Seeing Water Flow

World News Australia reports more Vatican leaks, even though the butler is detained. Maybe he’s masterminding the whole thing from his police holding cell.

Who else is named in webs of deceit? Cardinal Bertone. Monsignor Georg Gänswein, the pope’s personal secretary.

Cardinal Burke is mentioned, but not as a leaker. More as a complainer. About those Neo-Cat liturgies. Like that’s his department.

David Gibson suggests this is not so much a leak, but a pour.

I was thinking of the acclamation for the Sprinkling Rite:

I saw water flowing from the right side of the temple, alleluia …

Monsignor Gänswein has been very close to the pope for his whole papacy. People close to B16 are obvious targets. As obvious as planting evidence in the Vatican apartment of a personal assistant. It’s hard not to get the idea that the pope himself is the target of this campaign. I saw one or two rumbles over the weekend that he might make an example of himself and resign. If so, someone has spent a lot of energy and wielded a lot of power to make it happen. Not sure I want those people in charge of the Church.

 

Police Adventures

The downfall of the 1%: no gratitude.

This is like a Clue result: It was Butler Brown, in private chambers, with a cell phone camera. Actually, the dude’s name is Paolo Gabriele. Early news reports today declined to say where in the Vatican the suspect was being held. I wonder if the dungeons are down the hallway from the crypt.

 

The Pope Signs on with James Martin

Good words, reported widely, from Pope Benedict:

I wish to reaffirm my deep gratitude for the example of fidelity and self-sacrifice given by many consecrated women in your country.

He could do worse than to sign on to Fr James Martin’s initiative.

Meanwhile, on the papal front, English-language outlets are all aflutter about the Vatican’s quick work condemning the leak of private papal documents and their pouring into what’s going to be a hugely popular book. The dotCommontariat wonders, but lacking an Italian translator with the actual pages, we’re left to wonder about the content. Banks. The LC. A cat licks the dinner dishes in the papal apartment.

I confess my curiosity about the source of the leaks. Somewhat less on the outrage about it. Boredom on the Legionaries–they’re toast by now, right? Most curious about the “excesses of bishops.” What does that mean?

 

Hold Your Breath: A Good Word For The Episcopacy

A few of my readers take me to task for never hardly ever having a good thing to say about bishops. In my defense, I might say that Christus Dominus was one of the very first Vatican II documents studied on this site. And judging by the light commentary on the series, I can point out that my conservative brothers and sisters in the blogosphere didn’t have a lot of good things to say about them either.

Lately, though, I see the American episcopacy has, in some corners, developed a spine when it comes to assessing GOP talking points. Like on the House proposal for a federal budget. Or even immigration. Unlike their bosses in the Temple Police (who seem all aflutter about Sec Sebelius, but adopting a deer-in-headlights mode when it comes to torture apologists). For these people, prudence is a convenient political weapon thirty-nine-cent word. Or a 60′s song-n-dance routine.

The Temple Police hound me, of course, about my neutrality on Sec Sebelius. To sort of buff their bona fides, they throw out the Nazi-what-if speaker at a Catholic commencement. I have to admit that I think it’s okay for John Brennan to speak at Fordham. But then again, I also think it’s okay for his appearance to be protested, criticized, lampooned, and even wolf-whistled if necessary. Maybe it’s up to the bishop, the university prez, or even the student speaker to call out a guest speaker for moral missteps in the public sphere. Easy for me to say, I guess, as I inhabit Catholic bloggerdom, where we tell the truth all the time, of course, and where I’ve made a rep for swimming against the current for so long.

Yes indeedy: invite me to speak at a graduation. I’ll show you action on two or more fronts–which is a lot more than the Newman Society or the Republicans will handle successfully.

So let’s give the CNS a C for partisanship and an F for Catholicism. Outside the courtroom, the bishops are definitely higher, grading on a curve. Universities are coming out a bit higher than the bishops.

…

What did you expect? I’m not putting them at the top of the class. Not just yet.

 

More Trouble for the Legion

The AP released the news, hopped on by just about every Catholic outlet in the world over the past twenty-four hours, that the curia is pondering a small stack of dossiers in its possession:

(T)he Legion (of Christ) confirmed it had referred seven cases of alleged abuse to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that investigates sex crimes. All but one involves alleged abuse dating from decades ago; one case involves recent events.

More from the Legion’s statement:

While the priests are under investigation, their access to children has been restricted.

I wonder how strict the restriction is. I hope orthodoxically strict, as in a far sight better than Bishop Finn’s solution.

As bad as the crimes of individual predators may be, the seemingly-inevitable cover-up is far worse:

The scandal of Maciel and the Legion ranks as one of the worst of the 20th-century Catholic Church, since he was held up as a model for the faithful by Pope John Paul II. The orthodox order, which has about 900 priests around the world, was praised for attracting both money and vocations to the priesthood.

Documentation from Vatican archives, however, has shown that as early as the 1950s, the Vatican had evidence that he was a drug addict and pedophile.

Only in 2006 did the Vatican sanction Maciel to a lifetime of penance and prayer for his crimes. He died in 2008 and a year later the Legion admitted he had fathered three children with two different women and had abused his seminarians.

The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 and is pushing through a process of reform.

Even conservative Catholics in the blogosphere are suggesting words like “suppression” in connection with the Legion. Of course, they’re also swimming in dozens of vocations to cloistered life, so they also say the same thing about the LCWR. On the former suppression, I’m a skeptic, and here ‘s why:

Maybe it lets the Legion off too easily. There’s probably little hope of imposing a new charism on the community. But suppose its ministries were re-ordered to focus on advocacy for victims, and rooting out scandal within the Church. Suppose its fundraising prowess and stockpiles of resources were placed at the service of victims and their legal counsel. And dioceses that were found to offend and might find other ministries devalued through no fault of their own. Suppose the founder were held up as an example of don’t-do-this. From John Paul II’s 2001 address:

In a secularized world such as our own, built in large part on neglect of transcendent truths and values, the faith of many of our brothers and sisters is sorely tried. Because of this, there is a need today more than ever for a confident proclamation of the Gospel which, casting aside all crippling fears, announces with intellectual depth and with courage the truth about God, about (people), about the world.

Let’s be clear that a sign of neglect of these values is in the cronyism, materialism, and secrecy that often accompanies the cover-up of predation in the Church. Preaching the truth, speaking the truth: these are charism the Church needs. Why not let the LC continue if they would re-order their efforts at this? Otherwise, perhaps the whole thing should be erased.

 

Cardinal Red, Hot

Irish theologian and Joseph Ratzinger protege Vincent Twomey thinks the Primate of All Ireland should resign.

Ireland’s Deputy PM too.

Is it safe for Cardinal Brady to get kicked up into Rome? The Law seat is no longer open. But they’ve already investigated Irish seminaries. That pretty much leaves the Irish women religious. The long knives of Cardinal Law could reach across an ocean. Do you suppose Sean Brady is as vindictive?

Let’s be very clear in this continuing discussion on Catholic identity, especially as it’s framed by the Catholic Right. Every theologian might not have a mandate. And some Catholic institutions are the targets of petition drives. But notice the complainers in these instances are solid believers. They are far from truly scandalized. the real points of scandal are those who are literally obstacles to belief and faith. Few enough people on the fringes of faith and the Church were edged out by a theologian without a permission slip or by a political speaker at a Catholic university. The same cannot be said for the bishops who have disgraced their office by harboring predators, blaming lawyers and psychologists, and insisting they did nothing wrong.

The College of Cardinals is on the hot seat. They might not feel it yet. And the Right seems distracted by other things. But it’s there.

 

CDF >>> CPF? It’s The Law

Grant Gallicho at dotCommonweal notes that The Tablet and Chiesa have scooped John Allen (not to mention Rocco Palmo) on the brains (or lack thereof) behind the LCWR witch hunt. Is this Bernard Law’s long distance middle finger to Catholics in America? That’s not going to play very well in circles here.

Has the CDF just morphed into the Congregation for the Politicization of the Faith?

 

Interdict: Why Wouldn’t That Play In Cleveland?

I see where Madison’s Bishop Morlino is mightily p***ed off at those Catholic laity in Platteville, Wisconsin who don’t like his rent-a-priests. He sent them a five-page letter with cut-and-paste from canon law, including the mention of the penalty of interdict. Is it a threat? Or a lesson in ecclesiastical governance. We all know bishops can disinvite speakers. Maybe he’s just reminding uppity sheep he has other means at his disposal besides cancelling hotel rooms and microphone power.

Diocesan spokesman Brent King said Morlino’s main message is that this should be  a time of “prayer, serious introspection and forgiveness.” The specific texts  from the church’s code of law were included precisely so that they may never be needed, King said.

Sounds like the manufacture of nuclear weapons to me.

It’s one thing to advocate for a smaller, purer church. And, seemingly, get it. But it’s another to get blamed for the closure of a parish school. That will expand the base of disenchanted quite widely from the liberal Catholics of St Mary’s.

(C)hurch donations fell by more than half, and about 40 percent of the church’s  1,200 members signed a petition seeking the priests’ ouster. The church’s  77-year-old school is set to close June 1, a loss many parishioners tie directly  to the collapse of donations.

Least impressive in this mess is Bishop Morlino’s sense of a hierarchy of truths. It seems he’s of the opinion that you draw a circle. Everything inside is Catholic. Everything outside is

… personal likes and dislikes, along with inflated rumors and gossip, some of  which may even rise to the level of calumnious inciting of hatred of your priests, the faith and myself.

Parishioner Terry Busch:

There’s nothing I’ve ever said  that isn’t true, but it sounds like if you say anything about the priests or the church, they’re coming after you. Now I don’t know exactly what that means. Do they send you to hell or take you to court?

The institution has not fared well lately in court. I’m thinking hell. What about you?

I remember when the priest who baptized me died suddenly. The parish was sent a German priest who, instead of encouraging singing and good liturgy, managed to get the 12:15 Mass accomplished in twenty-two minutes flat. I noticed I didn’t miss the opening kickoff when the NFL aired at 1pm. But the parishioners weren’t all football fans trying to get a quickie Mass in before Sunday afternoon sports. Fr Kuchman was gone in three months, as well as the associate pastor and the school principal. So these things happen: laity can oust clergy. Does it matter that they don’t like the color of his sports car? If the foment is widespread, there’s no stopping it.

And this interdict thing, that’s likely to hurt the faithful remnant more than people who will either head to the Episcopal church in town or to Dubuque over the river.

You may have canon law on your side. You may have the pope. And you may even be right. But sometimes you’re going to lose, even when you’re right.

I can’t imagine that a traditionalist bishop, even one who longs for the 50′s (and I mean the 1550′s) would be willing to let a school implode and a parish tear itself apart. I guess we know why he didn’t bring these order priests to a parish in the see city. It would be like rolling the dice and Madison’s other pastors would be chortling with glee at influx of wool in their pews.

Meanwhile, I wonder if Bishop Lennon isn’t musing, “Dang! Why didn’t I think of interdict before the Signatura came to the rescue of my uppity sheep?!”

 

Institutional Incompetence

Andrew Hamilton has an Australian and a historical perspective on the CDF-LCWR situation. History first, with the tale of Mary Ward, who wanted to adopt the Jesuit rule and, with other women, teach and perform pastoral duties–outside of a convent. Needless to say Rome and the Jesuits were unimpressed:

Her congregation was suppressed and she was jailed for a time.

The papal bull that suppressed the congregation was direct. It described the women as ‘workers who rashly betake themselves to the field of the Lord, scatter what has been sown, root up what has been planted, introduce cockle and spread false weeds through it…’

‘Free from the laws of enclosure they wander about at will, and under the guise of promoting the salvation of souls have been accustomed to attempt and employ themselves at many other works which are most unsuitable to their weak sex and character, to female modesty, and particularly to maidenly reserve — works which men of eminence in the science of sacred letters, of experience of affairs of innocence of life undertake with much difficulty.’

It concludes, ‘we totally and completely suppress and extinguish them, subject them to perpetual abolition and remove them entirely from the Holy Church of God… And we wish and command all Christian faithful to consider them and think of them as suppressed, extinct, rooted out, destroyed and abolished’.

In those days they made contempt into an art form. Mary Ward’s sisters continue today.

Of course they do.

Lots of timetables in print in the mainstream Catholic media, like here, but keep in mind the fumblebuttery in Rome:

The executive (committee) of the sisters were in Rome to meet the Congregation of the Faith to discuss the serious issues raised in this report, only to be told the appointment of the Archbishop had already been communicated to the American Bishops. They were assured the appointment would be kept under wraps until they could inform their member congregations. But it was immediately published on the Bishops Conference website.

I think we can take heart in this. The suppression of Mary Ward was just plain evil. The good news is that the CDF and much of the rest of the curia is full of rank incompetence. Too dumb to be evil? Could be.

I think I’ve found a good project for this web site to celebrate religious freedom fortnight. It should be fairly easy to come up with a fortnight of oppressed women, many of whom are either saints or on the way–unlike practically every curial bureaucrat in history. Really: how many saints have been made from the halls of the Vatican? Peter’s chair, certainly. Does the curia even have a patron saint?

 

Call In The Police, The Saints

More from the Catholic culturecivilwar, the LCWR conference continues as scheduled. The Catholic Right can continue in glee poking at the conference speakers and topics. That will keep the stovetop temperature high. Maybe they’ll have a hissy like Chinese police who let their favorite Nobel Peace nominee get away. Somehow I doubt the sisters will come out with long knives if some enterprising orthodox(TM) Catholics try to capture stuff for YouTube.

I predict the LCWR crackdown will be substantially downplayed by the GOP US bishops who have another witch hunt political campaign on their hands these days. And while some are calling on the spirit of John Fisher and Thomas More to assist them in ejecting an American priesident from office, I see someone else is putting the LCWR under the banner of Mary. I wonder how the saints in heaven feel about being used as pawns in political discussions down on the planet. What’s the political anthem for the day? I hope it’s “When The Saints Go Marching Out.”

 

More Anti-Gay Flim-Flam

You wouldn’t think an experienced journalist like Greg Kandra would get punked by anti-gay rabble-rousers. But he did. I just don’t see the point in being a piece of tissue paper in the internet maelstrom. Supposedly, if a story moves from the Fox to CNA that adds to its bona fides. I can’t agree. Opinion pieces and mob mentality masquerading as news. Michael Schuttloffel of the Kansas Catholic Conference:

As far as religious institutions, that will depend entirely on what sort of exemption – if any – is put in place (by the city council) … If there is none, then you could conceivably have a Catholic church that is forced to host a ceremony that violates Catholic beliefs.

Right.

If the Church’s responsibility to determine readiness for marriage is really so flimsy, determined engaged couples or parents would have overrun us by now.

On the other hand, maybe Fox is on to something. Hundreds of millions of gay Americans are going to force all heterosexual couples to divorce and remarry someone of their own sex. Can’t you just see it now?

Seriously, the problem discrimination laws attempt to address is, at root, unfairness. One set of sinners gets the thumbs down; others go scot-free. A Catholic parish might be allowed to look the other way on its standards for marriage, if, for example, there was enough money to persuade the priest to violate his principles. No doubt this has happened. But I don’t think it’s a widespread problem. For a Catholic business owner, there might be a problem in different treatment for a gay couple and, lets say, a Catholic couple in an irregular marriage. One might question (and I would) why one type of sin catches the moral attention of a believer, and not another. Maybe the day before a gay couple wants to rent a social hall there was some sort of moral conversion. Or maybe not.

 

Unfair!

Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.”

Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.

But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!”

Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” (Luke 15:25-32)

Many human beings have a fine-tuned sense of the unfair. It begins at an early age. And for some, it never seems to let up. It intensifies, and in such cases, causes an elaboration of family, work, and church conflicts. After further reflection on both the LCWR and their more bitter critics, plus a few of the sisters’ more vociferous defenders, I’m convinced that there’s a broad commonality across this political divide. Many Catholics are playing the elder brother. And there’s a delicious irony about how widespread the protest of unfair! actually is.

I’ve seen the protests about the LCWR investigation. The bishops have cost the Church billions of dollars by mismanaging sex predators. Who investigates them? Clergy ordinations are down as much as commitments to religious life. Who investigates that? Parishes are mismanaged financially. Who investigates that?

And on the other side: I faithfully pray the rosary every day, so why do women religious have workshops on yoga, the enneagram, meditation, creation spirituality, feminism,and the like? None of that is Catholic! Why do they get away with it, when I am so gosh-darned faithful?

The women religious themselves, to their credit, are indulging in very little of the unfair-speak. Mostly, women religious want to be free to follow their community charism, and contribute to their parishes and sisters’ well-being with their individual gifts as much as they are able. Interference from people who largely have no experience in religious life can be a challenge. Pile on that few investigators have explored the notion of apostolic religious life–how many still refer to all sisters as nuns? It’s not just the secular media.

That’s not to say that people outside of religious life might not have apt perspectives to offer such communities. My own take is that adults can assess their discernment in community far better than isolated clergy who are largely bereft of daily community experiences, who seem to keep their own counsel when they reach the Top, and seem to lack the basic curiosity about what makes vowed religious life tick. The pope and cardinals and bishops seem more like elder brothers in this light, sneering at choices they would not have made, and sowing seeds of suspicion amongst themselves.

The parable of the prodigal and faithful sons is extremely illustrative. What a brilliant microcosm of human alienation. The elder son makes a demand of his father: “Listen!” Then he goes on his rant, not even acknowledging his relationship with his brother, referring to him as “this son of yours.”

The father does indeed listen, and reminds his elder child than the person in question is a “brother of yours.”

The ideal result is not the prim smug expression of the elder brother when the younger sibling gets what’s coming to her or him. My mother was fairly strict about sibling punishment not being a spectator sport in our house growing up. I don’t think the blogosphere is contributing much of good health to the CDF-LCWR divide.

Myself, I don’t enjoy seeing the hierarchy being made into mincemeat over this, either in church circles or in the secular press. A weakened college of bishops is a weakness in the Body. My friend Dale Price wondered if I’d prefer Rome and the bishops muzzled. And no, I hope that doesn’t happen. I think the kind of leadership I’d hope to see is more along the lines of the father than the elder brother. The father was willing to meet his younger son halfway up the road. The father exits the house and leaves the party to greet his elder son who refuses to enter. It is the ministry of a father (or a parent) to move to where the children are. We do not hold court. We must demonstrate the lengths that should be gone to in order to reconcile a family and restore relationships.

Whether anybody likes it or not, it is the task of Archbishop Sartain, and his brother bishops, to meet the LCWR where they are. If, that is, they believe they are true fathers, and if they believe the sisters are authentically wayward. It is those kinds of gestures that demonstrate true ministry, true respect, and true hope for reconciliation. Lacking that, I would take it as a sign that my suspicions are more aligned with the LCWR crackdown being a bunch of bitter old men resentful over two generations of hurt. In which case, it would be time to grow up. To grow into the role of a true father. To learn a lesson from the Lord, Luke 15:11-32- like.

 

An Iowa Bishop Does Good

Good sense from one of our Iowa bishops:

All restrictions should be systematically examined and eliminated so that the complete abolition of the embargo and its harmful effects can be achieved. These burdens are not borne by the members of the Cuban governing elite, but rather by the ‘ordinary’ Cuban and especially by the weakest members of that society.

Indeed. Not to mention that Communism is still holding on doggedly in two of the nations the US sternly opposed in the middle of the last century. Korea was fought to a standstill. And even after the missiles were taken out of Cuba, we still couldn’t dislodge a dictator. Plus their health care system is probably better than ours. Havana might have had an MLB team by now. That would have been interesting.

Getting back to the weakest members. Those members have children, and young people have long memories. No need for the US to be bullying children in a small country in our backyard at all. I hope Mrs Clinton listens to this and talks the president into some movement on this. If he were a real liberal, this embargo would have been lifted three years ago.

 

Playing The Adoption Card

I see the USCCB is playing the adoption card in its latest culturewar adventure:

Catholic foster care and adoption services. Boston, San Francisco, the District of Columbia, and the state of Illinois have driven local Catholic Charities out of the business of providing adoption or foster care services—by revoking their licenses, by ending their government contracts, or both—because those Charities refused to place children with same-sex couples or unmarried opposite-sex couples who cohabit.

What the bishops aren’t providing for you is that list of unnamed dioceses–my own, for example. It’s not because Dubuque has a problem with where kids go, but that the adoption “market” as we knew it two generations ago has dried up in favor of abortion, IVF, surrogate motherhood, international adoptions, the “purchasing” of babies, and even women electing to keep their children. My friends in Catholic charities say that a trickle of available infants are better handled by referrals to other agencies.

They’re also not telling you about the money they take from non-Catholic sources. People who offer money, the government, for example, get to make rules on how it’s spent. You don’t follow the rules, and the money takes a hike.

If the bishops were really worried about ministry to foster children and orphans, they have options. They might consider the needs of the children, and not just view adoption as a cure for childlessness. Millions of Catholic families have the freedom to sign up for home studies. I can tell you that social workers look very favorably on stable families with two traditional parents, plus children in tow. Two-parent households have a proven track record–assuming the kids who live there aren’t themselves candidates for Fostercareworld.

While bureaucrats and bishops bemoan millions of gay and unmarried couples adopting kids, there is a solution. But you’re likely going to have to undertake the care of a special needs child.

That’s not to say that any American–married or not–with money can’t hire the right people, spend the appropriate amount of resources (money plus time) and score an infant. But married couples “buy” into an adoption all the time.

The misinformation and ignorance on the adoption issue alone is making me want to declare myself a conscientious objector to the culturewar’s “Fortnight of Freedom.” Unless, or course, somebody wants to get serious about adoption. I’ve said for years I’ll go anywhere and talk to anybody about how to make a difference as an adoptive parent. Maybe I’ll call it “Fortnight For Free.” Send me a plane or a bus ticket and I’ll talk for free to anybody about adoption. I’ll tell them the story of my family. I’ll tell them how they can support other families. I’ll suggest ways a parish can promote adoption. I’ll tell them that there are likely several couples in the parish who adopted children–and it’s quite possible few people or nobody knows. Big opportunity out there, and a half-million kids in foster care tell me the nation hasn’t woken up yet. Not even the so-called pro-life movement.

As for this poor-persecuted-me schtick, please! John Fisher and Thomas More never whined. These guys were deprived of life, not just a few grant dollars. Linking this freedomfest to martyrs is crass and daft.

There are plenty of things to celebrate the two weeks between the Fisher-More feast and Independence Day. I think maybe I’ll focus on the Scripture and the saints. And leave the political tussles out of it.

 

King Solomon Comes To Nebraska

Also found on the RNS Religion roundup this morning: the Nebraska conundrum. Will all real pro-lifers vote for this bill? Either this is a delicious judgment worthy of a Solomon, or the Lord has initiated the separation of sheep and goats, wheat and chaff in the very heart of a “very” pro-life party. Harvest is still months away in Cornhusker state.