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Day: October 23, 2008

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Current Events, Perspective, PNCC, Political

What is it about Scranton

…and its Roman Catholic Bishops?

From the Citizens Voice: Scranton bishop tells forum his letter is ‘only relevant document’ for diocese.

Local and national Catholics reacted Tuesday to statements by Bishop Joseph F. Martino apparently discounting teachings of the national body of bishops during a political forum at a Honesdale Roman Catholic Church this weekend.

Martino arrived unannounced in the midst of a panel discussion on faith issues and the presidential campaign at St. John’s Catholic Church on Sunday. According to people who attended the event, the bishop chastised the group for holding the forum and particularly took issue with the discussion and distribution of excerpts from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ position on voting issues. The document defines abortion and euthanasia, as well as racism, torture and genocide, as among the most important issues for Catholic voters to consider.

—No USCCB document is relevant in this diocese,— he was quoted as saying in the Wayne County Independent, a Honesdale-based newspaper. —The USCCB doesn’t speak for me.—

Thomas Shepstone, a local businessman and Catholic who spoke about his opposition to abortion rights during the event, recalled Tuesday that Martino also told the audience that he voted against the U.S. Bishops’ statement and described it as a consensus document —written to mean all things to all people.—

According to participants, Martino expressed dismay that the panelists did not discuss the pastoral letter he directed all priests in the Diocese to read in place of their homilies on Oct. 4 and 5. In that letter, he called on Catholic voters to consider abortion above all other issues, except those he defined as having equal moral weight, like euthanasia and embryonic stem-cell research.

—The only relevant document … is my letter,— he said at the forum, according to the Independent. —There is one teacher in this diocese, and these points are not debatable.—

According to the Independent, the bishop also said he no longer supports the Democratic Party.

A diocesan spokesman on Tuesday confirmed the bishop’s comments as reported in the Independent…

And, this one’s the kicker:

Tagle said the bishop criticized the resident pastor, the Rev. Martin Boylan, for holding the forum and —seemed to justify his presence there by stating that he owned the building.—

I think Bishop Martino is channeling Bishops O’Hara and Hoban.

I found this article through the blog Another Monkey in The Bishop is not the Church. Obviously The writer’s understanding of the Bishop’s role is confused, and I can see why. Where the Bishop is, there is the Church, but of course confusion ensues when the Bishop concerns himself with politics and property ownership over the spiritual well being of his flock. His role is to teach. Teach is not spelled B U L L Y. If he taught his flock in love and channeled their energies into making over the earth, rather than one election, he would have far better success.

Perhaps the bishop needs a refresher on prudence:

Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; “the prudent man looks where he is going.” “Keep sane and sober for your prayers.” Prudence is “right reason in action,” writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid. — The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1806

This CNS story on a homily by Archbishop Quinn from four long years ago is also instructive.

Perspective, Political, , ,

Rebuiding cities

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Strategies For Rebuiding Cleveland: What can be learned from other cities.

Like a flower in the sand, a peach-colored house blooms from a bleak and battered street in the inner city of Schenectady, N.Y.

On a block of outdated and sometimes boarded-up double deckers, the slender home wears vacation clothes. Its siding gleams in cool Caribbean colors. A decorative black fence necklaces a front garden bursting with colors.

Strangers might suspect they had stumbled upon an artist’s enclave or a bed and breakfast in the urban blight, but anyone from around this upstate New York factory town knows better. They will assume another Guyanese immigrant family has moved in and that, chances are, the street is on the rise. For where one Guyanese buys and restores, others follow.

Facing the kinds of job losses and abandonment known to Cleveland, Schenectady pursued a creative solution. It introduced itself to an immigrant group in New York City, lured curious couples north to view its impossibly cheap homes, and let capitalism and immigrant dreams run their course.

In less than a decade, people who hail from the South American nation of Guyana have become about 10 percent of the city of 62,000, and streets once considered worthless now stir with fussy homeowners.

“They breathed new life into this town,” said Albert P. Jurczynski, the former mayor who marketed his city with bus tours and his mother-in-law’s homemade cookies. “They changed Schenectady. And they never asked for a dime from anyone.”

With the real-estate catastrophe having devalued, crippled and partially emptied whole neighborhoods of Northeast Ohio, it’s time to ask, “What next?”

I love what Schenectady did. I have commented on it before, in other forums, and have recommended this model to civic leaders in other cities. This effort, along with other examples provided in the article, show that rust-belt cities needn’t weep over abandoned factories and boarded-up homes. Energy, leadership, vision, and a quelling of unfounded fears can rebuild what was thought of as lost.

On a recent weekday, Desmond Ramsammy and his wife of one year, Panchawattie, stepped out of an immaculate, two-family house near downtown Schenectady and surveyed a world they were surprised to find.

Crack dealers and layabouts once dominated Hawk Street at the edge of the Hamilton Hill neighborhood. Today, the narrow block reflects fresh paint and new energy. About 80 percent of the houses are occupied by Guyanese. They mind each other’s children, walk to West Indian groceries on busy State Street, and cheer the cricket matches over at Central Park.

Desmond Ramsammy, a heating and cooling mechanic, discovered the scene when he drove up from Queens to visit his brother. He came back with his wife.

“It’s much more relaxed here,” he said. “The cost of living is much less. Even gas prices are lower.”

The couple paid $127,000 for a house that had sat vacant for six years before Mohabir Satram, a Guyanese home restorer, bought and rebuilt it from top to bottom. Now it holds new dreams.

The Ramsammys expect to sell their small house in Queens for about $650,000 and use the money to start a business in Schenectady.

Annunciating words that are music to the ears of civic leaders, Desmond Ramsammy said, “We plan to raise a family here.”

The opportunities are there: urban farming, economic changes that will reinvigorate cities (see this from the Telegraph), industrious immigrants… Simply a change in the paradigm which will mesh with a return to core values (if we’re lucky).

Christian Witness, PNCC, Political, ,

A challenge for apologists

From Foreign Policy: The List: The Catholic Church’s Biggest Reversals.

In —Think Again: Catholic Church,— John L. Allen Jr. writes, —Catholics who have been around the block know that whenever someone in authority begins a sentence with, ‘As the church has always taught …,’ some long-standing idea or practice is about to be turned on its head.— Herewith, five of the biggest such reversals of doctrine in the church’s history.

The author goes on to describe changes in Roman Catholic ‘teaching’ on usury, slavery, the various changes brought about as a result of Vatican II, capital punishment, and limbo.

I have seen plenty of apologist websites that walk through the development of doctrine argument to ‘prove’ that the very teachings Mr. Allen mentions haven’t really changed. Mr. Allen’s book should further those arguments well into the future.

As Bishop Hodur pointed out in his reflections, especially as summarized in the Apocalypse of the Twentieth Century, the Roman Church’s ties to civil governance and power politics heavily influenced its teaching on these and similar issues. The Roman Church’s influence was not exercised in developing spiritual doctrine, but in expanding its political and temporal power at the cost of man’s spiritual well being. The changes Mr. Allen mentions are not changes in God’s understanding, but in man’s self understanding as defined by the political/economic landscape of the times.

The ultimate dissolution of the Roman Church’s political/temporal power occurred in the mid 1800’s. That dissolution resulted in pronouncements on infallibility and other solemnly proclaimed doctrines that remain an obstacle to Church unity to this day; an unfortunate reactionary move.

As time has moved on, the Roman Church has focused its understanding of self — away from political/temporal power — to proclaiming the power of the Gospel. Let us hope that the obstacles that continue to prevent unity, the political leftovers, and the false developments so influenced by power politics, fall awayI am not delusional on these issues. I have no expectation of results. I only offer a prayer that whatever happens is according to God’s will..

In speaking of the Church and national and social affairs Bishop Hodur wrote:

As is evident from this brief sketch, Christ gave adequate instructions to His followers regarding their behavior amidst these most important currents of human life. They should not try to stop them or oppose them, but they should move with them, refining them and directing them into channels which will lead to the uplift, prosperity and redemption of humanity. The church must not be the instrument of the aristocracy, of the wealthy, or of any particular faction in politics or society. Instead, it should bless and support any human endeavor and righteous work which is directed towards the betterment and enrichment of mankind, towards the creation of a more equitable social and political structure, and towards the triumph of peace, truth, beauty and light – in other words, the triumph of God – within the human soul. — Most Rev. Franciszek Hodur, Our Way of Life, Chapter VI, On Social and National Affairs.

A call to Christian witness in society, properly focused on bearing core faith before the world. Can the Church and its faith change the world? We in the PNCC would answer with a resounding yes.

PNCC,

A snapshop of history – Chicago and the PNCC

From Jeff Duntemann’s ContraPositive Diary, an interesting bit on the history of the Chicago Independent Catholic movement under Bishop Kozlowski, part of PNCC history: The “Pepper Riots” and the PNCC.

I haven’t run across Mr. Duntemann’s blog/diary before but it is very interesting as is his biography. The thought that crossed my mind is that he is a self-made, technologically minded renaissance man. Fascinating reading – check it out.

PNCC

Come Holy Spirit

Enkindle the hearts of Thy faithful with the fire of Thy love.

I ask your prayers for our Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Dr. Anthony Mikovsky and all the members of the Central Diocese of the PNCC who gather today and tomorrow for the 10th Synod of the Central Diocese. May the Holy Spirit enlighten their hears and minds as they deliberate. Amen.

Fathers, PNCC

October 23 – St. Augustine from the Enchiridion: On Faith, Hope, and Love

Now this is the true faith of Christ which the apostle commends: faith that works through love. And what it yet lacks in love it asks that it may receive, it seeks that it may find, and knocks that it may be opened unto it. For faith achieves what the law commands. And, without the gift of God — that is, without the Holy Spirit, through whom love is shed abroad in our hearts — the law may bid but it cannot aid. Moreover, it can make of man a transgressor, who cannot then excuse himself by pleading ignorance. For appetite reigns where the love of God does not.

When, in the deepest shadows of ignorance, he lives according to the flesh with no restraint of reason — this is the primal state of man. Afterward, when “through the law the knowledge of sin” has come to man, and the Holy Spirit has not yet come to his aid — so that even if he wishes to live according to the law, he is vanquished — man sins knowingly and is brought under the spell and made the slave of sin, “for by whatever a man is vanquished, of this master he is the slave.” The effect of the knowledge of the law is that sin works in man the whole round of concupiscence, which adds to the guilt of the first transgression. And thus it is that what was written is fulfilled: “The law entered in, that the offense might abound.” This is the second state of man. — Chapter XXXI.

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