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Christian Witness, Perspective, ,

You want to be THAT Catholic?

An interesting headline which sums up my thought on the announcement from the Vatican in regard to establishing Personal Ordinariates via an Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans/Episcopalians who wish to go over to Rome en mass.

First, I want to say that I am happy that Rome took this action. It is a welcome and bold move designed to give assurance and protection to folks whose entire Church ethos is Anglican and Catholic. It allows them to keep what they know and to live within a Church that stands by Scripture and TraditionOf course excepting the hot button issue of the role and scope of the Pope and various dogmas that exceed Tradition.. For those seeking stability amongs the rocky shores of the via media and Protestanism it is best for them.

There are tons of questions of course which won’t be sorted out until the Apostolic Constitution is issued and the various Departments in Rome react to the problems and issues that arise. Some of the bigger questions in my mind are: What will they do with former Roman clergy who left for Anglicanism, got married, and now want to return (and to a lesser degree former Roman Catholics who went over and want to re-enter, but as clergy)? What about the issue of serial marriages among clergy (divorced and remarried clergy)? What of “gay” clergy who tend to have an affinity for high churchiness in Anglicanism, will Rome’s newish rules regarding the non-admission of homosexual men apply here?

I also noted that new clergy who are to be trainind to serve in the Personal Ordinariates will have to be trained in seminary in the same programs that form regular Roman seminarians (this as opposed to houses of study for the Eastern Churches which are seperate). How will that “from the ground up” training affect the Anglican ethos in these Ordinariates? It looks like Anglican formation will take a secondary, even tertiary role in the formation program, kind of like an add-on course one soon forgets.

The Young Fogey has tons of links to different takes on this. My title above was derived from his link to Brother Stephen at Sub Tuum who writes in Anglicans in the River: Practical Considerations for Catholics:

A few observations and things to remember in today’s excitement:

Scale: If every Anglo-Catholic in the world were to jump at the new offer, their numbers wouldn’t add up to that of a major Archdiocese. When you diffuse those numbers around the globe, things will look pretty much the same other than to professional church watchers. This is a time for thanksgiving, not sweeping prognostication…

He goes on to recount the issues to be dealt with. I think he has it right. This is a bold move and a grand gesture, but in practicality — not much will happen. It is something to be happy about but don’t expect a tidal wave to activity. There will be a few high profile moves and then the band will die to a low hum.

Reading the reaction of the African Bishops puts it all into perspective. The CS Monitor’s headline caputes that perfectly: Will Vatican lure Africa’s Anglican anti-gay bishops to Catholic church?The article is really badly writen in relation to the whole issue of homosexuality and the Church’s stance – typical MSM blather about something they know nothing about.:

Despite fierce opposition to homosexuality, African bishops say the Vatican’s effort to bring more Anglicans to the Catholic church will falter, largely because of the autonomy that they enjoy…

That said, the African Biships are not Anglo-Catholics. They don’t want to be “THAT Catholic” other than dressing up in regalia from time-to-time. No, to be “THAT Catholic” you have to actually do as Huw says in Help, Help! I’m Being Oppressed!I am deeply impressed with this article and plan to comment more in future posts.:

Responsibility, self-limiting choices, delayed gratification, postponed joy… these are the stuff of maturity.

To flee them is simply immaturity raising its ugly head. To flee them in the name of ego, self and —spirituality not religion— is sheer stupidity for it will mean the dissipation of self, ego and spirit. Eventually, lack of responsibility and self-imposed limits will lead to death.

To be “THAT Catholic,” whether PNCC, RC, Oriental or Orthodox you have to actually say no to some aspects of autonomy, to thinking of yourself as on an island of self-rule. To be “THAT Catholic” means to live a sacrificial lifesyle – one where the Lord and His body, the Church (found on Scripture AND Tradition), lead you. It took Peter a long time to learn that, and he’s still learning too.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go.” — John 21:18

Christian Witness, Perspective,

My Alma Mater names a new President

From Canisius College: On October 20, 2009, the Canisius College Board of Trustees named John J. Hurley as the 24th president of the Jesuit university.

John J. Hurley was appointed the 24th president of Canisius College on Monday, October 19, 2009 by the college’s Board of Trustees and will assume the position on July 1, 2010. He is the first lay president in Canisius College’s 140-year history.

A 1978 alumnus of Canisius College, Hurley has served as executive vice president of Canisius College since 2007 and vice president for college relations since 1997. In these roles, Hurley is the designated senior administrative official, responsible for the college’s strategic planning, integrated marketing, legal and compliance issues and athletics marketing. He also oversees the college’s advancement operation, which includes development, public relations, creative and Web services, alumni relations and government relations…

Interesting that they wouldn’t name a Jesuit to the position. I hope that the move is a tribute to the gentleman’s skills as a leader and not a further sign of secularization in [Roman] Catholic colleges and universities. For more on that see The State of [Roman] Catholic Higher Education by Patrick J. Reilly.

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Pułaski get’s U.S. Citizenship, Polish-Americans of Northampton soldier on

Just in time for the 230th anniversary of the death of Gen. Kazimierz Pułaski the U.S. Congress has voted to bestow posthumous U.S. Citizenship on Gen. Pułaski who died in the Battle of Savannah in the American Revolution.

Senate Joint Resolution 12, sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois along with 8 co-sponsors, was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate on March 2, 2009. The resolution was then referred to the House. House Joint Resolution 26: Proclaiming Casimir Pułaski to be an honorary citizen of the United States posthumously, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and co-sponsored by 39 members of the House passed on a voice vote of 422-0 on October 8, 2009. The resolution is now back before the Senate.

From Nowy Dziennik: Kazimierz Pułaski dostał amerykańskie obywatelstwo

Decyzją obu izb amerykański Kongres nadał pośmiertnie honorowe obywatelstwo USA Kazimierzowi Pułaskiemu, polskiemu bohaterowi amerykańskiej wojny o niepodległość.

Rezolucję w tej sprawie, wniesioną z inicjatywy demokratycznego kongresmana Dennisa Kucinicha przy silnym poparciu Polonii amerykańskiej, Kongres uchwalił jednomyślnie w środę. Wspierało ją 23 kongresmanów i senatorów z obu partii.

Standardy przyznawania honorowego obywatelstwa USA – podkreślali kongresmani w czasie debaty nad rezolucją – są bardzo wysokie. Otrzymały je dotąd jedynie tak wybitne osobistości jak markiz La Fayette, Winston Churchill i Matka Teresa z Kalkuty. Tylko siedmioro cudzoziemców posiada honorowe obywatelstwo amerykańskie.

“Kazimierz Pułaski był oddanym bojownikiem o wolność, który zasługuje na najwyższe uznanie, jakie Stany Zjednoczone mogą wyrazić imigrantowi i bohaterowi wojennemu” – powiedział kongresman Kucinich.

W dyskusji podkreślano także silne więzi sojusznicze łączące Polskę i Stany Zjednoczone.

Kazimierz Pułaski przybył do Ameryki w 1777 roku, aby walczyć u boku amerykańskich patriotów z wojskami monarchii brytyjskiej. W bitwie pod Brandywine 15 września 1777 r. uratował życie Jerzemu Waszyngtonowi za co dowódca sił rewolucyjnych awansował go na generała kawalerii.

Śmiertelnie ranny w bitwie pod Savannah w stanie Georgia w czasie szarży kawalerii 9 października 1779 r., zmarł w dwa dni później.

An the Polish-American of Northampton soldier on. From The Republican: It’s Pulaski Day in Northampton

NORTHAMPTON – Despite the imminent closing of a local place of worship, Polish Americans turned out in force Monday to celebrate their heritage and honor a national hero.

The 23rd annual Casimir Pulaski Day Parade kicked off as usual at St. John Cantius Church on Hawley Street, one of several Catholic churches in the city targeted for closing by the Diocese of Springfield.

Following the traditional Mass, celebrants filed out into the street to join the Northampton High School marching band, the 10th Massachusetts Volunteers Civil War reenactment troop, local politicians and Parade Marshal Edward Borucki for the parade down Main Street to Pulaski Park.

Borucki, a Pearl Harbor veteran, waved an American flag and softly blew a whistle as he rode along the route in a red convertible that matched his rose boutonniere. He was preceded by a float honoring U.S. submarine veterans and followed by a contingent of men, women and children in bright Polish native dress.

They were all there to honor Pulaski, a Polish nobleman who came to America in 1776 to help American forces overthrow the British. He was mortally wounded in Savannah in 1779 and died at the age of 34 on American soil.

Master of Ceremony J. P. Kwiecinski, an Easthampton city councilor and candidate for mayor, hailed Pulaski as he told the crowd it was the biggest he has ever seen at the event.

“Very few folks know that we would not have a country without General Pulaski,” he said.

State Rep. Stanley P. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and Northampton Mayor Mary Clare Higgins read proclamations naming Monday “Casimir Pulaski Day” both in the state and the city.

Rosenberg, who has attended the event regularly, noted the closing of St. John Cantius but predicted that the Pulaski Day ceremonies will survive as the parish merges with others in the area.

“We hope with all our hearts that we will be back together next year at this parade and celebrate Polish heritage,” he said.

Christian Witness, Perspective, ,

Quincentenary of Calvin

CalvinTo mark the occasion an interesting blog type website called Calvin 500.

Of course we know the issues here, reform was necessary, but it became more than reform. Reform without infallibility in faith, doctrine, and morals becomes just another human invention, subject to change and whim. The pitfalls of fashioning a religion where everyone decides for themselves on matters of faith, doctrine, and morals plagues us to this day, and even the Reformed Church in America is struggling with changing belief patterns enlightened by current fashion.

I am not saying is that each person cannot decide for themselves. Indeed, each person must make their own decision for, against or indifferent to Christ’s Gospel. Rather I posit that when a person does decide for Christ, when they are regenerated, their regenerated lives can best be fulfilled in a path with clearly defined guideposts, guideposts only the infallible Catholic Church can adequately provide.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

What 500 dedicated people can do

From the Buffalo News: With spotlight on past and future, exhibit celebrates parish’s faith

Dozens of supporters of Corpus Christi Catholic Church turned out Thursday for a special look at an exhibit that celebrates the East Side church’s past and future.

The exhibit, housed in Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum on Porter Avenue, coincides with the successful completion of the parish’s $1 million preservation fund campaign.

—In a time of crisis, over the past four years, we were able to raise $1 million, which is extraordinary for a church on the East Side where you don’t really have too many people,— said the Rev. Anzelm Chalupka, pastor of Corpus Christi.

—Today’s event is thankfulness from us to the people who donated money towards this campaign.—

At its height, the overwhelmingly Polish-American parish had more than 10,000 members and is now down to about 500 very dedicated parishioners —” about 2 percent from the neighborhood and the rest who travel long distances to attend Mass, Chalupka said…

I applaud the work of the Pauline Fathers at Corpus Christi. You don’t need a big suburban parish of 10,000 well healed people to be successful, you need strong hands and strong hearts. What our forefathers did can still be done. May their work be blessed.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, , , , ,

Being poor, being hopeless

From the Spokesman-Review: Effects of growing up in poor households can be lifelong

When Lori Pfingst considers the statistics that will tell the tale of this recession, she isn’t thinking about GDP or unemployment.

She’s thinking about teen pregnancy. Low birthweight babies. WASL scores and college enrollments.

As the recession swells the ranks of the impoverished, it takes a particular, long-term toll on children, experts say. In Washington state alone, nearly 40,000 children are expected to slip into poverty by 2010; nationwide, an additional 800,000 kids entered poverty between 2007 and 2008, before the recession really hit.

And however quickly the economy begins its official recovery, the consequences for kids living in poverty are wide-ranging. Children who grow up in poor households tend to do worse in school and end up in trouble with the law. They’re less likely to go to college and more likely to get pregnant at a young age. They’re more likely to commit crimes or become victims of crimes, and more likely to grow up and live in poverty themselves.

—The impact of this really can’t be overstated,— said Pfingst, assistant director of Washington KidsCount, an annual statistical survey of children’s well-being. —When children are born into poverty, it affects every single outcome of their lives.—

A new report from Duke University asserts that the recession will undo decades of progress for children and families. Duke’s Child and Youth Well-Being Index measures a range of categories; it estimates that all progress made in —family economic well-being— since 1975 will be wiped out by this recession.

The Duke index predicts that families will suffer from the expected kinds of effects, such as joblessness, lower incomes or homelessness. But it also suggests that children will pay other prices, in greater obesity and health problems, because families will be more likely to rely on low-cost fast food; on social relationships and stability, as families are forced to move; and on increased behavioral problems and crime, with young people as both victims and perpetrators.

—The impact of the current recession on children will be dramatic,— the Duke report concludes…

Two things. First, simply said, a tragedy that none of the Wall Street moguls will ever consider or reflect on. Second, in spite of negative pressures caused by the recession we have an underlying current of hopelessness far greater than that ever experienced by the poor and nearly poor of generations past. Their grounding in faith, neighborhood, and family stood as a bulwark against just these sorts of pressures.

When I look at our great Fraternal, the PNU, and the history of the PNCC, in fact most of the faith communities inhabited by immigrants, I see people who counted what was important. They knew that with God in front, family and co-workers in union, they could withstand whatever the world could throw at them; not only withstand, but struggle and succeed. I may be a hopeless romantic, or too nostalgic, but I believe that we are capable of the same today. Being poor does not equate with hopelessness and lifelong despair, it is the crucible in which we are tested. We are challenged, not to re-create the past, but to build a new and re-grounded future.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, ,

Justice, a helping hand, and human potential

From Newsday: LI immigrants fight to win wages they say they are owed

The immigrants came in one after another. One said he was owed $6,000. Another said he was docked $3,000. Three others said they were owed $1,900, $648 and $270.

In the North Fork Hispanic Apostolate headquarters in Riverhead, Sister Margaret Smyth and attorney Dan Rodgers counseled the men for upcoming court appearances.

“If they ask you about your immigration status, you have no obligation to answer,” Rodgers said. “The only reason we’re in court is to obtain wages for work you performed.”

Advocates say many more immigrants are filing claims for unpaid wages on the East End than last year – nearly 140 so far, already exceeding the total for all of last year.

Five immigrants came to Smyth’s office Thursday, saying a painting company owes them $5,000 each. “Every month, we have 30 or more cases,” Smyth said. “Some of it’s the economy. Some of it’s just people being bad people.”

Federal and state law says workers – regardless of immigration status – are entitled to be paid for work performed.

“The fact is that the worst thing you can do is steal a man’s labor and that’s what’s going on more and more,” said Rodgers, who does the cases pro bono.

Roberto Rodriguez, 46, said he was owed $648. He was so desperate, he pawned a gold chain for $200, he said. “I just want to be paid my just wage.”

Nationally, some groups say they’ve seen a similar increase, though the Workplace Project in Hempstead said it has not noticed a rise in complaints.

“This is a big problem that existed but is being exacerbated by the bad economy,” said Raj Nayak, a staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project in Manhattan.

Advocates say while most cases filed in local courts are won on paper – usually by default, when the defendant doesn’t show up – the judgments are difficult to enforce.

When defendants do show, Rodgers tries to negotiate a settlement. But in many cases, only one or two payments will be made. “It’s never-ending,” Smyth said. “I have a whole pile of cases where they didn’t pay.”…

Wage theft, especially from those with the fewest avenues available for seeking justice is rampant in the United States as is the intentional misclassification of workers.

More on this in What Workers Face This Labor Day (see also Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says from the NY Times)

On Monday, President Obama will celebrate America’s 127th Labor Day by giving a speech on “jobs, the economy and maybe a little health care” at the annual AFL-CIO picnic in Cincinnati, OH. Despite positive indications that the U.S. economy is beginning to “climb out of the worst recession in decades,” Obama’s speech will come at a difficult time for America’s workers as job losses continue. In the current recession, 6.7 million jobs have been lost through July, with another 216,000 jobs lost in August. Even those who are still working are facing significant challenges. Earlier this week, a new report financed by the Ford, Joyce, Haynes, and Russell Sage Foundations found that labor protections in America “are failing significant numbers of workers.” According to the survey, which was “the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade,” 68 percent of the low wage workers who were interviewed said they were subjected to pay violations in their previous work week alone. This included 26 percent who were paid less than the minimum wage and 76 percent who didn’t receive legally required overtime pay. In all, the researchers discovered that “the typical worker had lost $51 the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of $339,” adding up to a 15 percent loss in pay. The report “clearly shows we still have a major task before us,” said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in a statement, promising that the Department of Labor in the Obama administration “will be marked by an emphasis on the protection” of the rights of America’s workers…

I was at a conference on unemployment and workforce issues last week. During the conference nineteen state workforce agencies joined in a call to extend unemployment insurance benefits.

The news at the conference was sobering. Panelists like William D. Rodgers, III, Ph.D., Professor and Chief Economist and Carl E. Van Horn, Director and Professor of Public Policy both of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University and Lawrence Chimerine, Ph.D., Managing Director and Chief Economist at the Economic Strategy Institute all point to a recovery that is underway; with economic indicators pointing to a sustained recovery. Unfortunately it will be a jobless recovery (see U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio from the NY Times for instance). We may not see job gains or low unemployment again until 2018. People will be desperate and there will have to be significant changes in the way we assist and work with these folks. These workers will need training to prepare themselves for this new environment and for the jobs that are available — an investment in their potential.

The assessment that struck home for me was a review of our investment in human potential. The value of our investment in the people of this nation has declined for decades (see here for instance). What we pour into education, health, wellness, culture, family, and leisure points to a wholly wrong set of priorities and an ethic where human life is considered cheap — life as just another cog in the machine. Funny how people of faith, calling government, industry, and society on the carpet over this, have spoken the truth here. Too bad — the message has fallen on deaf ears and over relatively the same period of time.

Oh, and speaking of people who do not invest in or respect human potential, Senator Michael Enzi of Wyoming is near the top of the list. He believes that people shouldn’t be empowered to take care of themselves because they just might form unions. As with many Washington insiders he thinks that people should seek the approval of business and/or government before they do anything. I can’t believe he’s from the west.

Perspective, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , ,

Around the R.C. Church

From Jacksonville.com: Catholic Church sees influx of foreign-born priests: Priests from other nations are needed to meet shortages

Fully agree with the movement toward tradition. The problem of course is inculturation. There are sets of preconceived expectations on the part of the priests and the people and it takes time to adjust. Sometimes it can be a train wreck rather than a God-send.

The Rev. Andy Blaszkowski’s English is clear, but his Polish accent unmistakable as he reads from the Gospel and preaches during Masses at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine.

During a recent service for some 300 parish school children, he told them the Eucharist is a “geeft” from God and that they should rely on their faith for direction in how to “leaf” their “lifes.”

But that was OK with 24-year-old parishioner Jason Craig, who traded Presbyterianism for Catholicism three years ago.

“I’m a convert, so it’s new and unique for me” to hear accents from the pulpit, Craig said. “In other denominations, there are no foreign priests, so it really shows the universality of the Catholic Church.”

It also shows the future for the American church and the Jacksonville-based Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine. Studies and church officials are reporting that seminaries and parish priest openings are increasingly being filled by men from other nations. And given the shortage of priests in the United States, few Catholics complain about the trend.

Study: more foreign-born priests

According to The Associated Press, a new report reveals that the latest and next generations of priests, brothers, sisters and nuns who belong to Roman Catholic religious orders in the U.S. are more ethnically diverse and tradition-bound than their predecessors.

The report confirmed what many have speculated: The few orders that are attracting and retaining younger members are more traditional. That generally means fidelity to the church and other members of the order, living in a community, taking part in daily devotions and wearing a habit.

The familiar white and black habits of nuns teaching elementary school or the robes worn by some fathers and brothers were shed by many orders as remnants of clericalism in the last 40 or 50 years, but a younger generation sees them as tangible displays of their faith and symbols of fidelity to church and community.

“This younger generation is seeking an identity, a religious identity as well as a Catholic identity,” Brother Paul Bednarczyk, executive director of the Chicago-based National Religious Vocation Conference, a professional organization of Catholic religious vocation directors, told The Associated Press. “Symbolism, images and ritual is all very important to this generation, and they want to give witness to their faith.”…

From Pew: Poll: Six in 10 U.S. Catholics ambivalent about Latin Mass

Of course the problem is that it is about Latin over right faith and right belief. A continuum is important and vital to renewal in the R.C. Church, but shouldn’t be sacrificed on the pyre of Latin-or-bust.

Two years after Pope Benedict XVI eased restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass, more than six in 10 American Catholics have no opinion on the return of the traditional liturgy, according to a new survey.

In 2007, Benedict told priests to work with local parishioners when there is a “stable group” interested in the Latin Mass, which is celebrated in Latin by a priest facing away from the congregation. The Mass dates to the 16th century but fell out of use after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Benedict said the move was intended to promote “reconciliation” with Catholics disaffected by the contemporary version of the liturgy and to encourage greater “reverence” during worship.

According to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, one in four U.S. Catholics favors having the Latin Mass as a liturgical option, 12 percent oppose it, and 63 percent have “no opinion.”

Only three in 10 U.S. Catholics who do not oppose bringing back the Latin Mass — equivalent to about 5.7 Catholics — say they would attend the service if it was convenient, according to CARA. Apathy was most prevalent among Catholics born after 1982 — 78 percent said they have no opinion Benedict bringing back the Latin Mass…

From the Baltimore Sun: Episcopal nuns’ exit widens rift: As sect ordains women and gays, Catonsville sisters become Catholic

They are right. The Catholic faith is untenable in the face of such innovations.

In a move that religious scholars say is unprecedented, 10 of the 12 nuns at an Episcopal convent in Catonsville left their church Thursday to become Roman Catholics, the latest defectors from a denomination divided over the ordination of gay men and women.

The members of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor were welcomed into the Catholic Church by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, who confirmed the women during a Mass in their chapel. Each vowed to continue the tradition of consecrated life, now as a religious institute within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

“We know our beliefs and where we are,” said Mother Christina Christie, superior of the order that came to Baltimore in 1872. “We were drifting farther apart from the more liberal road the Episcopal Church is traveling. We are now more at home in the Roman Catholic Church.”

Also joining the church was the Rev. Warren Tanghe, the sisters’ chaplain. In a statement, Episcopal Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton wished them God’s blessings.

“Despite the sadness we feel in having to say farewell, our mutual joy is that we remain as one spiritual family of faith, one body in Christ,” he said…

From Voice from the Dessert on the former Bishop of Scranton: Why did the bishop of Scranton, Pa., resign? Though Bishop Martino is gone, the diocese’s future may be set

A lot to this article — a few excerpts below and of course mention of the PNCC.

Like Cardinal Egan in New York, Bishop Martino’s personality and work habits were exactly what was ordered for the hatchet job he was to perform. Really, I’m astonished at all the wonderment this resignation has raised. The Roman Church sends the man that they feel is needed for the job. It has nothing to do with being liked, that’s reserved for the man they send to be pastoral. Of course the big problem is that’s the way corporations are run, not the way the Church should be run. The need for change and being pastoral can be reconciled, they are not mutually exclusive. This was simply a choice for expediency sake. I pray for Bishop Martino… to do one’s duty and to be distanced from love is a terrible cross.

When Bishop Joseph F. Martino resigned Aug. 31 after six tumultuous years as bishop of Scranton, Pa., he left behind a diocese badly divided and demoralized, but, ironically, better prepared for the future than it was in 2003.

Sources contacted by NCR said the problem was Martino’s remote, uncommunicative and often authoritarian leadership style, not his decisions to close nearly half the Catholic schools and 40 percent of the parishes in the northeastern Pennsylvania diocese.

One longtime pastor said the parish and school closings and mergers —were absolutely needed.— He predicted that the basic program of restructuring the parishes, scheduled to be completed by 2012, will continue —pretty much as planned, with perhaps some fine tuning,— regardless of who the next bishop is. The basic program of school closings is already completed.

For months preceding his resignation —” at the age of 63, 12 years before the usual retirement age for bishops —” rumors flew around the diocese that the increasingly unpopular bishop had been called to Rome in June and had been asked, urged or maybe even ordered to submit his resignation.

No one contacted could offer positive evidence to confirm or rebut the speculation.
—It is very unusual for a bishop to resign at 63 years of age— and the Vatican would accept such a resignation only for exceptional reasons, said Jesuit Fr. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center in Washington.

At the same time, —it is extremely rare for the Vatican to pressure a bishop to resign,— said Reese, author of three in-depth studies on how U.S. bishops and the Vatican exercise authority, pastoral leadership and administrative duties.

At the press conference announcing his resignation, Martino said he did so for health reasons, including —bouts of insomnia and, at times, crippling physical fatigue.— But he also acknowledged that his recent physical ailments stemmed from the stress and sorrow he felt over the lack of a —clear consensus among the clergy and the people of the diocese of Scranton regarding my pastoral initiatives or my method of governance.—

He said the diocese needs a —physically vigorous— bishop to lead it into the future and —I am not that bishop.—

—I think the bishop seems to have recognized that there really was a need for new leadership,— said Reese.

—I congratulate him for his courage and willingness— to face that and resign, he added. —I only wish a few other bishops would do the same.—

…

Mary Ann Paulukonis, who recently retired as Scranton diocesan family life director, said that when Martino first arrived in October 2003, —he came with a vision that excited most of us. … Initially he was friendly and open and easy to dialogue with.—

But that started to change as the problems of the diocese emerged, she said. —I don’t think he expected— the serious financial problems that were facing the diocese and its schools and parishes.

—There were parishes in debt— with no way to pay it off —and some of the schools were bleeding,— she said.

Reorganization

Just one month after his arrival, Martino announced to the staff that one of his first priorities was going to be restructuring to tackle the debt problem, Paulukonis said, and that winter he announced his intention to reorganize the schools.

In the meantime he also began reorganizing diocesan offices to cut administrative costs and installed four regional episcopal vicars to serve as his chief deputies on all church matters in those parts of the diocese.

…

—When troubles started occurring, he wasn’t available. A leader who is invisible is the enemy. People started misinterpreting [things Martino said or did]. … He was a villain— in people’s perception of him, she said.

She, Milz and the pastor who asked not to be named all said the bishop’s unilateral decertification of the Catholic teachers’ union in January 2008, right after the schools had all been consolidated and regrouped administratively under four regional diocesan structures, marked a new turning point in the bishop’s souring relations with the faithful —” most of them descendants of Irish, Polish, Italian and other immigrants who owed their entry into the American middle class to church-supported unions.

Union factor

Scranton’s union history is a major factor here. In the mid-19th century, the city grew rapidly because of iron ore veins in hills a little to the south, substantial anthracite coal deposits to the south and north, and the steel industry in town that melded the two natural resources.

Northeast Pennsylvania was the birthplace of the United Mine Workers, and founder John Mitchell converted to Catholicism largely because of local church support for coal mine workers’ efforts to unionize and obtain better living standards. Mitchell is buried in the Scranton cathedral’s cemetery and there is a monument to him next to the Lackawanna County Court House in Scranton, scene of a key decision ending the historic 1902 strike of anthracite coal miners in the area.

…

A longtime theology professor at one of the local Catholic universities who is involved in many Catholic activities and organizations locally and nationally —” who also asked to remain unidentified, not for personal concerns but for fear of diocesan repercussions for the university where he teaches —” said the longtime union culture in the diocese was one of the key factors in the division between Martino and his priests and people in the past couple of years.

The theologian said the religious conservatism and the history of ethnic tensions of Catholics in the Scranton diocese —” including the century-old Polish National Catholic church [sic] schism from Roman Catholicism, which started with an Irish-American bishop’s insensitivity to a Polish national parish in Scranton —” are also major factors that have to be taken into account in any assessment of the complex negative response of local priests and laity to Martino’s style of governance.

In many cities in the diocese, national parishes for Poles, Italians, Irish or other Catholic immigrant groups that were established in the late 19th or early 20th century, sometimes within two or three blocks of one another, still existed when Martino arrived, even though membership numbers had dropped dramatically over recent decades because of deaths, suburban emigration and other factors, the theologian said…

From PolskieRadio: Sunday trading ban —“ legislation for lazybones?

Think Blue laws. Really they are right. If a society truly values family over commerce it would have just such a law. Government is not the arbiter of right and wrong but is can cooperate in creating an environment that supports what is right.

A Solidarity trade union initiative to ban shops opening after noon on Sunday has divided politicians, even those from the same party.

A draft of the bill forbidding trade on Sunday afternoons is to be ready this year and is supported by numerous politicians from the opposition Law and Justice party and even some in the ruling Polish Peasant’s Party/Civic Platform coalition.

One MP who is very much against is Janusz Palikot from Civic Platform. —MPs who want to forbid trading [on a Sunday] are just lazybones. They don’t feel like working and they want to prevent others from working to excuse themselves.’ says the politician, quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza.

Senator Jan Rulewski, also from Civic Platform, is of the opposite view.

—Those who want to keep shops open on Sundays think in the same way the communist did. They wanted us to work weekends, arguing that the development of the socialist motherland was more important than the family,— he says. —We strongly oppose this point of view and want to restrict trade on Sundays and ban it completely in future.—

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The bill has the support of church authorities and trade unionists, however, claiming that working on Sunday is harmful to family life.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, , , , , ,

Two kinds of people who know better than the Holy Church

From BreakingNews: Supreme Court ruling loosens Catholic diocese hold on priest sex abuse papers

The first kind are those that make themselves greater than the Church, substituting private judgment and corporate fear for faithful duty consistent with Scripture and Tradition.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against a Roman Catholic diocese in Connecticut, saying that thousands of documents generated by lawsuits against six priests for alleged sexual abuse cannot remain sealed.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Tuesday denied the Bridgeport diocese’s request to continue a stay on the release of the papers until the full court decides whether to review the case.

Ralph Johnson III, a lawyer for the diocese, said church officials were considering whether to ask all nine justices to rule on the request.

The diocese said on its Web site Tuesday afternoon that it was disappointed with Ginsburg’s decision and that it —intends to proceed with its announced determination to ask the full U.S. Supreme Court to review the important constitutional issues that this case presents.—

Jonathan Albano, attorney for three newspapers who requested the documents, said the ruling compels the diocese to release the documents, but he acknowledged the church could ask the full court to reconsider Ginsburg’s decision.

—At the end of the day, the diocese will be able to say they were heard before every court that was available to them,— Albano said.

…

The Connecticut high court also rejected the claim by church officials that the documents were subject to constitutional privileges, including religious privileges under the First Amendment…

From The Deacons Bench: Dissident (Fr.) Roy Bourgeois: ‘I will not be silenced.’

The second kind — those who see their private judgment and assessment as some sort of revelation when it is no more than mimicry of the the world’s message.

The controversial priest who participated in a woman’s ordination ceremony last year is back in the news again — and continuing to stir the pot:

“A prominent priest whose support for women’s ordination has him in trouble with the Catholic Church ratcheted up his confrontation with the hierarchy yesterday, calling the church’s refusal to ordain women a —scandal” and —spiritual violence.”

—I will not be silenced on this issue,” said the priest, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, to about 100 people in Weston at an event hosted by the congregation of Jean Marchant, a former staffer for the Archdiocese of Boston who claims she was ordained as a priest in an unsanctioned ceremony four years ago.

“The Catholic Church views Marchant and Bourgeois as having been automatically excommunicated for participating in unsanctioned ordination ceremonies.

“Yesterday Bourgeois said he remained unclear about his status because he has had no formal communication from his order, the Maryknoll Fathers, or from the Vatican, which last fall told him he would face excommunication if he did not recant.

—If they choose to kick me out of the church because I believe that men and women are equal, so be it,” Bourgeois said. —I will never be at peace being in any organization that would exclude others…

What’s funny in this case is the Rev. Bourgeois’ name – bourgeois which describes his attitude more than anything. As the Young Fogey might say, the class that touts SWPL (stuff white people love) – knowing better than the Church based on private judgment and believing that everyone must absolutely believe what you believe or they are evil, of course all in the name of “human” justice.

The Rev. Bourgeois is completely wrong of course, and women’s ordination is non-Catholic and a non-issue. It has nothing to do with equality or exclusion, but rather people of his class and background touting their personal assessment of what equality and exclusion mean — and then forcing others to eat that assessment.

Funny how all the Churches that eat and enjoy Rev. Bourgeois’ assessment are about as non-inclusive as they come. If you don’t buy what they sell you are out — you are just the ignorant proletariat. Further their congregations and parishes are dying at a fast rate (see here or read Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity) while truly Catholic Churches (Roman Catholic, Orthodox) are bringing the remnant in.

People who know know that Catholic Churches are all about inclusivity – all are welcome to come and pray. All are ministered to. All have a role consistent with Scripture and Tradition within those Churches.

The voice of the Holy Spirit is not asking that we grasp at straws for an answer, but that we show our faithfulness to what has been handed on to us. Not enough men in the seminary? We need to challenge them, be dynamic examples as men motivated by deep faith, love, and service. It’s hard work to put aside the tiredness, the monotony that can creep in to our all too human lives, but we can do it — truth, work, and struggle and we will be victorious. The solution isn’t in Rev. Bourgeois’ head or in our heads. It isn’t in society. It is in faithfulness.

Perspective,

The world, Europe, Chrstianity, and the creation of greatness

A recommended read from The Brussels Journal: Europe and Human Accomplishment with salient points about freedom, individualism, and Christianity. It’s a lengthy piece but worth the read. An excerpt follows:

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Western culture has by and large enjoyed the benefits of greater political freedom and more individualism as opposed to the common emphasis on consensus and traditionalism. Purpose and autonomy are intertwined with another defining cultural characteristic of European civilization, individualism…

Christianity played an important part in this, too. As Murray writes, —It was a theology that empowered the individual acting as an individual as no other philosophy or religion had ever done before. The potentially revolutionary message was realized more completely in one part of Christendom, the Catholic West, than in the Orthodox East…

The Enlightenment’s passionate commitment to reason was close to religious, yet after Freud, Nietzsche and others with similar messages, the belief in man as a rational being took a body blow. It became fashionable in Europe at the turn of the twentieth century to see humans as unwittingly acting out neuroses and subconscious drives. God was mostly dead among the European creative elites at this time. Such beliefs undermined the belief of the creative elites that their lives had purpose or that their talents could be efficacious. Murray believes that the twentieth century witnessed a decline in per capita accomplishment, as intellectuals rejected religion. He expects that almost no art from the second half of this century will be remembered 200 years from now. It’s a challenge for democratic societies to keep up standards of excellence when there is an obsession with making everyone equal. He has noticed that young Europeans no longer take pride in their scientific and artistic legacy; attempts to point this out to them will typically be met with pessimism and a sense that European civilization is evil and cursed. The decline of accomplishment in Europe, once the homeland par excellence of geniuses, was in all likelihood initially caused by loss of self-confidence and a sense of purpose.

Maybe belief in a higher purpose is necessary for the creation of true greatness. Achievements that outlast the lifespan of a single human being are generated out of respect for something greater than the individual. Many Europeans no longer experience themselves as part of a wider community with a past worth preserving and a future worth fighting for, which is perhaps why they see no point in reproducing themselves. Europe in the past believed in itself, its culture, its nations and above all its religion and produced Michelangelo, Descartes and Newton. Europe at the turn of the twenty-first century believes in virtually nothing of lasting value and so produces virtually nothing of lasting value. It remains to be seen whether this trend can be reversed.

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