Commentary:
Ireland used to be the vocation pool; the fountain of priestly and religious vocations. The world benefited from the work of Irish missionaries, especially priests and nuns that transversed the world in sharing the Good News of Salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They showed others what the missionary work entailed; the sacrifice of leaving homeland, most times for good. Some Irish sons and daughters never returned home, burying their Irish bodies within humanities cemetaries in the places where their souls came to know as home. Faithful servants of the Catholic Church, the face of Ireland and the visible sign of the universal Church at its best, these Irish missionaries represented both home and church. Like their popular patron saint, St. Patrick, their shamrock rocked the world and vitalized the church.
Today, unfortunately this enormous pool is dying; quick and swift. The Ireland of St. Patrick has become dumb to the call of ecclessiastical service within the Catholic Church. The young rather than give their life fortune- themselves-to the Church are not hunters of the capitalist paradise; one that is reshaping the face of Irish society as one of the fastest growing economies in Europe.
Fortunately, the fruits of the Irish work is not in vain. Their works has yielded enormous fruits in the accreting vocations in Africa and Asia, that now seems to make the Irish envy these continents. Yet it is with pride that we salute the good and faithful Irish priests and nuns, who planted good seeds and sowed good examples of what it means to be Catholic, self-giving, and totally dedicated.
We do hope that the phoenix will rise again and that Ireland Catholics would once again be blessed by good and dedicated priests, in spite of its recent diminished public damning imageries. Until that time, the Irish church can also be blessed by those they had blessed, and within the continuity of the missionary spirit benefit from the works of African, Asian, and other priests and nuns from the Irish field of the Labour of Love. To whom much is given, much is expected (Luke 6:38; Acts 20:35).
Why Ireland Is Running Out of Priests
By BRYAN COLL / BELFAST Bryan Coll / Belfast – Sun Nov 29, 10:10 am ET
Wanted: Clean-living young people for a long career (women need not apply). Responsibilities: Varied. Spiritual guidance, visiting the sick, public relations, marriages (own marriage not permitted). Hours: On call at all times. Salary: None, bar basic monthly stipend.
He hasn't placed classified ads in the Irish press just yet, but according to Father Patrick Rushe, coordinator of vocations with the Catholic Church in Ireland, "we've done just about everything" else to attract young men to the priesthood. And yet, the call of service in one of Europe's most religious countries is falling on more deaf ears than ever. (See pictures of Pope Benedict XVI.)
Earlier this month, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, made a grim prediction about the future of the church in Ireland: If more young priests aren't found quickly, the country's parishes may soon not have enough clergy to survive. He told the congregation at St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin that his own diocese had 46 priests aged 80 or over, but only two under 35 years old. It's a similar story all over the island. According to a 2007 study of Catholic dioceses in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, about half of all priests are between the ages of 55 and 74.
Ireland's ties to the Catholic Church run deep. The ordination of a family member was once regarded as a moment of great prestige, especially in rural areas. Even as recently as 1990, over 80% of Irish people said they attended Mass at least once a week. But the country's relationship with the church began to change dramatically in the mid-1990s when Ireland's economy began to take off, ushering in years of unprecedented growth. Soon, disaffection replaced devotion among Ireland's newly rich younger generation. Most devastating of all, however, were the sex-abuse scandals involving pedophile priests that surfaced around the same time. Criticism over the handling of the case of Father Brendan Smyth - a priest who had sexually abused children for over 40 years - even led to the collapse of the Irish government in 1994. (Prime Minister Albert Reynolds was forced to stand down amid public anger over the lengthy delays in extraditing Smyth to Northern Ireland, where he was wanted on child abuse charges.)
But more was still to come. Last May, the government published the findings of a nine-year inquiry into child abuse at church-run schools, orphanages and hospitals from the 1930s to the 1990s. The report, which described "endemic sexual abuse" at boys' schools and the "daily terror" of physical abuse at other institutions, shook Ireland to its core and left the reputation of the church and the religious orders that ran its schools in tatters. Then, this week, another government inquiry found that the church and police colluded to cover up numerous cases of child sex abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese from 1975 to 2004, prompting the head of the Catholic church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, to apologize to the Irish people. "No one is above the law in this country," he said. There are now calls for similar inquiries to be held in every diocese in Ireland. (Read: "For Ireland's Catholic Schools, a Catalog of Horrors.").
The scandals have undoubtedly made it difficult to bring new men into the priesthood. Father Brian D'Arcy, superior of the Passionist Monastery in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, says the only way to reverse the trend may be to relax the strict rules governing priests' lifestyles. Top of his list? The vow of celibacy. "Of course it would be a big help if priests were allowed to marry or if we could ordain married men," he says. Earlier this month, he says, a priest in the Derry diocese, Father Sean McKenna, announced to his congregation that he was in a relationship with a woman and was stepping down. His parishioners gave him a standing ovation. "Good men are being driven out by foolish [rules]," D'Arcy says. (Read a brief history of celibacy.).
But some clerical leaders say that allowing married or female clergy won't solve the problem. "They're easy solutions on paper but the crisis is deeper," says Father Patrick Rushe, vocations coordinator for the 26 dioceses in Ireland and Northern Ireland. He points out that the Anglican Church, which permits both married and female clergy, is also facing a shortage of vocations. "[Becoming a priest] is a lifetime commitment and a sacrifice. I think that's what's putting people off. It's not just celibacy," he says.
The church's solution was to launch a recruitment campaign last year, holding special Masses, workshops and conferences aimed at attracting young men to the priesthood. The initiative seems to have paid off, at least in the short term. Last September, a total of 38 Irish men began to study for the priesthood at seminaries in Ireland and Italy. The figure may pale in comparison to the 100 or so new seminarians who signed up annually in the 1960s, but it was the highest intake for the church in a decade. Five years ago, there was only one ordination in Northern Ireland out of a Catholic population of 700,000 people. "You're not just going to pull somebody off the street and they'll suddenly become a priest," Rushe says. "It's a decision that can take a long time to make." (See pictures of new hope for Belfast.).
Vincent Cushnahan, 29, currently the youngest serving priest in Ireland, says the church also needs to carry out structural reforms, such as cutting the number of parishes (and, therefore, the number of priests required to fill them) and giving greater responsibilities to lay people. In some Irish parishes, for example, non-ordained church members are now responsible for roles such as youth ministry. (See pictures of church hats.)
Cushnahan knows how hard it is for the church to recruit young men these days - becoming a priest was a difficult decision for him to make. "I had to forsake married life, my own house, money," he says. "[Being a priest] can be more isolating and counter-cultural than it has been in the past. It's more challenging, but also more rewarding because of that."
Read: Keeping The Faith: Still Doing God's Work."
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Irish Bishops heavily indicted in Priests Child Sex Abuse
Report indicates that Irish Church stand accused of covering up sex abuse of minors:
Commentary:
A New Irish report heavily indicts the Irish Bishops of the Catholic Church of elaborate cover-up relative to children sexual abuse within the Irish Catholic Church. This report coming on the heels of another one regarding the modes of abuses of children confined to church institutions reflect another bad publicity and despicable stunt upon the image of the Catholic heritage in Ireland. This, too, has significant ramifications for the worldwide church, especially given the Irish exportation of her missionaries across the world into various global polities, including the United States, Africa, Asia, and even Australia, among other global spaces.
The impacts of these Irish missionaries can be greatly felt in many areas. However, the impact upon the formation of priestly candidates in seminaries across the world is to be particularly noted. Their examples, ethos, and ethics, as well as their lifestyles, have enormous influence upon these candidates and the diverse church communities that owe their emergence or sustenance to the missionary drive of the Irish missionaries. This is especially because of their ability to transmit and ingrain certain values and consciousness upon the psyche of the native clergy and Christians; including implanting particularly bad examples among these cleric in the area of priestly celibacy and shaping a screwed view of human sexuality in general.
Irish missionaries have been acute agents in the expansion of global Catholicism. Many, including Africans owes a grand appreciation for their enonmous and most times exemplifying modest lifestyles, often consistently in line with the values, orientation, and ethics of the Christian gospel and the doctrinal teachings of our beloved Church. The Irish dedication to social services, including their services to humanity in the arena of missionary and educational initiatives, forged a significant differences in the lives of individuals and fortunes of specific communities.
Bishop Joseph Shanahan is one example of an intrepid and courageously hardworking bishop whose influences extend across national spaces in Southeastern Nigeria, the Middle Belt to eastern Africa. Other Irish missionaries were also stellar witnesses to the ideals of self-abnegation and sacrificial giving of selves, internalizing and embodying sufferings living in arid conditions, in attestation to our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. For these acts, we congratulate and celebrate their positive examples.
In other cases, these missionaries were equally agents of abuses of Africans under their care. It is our hope that these were rare incidences. However, the recent case of an Irish-born Nigerian Archbishop, Richard Burke, of the St. Patrick's (Kiltegan) Society, accused of molesting a Nigerian woman beginning from the age of 14 in an hospital unit in Nigeria, and carried out over 20 years of relationship with her even while she was married, bespeaks volume as to the subtle nature of such abuses carried out by Irish missionaries, and also of the examples they transmitted to their Nigerian and African counterparts. The instances of Catholic missionary abuses rendered by such African spiritual and literary writers like Patrick Malidoma Some in his book, Of Water and Spirit (cf. pages 109-111) would make one cringe with nausea and blush in shame of one's Catholic heritage..
The cases of the Central African Republic is another example. Herein, the Vatican acting against African clergy in two diocese, including removing their bishops, precipitated the African clergy to instance the sexual abuse scandals and bad instances of European clergy, also points to a scary manifestation of the bad models of priestly lifestyles which was perpetuated and reinforced over time by European missionaries in Africa and globally, where they carried out their works.
In some sector, it is believed that some of the missionaries were deliberately scurried to the mission territories in Africa and Asia dumped there steering them away from an enlightening European public, adverse to some of their perverting sexualities.
The Irish church widespread role in missionary work, and the fact that even in America the majority of priests accused in the minor sexual abuse scandals are of Irish origin or descent, necessitates that the Vatican authorities investigate the Irish role in the widespread globalized culture of priestly sexual abuses. This is not to downplay the enormous positive roles that many of these Irish missionaries have played in the evangelizing work of the Church. To these great sons and daughters of Ireland we stand in debted, but for those who tarnish the Irish and ecclesiastical images by their conscious acts, we are truly ashamed of their acts of shame.
Irish Catholic Church and Sexual Abuse Scandal: Damning Report Indicts Bishops of Cover-up:
News World news Ireland Irish church and police covered up child sex abuse, says report. Devastating report on abuse of children by clergy from 1975 to 2004 accuses church and Garda of colluding to cover up scandal
.
Roman Catholic church in Ireland hid decades of child abuse by its leaders to protect the church's reputation, inquiry found. Photograph: Danilo Krstanovic/Reuters
Ireland's police colluded with the Catholic church in covering up clerical child abuse in Dublin on a huge scale, according to a damning report on decades of sex crimes committed by priests.
The devastating report on the sexual and physical abuse of children by the clergy in Ireland's capital from 1975 to 2004 accuses four former archbishops, a host of clergy and senior members of the Garda Síochána of a cover-up.
The three-volume report found that the "maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church and the preservation of its assets" was more important than justice for the victims.
Four former archbishops in Dublin – John Charles McQuaid, who died in 1973, Dermot Ryan, who died in 1984, Kevin McNamara, who died in 1987, and retired Cardinal Desmond Connell – were found to have failed to report their knowledge of child sexual abuse to the Garda from the 1960s to the 1980s. But the report added that all the archbishops of the diocese in the period were aware of complaints.
The report, launched today by the Irish justice minister, Dermot Ahern, also concluded that the vast majority of priests turned a "blind eye" to abuse, although some individuals did bring complaints to superiors, which were not acted upon.
The report, commissioned by the government, strongly criticises the Garda and says senior members of the force regarded priests as being outside their investigative remit. The relationship between some senior gardai and priests and bishops in Dublin was described as "inappropriate".
Rather than investigate complaints from children, gardai simply reported the matter to the Dublin Catholic diocese, the report says. The Garda Síochána is accused of connivance with the church in stifling at least one complaint of abuse and letting the alleged perpetrator flee the country.
Ahern said there should be no hiding place for abusers. "The persons who committed these dreadful crimes will continue to be pursued. They must come to know that there is no hiding place. That justice – even where it may have been delayed – will not be denied," he said.
He told a press conference: "I read the report as justice minister. But on a human level – as a father and as a member of this community – I felt a growing sense of revulsion and anger at the horrible, evil acts committed against children."
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre welcomed the report, saying it was "another acknowledgment of the abject failure of our society to take care of our children".
The report states that senior clerical figures covered up the abuse over nearly 30 years and that the structures and rules of the church facilitated that cover-up. It says that state authorities facilitated the cover-up by allowing the church to be beyond the reach of the law.
The Murphy Commission of Inquiry into the abuse of children in Dublin identified 320 people who complained of child sexual abuse between 1975 and 2004. It also stated that since May 2004, 130 complaints against priests operating in the Dublin archdiocese had been made.
The report details the cases of 46 priests guilty of abuse as a representative sample of 102 priests within its remit. But it concludes that there was no evidence of an organised paedophile ring in the Dublin archdiocese, although it says there were worrying connections. One priest admitted abusing more than 100 children. Another said he had committed abuse every two weeks for more than 25 years.
The report highlights the case of a Father Carney and Father McCarthy who it claims in one case both abused the same child. The abuse by Carney often occurred at swimming pools, sometimes when he was accompanied by another priest.
The report states that it was not until 1995 that the archdiocese began to notify civil authorities of complaints of abuse. The commission concludes that in the light of this and other facts, every bishop's primary loyalty was to the church itself.
A move by the archdiocese to take out insurance against potential compensation claims arising from abuse, according to the report, proved knowledge of child sexual abuse as a potential major cost.
The Garda Síochána's current commissioner, Fachtna Murphy, said the report made for "difficult and disturbing reading, detailing many instances of sexual abuse and failure … to protect victims."
Pope Benedict was urged today to go to Ireland and apologise for his clergy's behaviour. John Kelly, of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, said only a papal visit would exonerate the worldwide church in the abuse scandals.
Abuse reports
Since June 1994, when paedophile priest Father Brendan Smith was sentenced to four years in prison for the abuse of children in Northern Ireland, there have been three major reports into the abuse of children at the hands of Ireland's Catholic clergy:
• October 2005 the Ferns report detailed extensive child abuse and the cover-up of paedophile activity in the south-east of Ireland.
• November 2005 Judge Yvonne Murphy was appointed to head a commission of investigation into clerical child abuse in the Dublin diocese, which concluded today.
•May 2009 the Ryan report detailing abuse at orphanages and industrial schools run by Catholic religious orders across the state was published.
26 Nov 2009 Catholic church in Ireland covered up child abuse, says report
22 Jul 2009 Catholics want accountability
Breda O'Brien
23 May 2009Letters: We want real contrition for our abuse
21 May 2009Child abuse row goes on as Catholics get new leader
Devastating report' into Catholic schools abuse
20 May 2009:
The Guardian's Ireland correspondent on a long-awaited report into abuse suffered by thousands of children at institutions run by priests
More video:
20 May 2009Thousands raped and abused in Catholic schools
10 Apr 2009Ireland archbishop admits child abuse report 'will shock us all'
10 Mar 2008Pope could face protests in Ireland over abuse cases
3 Feb 2008Call to seize secret church abuse files
St Patrick's Day parades around the world
15 Mar 2009:
Thousands of people join the festivities in Trafalgar Square prior to 17 March, the official day of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Various Irish organisations are holding similar parades in other cities throughout the world
Commentary:
A New Irish report heavily indicts the Irish Bishops of the Catholic Church of elaborate cover-up relative to children sexual abuse within the Irish Catholic Church. This report coming on the heels of another one regarding the modes of abuses of children confined to church institutions reflect another bad publicity and despicable stunt upon the image of the Catholic heritage in Ireland. This, too, has significant ramifications for the worldwide church, especially given the Irish exportation of her missionaries across the world into various global polities, including the United States, Africa, Asia, and even Australia, among other global spaces.
The impacts of these Irish missionaries can be greatly felt in many areas. However, the impact upon the formation of priestly candidates in seminaries across the world is to be particularly noted. Their examples, ethos, and ethics, as well as their lifestyles, have enormous influence upon these candidates and the diverse church communities that owe their emergence or sustenance to the missionary drive of the Irish missionaries. This is especially because of their ability to transmit and ingrain certain values and consciousness upon the psyche of the native clergy and Christians; including implanting particularly bad examples among these cleric in the area of priestly celibacy and shaping a screwed view of human sexuality in general.
Irish missionaries have been acute agents in the expansion of global Catholicism. Many, including Africans owes a grand appreciation for their enonmous and most times exemplifying modest lifestyles, often consistently in line with the values, orientation, and ethics of the Christian gospel and the doctrinal teachings of our beloved Church. The Irish dedication to social services, including their services to humanity in the arena of missionary and educational initiatives, forged a significant differences in the lives of individuals and fortunes of specific communities.
Bishop Joseph Shanahan is one example of an intrepid and courageously hardworking bishop whose influences extend across national spaces in Southeastern Nigeria, the Middle Belt to eastern Africa. Other Irish missionaries were also stellar witnesses to the ideals of self-abnegation and sacrificial giving of selves, internalizing and embodying sufferings living in arid conditions, in attestation to our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. For these acts, we congratulate and celebrate their positive examples.
In other cases, these missionaries were equally agents of abuses of Africans under their care. It is our hope that these were rare incidences. However, the recent case of an Irish-born Nigerian Archbishop, Richard Burke, of the St. Patrick's (Kiltegan) Society, accused of molesting a Nigerian woman beginning from the age of 14 in an hospital unit in Nigeria, and carried out over 20 years of relationship with her even while she was married, bespeaks volume as to the subtle nature of such abuses carried out by Irish missionaries, and also of the examples they transmitted to their Nigerian and African counterparts. The instances of Catholic missionary abuses rendered by such African spiritual and literary writers like Patrick Malidoma Some in his book, Of Water and Spirit (cf. pages 109-111) would make one cringe with nausea and blush in shame of one's Catholic heritage..
The cases of the Central African Republic is another example. Herein, the Vatican acting against African clergy in two diocese, including removing their bishops, precipitated the African clergy to instance the sexual abuse scandals and bad instances of European clergy, also points to a scary manifestation of the bad models of priestly lifestyles which was perpetuated and reinforced over time by European missionaries in Africa and globally, where they carried out their works.
In some sector, it is believed that some of the missionaries were deliberately scurried to the mission territories in Africa and Asia dumped there steering them away from an enlightening European public, adverse to some of their perverting sexualities.
The Irish church widespread role in missionary work, and the fact that even in America the majority of priests accused in the minor sexual abuse scandals are of Irish origin or descent, necessitates that the Vatican authorities investigate the Irish role in the widespread globalized culture of priestly sexual abuses. This is not to downplay the enormous positive roles that many of these Irish missionaries have played in the evangelizing work of the Church. To these great sons and daughters of Ireland we stand in debted, but for those who tarnish the Irish and ecclesiastical images by their conscious acts, we are truly ashamed of their acts of shame.
Irish Catholic Church and Sexual Abuse Scandal: Damning Report Indicts Bishops of Cover-up:
News World news Ireland Irish church and police covered up child sex abuse, says report. Devastating report on abuse of children by clergy from 1975 to 2004 accuses church and Garda of colluding to cover up scandal
.
Roman Catholic church in Ireland hid decades of child abuse by its leaders to protect the church's reputation, inquiry found. Photograph: Danilo Krstanovic/Reuters
Ireland's police colluded with the Catholic church in covering up clerical child abuse in Dublin on a huge scale, according to a damning report on decades of sex crimes committed by priests.
The devastating report on the sexual and physical abuse of children by the clergy in Ireland's capital from 1975 to 2004 accuses four former archbishops, a host of clergy and senior members of the Garda Síochána of a cover-up.
The three-volume report found that the "maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church and the preservation of its assets" was more important than justice for the victims.
Four former archbishops in Dublin – John Charles McQuaid, who died in 1973, Dermot Ryan, who died in 1984, Kevin McNamara, who died in 1987, and retired Cardinal Desmond Connell – were found to have failed to report their knowledge of child sexual abuse to the Garda from the 1960s to the 1980s. But the report added that all the archbishops of the diocese in the period were aware of complaints.
The report, launched today by the Irish justice minister, Dermot Ahern, also concluded that the vast majority of priests turned a "blind eye" to abuse, although some individuals did bring complaints to superiors, which were not acted upon.
The report, commissioned by the government, strongly criticises the Garda and says senior members of the force regarded priests as being outside their investigative remit. The relationship between some senior gardai and priests and bishops in Dublin was described as "inappropriate".
Rather than investigate complaints from children, gardai simply reported the matter to the Dublin Catholic diocese, the report says. The Garda Síochána is accused of connivance with the church in stifling at least one complaint of abuse and letting the alleged perpetrator flee the country.
Ahern said there should be no hiding place for abusers. "The persons who committed these dreadful crimes will continue to be pursued. They must come to know that there is no hiding place. That justice – even where it may have been delayed – will not be denied," he said.
He told a press conference: "I read the report as justice minister. But on a human level – as a father and as a member of this community – I felt a growing sense of revulsion and anger at the horrible, evil acts committed against children."
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre welcomed the report, saying it was "another acknowledgment of the abject failure of our society to take care of our children".
The report states that senior clerical figures covered up the abuse over nearly 30 years and that the structures and rules of the church facilitated that cover-up. It says that state authorities facilitated the cover-up by allowing the church to be beyond the reach of the law.
The Murphy Commission of Inquiry into the abuse of children in Dublin identified 320 people who complained of child sexual abuse between 1975 and 2004. It also stated that since May 2004, 130 complaints against priests operating in the Dublin archdiocese had been made.
The report details the cases of 46 priests guilty of abuse as a representative sample of 102 priests within its remit. But it concludes that there was no evidence of an organised paedophile ring in the Dublin archdiocese, although it says there were worrying connections. One priest admitted abusing more than 100 children. Another said he had committed abuse every two weeks for more than 25 years.
The report highlights the case of a Father Carney and Father McCarthy who it claims in one case both abused the same child. The abuse by Carney often occurred at swimming pools, sometimes when he was accompanied by another priest.
The report states that it was not until 1995 that the archdiocese began to notify civil authorities of complaints of abuse. The commission concludes that in the light of this and other facts, every bishop's primary loyalty was to the church itself.
A move by the archdiocese to take out insurance against potential compensation claims arising from abuse, according to the report, proved knowledge of child sexual abuse as a potential major cost.
The Garda Síochána's current commissioner, Fachtna Murphy, said the report made for "difficult and disturbing reading, detailing many instances of sexual abuse and failure … to protect victims."
Pope Benedict was urged today to go to Ireland and apologise for his clergy's behaviour. John Kelly, of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, said only a papal visit would exonerate the worldwide church in the abuse scandals.
Abuse reports
Since June 1994, when paedophile priest Father Brendan Smith was sentenced to four years in prison for the abuse of children in Northern Ireland, there have been three major reports into the abuse of children at the hands of Ireland's Catholic clergy:
• October 2005 the Ferns report detailed extensive child abuse and the cover-up of paedophile activity in the south-east of Ireland.
• November 2005 Judge Yvonne Murphy was appointed to head a commission of investigation into clerical child abuse in the Dublin diocese, which concluded today.
•May 2009 the Ryan report detailing abuse at orphanages and industrial schools run by Catholic religious orders across the state was published.
26 Nov 2009 Catholic church in Ireland covered up child abuse, says report
22 Jul 2009 Catholics want accountability
Breda O'Brien
23 May 2009Letters: We want real contrition for our abuse
21 May 2009Child abuse row goes on as Catholics get new leader
Devastating report' into Catholic schools abuse
20 May 2009:
The Guardian's Ireland correspondent on a long-awaited report into abuse suffered by thousands of children at institutions run by priests
More video:
20 May 2009Thousands raped and abused in Catholic schools
10 Apr 2009Ireland archbishop admits child abuse report 'will shock us all'
10 Mar 2008Pope could face protests in Ireland over abuse cases
3 Feb 2008Call to seize secret church abuse files
St Patrick's Day parades around the world
15 Mar 2009:
Thousands of people join the festivities in Trafalgar Square prior to 17 March, the official day of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Various Irish organisations are holding similar parades in other cities throughout the world
Saturday, November 14, 2009
High-Handed Catholic Priest chased away from Kaduna, Nigeria, Church
Moderator's Commentary:
The Nigerian Catholic Church has been known for the tremendous progress she has made relative to increase in priestly and religious vocations. However, it is apparent that in spite of such endearing goodnews one wonders, what at times these advantages actually translate into. Many Nigerian priests and religious nuns often forget the primary purpose of their calling; which is mainly spiritual.
Often they are high handed abusing and harrassing their congregants, greedy for church funds, which they misuse wrecklessly and without any form of decorous probity and accountability. Many perceuve themselves as another estate within the realm of domination that is perpetuated by the ruling class, especially at the moments politicians. Most hobnob with these corrupt and greedy politicians who buy them over with money, expensive gifts of cars, luxuriant vehicles and SUVs, and living above their means.
Many of these priests who come from humble background are often arrogant insulting their parishioners and acting arbitrarily without concern for how they are viewed and what God demands of them as shepherds, immediately our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the eternal good shepherd.
The news footage regarding the mode of behaviour of the Catholic priest who was shut out by his parishioners reflect one of many such incidences, often unreported on the pages of newspapers. This is evidence of the kind of palpable discontents harboured by many Catholic parishioners against the malfeasant behaviours of their "overlord" and arrogant priests.
Even more intriguing is the reaction of the office of Archbishop, whose letter signed by the Archbishop Matthew Ndangoso, shows a reactionary rather than progressive approach to resolving this issue. It depicts the lack of management and conflict resolution skills; and tilts more toward an approach that is milked in authoritarianism rather than a pastoral approach to resolving the issues and differences. It is even surprising that the archbishop seemed to have taken the side of the priest prior to an investigation being carried out.
This lack of transparency, partisanship, and arrogance is one of the reasons that many young Catholics are becoming increasingly discontented with a church that they voluntarily gave their assent of truth, only to be betrayed at many levels. It is laughable that in Ndagoso's letter he quotes the Code of Canon Law. When it is convenient to these bishops they haphardly utilize the text of the Canon Law, but in others they violate it, like the mode in which a new bishop of Maiduguri did not meet the canonical requirements but because of some intriguing politics among the bishops- notably the same Ndagoso and the archbishop of Jos, Mr. Ignatius Kaigama- such blantant choice was named.
It is on record that Nigerian Catholic bishops are too out of sync with the daily realities of faith, providing mouth-watering illusive and deceptive reports during their ad limina visits to the Vatican, when these reports hardly are attuned with reality. These bishops pride themselves upon presenting a false image that parallels with the image of politicians, and often act accordingly, and like these politicians very corrupt and easy to coopt by the corrupt political and ruling classes; so easily bought with money. It is a sad manifestation of not just of what is wrong with the Nigerian society as a whole, but even more with the global image of the Catholic Church.
It is also a sad commentary on the quality of bishops either made or elevated since Pope Benedict XVI became a Pope in 2005. One of the bishops, he promoted to archbishop, the Irish, Richard Burke, today stands suspended for sexually molesting a 14 year old girl that began a sexual relationship running into almost thirty years, including after the woman became married, and even the archbishop switching to the lady's sister much later with his amorous pleasures.
Many more, like the Archbishop of Abuja, Mr. John Onaiyekan, in circles of priests, nuns, and some lay faithful is known to be a serial sexual molester and abusers of young women, especially vulnerable young nuns. It is our hope that those so abused by this impostor would find the courage and the voice to speak out, to document this attrocious personality, a wolf in sheep's clothings.
The act reported below reflect the beginning of more crises for the Nigerian Church, which flaring would be worst than the fate of the French anti-clericalism. I hope that this church, arrogant and stained with enormous blemish would read the warning sign promptly and redress this ugly and unfolding specter. A looming crises is in the offing for the Nigerian Catholic Church. God save us!
The Daily Sun
SACRILEGE! Worshippers attack Catholic priest, lock up church ...As Archbishop of Kaduna reads riot act
From NOAH EBIJE, Kaduna
Friday, November 13, 2009
Following a hatched plot by some members of a Catholic Church in Kaduna, who attacked the Priest, and locked up the church, the Archbishop of Kaduna State, Most Reverend Matthew Manoso Ndagoso has dissolved the parish.
Trouble started when on Sunday, October 11, 2009, some members of Saint Dominic Catholic Church in Ungwan Pama area of Kaduna were said to have taken laws into their hands by chasing away the Priest, Gabriel Enuagha.
The aggrieved members, according to findings, were not comfortable with the new timing of church services as put in place by the priest.
Daily Sun gathered exclusively that the initial timing was from 6am for English session, 8am for Hausa and 10am for English listeners, but the new arrangement by the parish Priest pegged 6am and 8am session for English listeners and moved Hausa listeners to 10am.
On that fateful day, the perpetrators were said to have forced the priest to conduct the Sunday service under a tree within the church premises, using his car as the altar of God.
Ndagoso had in a letter dated October 30, 2009 to the entire Catholic Priests, religious and laity in the Archdiocese of Kaduna which was read to parishioners on Sunday, November 1, 2009, the Bishop condemned the action of the perpetrators and described it as unchristian.
The letter which was titled: ‘The Internal Crisis of St. Dominic’s Parish U/Pama,’ read in parts: “You may have heard of the unfortunate and scandalous event that took place in St. Dominic’s Parish U/Pama on October 11, 2009, when some members of the parish community without regard to lawfully constituted authorities took the laws into their hands and locked up the church and the parish house thus hindering the community from worshiping in the church and the priests having to seek refuge elsewhere.
“As if that was not enough, the perpetrators went further to use what is tantamount to force on their parish Priest.
“Whatever their grievances, there are avenues and structures within the church for settling them without resorting to the use of force and violence.
“The action was not only unchristian but also condemnable and intolerable anywhere especially in the church-as-family of God. Those responsible cannot be said to be true Christians because their action runs contrary to the Christian spirit of dialogue, reconciliation and peace.
“They should have known that such behaviours have no place in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.
“To say the least, what happened in St. Dominic’s is a disrespect of the highest degree to me and my office. Msgr. Gabriel V. Enuagha is my Vicar General under whose care I left the Archdiocese while away.
“He was at that time the archbishop of Kaduna . The assault on him therefore was a direct assault on me and my office. Consequently, after due consultations, I have decided to take the following measures.
“St. Dominic’s ceases to be a parish until further notice. It is now an outstation of St. Mary’s U/Boro with one combined Mass every Sunday. The parish priest is to fix the time for the mass.
“The Parish Laity Council is hereby dissolved. The Parish Priest of St. Mary’s U/Boro is to form a caretaker church committee to run the affairs of the church.
“Consequently, anyone in possession of church property should hand them over to the Dean of Rimau Deanery, Very Reverend Father Alfred Mako.
“Anyone found to be involved in the crisis in anyway will be sanctioned appropriately in accordance with the provisions of the law (cf. Cans 1374 & 1375).
“A thorough investigation is in progress. You will be dully informed of the outcome.
“Finally, let it be known to one and all that no individual or group is indispensable in the Catholic Church.
“While the church is better off with all on board, it cannot cease to exist because of an individual or a group. The rich history of our church is there for those who care to confer.”
The Nigerian Catholic Church has been known for the tremendous progress she has made relative to increase in priestly and religious vocations. However, it is apparent that in spite of such endearing goodnews one wonders, what at times these advantages actually translate into. Many Nigerian priests and religious nuns often forget the primary purpose of their calling; which is mainly spiritual.
Often they are high handed abusing and harrassing their congregants, greedy for church funds, which they misuse wrecklessly and without any form of decorous probity and accountability. Many perceuve themselves as another estate within the realm of domination that is perpetuated by the ruling class, especially at the moments politicians. Most hobnob with these corrupt and greedy politicians who buy them over with money, expensive gifts of cars, luxuriant vehicles and SUVs, and living above their means.
Many of these priests who come from humble background are often arrogant insulting their parishioners and acting arbitrarily without concern for how they are viewed and what God demands of them as shepherds, immediately our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the eternal good shepherd.
The news footage regarding the mode of behaviour of the Catholic priest who was shut out by his parishioners reflect one of many such incidences, often unreported on the pages of newspapers. This is evidence of the kind of palpable discontents harboured by many Catholic parishioners against the malfeasant behaviours of their "overlord" and arrogant priests.
Even more intriguing is the reaction of the office of Archbishop, whose letter signed by the Archbishop Matthew Ndangoso, shows a reactionary rather than progressive approach to resolving this issue. It depicts the lack of management and conflict resolution skills; and tilts more toward an approach that is milked in authoritarianism rather than a pastoral approach to resolving the issues and differences. It is even surprising that the archbishop seemed to have taken the side of the priest prior to an investigation being carried out.
This lack of transparency, partisanship, and arrogance is one of the reasons that many young Catholics are becoming increasingly discontented with a church that they voluntarily gave their assent of truth, only to be betrayed at many levels. It is laughable that in Ndagoso's letter he quotes the Code of Canon Law. When it is convenient to these bishops they haphardly utilize the text of the Canon Law, but in others they violate it, like the mode in which a new bishop of Maiduguri did not meet the canonical requirements but because of some intriguing politics among the bishops- notably the same Ndagoso and the archbishop of Jos, Mr. Ignatius Kaigama- such blantant choice was named.
It is on record that Nigerian Catholic bishops are too out of sync with the daily realities of faith, providing mouth-watering illusive and deceptive reports during their ad limina visits to the Vatican, when these reports hardly are attuned with reality. These bishops pride themselves upon presenting a false image that parallels with the image of politicians, and often act accordingly, and like these politicians very corrupt and easy to coopt by the corrupt political and ruling classes; so easily bought with money. It is a sad manifestation of not just of what is wrong with the Nigerian society as a whole, but even more with the global image of the Catholic Church.
It is also a sad commentary on the quality of bishops either made or elevated since Pope Benedict XVI became a Pope in 2005. One of the bishops, he promoted to archbishop, the Irish, Richard Burke, today stands suspended for sexually molesting a 14 year old girl that began a sexual relationship running into almost thirty years, including after the woman became married, and even the archbishop switching to the lady's sister much later with his amorous pleasures.
Many more, like the Archbishop of Abuja, Mr. John Onaiyekan, in circles of priests, nuns, and some lay faithful is known to be a serial sexual molester and abusers of young women, especially vulnerable young nuns. It is our hope that those so abused by this impostor would find the courage and the voice to speak out, to document this attrocious personality, a wolf in sheep's clothings.
The act reported below reflect the beginning of more crises for the Nigerian Church, which flaring would be worst than the fate of the French anti-clericalism. I hope that this church, arrogant and stained with enormous blemish would read the warning sign promptly and redress this ugly and unfolding specter. A looming crises is in the offing for the Nigerian Catholic Church. God save us!
The Daily Sun
SACRILEGE! Worshippers attack Catholic priest, lock up church ...As Archbishop of Kaduna reads riot act
From NOAH EBIJE, Kaduna
Friday, November 13, 2009
Following a hatched plot by some members of a Catholic Church in Kaduna, who attacked the Priest, and locked up the church, the Archbishop of Kaduna State, Most Reverend Matthew Manoso Ndagoso has dissolved the parish.
Trouble started when on Sunday, October 11, 2009, some members of Saint Dominic Catholic Church in Ungwan Pama area of Kaduna were said to have taken laws into their hands by chasing away the Priest, Gabriel Enuagha.
The aggrieved members, according to findings, were not comfortable with the new timing of church services as put in place by the priest.
Daily Sun gathered exclusively that the initial timing was from 6am for English session, 8am for Hausa and 10am for English listeners, but the new arrangement by the parish Priest pegged 6am and 8am session for English listeners and moved Hausa listeners to 10am.
On that fateful day, the perpetrators were said to have forced the priest to conduct the Sunday service under a tree within the church premises, using his car as the altar of God.
Ndagoso had in a letter dated October 30, 2009 to the entire Catholic Priests, religious and laity in the Archdiocese of Kaduna which was read to parishioners on Sunday, November 1, 2009, the Bishop condemned the action of the perpetrators and described it as unchristian.
The letter which was titled: ‘The Internal Crisis of St. Dominic’s Parish U/Pama,’ read in parts: “You may have heard of the unfortunate and scandalous event that took place in St. Dominic’s Parish U/Pama on October 11, 2009, when some members of the parish community without regard to lawfully constituted authorities took the laws into their hands and locked up the church and the parish house thus hindering the community from worshiping in the church and the priests having to seek refuge elsewhere.
“As if that was not enough, the perpetrators went further to use what is tantamount to force on their parish Priest.
“Whatever their grievances, there are avenues and structures within the church for settling them without resorting to the use of force and violence.
“The action was not only unchristian but also condemnable and intolerable anywhere especially in the church-as-family of God. Those responsible cannot be said to be true Christians because their action runs contrary to the Christian spirit of dialogue, reconciliation and peace.
“They should have known that such behaviours have no place in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.
“To say the least, what happened in St. Dominic’s is a disrespect of the highest degree to me and my office. Msgr. Gabriel V. Enuagha is my Vicar General under whose care I left the Archdiocese while away.
“He was at that time the archbishop of Kaduna . The assault on him therefore was a direct assault on me and my office. Consequently, after due consultations, I have decided to take the following measures.
“St. Dominic’s ceases to be a parish until further notice. It is now an outstation of St. Mary’s U/Boro with one combined Mass every Sunday. The parish priest is to fix the time for the mass.
“The Parish Laity Council is hereby dissolved. The Parish Priest of St. Mary’s U/Boro is to form a caretaker church committee to run the affairs of the church.
“Consequently, anyone in possession of church property should hand them over to the Dean of Rimau Deanery, Very Reverend Father Alfred Mako.
“Anyone found to be involved in the crisis in anyway will be sanctioned appropriately in accordance with the provisions of the law (cf. Cans 1374 & 1375).
“A thorough investigation is in progress. You will be dully informed of the outcome.
“Finally, let it be known to one and all that no individual or group is indispensable in the Catholic Church.
“While the church is better off with all on board, it cannot cease to exist because of an individual or a group. The rich history of our church is there for those who care to confer.”
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Onaiyekan rigmarrolling: Excuses that eclipse a look at himself
Nigerian Bishop Discusses Clergy Sex Abuse
By James Butty
Washington, D.C.
Voice of America- 25 July 2007
Butty interview with Onaiyekan
Listen to Butty interview with Onaiyekan
This month, the Roman Catholic diocese of Los Angeles, California agreed to pay 660 million dollars to more than 500 people who said they were sexually abused by catholic priests. If approved, it would by far be the largest payout made by any single diocese. In 2002, the Archdiocese of Boston paid 85 million dollars to 552 people who claimed they were also abused by priests. So how prevalent is sexual abuse by church clergy in the church in Africa?
John Onaiyekan is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria. He told VOA that what is alleged to be happening in the church is part of human weakness.
“I can’t really have any comment or reaction to what is happening in California because that is the business of the church in America and in California in particular. One thing is certain, namely that whatever abuses may have been alleged have never been condoned by the church. And by the way, this is valid not only for priests. Everybody knows that we ought to lead a good life. But we are not always able. Many people do fall by the way side, including journalists also,” he said.
Archbishop Onaiyekan said allegations of sex abuse by clergy exist everywhere in the world, including the church in Africa. But he said he would not hesitate to deal with such abuses if they happen in his church.
“There are always cases where adults sexually and physically abuse children and among others who happen to be priests. Some of them will be teachers; some will be just ordinary people. Even parents abuse their own children. The question is what do you do about it? If I see any such case within my diocese, I will call whoever is responsible for whatever action he or she may have undertaken,” Onaiyekan said.
In Zimbabwe, Archbishop Pius Ncube, an arch critic of President Robert Mugabe was reported by government media to have had an affair with a married woman who works as a secretary in his diocese.
Some blame the church’s policy of celibacy. But Archbishop Onaiyekan said celibates are not the only people who commit adultery.
“After all, the biggest number of adulteries is committed by married people. I am not saying that the allegation made in Zimbabwe is true, and the archbishop concerned has clearly denied the allegation. And it is easy to understand that the government of Mugabe may want to tarnish the image of his greatest and vocal opponent. I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said.
Onaiyekan said it is not fair to blame the church for the mistakes made by some priests.
“I do agree that if somebody like a priest has a particular role and responsibility to give good advice and to lead people, if he fails, his crime is considered most serious than if he did not have any such responsibility. But at the same token, the people in government who are supposed to take care of our money, who steal it regularly, they are also equally to be seriously sanctioned by the society,” Onaiyekan said.
By James Butty
Washington, D.C.
Voice of America- 25 July 2007
Butty interview with Onaiyekan
Listen to Butty interview with Onaiyekan
This month, the Roman Catholic diocese of Los Angeles, California agreed to pay 660 million dollars to more than 500 people who said they were sexually abused by catholic priests. If approved, it would by far be the largest payout made by any single diocese. In 2002, the Archdiocese of Boston paid 85 million dollars to 552 people who claimed they were also abused by priests. So how prevalent is sexual abuse by church clergy in the church in Africa?
John Onaiyekan is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria. He told VOA that what is alleged to be happening in the church is part of human weakness.
“I can’t really have any comment or reaction to what is happening in California because that is the business of the church in America and in California in particular. One thing is certain, namely that whatever abuses may have been alleged have never been condoned by the church. And by the way, this is valid not only for priests. Everybody knows that we ought to lead a good life. But we are not always able. Many people do fall by the way side, including journalists also,” he said.
Archbishop Onaiyekan said allegations of sex abuse by clergy exist everywhere in the world, including the church in Africa. But he said he would not hesitate to deal with such abuses if they happen in his church.
“There are always cases where adults sexually and physically abuse children and among others who happen to be priests. Some of them will be teachers; some will be just ordinary people. Even parents abuse their own children. The question is what do you do about it? If I see any such case within my diocese, I will call whoever is responsible for whatever action he or she may have undertaken,” Onaiyekan said.
In Zimbabwe, Archbishop Pius Ncube, an arch critic of President Robert Mugabe was reported by government media to have had an affair with a married woman who works as a secretary in his diocese.
Some blame the church’s policy of celibacy. But Archbishop Onaiyekan said celibates are not the only people who commit adultery.
“After all, the biggest number of adulteries is committed by married people. I am not saying that the allegation made in Zimbabwe is true, and the archbishop concerned has clearly denied the allegation. And it is easy to understand that the government of Mugabe may want to tarnish the image of his greatest and vocal opponent. I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said.
Onaiyekan said it is not fair to blame the church for the mistakes made by some priests.
“I do agree that if somebody like a priest has a particular role and responsibility to give good advice and to lead people, if he fails, his crime is considered most serious than if he did not have any such responsibility. But at the same token, the people in government who are supposed to take care of our money, who steal it regularly, they are also equally to be seriously sanctioned by the society,” Onaiyekan said.
A Divided Catholicism: Who decides who is a Catholic?
Time- Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009
www.time.com/time/nation/.../0,8599,1934924,00.html
Powerhouse Priests Spar Over What it Means to Be Catholic
By Amy Sullivan
The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church traditionally couch even the harshest disagreements in decorous, ecclesiastical language. But it didn't take a decoder ring to figure out what Rome-based Archbishop Raymond Burke meant in a late-September address when he charged Boston Cardinal Seán O'Malley with being under the influence of Satan, "the father of lies."
Burke's broadside at O'Malley was inspired by the Cardinal's decision to permit and preside over a funeral Mass for the late Senator Ted Kennedy. And it has set the Catholic world abuzz. Even more than protests over the University of Notre Dame's decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak, disputes over the Kennedy funeral have brought into the open an argument that has been roiling within American Catholicism. The debate nominally centers on the question of how to deal with politicians who support abortion rights. Burke and others who believe a Catholic's position on abortion trumps all other teachings have faced off against those who take a more holistic view of the faith. But at the core, the divide is over who decides what it means to be Catholic. (See pictures of Pope Benedict XVI visiting America.)
A Bull in a China Shop
It strikes no one as surprising that the 61-year-old Burke is at the center of the current fight. The former Archbishop of St. Louis made national headlines in 2004 when he became the first Catholic leader to say he would deny the Eucharist to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. He led an unsuccessful drive to bar Communion for politicians who support abortion rights. And as Election Day approached in 2004, Burke issued a warning to Catholics in the key swing state of Missouri that they should not present themselves for Communion if they voted for pro-choice candidates.
The Archbishop's outspoken comments did not go unnoticed in Rome. In June 2008, Burke was unexpectedly transferred to the Vatican. The move was widely interpreted as a way to put some distance between Burke and the political contest in the States. "It was not unrelated to issues of political timing," observes Mark Silk, a professor of religion at Trinity College.
Burke's new assignment came with an impressive title: Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura — essentially chief justice of the Vatican's highest court. But the job, which involves hearing appeals of lower-canon-court rulings on issues like annulment requests, did not stop him from commenting on American politics. In January he charged that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was responsible for Obama's victory because it overwhelmingly approved a document suggesting that Catholics could consider issues besides abortion when deciding how to vote. The conference's in-house news service, he added, failed to highlight Obama's moral failings in its campaign coverage. And he called Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a pro-choice Catholic, a "source of deepest embarrassment to Catholics." (See the top 10 unfortunate political one-liners.)
Burke's confrontational approach doesn't always mesh with the more discreet diplomacy favored by his Italian colleagues. "He's seen as a bull in a china shop," says an American priest and longtime Rome resident. "I've seen Italian bishops roll their eyes."
In retrospect, it should have been obvious that the funeral plans for Kennedy would reignite a lingering dispute within the church. The question of whether the Senator should even be described as a Catholic because of his support for abortion rights and his checkered life history was hotly debated on Catholic blogs and religion websites like Beliefnet.com. Right-wing Catholics lobbied the Boston archdiocese to refuse the Kennedy family a church funeral. Robert Royal of the Faith & Reason Institute called O'Malley's decision to go ahead with the Mass a "grave scandal" on a par with the sexual-abuse crisis.
But it's one thing for partisans and bloggers to disparage a Mass for a dead Senator; it's quite another for a Vatican official to do so. Even some leading conservative Catholics may find they cannot support Burke's latest salvo. When told of the Archbishop's assertion that pro-choice Catholics should not be permitted funeral rites, Princeton professor Robert George was taken aback: "That's a very different, and obviously graver, claim than that with which I would have sympathy. I haven't heard before any bishop say that pro-abortion politicians should not be given a Catholic funeral."
See pictures of Obama meeting Pope Benedict XVI.
See pictures of John 3:16 in pop culture.
CardinalSeansBlog.org
Friends of O'Malley's say the cardinal was stunned by the criticism. The 65-year-old O'Malley is temperamentally Burke's opposite, a shy man who dislikes celebrity and shuns politics — a major reason he was appointed to the sensitive post in Boston. With his full beard and preference for wearing the brown robe of a Capuchin friar, the man who goes by "Cardinal Sean" is not easily identified as a Prince of the Church. When O'Malley received his red hat in 2006, he persuaded some friends to go out for a late-night snack in Rome after a long day of ceremonies. But he ran into some trouble when he tried to return to his quarters. The Vatican guards didn't believe that the casually attired man who smelled of pizza was a newly minted Cardinal.
Though he has presided over the difficult task of closing parishes and schools within the archdiocese, O'Malley is well liked in Boston and the broader Catholic community. He celebrated his inaugural Mass in Boston at a Spanish service, and he once joked that his scarlet Cardinal's robes would come in handy if Dick Cheney ever invited him to go hunting. O'Malley, however, should not be mistaken for a liberal member of the hierarchy. He is a conservative on matters of doctrine, and for the past few years, he has been the face of the church's opposition to Massachusetts' gay-marriage law. (See pictures of the gay rights movement.)
But O'Malley did not hesitate to push back against the uproar that surrounded the Kennedy funeral. In a Sept. 2 post on CardinalSeansBlog.org — he is the only Cardinal with a blog — O'Malley wrote, "In the strongest terms I disagree" with those who believe Kennedy did not deserve a funeral Mass. "We will not change hearts by turning away from people in their time of need and when they are experiencing grief," he continued. "At times, even in the Church, zeal can lead people to issue harsh judgments and impute the worst motives to one another. These attitudes and practices do irreparable damage to the communion of the Church."
It was the first time a Cardinal had directly and publicly challenged the Burke position. O'Malley's statement was followed by another from Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wis., who lamented that "the death of Senator Kennedy has called forth at least an apparent rejection of mercy on the part of not a few Catholics." It was inevitable that Burke would emerge to fire back. At a Sept. 18 dinner in Washington sponsored by the conservative media outlet Inside Catholic, Burke declared that "neither Holy Communion nor funeral rites should be administered to [pro-choice] politicians." The audience gave Burke a prolonged standing ovation. (See the top 10 Jesus films of all time.)
Silence from Rome
The American hierarchy has been divided before, most recently in the 1990s by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's argument that abortion is not the only issue in the "seamless garment of life" that Catholics are called to promote. But the current debate, which is expected to surface again when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) holds its general meeting later this month, is the bitterest yet. A minority faction of bishops had hoped Pope Benedict XVI would lead the way in punishing those who dissent from church teaching. His preference for avoiding the political fray has both frustrated them and emboldened them to act on their own.
The question now is whether the Vatican will move again to muzzle Burke. When he criticized Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl last spring during a videotaped interview, he was forced to apologize less than 24 hours after the video aired. In early September, the bishop of Scranton, Pa. — a Burke protégé — abruptly resigned after a stormy tenure and was not reassigned. Veteran Vatican watchers took it as a sign that some Burkean antics — such as threatening to refuse Vice President Joe Biden Communion and disparaging the USCCB — would not be tolerated.
Rome has been silent about Burke's most recent public statements. In late September, O'Malley was named to the Pontifical Council for the Family, a minor and expected appointment, but also a reminder that the Boston Cardinal has friends in high places. "From the point of view of doctrine, Benedict has absolute firmness," says a Vatican insider. "But he does not want to see it play out in a confrontational way."
There are other signs that the word has gone forth, at least for now. In years past, the annual Red Mass held the Sunday before the U.S. Supreme Court's term opens has been so heavily steeped in pro-life rhetoric that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now declines to attend. This year's service, however, featured a homily by the new chair of the bishop's pro-life committee that included only the subtlest of references to abortion. More striking was the image of Biden taking Communion without incident. —With reporting by Jeff Israely / Rome
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Who Is a Real Catholic?
By David Gibson
Sunday, May 17, 2009
All you need to know to diagnose the state of the Catholic Church in America today is that Pope Benedict XVI -- who has a knack for ticking off Muslims and Jews -- spent the past week wandering the Middle East, yet Catholics here barely noticed. They were too busy fighting over Barack Obama's appearance as commencement speaker at Notre Dame or arguing about the fate of a popular Miami priest known as "Father Oprah," who was caught on camera sharing a seaside embrace with his girlfriend.
Is this what Catholicism in America has come to? Bickering about whether Notre Dame is really Catholic, or whether a priest can make out on the beach with his gal pal? Well, yes. And that should come as no surprise.
Since the emergence of Catholicism in the 19th century as a counterweight to the United States's reigning Protestant culture, American Catholics have struggled to balance their desire to assimilate into society with the fear of losing their faith in the nation's melting pot. These new controversies show that, in the Catholic saga, assimilation is winning.
That is because American Catholics -- and there are upwards of 65 million of us -- are going their own way on many matters of faith and especially on issues ranging from priestly celibacy to political candidates, and there seems to be little the bishops can do about it. If there is a true swing vote in the U.S. electorate today, it is the Catholic bloc. This disturbs conservative members of the faith, the self-styled "orthodox" who often dismiss such fickle folks as "cafeteria Catholics." In the vacuum left by the disappearing Catholic subculture, conservatives have made politics the eighth sacrament, with one's position on abortion and gay marriage becoming the litmus test of whether one is a "good Catholic," or a Catholic at all.
This civil war, as the Catholic writer Peter Steinfels recently called it, between hard-liners and those seeking greater engagement, is one the church cannot win. A recent Pew survey showed that despite a generally greater "brand loyalty" than most faiths, Catholicism in America is bleeding out, to the point that nearly one in 10 Americans identifies as a former Catholic. For every one convert, four Catholics are leaving the church -- half of them to traditions like evangelicalism that they find more spiritually fulfilling. Without the inflow of millions of Latino immigrants in recent decades, American Catholicism would be in decline, and even still the church is shrinking in many areas.
The conflicting identities of American Catholics have deep roots. Beginning in the 1800s, American Catholics insulated themselves by building an alternate universe of schools to educate their children, hospitals to care for their sick, and cemeteries to bury their dead. They were forbidden to marry outside the fold, and stepping inside a Protestant church was considered hazardous to the soul's health. On the other hand, just as Catholics wanted to show Rome they could be every bit as Catholic as the pope, they also wanted to prove to their fellow citizens that they could be as red, white, and blue as any Connecticut Yankee. They fought in the nation's wars, labored in the country's factories, and turned out generations of college graduates who took their place among America's elite. And after the presidential candidacy of Al Smith was thwarted in 1928 thanks in part to anti-Catholic canards, the faithful helped power John F. Kennedy to the White House in 1960.
Of course, just as Catholics finally arrived, they almost immediately set to fighting among themselves with a bitterness that would make even the most fractious Baptists blush. The Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s brought contested reforms that coincided with the social upheavals of that decade, and in 1968, as women were rejoicing in the liberation of The Pill, Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical Humanae Vitae reaffirming the ban on artificial contraception. Some Catholics stormed off but others simply defected in place, feeling free to stay and disregard papal teaching. Then came Roe v. Wade, drawing Catholicism into the culture wars with a fury that seemed to peak during the 2008 election.
But it didn't end on November 4. In March, when the University of Notre Dame invited President Obama to deliver its commencement address -- as it has done for presidents going back to Eisenhower -- conservative Catholics and a growing number of bishops (about 60 at last count, though still a minority of the nearly 290 active bishops in the United States) denounced the school and its president, Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, in the harshest terms. Bishop Thomas G. Doran of Rockford, Ill., had perhaps the sharpest (and most insider) of jabs, calling Jenkins's invitation "truly obscene" and suggesting that he rename the school "Northwestern Indiana Humanist University."
As such purple rhetoric was flying about on the Notre Dame affair, American Catholics suddenly faced a more sordid one: A tabloid published shots of popular Cuban American priest Alberto Cutié -- a multimedia star among U.S. Hispanics -- in risqué poses on the beach with a woman who turns out to be his girlfriend of two years. Nothing draws media flies like a sex scandal, especially one involving a man of the cloth, but a funny thing happened on the way to Father Cutié's disgrace: He did not slink away in shame but instead proclaimed, with Luther-like dignity, that he wasn't worried what the hierarchy thought. "What worries me most is how God views me. The institution, the church, is something else."
Cutié is now reportedly considering whether to marry his girlfriend, and has said he thinks priestly celibacy should be optional. What's more, 78 percent of Miami-area Catholics said they had a favorable impression of him, and 81 percent backed his call for a married priesthood, according to a Miami Herald poll.
That willingness of American Catholics to break ranks with such long-held tenets is evident in surveys on a number of issues, including church teachings regarding celibacy and birth control. But for conservative Catholics, "opposition to abortion is the signpost at the intersection of Catholicism and American public life," as Jody Bottum, who recently succeeded the late Father Richard John Neuhaus as editor of the theocon journal First Things, wrote recently in the Weekly Standard. To Bottum, Notre Dame's president and others who could engage a pro-abortion rights politician like Obama "lack the cultural marker that would make them Catholic in the minds of other Catholics."
While those "other Catholics" are a distinct minority, they have adopted the tactics of hard-line activists. For example, when Obama visited Georgetown University last month to deliver a major economic policy speech, his set-up crew covered up a religious symbol behind the podium to make the setting conform to a non-religious standard. The move was immediately cited as proof that Obama was anti-Catholic -- the speech's references to the Sermon on the Mount notwithstanding.
These activists have also exploited -- or worked with -- bishops whose views match their own. And they can get away with it because the do-it-yourself trend in Catholicism is also infecting the hierarchy, with bishops openly contradicting each other on such fundamental issues as one's suitability to receive Communion, in terms that might have once been reserved for the church's archenemies.
And this is perhaps the greatest irony: Conservative Catholics are proving to be the greatest assimilationists, with their efforts to decertify fellow Catholics mimicking a sectarian and divisive culture that classic Catholicism has always rejected.
A recent courageous editorial in the national Jesuit weekly America (which has at times felt the wrath of Rome) cited the dangers that the Notre Dame furor has revealed: "For today's sectarians, it is not adherence to the church's doctrine on the evil of abortion that counts for orthodoxy, but adherence to a particular political program . . . They scorn Augustine's inclusive, forgiving, big-church Catholics . . . [and] threaten the unity of the Catholic Church in the United States."
This priority on unity is the principle that most American Catholics still live by, and it makes them accept Father Cutié, girlfriend and all, and welcome Obama to the iconic campus in South Bend. As the conservative Catholic legal scholar and Reagan administration lawyer Douglas Kmiec put it in Slate earlier this year, "Beyond life issues, an audaciously hope-filled Democrat like Obama is a Catholic natural."
When he speaks at Notre Dame, Barack Obama -- an African-American Protestant with a Muslim father -- may enunciate a vision that resonates more genuinely with American Catholics than the pronouncements of the church's high-decibel spokesmen. This state of affairs can emerge only in a church that is compromising its historic self-definition as the biggest of tents.
A century ago, the church was deeply divided over Pope Pius X's campaign against "Modernism," which was a catchall for anything Rome deemed suspicious. When Pius died, the conclave of 1914 elected Benedict XV, who immediately issued an encyclical calling on Catholics "to appease dissension and strife" so that "no one should consider himself entitled to affix on those who merely do not agree with his ideas the stigma of disloyalty to faith."
"There is no need of adding any qualifying terms to the profession of Catholicism," Benedict XV concluded. "It is quite enough for each one to proclaim 'Christian is my name and Catholic my surname.'"
If the Catholic Church had a bumper sticker, that could be it. And it means that the real dilemma for American Catholics today is not whether Notre Dame is Catholic, but whether we are.
david@dgibson.com
David Gibson is author of "The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism" and "The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World."
www.time.com/time/nation/.../0,8599,1934924,00.html
Powerhouse Priests Spar Over What it Means to Be Catholic
By Amy Sullivan
The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church traditionally couch even the harshest disagreements in decorous, ecclesiastical language. But it didn't take a decoder ring to figure out what Rome-based Archbishop Raymond Burke meant in a late-September address when he charged Boston Cardinal Seán O'Malley with being under the influence of Satan, "the father of lies."
Burke's broadside at O'Malley was inspired by the Cardinal's decision to permit and preside over a funeral Mass for the late Senator Ted Kennedy. And it has set the Catholic world abuzz. Even more than protests over the University of Notre Dame's decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak, disputes over the Kennedy funeral have brought into the open an argument that has been roiling within American Catholicism. The debate nominally centers on the question of how to deal with politicians who support abortion rights. Burke and others who believe a Catholic's position on abortion trumps all other teachings have faced off against those who take a more holistic view of the faith. But at the core, the divide is over who decides what it means to be Catholic. (See pictures of Pope Benedict XVI visiting America.)
A Bull in a China Shop
It strikes no one as surprising that the 61-year-old Burke is at the center of the current fight. The former Archbishop of St. Louis made national headlines in 2004 when he became the first Catholic leader to say he would deny the Eucharist to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. He led an unsuccessful drive to bar Communion for politicians who support abortion rights. And as Election Day approached in 2004, Burke issued a warning to Catholics in the key swing state of Missouri that they should not present themselves for Communion if they voted for pro-choice candidates.
The Archbishop's outspoken comments did not go unnoticed in Rome. In June 2008, Burke was unexpectedly transferred to the Vatican. The move was widely interpreted as a way to put some distance between Burke and the political contest in the States. "It was not unrelated to issues of political timing," observes Mark Silk, a professor of religion at Trinity College.
Burke's new assignment came with an impressive title: Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura — essentially chief justice of the Vatican's highest court. But the job, which involves hearing appeals of lower-canon-court rulings on issues like annulment requests, did not stop him from commenting on American politics. In January he charged that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was responsible for Obama's victory because it overwhelmingly approved a document suggesting that Catholics could consider issues besides abortion when deciding how to vote. The conference's in-house news service, he added, failed to highlight Obama's moral failings in its campaign coverage. And he called Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a pro-choice Catholic, a "source of deepest embarrassment to Catholics." (See the top 10 unfortunate political one-liners.)
Burke's confrontational approach doesn't always mesh with the more discreet diplomacy favored by his Italian colleagues. "He's seen as a bull in a china shop," says an American priest and longtime Rome resident. "I've seen Italian bishops roll their eyes."
In retrospect, it should have been obvious that the funeral plans for Kennedy would reignite a lingering dispute within the church. The question of whether the Senator should even be described as a Catholic because of his support for abortion rights and his checkered life history was hotly debated on Catholic blogs and religion websites like Beliefnet.com. Right-wing Catholics lobbied the Boston archdiocese to refuse the Kennedy family a church funeral. Robert Royal of the Faith & Reason Institute called O'Malley's decision to go ahead with the Mass a "grave scandal" on a par with the sexual-abuse crisis.
But it's one thing for partisans and bloggers to disparage a Mass for a dead Senator; it's quite another for a Vatican official to do so. Even some leading conservative Catholics may find they cannot support Burke's latest salvo. When told of the Archbishop's assertion that pro-choice Catholics should not be permitted funeral rites, Princeton professor Robert George was taken aback: "That's a very different, and obviously graver, claim than that with which I would have sympathy. I haven't heard before any bishop say that pro-abortion politicians should not be given a Catholic funeral."
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CardinalSeansBlog.org
Friends of O'Malley's say the cardinal was stunned by the criticism. The 65-year-old O'Malley is temperamentally Burke's opposite, a shy man who dislikes celebrity and shuns politics — a major reason he was appointed to the sensitive post in Boston. With his full beard and preference for wearing the brown robe of a Capuchin friar, the man who goes by "Cardinal Sean" is not easily identified as a Prince of the Church. When O'Malley received his red hat in 2006, he persuaded some friends to go out for a late-night snack in Rome after a long day of ceremonies. But he ran into some trouble when he tried to return to his quarters. The Vatican guards didn't believe that the casually attired man who smelled of pizza was a newly minted Cardinal.
Though he has presided over the difficult task of closing parishes and schools within the archdiocese, O'Malley is well liked in Boston and the broader Catholic community. He celebrated his inaugural Mass in Boston at a Spanish service, and he once joked that his scarlet Cardinal's robes would come in handy if Dick Cheney ever invited him to go hunting. O'Malley, however, should not be mistaken for a liberal member of the hierarchy. He is a conservative on matters of doctrine, and for the past few years, he has been the face of the church's opposition to Massachusetts' gay-marriage law. (See pictures of the gay rights movement.)
But O'Malley did not hesitate to push back against the uproar that surrounded the Kennedy funeral. In a Sept. 2 post on CardinalSeansBlog.org — he is the only Cardinal with a blog — O'Malley wrote, "In the strongest terms I disagree" with those who believe Kennedy did not deserve a funeral Mass. "We will not change hearts by turning away from people in their time of need and when they are experiencing grief," he continued. "At times, even in the Church, zeal can lead people to issue harsh judgments and impute the worst motives to one another. These attitudes and practices do irreparable damage to the communion of the Church."
It was the first time a Cardinal had directly and publicly challenged the Burke position. O'Malley's statement was followed by another from Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wis., who lamented that "the death of Senator Kennedy has called forth at least an apparent rejection of mercy on the part of not a few Catholics." It was inevitable that Burke would emerge to fire back. At a Sept. 18 dinner in Washington sponsored by the conservative media outlet Inside Catholic, Burke declared that "neither Holy Communion nor funeral rites should be administered to [pro-choice] politicians." The audience gave Burke a prolonged standing ovation. (See the top 10 Jesus films of all time.)
Silence from Rome
The American hierarchy has been divided before, most recently in the 1990s by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's argument that abortion is not the only issue in the "seamless garment of life" that Catholics are called to promote. But the current debate, which is expected to surface again when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) holds its general meeting later this month, is the bitterest yet. A minority faction of bishops had hoped Pope Benedict XVI would lead the way in punishing those who dissent from church teaching. His preference for avoiding the political fray has both frustrated them and emboldened them to act on their own.
The question now is whether the Vatican will move again to muzzle Burke. When he criticized Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl last spring during a videotaped interview, he was forced to apologize less than 24 hours after the video aired. In early September, the bishop of Scranton, Pa. — a Burke protégé — abruptly resigned after a stormy tenure and was not reassigned. Veteran Vatican watchers took it as a sign that some Burkean antics — such as threatening to refuse Vice President Joe Biden Communion and disparaging the USCCB — would not be tolerated.
Rome has been silent about Burke's most recent public statements. In late September, O'Malley was named to the Pontifical Council for the Family, a minor and expected appointment, but also a reminder that the Boston Cardinal has friends in high places. "From the point of view of doctrine, Benedict has absolute firmness," says a Vatican insider. "But he does not want to see it play out in a confrontational way."
There are other signs that the word has gone forth, at least for now. In years past, the annual Red Mass held the Sunday before the U.S. Supreme Court's term opens has been so heavily steeped in pro-life rhetoric that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now declines to attend. This year's service, however, featured a homily by the new chair of the bishop's pro-life committee that included only the subtlest of references to abortion. More striking was the image of Biden taking Communion without incident. —With reporting by Jeff Israely / Rome
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Who Is a Real Catholic?
By David Gibson
Sunday, May 17, 2009
All you need to know to diagnose the state of the Catholic Church in America today is that Pope Benedict XVI -- who has a knack for ticking off Muslims and Jews -- spent the past week wandering the Middle East, yet Catholics here barely noticed. They were too busy fighting over Barack Obama's appearance as commencement speaker at Notre Dame or arguing about the fate of a popular Miami priest known as "Father Oprah," who was caught on camera sharing a seaside embrace with his girlfriend.
Is this what Catholicism in America has come to? Bickering about whether Notre Dame is really Catholic, or whether a priest can make out on the beach with his gal pal? Well, yes. And that should come as no surprise.
Since the emergence of Catholicism in the 19th century as a counterweight to the United States's reigning Protestant culture, American Catholics have struggled to balance their desire to assimilate into society with the fear of losing their faith in the nation's melting pot. These new controversies show that, in the Catholic saga, assimilation is winning.
That is because American Catholics -- and there are upwards of 65 million of us -- are going their own way on many matters of faith and especially on issues ranging from priestly celibacy to political candidates, and there seems to be little the bishops can do about it. If there is a true swing vote in the U.S. electorate today, it is the Catholic bloc. This disturbs conservative members of the faith, the self-styled "orthodox" who often dismiss such fickle folks as "cafeteria Catholics." In the vacuum left by the disappearing Catholic subculture, conservatives have made politics the eighth sacrament, with one's position on abortion and gay marriage becoming the litmus test of whether one is a "good Catholic," or a Catholic at all.
This civil war, as the Catholic writer Peter Steinfels recently called it, between hard-liners and those seeking greater engagement, is one the church cannot win. A recent Pew survey showed that despite a generally greater "brand loyalty" than most faiths, Catholicism in America is bleeding out, to the point that nearly one in 10 Americans identifies as a former Catholic. For every one convert, four Catholics are leaving the church -- half of them to traditions like evangelicalism that they find more spiritually fulfilling. Without the inflow of millions of Latino immigrants in recent decades, American Catholicism would be in decline, and even still the church is shrinking in many areas.
The conflicting identities of American Catholics have deep roots. Beginning in the 1800s, American Catholics insulated themselves by building an alternate universe of schools to educate their children, hospitals to care for their sick, and cemeteries to bury their dead. They were forbidden to marry outside the fold, and stepping inside a Protestant church was considered hazardous to the soul's health. On the other hand, just as Catholics wanted to show Rome they could be every bit as Catholic as the pope, they also wanted to prove to their fellow citizens that they could be as red, white, and blue as any Connecticut Yankee. They fought in the nation's wars, labored in the country's factories, and turned out generations of college graduates who took their place among America's elite. And after the presidential candidacy of Al Smith was thwarted in 1928 thanks in part to anti-Catholic canards, the faithful helped power John F. Kennedy to the White House in 1960.
Of course, just as Catholics finally arrived, they almost immediately set to fighting among themselves with a bitterness that would make even the most fractious Baptists blush. The Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s brought contested reforms that coincided with the social upheavals of that decade, and in 1968, as women were rejoicing in the liberation of The Pill, Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical Humanae Vitae reaffirming the ban on artificial contraception. Some Catholics stormed off but others simply defected in place, feeling free to stay and disregard papal teaching. Then came Roe v. Wade, drawing Catholicism into the culture wars with a fury that seemed to peak during the 2008 election.
But it didn't end on November 4. In March, when the University of Notre Dame invited President Obama to deliver its commencement address -- as it has done for presidents going back to Eisenhower -- conservative Catholics and a growing number of bishops (about 60 at last count, though still a minority of the nearly 290 active bishops in the United States) denounced the school and its president, Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, in the harshest terms. Bishop Thomas G. Doran of Rockford, Ill., had perhaps the sharpest (and most insider) of jabs, calling Jenkins's invitation "truly obscene" and suggesting that he rename the school "Northwestern Indiana Humanist University."
As such purple rhetoric was flying about on the Notre Dame affair, American Catholics suddenly faced a more sordid one: A tabloid published shots of popular Cuban American priest Alberto Cutié -- a multimedia star among U.S. Hispanics -- in risqué poses on the beach with a woman who turns out to be his girlfriend of two years. Nothing draws media flies like a sex scandal, especially one involving a man of the cloth, but a funny thing happened on the way to Father Cutié's disgrace: He did not slink away in shame but instead proclaimed, with Luther-like dignity, that he wasn't worried what the hierarchy thought. "What worries me most is how God views me. The institution, the church, is something else."
Cutié is now reportedly considering whether to marry his girlfriend, and has said he thinks priestly celibacy should be optional. What's more, 78 percent of Miami-area Catholics said they had a favorable impression of him, and 81 percent backed his call for a married priesthood, according to a Miami Herald poll.
That willingness of American Catholics to break ranks with such long-held tenets is evident in surveys on a number of issues, including church teachings regarding celibacy and birth control. But for conservative Catholics, "opposition to abortion is the signpost at the intersection of Catholicism and American public life," as Jody Bottum, who recently succeeded the late Father Richard John Neuhaus as editor of the theocon journal First Things, wrote recently in the Weekly Standard. To Bottum, Notre Dame's president and others who could engage a pro-abortion rights politician like Obama "lack the cultural marker that would make them Catholic in the minds of other Catholics."
While those "other Catholics" are a distinct minority, they have adopted the tactics of hard-line activists. For example, when Obama visited Georgetown University last month to deliver a major economic policy speech, his set-up crew covered up a religious symbol behind the podium to make the setting conform to a non-religious standard. The move was immediately cited as proof that Obama was anti-Catholic -- the speech's references to the Sermon on the Mount notwithstanding.
These activists have also exploited -- or worked with -- bishops whose views match their own. And they can get away with it because the do-it-yourself trend in Catholicism is also infecting the hierarchy, with bishops openly contradicting each other on such fundamental issues as one's suitability to receive Communion, in terms that might have once been reserved for the church's archenemies.
And this is perhaps the greatest irony: Conservative Catholics are proving to be the greatest assimilationists, with their efforts to decertify fellow Catholics mimicking a sectarian and divisive culture that classic Catholicism has always rejected.
A recent courageous editorial in the national Jesuit weekly America (which has at times felt the wrath of Rome) cited the dangers that the Notre Dame furor has revealed: "For today's sectarians, it is not adherence to the church's doctrine on the evil of abortion that counts for orthodoxy, but adherence to a particular political program . . . They scorn Augustine's inclusive, forgiving, big-church Catholics . . . [and] threaten the unity of the Catholic Church in the United States."
This priority on unity is the principle that most American Catholics still live by, and it makes them accept Father Cutié, girlfriend and all, and welcome Obama to the iconic campus in South Bend. As the conservative Catholic legal scholar and Reagan administration lawyer Douglas Kmiec put it in Slate earlier this year, "Beyond life issues, an audaciously hope-filled Democrat like Obama is a Catholic natural."
When he speaks at Notre Dame, Barack Obama -- an African-American Protestant with a Muslim father -- may enunciate a vision that resonates more genuinely with American Catholics than the pronouncements of the church's high-decibel spokesmen. This state of affairs can emerge only in a church that is compromising its historic self-definition as the biggest of tents.
A century ago, the church was deeply divided over Pope Pius X's campaign against "Modernism," which was a catchall for anything Rome deemed suspicious. When Pius died, the conclave of 1914 elected Benedict XV, who immediately issued an encyclical calling on Catholics "to appease dissension and strife" so that "no one should consider himself entitled to affix on those who merely do not agree with his ideas the stigma of disloyalty to faith."
"There is no need of adding any qualifying terms to the profession of Catholicism," Benedict XV concluded. "It is quite enough for each one to proclaim 'Christian is my name and Catholic my surname.'"
If the Catholic Church had a bumper sticker, that could be it. And it means that the real dilemma for American Catholics today is not whether Notre Dame is Catholic, but whether we are.
david@dgibson.com
David Gibson is author of "The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism" and "The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World."
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