Cardinal Turkson Doesn’t Get It

RNS linked Cardinal Peter Turkson’s CNN interview. He steered the conversation well from the political concerns of the day, and focused on the essential of the Gospel.

And this, at the 7:05 (question)/7:31 (answer) mark:

When Amanpour asked Turkson about the possibility of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal spreading to Africa, he said it would unlikely be in the same proportion as it has in Europe.

“African traditional systems kind of protect or have protected its population against this tendency,” he said. “Because in several communities, in several cultures in Africa homosexuality or for that matter any affair between two sexes of the same kind are not countenanced in our society.”

A troubling answer. Cardinal Turkson misses on two points.

First, that sex abuse isn’t about same sex attraction as much as it about using sexuality to dominate, humiliate, and impose upon the innocent. There is probably nothing more intimate and personal than a person’s sexuality. Throwing out the gay thing is just a smokescreen.

Second, the scandal is less in the misconduct of clergy and much more in the mismanagement of predators. Could she have asked him about bishops who had mishandled wayward clergy? That would have been an interesting exchange to see.

He does concede the restoration of credibility is very needful. But he doesn’t address the problem of bishops.

I’ve seen commentary that Cardinal Turkson is too much in the news, and has campaigned his way out of consideration by his fellow cardinals. I think that if he were elected, he would need to listen to the facts and learn of the situation. Africa is not Eden. The powerful in Africa have certainly used sex to exert domination over the innocent, the weak, and the vulnerable. African bishops have not avoided their own sexual escapades.

I wish the interviewer had been more incisive and better researched on these points. At least Cardinal Turkson recognizes the credibility gap. That he doesn’t take it for granted suggests the higher-ups in Rome don’t count on it either. That can be a good thing.

 

Beyond Humiliation, the Curia

If Cardinal Mahony had come out on his own blog about the smail’s pace of the curia in dealing with priest predators, it might have come across as somewhat self-serving. I’m inclined to think there’s blame to spread around, if not up, with this LA Times piece. One predator was yanked from his parish. But he appealed to Rome to prevent his defrocking. The Humiliated One wrote to Rome in ’93:

The case has been there for many, many months. The lengthy delay has created serious problems for my own credibility as a Diocesan Bishop.

No kidding.

The reporters:

(Confidential archdiocese records) suggest that Mahony at times had to press an unresponsive Vatican to get molesting priests out of the church.

Cardinal Mahony was unwilling to comment for this piece. Interesting. He’s been public with a lot of comments lately. A comment on the CDF and the Congregation for Clergy might be very illuminating at this point. Or maybe personally dangerous.

I wonder if there would be a thaw in that approach after the upcoming conclave. I can imagine an icy reception in Rome if he decided to spill beans like the ones he spit out at Archbishop Gomez a few weeks ago. If he’s going to post personal honesty pieces on his blog, I’d rather see some sense of honesty about the situation as it unfolded all those years ago. I’d like to think the man who harbored criminals from prosecution in the 80′s had learned something by the 90′s. If nothing else, a recognition that he and his brother bishops dislike having their credibility impaired by their being so slow on the uptake.

Cardinal Mahony, after this conclave, has nothing to lose. There will be no more cushy appointments for him. Clearly, he’s been led down a road he didn’t expect and wouldn’t have taken. What was the Petrine experience of John 21:18? Perhaps that is the path beyond the humiliation of abandoning the innocent.

 

He-Said/She-Said on the Next Pope

Did the WaPo set up this mismatch? Not so much a mismatch, really, as the classic Catholic conversation across the divide: liberals and conservatives talking past each other.

Ashley McGuire zeroes in on the “fun stuff.”

James Salt offers a list of examples, nearly all of which center on the Church’s administrative disasters and PR slip-ups.

Let’s face it: there are Catholic politicos out there who want change on the basic level, including ordination. (Ordaining women is neither a matter of faith or morals, but it does highlight the fallibility of human metaphor to cover every contingency.) Ms McGuire:

What the church’s critics, especially those now giddily wondering if Pope Benedict’s successor will shake things up, just don’t seem to understand, is that church teachings on these issues are unchangeable.

The issues I’m much more concerned about are these:

• Administration on the level of bishops: how they treat and have treated sexual predators and how they deal with their own on mismanagement that directly impacts the effectiveness of the Gospel of Christ.
• The overreaching of a very non-biblical tradition: the curia.
• Financial mismanagement on parish and diocesan levels. Probably Rome too.
• The Keystone Theological Cops routine with investigations that can’t shoot straight.

I’m less interested in Ms McGuire’s “fun stuff.” I just want some real leadership on the serious matters that seem to have escaped the last two popes and their bureaucracy.

Next time the WaPo offers up a he-said/she-said, the least they could do is avoid an ideological mismatch.

 

A Coming Break

From AsiaNews.it, news from outside of Asia–it’s more pope news. From Federico Lombardi, SJ:

The Constitution says that the Conclave begins between 15 and 20 days after the death of the pope, to give the Cardinals time to get to Rome, but in this case with the communication of his resignation and the start of Vacant see made in advance, if they are already here, there’s nobody to wait for.

Anybody for sealing up the bunch in the Sistine Chapel at 8:01 local time on the 28th? If they make quick work of the conclave, the cardinals will only miss a scrutiny or two. If the big red hat meet goes long, what do you think they will do for Holy Week? Allow the import of palms? Wash twelve pairs of feet, or everybody’s?

Why B16′s retirement home isn’t a big deal:

I believe that actually having Pope Benedict close by, spiritually, in prayer, will be a source of great enrichment, of communion for his successor, and for all of us. I believe fears of interference are irrelevant.

…

He is 86 years old and used to living in this kind of environment, to think about moving to a completely new environment would have required a manifestation of will, which obviously was not there. He will continue to be the place where he has served the Church. I find it absolutely normal and I think that an alternative was not even considered.

I’m not impressed with the pope’s parting shot at Vatican II. The press to blame? Really?

Our job in this ‘Year of Faith’ is to work so that the true council, with the strength of the Holy Spirit, is truly realized and that the church is truly renovated.

I believe the true council will eventually be truly realized. If that involves either 5 percent or 95 percent of the Holy Father’s expectations, then so be it. I’m thinking it’s more one digit, than two. Joseph Ratzinger is one man, with one man’s opinion. Vatican II is quite real, quite a break from the past. In that break, the Catholic Church is entirely at home within the traditions of Christian spirituality. Francis did not ease himself into divestiture of clothing or the embrace of lepers. Paul did not ease off the persecution of Christians by just sending them to jail instead of stoning them. Abram didn’t keep his home in Ur as a vacation residence. How many other examples from the Judeo-Christian tradition do we need?

God invites us to break from our former lives. Especially when those lives lead us in circles and don’t move us closer to Christ or with Christ. The principle may well apply to the universal community of the Church. Really: ever wonder why believers across the board today are so frustrated, especially on the Barque? I suspect the unrest is part of a greater sense of the people of God being thwarted in their journey to God. The Holy Father points fingers at the media. I wonder about our leadership. I think the pope, curia, and bishops honestly have their best interests and that of the Church at heart. No doubt many of them think these congruent.

I really hope the Holy Spirit moves well in the coming conclave. The Church needs a break. In more ways than one.

 

Ending A Part of the Burke Legacy

Archbishop Robert Carlson has decided to end the fight “to the Supreme Court” to regain control of the renegade St Stanislaus Parish in his see city. This lets stand last March’s ruling, blogged about here.

The tussle began years ago when Archbishop Raymond Burke exerted rightful episcopal authority over a parish that refused to budge. The community grew more obstinate as ecclesiastical and secular resources were put in play.

I confess that I don’t see the logic for the Church to pursue an ecclesiastical end in a secular court. They could have won this in court, but that wouldn’t likely lasso the believers back into the fold. The community would just find another place to celebrate Mass and stake their position outside the institutional Church.

St Stanislaus will now need to find a mission and focus other than fighting for its economic survival. That may be harder to do now that the archdiocese has dropped its gloves at ringside and gone home.

 

Latin, Very Easy

I tried to convince the young miss that learning Latin would be good for her education. Alas, my Latin First Year and Latin Second Year textbooks sit gathering dust in the house. Puella aquam portat held no interest.

ANSA broke the news on the pope’s resignation, thanks to journalist Giovanna Chirri, who convinced her editor her knowledge of the language was deep enough to run the story. Ms Chirri:

Benedict XVI’s Latin is very easy to understand.

Nice. My Latin is so rusty, it’s still in the Gaul campaigns. But good for someone who has enough of a facility with it. I wonder if she went to Fr Reggie …

 

Wow. Just, Wow.

I thought I had lived through everything in 1978 when I had three popes in six weeks.

We had a power outage in part of our house last night–wind whipping everything south of the bathroom to an on-and-off flicker. Only the computer, tv, and the sleeping chamber of the young miss were spared.

Speaking of whom, this is the first time my own child woke me up with ecclesiastically shocking news. This can’t be right, I thought. What happened to my clock radio, I though. Well, the BBC confirmed it.

Immediately my thoughts go to the liturgy … How will we pray for a retired pope? Both now before he steps down, during the conclave, and then in his retirement. (Did I hear right that George Weigel calls this an abdication? Man, that is some loaded term. What on earth happened to that guy?)

I don’t just mean the Eucharistic Prayer, but also the petitions people will compose for daily and Sunday Masses.

The timing of this also ensures the anniversary of a pope will remain in the vicinity of Holy Week. That may or may not be a good absorption.

What do you think of B16′s plans to stick close to Rome?

What will the 24-hour internet news cycle make of this conclave? Oh wait, we almost had smartphones and YouTube and Twitter in 2005, didn’t we? How do you generate white smoke from a smartphone?

 

 

 

“No Plans”

Can the institutional Church afford “no comment” on Big News like the Cardinal Mahony slapdown? Some seem happy to inhabit the conservative half of the blogosphere, where indeed the archbishop’s dust-up with Mother Angelica has not been forgotten. These folks are already Catholic. I’m interested in the commentary on the other side, where, supposedly, the evangelization (new or otherwise) will kick start. And where the institution hopes to make inroads among the youth to whom it admits it struggles to connect. This is a near-catastrophe for evangelization. Year of Faith? This is the Year of Losing Face.

The NCRep commentariat is expectedly skeptical. Long years of cover-up scandal cast a cloud of suspicion over a prelate who, by all media admissions, has done something unprecedented. Is he doing it to smooth the way for a quicker red hat in LA? Is this just a PR move for a guy who has had access to these records for the past two years–and only now makes a public move?

I’m inclined to go light on the guy. No way would he jump the gun on the legal process. It looks suspicious, but I think he had to wait. Unless he was willing to preempt the law and throw his cardinal to the wolves. I also don’t think Archbishop Gomez deserves any special kudos. He did nothing heroic, extraordinary, or something none of the rest of us would do.

Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, told NCR that although he has received several requests for comment from news agencies, there are no plans at this time to issue a statement. Among other things, he said, the Vatican needs time “to better understand the situation.”

Rome does need time to understand what to do when an archbishop calls out a cardinal–whether or not they approved it. I’m not sure they did. If Archbishop Gomez “went rogue” on this, he’s in an almost invulnerable position, short-term. The Vatican is powerless to criticize him. The Vatican, however, was in a place to temporize. They could have issued a generic statement that the cover-up of wrongdoing in the clergy is gravely wrong. But it’s illustrative that Rome didn’t even say that.

My suspicion is that they have yet to recognize that their policy has long been seeped in moral relativism, to use the popular conservative term. If a priest is caught in predation, it can be justified that the deed is done. If the situation can be controlled, then keeping the offender out of circulation brings a moral satisfaction to predator-church relationship. Clearly, the victims are not at the center of the picture.

Additionally, this latest episode in California shows us that the prime sin is getting caught. Archbishop Gomez probably couldn’t make a move until his Church’s legal obstructions were depleted.

The institution in Rome comes off looking very bad–they must have been briefed on this. I wonder what their new Fox News bureaucrat would want to do …

The worse issue for Rome is the subjective way they handle scandal in the episcopacy. A long list of American bishops: Finn, Rigali, Bevilacqua, Law, McCormack, Walsh, Egan.. some cardinals, some well-respected–all with a strong stench of misconduct, if not actual sin. None disciplined. A few actually whisked away from consequences.

The worst part, if something like this were ever to break, would be if money were found to be at the bottom of any selective “fraternal correction” among bishops. The Legionnaires, Opus Dei, EWTN’s backers–these people have the money. Do they have the power behind the cathedrae, even if such power is exercised selectively against those not their own?

This is all evidence of a small (minded) church. The result for evangelization? Getting smaller.

 

Catholics Schools Week

It’s been five years since I was in a parish with a school. So I feel far-removed from the concerns and culture of Catholic schools.

Indeed, not all Catholics are convinced of their value. To many hard-core conservatives, parish and diocesan schools are inadequate in passing down an “orthodox” faith. I’ve known several families over the years who prefer to homeschool, to make sure it gets done “right.”

Many parishioners resent the drain of resources for an effort that teaches religion or has direct activities in the faith just a percentage of the time–maybe 20%; maybe only 5.

Archbishop Wuerl spoke of the institutional and financial challenges here. Elements of faith, not so much.

I would like to offer one personal experience, and one concern I don’t see often addressed.

My own faith story began the first week I attended a Catholic school. I recall vividly the day we were lined up in our classrooms, marched down the hall and across the parking lot. My first experience inside of a church, and it was moving. I noticed the stained-glass windows. “Saint Joseph,” I thought. “I know him. Saint Athanasius? Who’s that?”

The pipe organ began playing and it seemed as if a cloud, a spiritual cloud was descending on us kids. I felt surrounded by the music. The priest read the Bible. And he talked about it. My Protestant mother had a few Bibles around the house, but she never talked about them.

Later on, I noticed that the kids up front were on the move. I asked my friend what was going on now. “Communion,” he said.

“Can anyone go?”

“Sure.”

An irregular and unorthodox First Communion, to be sure. But a product of a Catholic school experience: the care taken for the liturgy, including music. The kindly welcome of a new friend who must have thought I was from another Catholic school in the city. I was the first non-Catholic student in my grade.

One challenge of Catholic schools is that in the absence of a stronger Catholic culture, they tend to overwhelm the parish experience for kids and parents alike. It’s not that schools drain parish resources, as I’ve heard the complaint. It’s that the focus on academic achievement (high schools are more prep than Catholic), athletic accomplishment, and youth culture thirty to eighty hours a week tolerate no competition. And let’s face it: the two-hour-a-week parish cannot hope to triumph over the major time commitment of adolescents and the focus of many of their parents.

So, to my friends in education: have a happy week. We have a lot of good things going on, both in your sphere and in mine. Let’s hope we can find some way to work together and pull for a common goal.

 

WoC, 2012 Edition

The self-styled War on Christmas is heating up, I see. Santa Monica was swamped with atheist displays last year. So the city government appears to have pulled the plug on anything. Fair’s fair for public property, I suppose. As long as everybody’s following the rules.

In my parishes, where there has been a tradition of outdoor decoration, we did it on church property. In one parish, people got tired of the work to set up the display. So it was retired.

Where there’s still energy for public displays of religion, I don’t see the problem with confining it to either one’s church’s property or to acts of charity and justice in the public sphere. “They’ll know we are Christians by our love,” I think, and not by the quality or placement of our decorations. William Becker, attorney for the churches:

The atheists won. It’s a shame about Christmas. Pontius Pilate  was exactly the same kind of administrator.

Both sides return to court next Monday for final arguments. Let’s hope Mr Becker doesn’t bring a wash basin for the judge.

 

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

One of the more curious strategies I’ve encountered over the years has been the “anonymous” vocation discernment group. Boston seems to be moving beyond that trend, in its “collaborative” (see cluster) plan.

Each collaborative will develop a plan for identifying candidates for the priesthood, praying with them and mentoring them to accept vocations.

I think it’s up to any individual to determine how “public” to make their discernment. When I was in such a group for a year, I told many people. I told the woman I was dating–it seemed only fair. We maintained a close friendship that, on the romance front, didn’t “go anywhere” because of my own being up-in-the-air. My friend was respectful of that. But by the time I had given the men’s group a year and assessed I was not seminary-bound, my friend discerned another path, too. The line from the Billy Joel song came to mind …

A girl like that won’t tell you what you should do.

I don’t think they have material in the psalms to cover those kinds of romance-lost experiences.

Once when I spoke with a young priest who was leading such a group a few years ago, I asked about the “secrecy” surrounding his guys. He said that some “girlfriends” might not appreciate the participation of some of the guys. Girlfriends? What’s that other song’s line? “Things that make you go, ‘hmm.’”

Anyway, it seems that there’s a potential loss either way you go. Do vocations flourish in support or secrecy? Does one approach fit all? Do we assume that young women are hostile to the possibilities for their boyfriends? Whatever candidates might avoid in terms of criticism or lack of support, they might gain in encouragement, as Boston seems to be aiming. I know there are a few clergy reading this. Is there a separate conservative and progressive approach? I’m curious if it falls along the lines of traditional/private/pessimistic and liberal/open/optimistic. Cardinal Mahony supporters, line it up, and hush.

 

 

Escalation in San Diego and Elsewhere

I think escalation is the inevitable consequence of the Right’s decision in many quarters to “let’s finally take the gloves off” as I read one Catholic commentator suggesting. (Like it hasn’t been so for years …) I often see the meme cited by the Right when resisted, “But I thought you were advocating for civility?!” And as my favorite internet foils will tell you, I don’t think I have a particular reputation for being liberal-polite. The internet, by its very design or by our choice, is an aggressive venue. We don’t see faces. We’re not afraid of being punched out. So we’re pretty free about what we write, and we don’t care often if someone takes offense. From what I see, some liberals will call the other side names. Some conservatives will go after the other side’s jobs. Either way, blood will simmer.

According to the NCRep, the USD faculty have upped the ante with their president.

In a meeting of their academic assembly Tuesday, the University of San Diego faculty agreed to ask (President Mary) Lyons to reinstate (Tina) Beattie’s appointment immediately or face a possible vote of no confidence in her leadership.

“The will of the faculty has made it very clear that they consider this matter a matter of extreme importance and a matter that requires our immediate attention,” said (executive committee chair Carlton) Floyd, an associate professor of English at the university.

While Floyd said the official count of the vote was not yet available, he said the vote was “overwhelmingly” in favor of the move. Another faculty member present at the meeting put the tally at 117 in favor, two against and three abstaining.

Faculty can’t fire a president. But there’s no doubt they can make a professional life on campus very difficult. Presidents serve a community always looking for new hires. Universities are not insular communities, promoting professors from the student ranks. Not usually, anyway. New faculty may just be looking for a job, any job. But veteran professors in any discipline, not just theology, will pass over USD without a thought.

An administrator may opt to cede to the wishes of an outside group. That is a possible choice. But the choice is not without consequences. And either way, it must weigh heavily on an otherwise talented leader who must balance more concerns than particular faculty appointments. Consider that in the long run, such episodes, if repeated, will discourage good candidates from seeking important leadership positions. President Lyons likely wants to function in a harmonious environment where she can lead and guide the institution she was hired to serve. But the best of leaders may gravitate to other institutions where the politics are more subtle and manageable. Or they will stay in the classroom, and schools will start getting fourth- and fifth-best choices. It seems there’s a lesson to be learned somewhere. You can be sure that activists on either side, especially the gloves-off conservatives don’t give a darn about a particular school. They just want to feel the warm fuzzy of angry accomplishment.

As for the internet, I will confess a degree of concern about myself. I see involvement in escalation as being increasingly less fruitful, if indeed it ever was. I’ve started to delete regular conservative sites from my browser favorites.

I used to combat the tendency to reinforce my own beliefs by visiting and commenting liberally (literally) on Catholic sites over the years. While I’ve been persuaded to see things in a different light here and there, I’ve also found it good to sharpen my own positions and to engage the best (and sometimes the not-so-good) arguments of people who disagree with me. Count me as deeply suspicious of the situation in which I’m surrounded exclusively by supporters. Like every human being, I need positive reinforcement from time to time. But I also need the spiritual and emotional challenge of interior confrontation. The anguish and angst, I think, is often better placed internally than among individuals. In the spiritual life, we should have a steady stream of challenges. Hopefully not an escalation into chaos.

I’m seriously considering taking my own advice to the political pro-life movement and for my own good health stepping back from various forums. It’s a reflection of my own political experience this past year. No good choices for federal office in Iowa. Better choices for local government, where people are under the radar of the crazies (usually) and can make serious inroads into improving life as we live it.

And among local persons, I think we need the personal interaction and the substrate of friendship. Or at bare minimum grudging respect. James Martin wrote about an admirable approach within the Jesuits in his book The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, in which he described the community formation process of his novitiate. There were people whom he disliked. But when, in community life, one knows the particular trials of people, one can come to understand and appreciate their lives and what they bring to the Church. Increasingly, I don’t think the internet brings much of great value to the Church at all.

I was noticing 8400-some posts on this site. Nine years active now. And I used to think I was coming on board to blog on the downslope of the effort. I suspect I’m on the downslope here. How far down, I’m not sure. It may be that I still have things to say, but I’d rather say them in a different setting, and with things other than words. I think you can count on my finishing out these documents that are in progress. I may tackle others.

After our church’s fire, things have been rather busy, and I’ve put some musical projects on hold. We may be only one-third of the way through our exile from worshiping at church, and more work is ahead. But I picked up my next musical again this week, and it was a lot more life-giving than the internet I can tell you. More later, I think.

 

 

One Easter, Not Two

Vatican Insider reports that Holy Land Catholics will join their Orthodox sisters and brothers in observing Easter on 5 May 2013.

Is the Catholic/Orthodox separation on Easter a big deal? About half the time the dates are separated by a week. One-fourth of the time, as in 2013, it’s about a month. Otherwise we’re aligned 25% of the time. How did things get out of whack on such a basic Christian thing?

The difference between the Gregorian calendar reform of 1582, and how Easter is placed as the Sunday after the first full moon of Spring.

Why now and not earlier? Who knows? Vatican II endorsed the idea of a single celebration of Easter across Christendom. The last bishops’ synod endorsed the idea, repeatedly. Obviously, we’d need to get all of the Reformation Churches with the program, too. A lot of them took a century or two to adopt Pope Gregory XIII’s initiative. Britain and its colonies came aboard in 1752. Here’s a good trivia question: which was the last US state to align with the other states in the Gregorian reform? Hint: it was before its own statehood.

Here is the 2010 USCCB statement on a shared Easter.

Hopefully this development will cut down on fistfights and other unseemly behavior.

 

 

 

 

A Contemplative Ministry

I’m grateful for Rock’s providing us the text of Archbishop Rowan Williams’ remarks at the synod. I appreciate the strong theme of contemplation as a remedy for the dangers of being so narcissistic as we strive to do the mission of Jesus Christ. This thought begins an unfolding theme in the address:

To be contemplative as Christ is contemplative is to be open to all the fullness that the Father wishes to pour into our hearts.  With our minds made still and ready to receive, with our self-generated fantasies about God and ourselves reduced to silence, we are at last at the point where we may begin to grow.  And the face we need to show to our world is the face of a humanity in endless growth towards love, a humanity so delighted and engaged by the glory of what we look towards that we are prepared to embark on a journey without end to find our way more deeply into it, into the heart of the trinitarian life.  St Paul speaks (in II Cor 3.18) of how ‘with our unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord’, we are transfigured with a greater and greater radiance.  That is the face we seek to show to our fellow-human beings.

Read the whole address. I recommend it. There’s much more there.

As I strive for more contemplation and less of myself, I see the archbishop’s reflection as fitting for anyone in ministry. I don’t know how much was poking at the Catholic bishops present, but I see much that applies to me, and to the ministries in which I serve that are liturgical as well as evangelical.

Contemplation should move us from old ways of thinking: how we see ourselves and our place in the world. Contemplation also urges us to new ways of relationships. Instead of people who cling to others for what they can do for me, we become people who cultivate relationships based on what they can do for God. The evangelical mindset would have us ponder each person and wonder: how will they take their part in the Great Commission, in the mind and intent of Christ?

This is difficult, and wholly countercultural, even within the Church. Yet people are watching. Do they see believers using each other just like people in the world use others? Or do they see this substrate of contemplation penetrate our relationships and ministries, not just as a tool for individuals to “get ahead” with God? But as a discipline in which we strive to imitate Christ, and to acknowledge the interior opportunities for growth, change, and even metanoia?

Speaking for myself, I have to consider how I view parishioners. Cogs in a liturgical machine? Souls to be opened by God? People aligning with my mission and ministry? Brothers and sisters each with their own calling? More and more, I sense the truer and deeper path in parish ministry, at least the way I see it, is less as an orchestrator of tasks and more a facilitator of the interior life, urging people to go deep into Christ and come forth with their own great mission in the Lord.

What do you think about Dr Williams’ address, or the impact this view on contemplation may have on parish spirituality and life? Or the bishops in Rome?

 

Bishop Clark Honored

Today’s bishops seem overpopulated with canon lawyers and not enough spiritual directors. I was glad to see one of my former bishops, one from the latter category, honored by his brothers, including the Jovial One:

Only a couple of minutes into his homily, Cardinal Dolan, who noted that all were gathered “to salute a great Bishop of Rochester,” got to the prevailing sentiment of the occasion.

“Why don’t I just say it, what’s in all our hearts. Matthew, we love you very much,” Cardinal Dolan remarked, setting off thunderous applause that became a standing ovation.

Cardinal Dolan was wondering later about the Garbage Plate. Please, archbishop, stay on that diet!

I remember that Matthew Clark was regarded with deep suspicion by some when he came to Rochester in 1979–directly from Rome. The previous bishop had, at his predecessor‘s urging, been appointed from among the pastors of the diocese in 1969. That still seems a generally sensible idea, one that Pope Benedict occasionally endorses, such as here, and that occasionally is rejected, sometimes with disastrous results, such as here.

In the early 80′s, I was thinking it better to form my own opinion on a bishop rather than swim with the current. I would occasionally cross paths with Bishop Clark in my formation years. he was always friendly, inquiring about my studies. He seemed more up-to-date on them than my pastor. I remember being most impressed with Bishop Clark as a skilled and prayerful presider, especially at confirmations.

My Kansas City bishops in comparison were dry and difficult presiders and preachers. Bishop Finn did restore the Eucharist for confirmation. And forty-minute homilies were trimmed somewhat. Give me a good prayerful bishop who engages ars celebrandi–who cares for his politics or ideology. Speaking of which, if one were to judge the need for a successor bishop in Rochester, one might have thought that an appointment would be coming the day Bishop Clark turned 75. The counters on the conservative web sites are gone, and the Catholic Right is still grinding its teeth.