sense of our own sexuality: at all levels in the church.

Am I disrespectful? Can’t imagine why. Healthy criticism is well….healthy and necessary. Jesus was particularly good at it as well. When Peter the Rock (whom many consider the very first Pope!) was particularly troublesome for Jesus, he had no problem calling him “Satan” and told him to get out of the way. I certainly would not call the hierarchy “Satan” but would like to tell some of them where to go.

Official Roman Catholic leadership needs to get with it. I don’t mind helping them.

Now again my main criticism: Our Catholic leadership suffers from a severe case of arrested sexual development. They wrap themselves in purple and crimson late medieval ball gowns and make pronouncements about sex, sexuality, and gender that are ignorant and dangerous.  

The Church of Jesus Christ deserves something much better!

John Greenleaf

PS We are ALL successors of the Apostles!

 

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The Great Catholic (Self) Deception: Publicly Straight + Privately Gay


Rome demands straight behavior and gay bishops, priests, and seminarians retreat into queer schizophrenia.

 

“I am suggesting that the reality of bishops’  sexual orientation/behavior and the need to hide it is a significant element in clerical culture and structure that keeps us from facing basic facts about how that culture operates and affects millions of people”. — Richard Sipe

Vatican regulations:

The push is on once again to purge gays from Roman Catholic seminaries. In 2005, the Vatican issued guidelines that would strictly limit the admission of gay men to Catholic seminaries. The guidelines, which supported existing rules that had been widely ignored, were clear and direct. Men who actively “practice homosexuality” should be barred from priestly formation. Seminary rectors were ordered to reject candidates who “show profoundly deep-rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture.”

The Vatican followed up in 2008 with a clarification. “It is not enough to be sure that he is capable of abstaining from genital activity,” ruled the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, which issued the initial guidelines. “It is also necessary to evaluate his sexual orientation.”  

The hierarchical church just doesn’t’ like gays.

In January, the Catholic bishops of Uganda argued against the death penalty for homosexuals but reminded their people that “Homosexuals have the need of conversion and repentance, “ because “homosexual acts are immoral and are violations of divine and natural law.”

In February,  Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, reiterated a condemnation of  “New Ways Ministry” with its a gay-positive advocacy for lesbian and gay Catholics.

In April, during his visit to Chile,  Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, conflated pedophilia with homosexuality.

In May, in Fatima, Pope Benedict stressed that gay marriage is one of the most “insidious and dangerous” threats facing the world today.

The Pope’s Christmas address to the Roman Curia two years ago was even clearer: “saving humanity from homosexuality,” the Pope told the church’s central governing body, was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.  

Today, US Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, continues to reiterate that “homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity… intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life…. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

Nevertheless, the Catholic reality is increasingly gay.

As Fr. Donald Cozzens has often observed, and several studies have confirmed, about 50% of today’s priests and seminarians are gay. Most recent studies suggest in fact that today’s seminaries, and seminary rectors, are probably closer to 80% gay.

 

In some seminaries in fact, I hear, straight students feel so estranged from seminary life that administrators are offering discussion groups to help them understand gay culture.

If current trends continue, the priesthood of the twenty-first century will likely be perceived as a predominately gay profession.

Gay bishops?

If 50% of Catholic priests are gay, I suspect that more than a couple bishops are gay. Bishops of course try to carefully cover their tracks, especially if they want to advance in the hierarchy. Some, on occasion however, are rather reckless.

A couple years ago when on vacation in Europe I ran into a prominent, incognito-traveling, American archbishop who was having a grand time in Paris with his “nephew.” He nearly had cardiac arrest one morning at the hotel breakfast buffet when I greeted him with a loud “Good Morning Archbishop!”

Then there is the strange case of the homophobic US bishop who was appointed as a “apostolic visitor” to look for signs of homosexuality in US seminaries, when they were all scrutinized in 2005. One of my friends was rector of an examined seminary. A week before the examiner bishop arrived to do his scrutiny, the rector got a phone call from his own bishop. “Be careful,” he told the rector. “Keep all young seminarians away from the apostolic visitor because he is fond of young men and well known for his hands-on-approach.”

To be or not to be?

Being gay is not the issue. Being honest is.

Church leadership has much to learn about human sexuality.

 First of all, however, church leadership has to learn what it means to be honest.

Posted on by Dr. John A. Dick

Is Obama the Moses America Needs or Wants?


 

Like the historic Moses, Barack Obama is a champion of freedom. Now some fear that, like the Hebrew Moses, Obama may be as well a prophet of disappointment. After leading the Israelites for 40 years, Moses was denied entry to the Promised Land. The story of the current American Moses is still being played out.

From the Pilgrims to the Founding Fathers, from the American Civil War to the civil rights movement, Americans have turned to Moses figures in periods of crisis because the Moses narrative offers a road map for hope in troubled times.

The Moses image was so pervasive in the early American colonies that, on July 4, 1776, after signing the Declaration of Independence, the American Colonial Congress asked Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to propose a seal for the United States. Their recommendation was a seal showing Moses, leading the Israelites through the Red Sea as the water overwhelms the pharaoh. In their eyes, Moses was America’s true Founding Father.

Hollywood film producer Cecil B. DeMille turned Moses into a symbol of American power during the Cold War. The 1956 epic The Ten Commandments opened with DeMille appearing onscreen. “The theme of this picture is whether men ought to be ruled by God’s law or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator,” he said. “The same battle continues throughout the world today.” To drive home his point, DeMille cast mostly Americans as Israelites and Europeans as Egyptians! And in the film’s final shot, Charlton Heston adopts the pose of the Statue of Liberty and quotes the line from the third book of Moses — Leviticus — inscribed on the Liberty Bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

Barack Obama is the first U.S. President to hold a Passover Seder in the White House. This is no accident: the story of Moses is, above all, a narrative of hope.

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt: former U.S. presidential Moses figures. And Now Barack Obama. But President Obama needs to pay close attention to the entire Moses story……The Bible outlines at least a dozen rebellions in which his people attempted to overthrow Moses.

Moses learned that the strongest leaders face the harshest criticism; but they hold fast against their opponents. This may be Obama’s biggest challenge.

Posted on by Dr. John A. Dick

SEX HURDLES FOR CATHOLIC BISHOPS


 

Helping bishops understand who they are as sexual beings…..

 

I understand that some bishops took offense at my first posting about continuing sex ed for bishops….especially the suggestion that they meditate on the Canticle of Canticles. No offense intended!

Certainly all bishops must understand themselves as “sexual” and how they function as  sexual men.

Today’s episcopal sex ed exercise is rather simple. I would like each bishop to sit down and write a thoughtful essay titled: “I am a sexual bishop.”  

The following points can help get your reflection started and keep it well-focused.

Important points for Episcopal sexuality reflection:

  • understanding your own sexuality means you feel more comfortable with yourself and helps you relate better to others
  • what kind of a sexual person are you?
  • sexuality is more than genital sexual activity – it’s about the whole person, your experiences, your social context, and your relationships
  • how does this affect you?
  • sexuality is a natural and healthy part of living.
  • are you currently living your sexuality in a natural and healthy way?
  • sexuality includes physical, ethical, spiritual, psychological and emotional dimensions.
  • how do you see these dimensions in your life?
  • individuals express their sexuality in a variety of ways.
  • how do you express your sexuality?
  • sexual relationships should never be coercive or exploitative.
  • what does this say to you about your ministry as bishop?
  • sexuality is part of the package you come with when you’re born, and is with you. throughout your life. It’s wrapped around every part of who you are. You’ve already got it, but you may need help in learning how to use it in positive ways.

After you have completed your essay, we will make arrangements for you to meet privately with a psychologist who will go over your essay with you. Some bishops will of course be complimented on their sexual health. Others will be given pointers for further growth. Some bishops will be asked to begin therapy and immediately send their resignations to Rome for “personal health reasons.”

 

 

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Has Pope Benedict Moved Beyond Cardinal Ratzinger’s Theology?


 

It is polite and courteous to give someone the benefit of the doubt….and an exercise of Christian virtue as well. Vatican PR  — during this sexual abuse Roman Catholic tsunami – – would have us believe that Pope Benedict has learned a few things and is now more  open-minded and better attuned to contemporary movements and issues.  I hope so. Nevertheless, as I see how the abysmal new English missal has been imposed on the Anglo-speaking world, how nineteenth-century-minded Opus Dei bishops are springing up like mushrooms after a Spring rain, and how the far-to-the-right Legio Christi is being reconstituted, I have my doubts.  Yes of course you can teach an old dog new tricks. I don’t think however that this old German shepherd has given up his nineteenth century theological ethos.

After the Second Vatican Council Joseph Ratzinger spoke of Gaudium et spes as in spots “downright Pelagian,” as too optimistic, reflecting  too much Thomas Aquinas and too little Augustine of Hippo. Ratzinger’s emphasis was more on the Cross than the Incarnation, as when he wrote: “an orientation of the Church towards the world which would mean a turning away from the Cross would lead not to a renewal of the Church but to its decline and eventual decay.”

In the first twenty years after the Vatican II, the approach and the method of Gaudium et spes largely prevailed in pastoral practice and in theological reflection. Emphasis given to experience in catechesis and stress placed on terms like “relevance.” One thinks immediately of theologians – greatly disliked by theologian Ratzinger – like Karl Rahner, Bernard Lonergan and Edward Schillebeeckx. One thinks as well about successive efforts to construct a theology of secularization, a theology of hope, a political theology, a theology of liberation in several forms, contextual theologies for various cultural and historical contexts.

Today, however, the prevailing theology that has won Roman favor is not the one that was taken in Gaudium et spes. The approach of a Karl Rahner or an Edward Schillebeeckx, which looks for points of contact with contemporary culture, has been replaced by an approach typical, say, of Henri de Lubac, Joseph Ratzinger and Hans Urs von Balthasar. What is being proposed is often called a “a postmodern Augustinian Thomism.”

It is all rather strange. It is in fact so very Augustinian that I doubt that it could be called any kind of Thomism and certainly not modern. It is a theology that sees the world caught up in hopeless chaos: the new barbarians are at the gates and it is the contemporary culture of death vs. the ecclesiastical civilization of love. The possibility of dialogue is denied in favor of out-talking and ignoring the “progressives” and “dissenters.” For the new Augustinians, like Ratzinger, it is black or white: It is the Gospel or post-modern chaos. “Unless you believe you will not understand” was the old Augustinian theme. It is being applied today with such energy and with so little nuance that I think even Augustine must be turning in his grave. 

Lest we forget, I suggest a re-reading of the major condemnations of contemporary theology and theologians that came from Cardinal Ratzinger’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Perspectives on the theology of Pope Benedict XVI

Timeline of principal doctrinal decisions, documents, 1981-2005
 

 

 VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Here is a list of the principal public documents and
decisions issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 to
2005 when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was prefect of the office. He was elected
Pope Benedict XVI April 19.

 

 

 — March 12, 1983: Notification reaffirming the excommunication of
traditionalist Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngo Dinh Thuc, formerly of Hue, Vietnam, and
his accomplices for the illicit ordination of priests and bishops.

 — Oct. 4, 1983: Notification to Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen of Seattle
that an apostolic visitation of his archdiocese would be conducted, focused
primarily on liturgy, the education of seminarians, clergy formation, the
marriage tribunal and ministry to homosexuals. (The process ended with the
appointment in 1985 of an auxiliary bishop who was given primary responsibility over
many areas of archdiocesan governance.)

 — Nov. 26, 1983: “Declaration on Masonic Associations,” saying Masonic
principles and rituals “embody a naturalistic” religion incompatible with
Christianity. Those who knowingly embrace the principles or attend the rituals are
involved in serious sin and may not receive Communion.

 — Aug. 6, 1984: “Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of
Liberation,’” although applauding efforts to promote social justice, criticized
theologians who borrow “uncritically” from Marxist ideology, reducing salvation to
the liberation of the poor from worldly oppressors.

 — March 11, 1985: Notification on the book “Church: Charism and Power” by
Brazilian Franciscan Father Leonardo Boff, who argued that the church’s current
hierarchical structure was not that intended by Christ and that authority can
spring from the community of the faithful. The notification said the book was
“dangerous” and asked Father Boff to refrain from publishing or speaking
publicly for one year.

 — March 22, 1986: “Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation,” a
second document on liberation theology providing guidelines for the theology’s
development, insisting it have as its goal the liberation of people from sin, not
simply from sinful social structures.

 — July 10, 1986: Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal Ratzinger head of a
12-member commission charged with drafting the “Catechism of the Catholic
Church.” The text was released in French in 1992 and in English in 1994.

 — July 25, 1986: Letter regarding the suspension of U.S. Father Charles E.
Curran from teaching Catholic theology because of his dissenting views on
several issues in sexual ethics. Father Curran was a professor of theology at The
Catholic University of America, Washington.

 — Sept. 15, 1986: Notification on the book “The Church With a Human Face: A
New and Expanded Theology of Ministry” by Dominican Father Edward
Schillebeeckx, saying the book was “in disagreement with the teaching of the church,”
particularly regarding ordination and the possibility of lay people presiding at
the Eucharist. However, the doctrinal congregation did not apply any penalties
to the Belgian-born priest, who already had retired from teaching.

 — Oct. 1, 1986: “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the
Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.” The letter called for “special concern and
pastoral attention” to homosexuals, but also for clarity that homosexual activity
is immoral.

 — Feb. 22, 1987: “Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and
on the Dignity of Procreation,” clarifying the church’s position on assisted
fertilization techniques and other biomedical issues, reaffirming teaching that
an embryo is human from the moment of conception and that conception is moral
only in the context of sexual intercourse within marriage.

 — June 29, 1988: Telegram warning traditionalist French Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre he would be in schism if he ordained bishops without papal consent.
The archbishop went ahead with the ordinations and died in schism.

 — Feb. 16, 1989: Note regarding the moral rule of “Humanae Vitae” and
pastoral duty, saying couples who find it difficult to follow church teaching about
birth control “deserve great respect and love,” but the church is firm in
teaching that contraception is an “intrinsically disordered act” that is
prohibited without exception.


 — Oct. 15, 1989: “Letter on Certain Aspects of Christian Meditation,”
cautioning Catholics about using Buddhist, Hindu and other meditation techniques
that place the focus of prayer on the self rather than on God.


 — May 24, 1990: “Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian,”
underlining the important role theologians have in clarifying, explaining and
exploring church teaching, but also calling on theologians who disagree with
church teaching not to use the mass media to publicize their views or try to
pressure for change in the church.

 — Jan. 31, 1992: Note on the book “The Sexual Creators, an Ethical Proposal
for Concerned Christians” by Canadian Oblate Father Andre Guindon. The
Vatican said the book presented questionable views on premarital sex, homosexual
relationships and contraception, particularly because Father Guindon seemed to
reduce moral goodness to subjective human intentions.

 — March 30, 1992: “Instruction on Some Aspects of the Use of the
Instruments of Social Communication in Promoting the Doctrine of the Faith,” reaffirming
church law requiring prepublication theological review of manuscripts dealing
with church teaching.

 — May 28, 1992: “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some
Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion,” emphasizing the essential bond
between the local church and universal church, particularly through recognition of
the authority of the pope.

 — July 23, 1992: “Some Considerations Concerning the Response to
Legislative Proposals on Nondiscrimination of Homosexual Persons,” saying, “It is not
unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account” when making laws
concerning “adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic
coaches and in military recruitment.”

 — Sept. 14, 1994: “Letter to Bishops Regarding the Reception of Holy
Communion by Divorced and Remarried Members of the Faithful,” saying the church
cannot ignore Jesus’ clear teaching on the indissolubility of marriage and
reaffirming that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics may not receive Communion.

 — Oct. 28, 1995: Response to questions about the doctrine contained in the
apostolic letter, “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis,” saying the church’s teaching that
women cannot be ordained priests belongs “to the deposit of faith” and has
been taught “infallibly” by Pope John Paul.

 — Jan. 2, 1997: Notification on the book “Mary and Human Liberation” by Sri
Lankan Oblate Father Tissa Balasuriya, saying the book contained heretical
statements regarding Mary, original sin, Christ’s redemptive role and papal
infallibility. The Oblate was excommunicated, but reconciled with the church a
year later.

 — May 30, 1997: Revised “Regulations for Doctrinal Examination” of
theologians and their work, encouraging a more direct role for the theologian’s bishop
or religious superior, allowing the possibility of naming an advocate and an
adviser for the theologian, and permitting face-to-face meetings between the
theologian and congregation members.

 — Aug. 15, 1997: Publication of the final Latin “typical edition” of the
“Catechism of the Catholic Church,” containing some corrections and additions to
the 1992 text, including a stronger condemnation of the death penalty and an
acknowledgment that science has not determined the cause of homosexuality.

 — June 24, 1998: Posthumous notification concerning the writings of Indian
Jesuit Father Anthony De Mello, saying some of the priest’s views “are
incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm.” It particularly cited
those views presenting God as an impersonal cosmic reality, organized
religion as an obstacle to self-awareness and Jesus as one master among many.

 — Oct. 31, 1998: “Considerations on ‘The Primacy of the Successor of Peter
in the Mystery of the Church,'” saying that, although Pope John Paul called
for an ecumenical discussion of how primacy could be exercised in a united
church, “the full communion desired by Christ among those who confess to be his
disciples requires the common recognition of a universal ecclesial ministry,” and
the Catholic faith holds that that ministry belongs to the pope.

 — May 31, 1999: Notification regarding School Sister of Notre Dame Jeannine
Gramick and Salvatorian Father Robert Nugent, barring the U.S. team from
further pastoral ministry to homosexuals, saying they advanced “doctrinally
unacceptable” positions “regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts and the
objective disorder of the homosexual inclination.”

 — June 26, 2000: Publication of a 43-page booklet containing the complete
“Message of Fatima,” including the so-called “third secret” given to three
Portuguese children in 1917. In his commentary, Cardinal Ratzinger said the third
part of the message is a symbolic prophecy of the church’s 20th-century
struggles with evil political systems and of the church’s ultimate triumph.

 — Aug. 6, 2000: “Dominus Iesus,” a declaration on the “exclusive, universal
and absolute” value of Jesus Christ and his church for salvation.

 — Sept. 14, 2000: “Instruction on Prayers for Healing,” noting the
importance of believing that God wants to free people from suffering, but encouraging
local bishops to be vigilant that the services do not become occasions for
hysteria or focus more on the so-called gift of healing possessed by certain
individuals than on God.

 — Jan. 24, 2001: Notification on the book “Toward a Christian Theology of
Religious Pluralism” by Belgian Jesuit Father Jacques Dupuis, warning that
although Father Dupuis’ intentions were good his 1997 book contained ambiguous
statements and insufficient explanations that could lead readers to “erroneous or
harmful conclusions” about Christ’s role as the unique and universal savior.

 — Feb. 22, 2001: Notification regarding certain writings of Redemptorist
Father Marciano Vidal, a Spanish moral theologian. At the congregation’s
request, the priest agreed to revise several of his books to emphasize the church’s
official position on contraception, homosexuality, masturbation, abortion and
other issues.

 — May 18, 2001: Letter to all bishops “regarding the more serious offenses,
‘graviora delicta’ reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith.” The letter said Pope John Paul had given the congregation juridical control
over cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests, classifying it as one of
several “graver offenses” against church law. The other offenses include acts
committed by priests against the sanctity of the Eucharist and against the
sacrament of penance.

 — July 1, 2001: Note on the doctrinal decrees concerning the thought and
work of Father Antonio Rosmini, saying positions attributed to the Italian
philosopher and condemned by the Vatican in 1887 did not accurately reflect Father
Rosmini’s thinking. The 2001 decision removed a major stumbling block to the
19th-century priest’s beatification.

 — Aug. 5, 2002: Publication of the declaration of the excommunication of
seven Catholic women from various countries who had attempted to be ordained
Catholic priests. The congregation had sent them a warning July 10 asking them to
indicate their “repentance for the most serious offense they had committed.”
The Vatican said the ordaining bishop, the leader of a breakaway church, had
already been excommunicated.

 — Jan. 16, 2003: Doctrinal note on the participation of Catholics in
political life saying that while Catholics are free to choose among political
parties and strategies for promoting the common good, they cannot claim that freedom
allows them to support abortion, euthanasia or other attacks on human life.

 — Feb. 7-14, 2003: Revised norms issued for dealing with “serious offenses”
against the sacraments; the new norms included an expedited process for
laicizing priests guilty of sexually abusing minors.

 — July 31, 2003: “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal
Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons,” reaffirming church teaching
requiring compassion for homosexuals, but saying legal recognition of gay unions is
contrary to human nature and ultimately harmful to society.

 — July 31, 2004: “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the
Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World,” saying the
subjugation of women is the result of original sin and not of God’s original design
for creation. Rather than ignore the God-given differences between men and
women, the church calls on them to collaborate for the good of the family, society
and the church.

 — Dec. 13, 2004: Notification regarding the book “Jesus Symbol of God” by
U.S. Jesuit Father Roger Haight, which said the book contained “serious
doctrinal errors against the Catholic and divine faith of the church,” particularly
regarding the divinity of Jesus and the universality of salvation in him. The
Jesuit was forbidden to teach as a Catholic theologian.

 — Feb. 11, 2005: Statement and commentary reaffirming church teaching that
only priests can administer the anointing of the sick and saying the doctrine
must be “definitively” accepted by Catholics.  

 

Posted on by Dr. John A. Dick

New missal translation : Murder on the disoriented express


Beware: “Reformers of the Reform” at work in your parish…..

What good furtune to have the clear vision and direct langugage of Eugene Cullen Kennedy.

With unabashed disgust, Kennedy,  writing 27 May 2010 in the National Catholic Reporter, denounces the new English missal translation …… “Ordinary believers are the innocent victims of the New Translation’s manslaughter of Mystery and of numerous terrorist attacks on the vision and theology of Vatican II.”

Contemporary English-speaking Catholics around the world are about to be force-fed the new translation despite thousands of appeals that the Vatican “just wait,” and despite widespread objections from theologians, expert translators, and teachers of English prose and poetry.  

Kennedy’s words should be carved in stone because he sees the liturgical language issue clearly for what it is: Pope Benedict’s big move to undermine more completely Vatican II and return the Catholic Church to Vatican I’s Tridentine rigidity and triumphalism.

Major excerpts:

Like all terrorists, these campaigners (“Reformers of the reform” jwg)  believe that Heavenly mansions await them for the earthly damage they do in restoring religion to the slavery of obsessive masters from whom Jesus liberated it. Not for them the church that respects conscience and other religions, that understands and waits for all us limping humans to catch up with it, that celebrates life and embraces and forgives sinners.

 Vatican II makes faith too easy, in their judgment; they reject a faith that elevates people for spiritual growth and propose a regime that puts them down to keep them in their place. Espousing a “tough” religion doesn’t do much for anybody else but it certainly makes them feel good about themselves.

 Everything, including the New Translation, squeezes the spirit out of familiar liturgical readings and replaces it with hot air. These efforts flow from the sweeping campaign initiated by Pope John Paul II (Calling him Pope John the Great is part of their program too) to restore the hierarchical church.

 The hierarchical church’s outdated structure, whose origins were secular rather than sacred, was not a victim of Vatican II but of history itself and the best thing to do is stand clear as it settles into clouds of dust. With his combination of Teutonic rigor and a shopkeeper’s smile, Pope Benedict XVI now charges the bishops, as if they didn’t have enough trouble, with refurbishing the split-level palace that places the pope alone on top, monsignors and assorted officials on the skybox level and lay men and women on the bottom.

 The failure to understand that Vatican II restored the authentic tradition of collegiality to the church has led to a record level of canonizations on the principle that the more saints the better to buttress the multi-level ecclesiastical dormitory. The little murders of these reformers of the reform of Vatican II include the comedy of telling priests who don’t know the language that they can say Mass in Latin and the tragedy of making nice with the Lefebvre heretics who are the Confederate money in the church’s collection plate.

 The New Translation is a big murder, however, because it represents an assault on the language that bears the Mystery of belief. The translation now in use reveals the purity of theologically based phrases. The New Translation now slays that graceful Mystery by throwing out the baby with the baptismal water.

Posted on by Dr. John A. Dick

It looks like 1950 but it is really 2009 with Bishop Blair in Toldeo


Bishop Blair at St Joseph Parish in February 2009

Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo has named the priest responsible for promoting vocations in his diocese to also be pastor of a church famous for celebrating the Tridentine Mass that was normative before before the Second Vatican Council.

Among new personnel changes announced last Saturday for the northwestern Ohio diocese, the bishop said Fr Adam Hertzfeld, 34, would become pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in addition to his duties as diocesan vocation director.  The Rome-trained priest has been vocations director the past two years.  He will begin his additional assignment on July 1st.

Fr Hetzfeld was ordained in 2002 after earning an undergraduate degree at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and completing theological studies at the Gregorian University in Rome.  He completed a doctorate in moral theology at the Alphonsianum Academy in Rome in 2008 with a thesis on the writings of Dietrich von Hildebrand and the role “affectivity” plays in religious conversion. 

Bishop Blair, a Detroit native and former secretary to Cardinal Edmund Szoka, has been head of the diocese since 2003.  He is a member of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on doctrine and last year was appointed by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to conduct a doctrinal investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an organization that represents about 95% of the 59.000 religious sisters in the United States.