Tag Archives: Catholic

Catholics and sex

The official Catholic view about sex is a huge topic and far beyond the scope of a blog post.  Yet, there are a number of news items or blog posts flying about cyberspace that are worthy of comment.

Celibate priesthood:

A December 3 post in Catholicism in the 21st Century blog contains a link to the Futurechurch website and the announcement of a new initiative: Optional Celibacy: So All Can Be At the Table.

We are launching an international electronic and paper postcard campaign asking Cardinal Hummes at the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome to open discussion of optional celibacy at the highest levels of the Church. We will also approach national bishops conferences, priest organizations and international reform groups for support in requesting discussion of changing celibacy rules to include both a married and celibate priesthood in the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church.

Although the Vatican’s recent invitation to disaffected Anglicans to join Roman Catholicism has been widely dissed as rank sheep stealing (see my posts here and here), does it not open the door a wee bit to married clergy?  If the Vatican is willing to accept married Anglican priests en masse, should they not also be more considerate of in-house proposals for a married priesthood?

As an aside, another recent article in Catholicism in the 21st Century blog is rather juicy, entitled “In the Catholic Church it is men who tell women how they should understand themselves as women.”

Gays will never go to heaven:

Cardinal Barragan“Transsexuals and homosexuals will never enter the kingdom of heaven and it is not me who says this, but Saint Paul,” said Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, a Mexican cardinal and emeritus president of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health (1996-2009).

On this one, at least, the Vatican quickly issued a correction to Cardinal Barragan’s views.  Catholic blogger James Martin in America Magazine, the national Catholic weekly, quotes a Vatican spokesman, Father Lombardi:

“It would be better, for example, to refer to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which does talk about homosexual acts as ‘disordered,’ but takes into account the fact that ‘the number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible, ‘” Father Lombardi wrote.  Homosexuals “must be welcomed with respect and sensitivity, and ‘every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided,'” he wrote, quoting the catechism.

“Disordered,” yes.  Go straight to hell, no.  At least it’s something.  Or, is it?

The Queering the Church blog quotes gay theologian James Alison:

The experience of many gay people is that the Church in some way or other, kills us.  Typically in official discourse we are a “they”, dangerous people whose most notable characteristic is not a shared humanity, but a tendency to commit acts considered to be gravely objectively disordered.  Typically our inclusion within the structure of church life comes at a very high price: that of agreeing not to speak honestly … The message is: you’re fine just so long as you don’t rock the boat through talking too frankly, which is the same as saying “you’re protected while you play the game our way, but the moment that something “comes to light”, you’re out.

In this the non-explicit message of the ecclesiastical mechanism is exactly the reverse of the explicit message of the  Church. The explicit message is: God loves you just as you are, and it is from where you are that you are invited to prepare with us the banquet of the kingdom.  The latent message is: God loves you as long as you hide what you are and deny yourself the search for the integrity and transparency of life and of virtues which it is your task to teach to others.”

Sex Abuse saga continues:

Just as the American Catholic church puts a few years behind the height of the clergy abuse scandal, the Dublin Archdiocese Commission report hits the news, and the scab is pricked anew.  Journey to a New Pentecost blog offers the following quote from the report:

The Commission has no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up by the Archdiocese of Dublin and other Church authorities over much of the period covered by the Commission’s remit. The structures and rules of the Catholic Church facilitated that cover-up. The State authorities facilitated the cover up by not fulfilling their responsibilities to ensure that the law was applied equally to all and allowing the Church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes. The welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages. Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members – the priests. In the mid 1990s, a light began to be shone on the scandal and the cover up. Gradually, the story has unfolded. It is the responsibility of the State to ensure that no similar institutional immunity is ever allowed to occur again. This can be ensured only if all institutions are open to scrutiny and not accorded an exempted status by any organs of the State.

With this report from Ireland, it is worth repeating that a preliminary report to the American Council of Bishops issued just a few weeks ago suggests that the reasons for child sexual abuse are unrelated to gay-straight issues.

Because this post is already long, it will not consider women’s ordination or the Vatican clampdown on nuns in America.  But it could.  It all comes down to sexuality.

Is the Roman Catholic hierarchy pathologically disordered?

The Catholic catechism calls gays “disordered”.  Is the finger pointing in the wrong direction?

A hard hitting op-ed piece appearing in today’s Irish Times, entitled Papal Princes immune to censure, thinks so:

The Catholic Church’s hypocrisy starts right at the top of the organisation, writes JASON BERRY

THE DUBLIN diocesan report spotlights the crisis tearing at the Catholic Church’s central nervous system. At issue is the Vatican’s pathological obsession with protecting guilty church officials.

The Vatican ignores justice to protect bishops in their role as regents to the pope.

Finally, in another Irish Times op-ed, quoted here from The Progressive Catholic Voice blog, clinical psychologist Maureen Gaffney goes right to the heart of the matter.  In what strikes me as an Irish woman daring to shout that the papal emperor wears no clothes, Gaffney suggests that the fundamental problem is that the Catholic church is stuck in an antiquated and destructive view of human sexuality that leads to negative outcomes for each of the issues addressed here.

That will require the church to face up to a much more profound problem – the church’s own teaching on sexuality.

Consider the list of issues the church has failed to deal with credibly since the 1960s: premarital and extramarital sex; remarriage; contraception; divorce; homosexuality; the role of women in ministry and women’s ordination; and the celibacy of the clergy. All have to do with sexuality.

Very few Catholics are looking to the church for moral guidelines in relation to any of these questions anymore. And why would they? After all, the church’s teaching on sexuality continues to insist that all intentionally sought sexual pleasure outside marriage is gravely sinful, and that every act of sexual intercourse within marriage must remain open to the transmission of life. The last pope, and most probably the present, took the view that intercourse, even in marriage, is not only “incomplete”, but even ceases to be an act of love, if contraception is used. Such pronouncements are so much at variance with the lived experience of most people as to undermine terminally the church’s credibility in the area of intimate relationships.

[The church] must confront the root cause of the problem – that the Catholic Church is a powerful homo-social institution, where men are submissive to a hierarchical authority and where women are incidental and dispensable. It’s the purest form of a male hierarchy, reflected in the striking fact that we all collectively refer it to as “the Hierarchy.”

It has all the characteristics of the worst kind of such an institution: rigid in social structure; preoccupied by power; ruthless in suppressing internal dissent; in thrall to status, titles, and insignia, with an accompanying culture of narcissism and entitlement; and at a great psychological distance from human intimacy and suffering.
Most strikingly, it is a culture which is fearful and disdainful of women. As theologian William M Shea observes, “fear of women, and perhaps hatred of them, may well be just what we have to work out of the Catholic system”. Until that institutional misogyny is confronted, the church will be unable to confront the unresolved issue of its teaching on sexuality and the sexuality of the clergy. Instead, celibacy will continue to be used as a prop to the dysfunctional homo-social hierarchy. The hierarchy will continue to project its fear of women on to an obsessive effort to exert control over their wombs, their fertility and their unruly sexual desires. That is the psychology of exclusion.

Pre-holiday bits and pieces: #ELCA, #Lutheran, #Catholic, #Presbyterian

As we head into the extended Thanksgiving weekend, here are a few bits of miscellany.

Under the category, “Much ado about nothing”, The ELCA NE Iowa synod council made news this week by passing two resolutions contrary in spirit to the actions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, as if to say “don’t force gay clergy on us.”  Pastor Joelle from the synod suggests in her blog that the congregations of her synod need not worry:

I don’t see a bunch of leaders in same sex relationships chomping on the bit to come here. I don’t see a lot of pastors, period, chomping at the bit to come here.

It is a bit of a head-shaker why congregations would fear that a gay cleric would willingly go to an inhospitable environment.  Ministry is difficult enough as it is.  I think it speaks to irrational paranoia and conspiracy theory.

Blogger Susan Hogan at Pretty Good Lutherans has a post with a lively discussion about this news from Iowa.

Under the category, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”, Minnesota Public Radio is soliciting information about the ELCA / Lutheran Core issues through an online survey.  They are apparently hoping to present a major story.  As a survey participant, I received a preliminary report, to wit (emphasis added):

Over the past four days, more than 1,200 Lutherans (150+ of whom are pastors or retired pastors) from all over the U.S. and beyond have written us about why you will or will not remain in the ELCA, and how a church split would affect you, your congregations, and your communities.

We’re overwhelmed at the response. Clearly (though not surprisingly), this is an issue that matters deeply to you. Thank you for being willing to talk with us about it.
We’re now reading through responses and planning reporting around what we’re reading (and may contact you again in the upcoming weeks and months to ask you for further insight).

Of the people who wrote to us, most said they haven’t considered leaving the church over the ELCA’s stance allowing people in committed same-gender relationships to be pastors. In fact, many were concerned that we are giving too much attention to those who want to leave, rather than focusing on the story that most individuals and churches plan to stay with the ELCA. Some wrote to say that this change will bring them back to the church, or keep them from leaving.

People who have considered leaving or have already left the ELCA said they can’t be part of a church that disobeys God.

Many, many people would be deeply saddened should the church split. Some said losing congregations would impair the ELCA’s ability to do missions work overseas (though one person stated he now can evangelize gay friends here in the U.S. without feeling like a hypocrite).

Under the category, “Women who seek to be equal to men lack ambition”, comes word that a monk has been suspended for ordaining women.  What, you thought I was talking about Catholicism?  Turns out that Buddhism suffers from the same streams of misogyny as Christendom.  Regarding the Vatican’s ballyhooed survey of American nuns, considered by many as an attempt at repression, a post in National Catholic Reporter tells us that the women religious are resisting:

The vast majority of U.S. women religious are not complying with a Vatican request to answer questions in a document of inquiry that is part of a three-year study of the congregations. Leaders of congregations, instead, are leaving questions unanswered or sending in letters or copies of their communities’ constitutions.

“There’s been almost universal resistance,” said one women religious familiar with the responses compiled by the congregation leaders. “We are saying ‘enough!’ In my 40 years in religious life I have never seen such unanimity.”

It turns out that the present controversy in the ELCA is the fruit of ordaining women a generation or two ago … at least that is what some within the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) or Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) believe.  In comments following a Lutheran Core blog post, CORE spokesperson Steven King acknowledged that the “justice” and “equal rights” analogies to women’s ordination can be problematic for LGBT ordination issues.  But, he assures the anti-women’s-ordination commenter that “there are many Christians who base their understanding of the ordination of women on theological and biblical grounds.”  He failed to mention that Biblical passages condemning women leadership are clearer than any supposed anti-gay passages.  Hmmm.  CORE appears to be Biblical literalists regarding LGBT issues but contextualists regarding women’s ordination.  At least the LCMS and WELS are consistent.

Finally, I close with a wedding announcement. The Rev Laurie McNeill of Central Presbyterian Church of Newark has been ordained since 1989 and a former moderator of the PCAUSA Presbytery of Newark.  At the conclusion of the Nov 14th Presbytery business meeting, Rev McNeill announced she had been married to Lisa Gollihue on Cape Cod on October 17th.   The Presbytery unanimously voted to support her marriage despite official Presbyterian church policy against gay marriage or gay clergy.   Stay tuned.

Shuck and Jive blog, The Presbyterian Outlook, and Religion Dispatches blog have excellent posts about the newlyweds.

Roman #Catholic Women Priests

Although I was registered with press credentials for the recent Call to Action (CTA) Conference in Milwaukee, I was not able to attend due to a family emergency.  However, my registration has opened my inbox to a wide array of items from the progressive branch of Catholicism.

For instance, I have learned of Roman Catholic Women Priests—not recognized by the Vatican, of course, but they are out there nevertheless, pushing against the patriarchal hierarchy that many find oppressive.

Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) is an international initiative within the Roman Catholic Church. The mission of Roman Catholic Womenpriests North America is to spiritually prepare, ordain, and support women and men from all states of life, who are theologically qualified, who are committed to an inclusive model of Church, and who are called by the Holy Spirit and their communities to minister within the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement is an initiative within the Church that began with the ordination of seven women on the Danube River in 2002.  Reclaiming our ancient spiritual heritage, womenpriests are shaping a more inclusive, Christ-centered Church of equals in the twenty-first century.  Women bishops ordained in full apostolic succession continue to carry on the work of ordaining others in the Roman Catholic Church.  We advocate a new model of priestly ministry united with the people with whom we serve.  We are rooted in a response to Jesus who called women and men to be disciples and equals living the Gospel.

Bridget Mary was ordained into this communion in 2006, and she blogs.  Her post of November 10 reports on the CTA Conference where Womenpriests maintained a well received booth and exhibit.

The Roman Catholic Womenpriest Movement was well- represented at Call to Action Conference ( approximately 2000 attendees) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Nov. 5-7, 2009. RCWP had a booth in the exhibit hall. Here our members gave out our prayer for vocations and shared information about our growing movement. The response was heart-warming! Many Catholic leaders in the reform movement expressed support for our vision of a renewed priestly ministry.

News Flash: Galileo arrested! #Catholic #LGBT

Copernicus expressed the view that the earth circled around the sun and not vice versa.  The 17th century astronomer Galileo Galilei agreed:

Galileo’s championing of Copernicanism was controversial within his lifetime, when a large majority Galileo by Giusto Sustermansof philosophers and astronomers still subscribed (at least outwardly) to the geocentric view that the Earth is at the centre of the universe. After 1610, when he began publicly supporting the heliocentric view, which placed the Sun at the centre of the universe, he met with bitter opposition from some philosophers and clerics, and two of the latter eventually denounced him to the Roman Inquisition early in 1615. Although he was cleared of any offence at that time, the Catholic Church nevertheless condemned heliocentrism as “false and contrary to Scripture” in February 1616, and Galileo was warned to abandon his support for it—which he promised to do. When he later defended his views in his most famous work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in 1632, he was tried by the Inquisition, found “vehemently suspect of heresy,” forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

When the Catholic Church of the twentieth century experienced a crisis of priest sexual predation, homosexuals were scapegoated.  According to Thomas C Fox, editor of National Catholic Reporter:

It has been so unfair. Elements in our Catholic community have repeatedly placed the blame of the sex abuse scandal that has rocked our church at the feet of a gay clergy.

It has been a case of guilty until proven innocent.

But wait, a new scientific study commissioned by US Catholic Bishops and conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice researchers reports a contrary view:

The study, which is due to be completed next year, was commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops after the scandal overtook the U.S. church in 2002.

In a presentation to the bishops on Tuesday, Margaret Smith of John Jay said: “What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse. At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now.”

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the gay Catholic group DignityUSA, called the report “very welcome news for gay people, gay priests, and our families and friends.”

She said the John Jay report confirms other studies in concluding that sexual orientation is not connected to pedophilia or other sex crimes. “We hope that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church will finally accept this finding, since it has been borne out through their own study,” Duddy-Burke said.

Surely, the bishops will accept this scientific finding.  Surely, the church will promptly and expeditiously exonerate Galileo.  Or not, as progressive Catholic blogger Terence Weldon suggests:

The fact that this report confirms what the rest of the world knows [i.e., that homosexuality is not a factor in the cases of abusive priests], is welcome, but not earth-shattering. Don’t hold your breath for the bishops to announce that they accept the report, or will act on this finding, or even for them to release the full report when it has been concluded.

The real causes of the problem lie within the church’s own structures, as numerous observers have noted: the appalling monopoly and abuse of power, compulsory clerical celibacy, and a deeply flawed, seminary based training system that is a hangover from the Middle Ages, leaving priests with minimal understanding of human sexuality, their own or anyone else’s.(Reports elsewhere state that this same interim John Jay report concludes that priests with the better training in human sexuality were the least likely to offend).

The naysayers within the hierarchy were quick to dismiss the scientific report, according to Beliefnet News:

“I wouldn’t put a lot of credence in it,” said Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

After the abuse crisis rocked the church in 2002, Nienstedt helped lead a Vatican investigation of U.S. seminaries aimed at rooting out homosexuality, and served on a committee that drew up new sex abuse prevention policies for U.S. dioceses. He has also written that homosexual orientation is the result of childhood trauma.

And blogger Mark Silk adds:

[Nienstedt promoted] the idea being that if you got rid of the gays, the abuse would stop. Not that Nienstedt doesn’t have a fall-back position; to wit: “a priest has to be accessible to all his people, and someone with a strong same-sex attraction would not be good to have in the pastoral care of people.” As opposed to a priest with a strong opposite-sex attraction?

The bishops’ problem with the John Jay study goes beyond Nienstedt’s species of homophobia, however. If, as the study suggests, sexual abuse by priests is the result of not homosexual orientation but the availability of certain types of people (i.e. altar boys), then someone might be led to the conclusion that clerical celibacy is a big part of the problem. The horror, the horror!

Call to Action Progressive #Catholic Conference wraps up

The three day annual Conference of Call to Action (CTA) in Milwaukee is over.  I was unable to attend as I had planned, but Thomas C Fox, editor of National Catholic Reporter, offered several sympathetic blog posts over the weekend, and I pass on his insights here.

Call to Action seeks to reclaim the spirit of Vatican II in the face of a church that has tilted strongly toward the right since those heady reform minded days of the early 60’s.  Fox’s first post speaks to the need of these progressives to come together to rekindle their energy but especially to be healed:

The folks who come here have been hurt, really hurt, in many ways by their church, a church that has turned on them as they have tried to live out its call faithfully, a clergy who have virtually banished them for their care and compassion. Some CTA types have literally been driven out of parishes, others forced out of ministries and careers. Hurt, really hurt. And they come here, recognizing it or not, in need of healing. And the CTA weekend provides this healing. CTA as healer. I like it. Think of it.

Call to Action has a new executive director, Jim Fitzgerald, and he offered his inaugural address, which Fox reprinted in toto.  Here is a portion:

“I don’t think I would be Catholic if it weren’t for Call To Action.” It is a comment I have heard so many times in my 12 years with CTA. While I was a college student at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, I voiced my doubts about remaining Catholic to Sister Nancy Langhart, a Franciscan sister who was my campus minister. I told Nancy that I feel Catholic in my spirit, but I have such difficulty staying in the Church when the Vatican says other religions are deficient, that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are intrinsically disordered, and that the priestly women in my life are not suitable to be ordained or serve in official leadership because of their gender. Regardless of what the Vatican said, I knew in my heart and soul that it is not one’s sexual identity or gender that is disordered; it’s homophobia and sexism in the name of Jesus that’s disordered!

Nancy smiled compassionately as if she knew exactly what I was feeling, leaned over and asked, “Have you ever heard of Call To Action?” In 1997, Nancy drove me to Detroit and introduced me to the Call To Action conference experience and I was home! Tonight, I’m thrilled to say Nancy is here and once again we get to share together this wonderful gathering. Thank you Nancy for bringing me home.

The role of women in the church, including women’s ordination, is of prime importance to Call to Action.  Speakers and presenters at the Milwaukee conference included many Catholic feminists.  Fox blogged about a couple of them.

Akers (photo by David Hawlic)Sister of Charity Louise Akers filled in for scheduled keynoter Roy Bourgeois Friday evening because Bourgeois’ father took ill.  Fox reports that “Akers last August was told by Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk to publicly disassociate herself from the issue of women’s ordination or lose her ability to continue making any presentations or teaching for credit in any archdiocesan-related institution.”

Akers remained defiant, and her address claimed that it was she, not Pilarczyk, who was following church teaching.

Fox also blogged about the Biblical reflections of Sister Dianne Bergant on Saturday.  Using the Biblical story of Ruth and Naomi, Bergant suggested we find the the ways God will bless us through the immigrant.

Finally, Fox blogged about Bob and Margaret McClory, founders and mainstays of Call to Action, and their recent visit with reform theologian Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx of Holland who is nearing his 95th birthday.

As the conference came to a close on Sunday, over 2,000 attendees unanimously approved a resolution of support for American nuns who are under pressure from the Vatican.  The resolution is reprinted below (from CTA’s press release):

Since January of 2009, the Vatican has investigated and sought to silence Catholic sisters in the United States. They have set a deadline of November 20th for the women religious’ communities to respond to its probing questionnaire. Now more than ever we must speak out against the few bishops who continue to wield the sword of division, rather than extend the hand of unity.

To our fellow Catholics in the United States and around the globe, women religious have taught us how to live the gospel and open our arms until they embraced all of God’s people. It is now our responsibility to put into action the lessons we have learned and ensure that our sisters in faith are not ripped from the church’s embrace,

To our courageous sisters, you who have been the bedrock of our church and country, know that the people you have faithfully served stand beside you as you have stood with us.

To those who are doing the investigation, your actions do not reflect the welcoming and embracing love that Jesus demonstrated in the gospels. We invite you to have a conversion of heart and join us in standing with the women religious.

In every generation God raises up prophets to point the way towards the gospel vision of inclusion. Women religious are these prophets. Today we stand not with those who cling to the gates of exclusion but with the prophets who open the gates and call us to live as one.

Call to Action Progressive #Catholic Conference opens today

Over 2,000 progressive Catholics are expected to gather today in Milwaukee for the opening of the annual Call to Action (CTA) conference.  The CTA slogan is “Catholics working together for Justice and Equality,”, and the conference theme is “Everyone at the Table: Rejoicing as People of God!” 

The day will be filled with arrivals, registrations, miscellaneous workshops and seminars, a hall full of exhibitors, and an opening liturgy this evening.  Today’s keynote address will be offered by Maryknoll priest Roy Bourgeois who has been ordered by the Vatican to recant for his unrelenting support of women’s ordination, but he has refused.  His address will be entitled, “A New Model of Being Church”.

The exclusion of women from the priesthood in the Catholic Church is a grave injustice against women and a grave injustice against the God who calls women to be priests. In his keynote address, Bourgeois will explore the roots of sexism in the Church’s history and how an all-male clergy has led to a crisis in our present-day Church. Since justice is an integral part of our faith, Bourgeois will reflect upon what each of us can do to reform our Church and create a new model of being Church.

Here are links to blogs that reference Call to Action:

YoungAdultCatholics – a blog of NextGen at Call To Action

Catholicism in the 21st Century

Local Catholic Reporter (St Louis)

Bridget Mary’s Blog

Bowed but not broken: the quest for marriage equality continues

I am not a gay person, but I am what is referred to as a “straight ally”.  Thus, while I can sympathize with and support LGBT causes, I cannot empathize.  I cannot feel the brutalizing affront to my essential human dignity that is all too often the gay experience.  Thus, I defer to the voices of others to name the feelings following election night victories and losses.  Popular blogger Andrew Sullivan offers his succinct response to the narrow defeat in Maine and the narrow victory in Washington:

But I do want to point out that, from the perspective of just a decade ago, to have an even split on this question in a voter referendum is a huge shift in the culture. In Maine, where the Catholic church did all it could to prevent gays from having civil rights in a very Catholic and rural state, gays do have equality but may now merely be denied the name. The process itself has helped educate and enlighten and deepen the debate about gay people in ways that never happened before the marriage issue came up.

I am heart-broken tonight by Maine, and I’d be lying if I said otherwise.

Somehow losing by this tiny margin is brutalizing. And because this is a vote on my dignity as a human being, it is hard not to take it personally or emotionally. But I also know that the history of civil rights movements has many steps backward as forward, and some of those reversals actually catalyze the convictions that lead to victories. A decade ago, the marriage issue was toxic. Now it divides evenly. Soon, it will win everywhere.

I know for many younger gays and lesbians, this process can seem bewildering and hurtful. But I’m old enough now to be able to look back and see the hill we have climbed in such a short amount of time, and the minds and hearts we have changed. Including our own.

Know hope.

The Johannine account of Jesus’ call to follow me haunts me this morning.  Why should we follow?  Come and see, Jesus says.  Come and see, repeat his followers, one to the next.  But I wonder what the world sees when the Mormons in California and the Catholics in Maine work so stridently against human rights. 

Vox Clamantis in Deserto.  A voice crying in the wilderness.  Against the shrillness of the powerful Vatican and much of American evangelicalism, the voice of progressive Christianity sometimes seem so still and so small.  Yet, You will see greater things than these, promises Jesus.  Forward we go.  Forward we must.

Election Day 2009: spotlight on Maine

In this off year, there are not a lot of elections of import across the country.  There are hotly contested governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, and an interesting Congressional race in upstate New York, but many eyes will be on the state of Maine as the latest battleground regarding marriage equality. 

Here’s the background according to the Associated Press:

Maine MoosePORTLAND, Maine — Bolstered by out-of-state money and volunteers, both sides jockeyed Monday to boost turnout for a Maine referendum that could give gay-rights activists in the U.S. their first victory at the ballot box on the deeply divisive issue of same-sex marriage.

The state’s voters will decide Tuesday whether to repeal a law that would allow gay marriage. The law was passed by the Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci last May but has never taken effect.

The contest is considered too close to call, and both campaigns worked vigorously — with rallies, phone calls, e-mails and ads — to be sure their supporters cast votes in the off-year election.

If voters uphold the law, it will be the first time the electorate in any state has endorsed marital rights for same-sex couples, energizing activists nationwide and deflating a long-standing conservative argument that gay marriage lacks popular support.

Conversely, a repeal — in New England, the corner of the country most receptive to same-sex marriage — would be a jolting setback for the gay-rights movement and mark the first time voters overturned a gay-marriage law enacted by a legislature. When Californians voters rejected gay marriage a year ago, it was in response to a court ruling, not legislation.

Religious activists are on both sides of the issue.  Roman Catholic Bishop Richard J Malone of the Portland Diocese (which includes the entire state) has been particularly active according to the National Catholic Reporter and quoted in Talk to Action blog:

Besides spearheading a parish-based petition signature drive, assisted by local and national socially conservative groups, Malone also padded church bulletins with anti-gay marriage messages — on six consecutive Sundays. He required that pastors throughout the diocese preach on traditional marriage.

Malone has produced a DVD, in which he stars, explaining why marriage matters, and directed that it be shown in all parishes. (See Marriage: What the church teaches.)
Last month, Malone called for a second collection to be taken up during Sunday Masses, with proceeds going to Stand for Marriage, the organization leading the repeal effort.

The second collection netted $86,000. In total, the Portland diocese has given $550,000 to the effort to repeal the same-sex marriage legislation.

But many Catholics resist their bishop, including Governor John E. Baldacci who signed the legislation.  The Bangor Daily News reports that many Catholics joined four recent statewide  rallies sponsored by the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry in Maine.

After Mass on Sunday morning, Ed Oechslie left St. John Catholic Church and walked alone to Hammond Street Congregational Church.

The Brewer man wore a sign made on his computer and pinned to the back of his jacket. It showed a cross in the foreground with a rainbow rising behind its base, arcing across the background. Above the cross were the words, “Maine Catholics for Marriage Equality.”

“I think it’s important for Catholics to speak up,” Oechslie said before the Bangor service began. “The bishop has taken a stance that, in my view, has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus.”

The Talk to Action blog post quotes other progressive Catholics who oppose their Bishop’s overt politicking.  William H. Slavick of Portland, a retired college professor and long-time coordinator of the Pax Christi Maine chapter,

favors keeping the civil marriage law, saying that the church is wrong to try to impose a Catholic view of marriage on society.

Catholic attorney, Anne Underwood, in public testimony before the legislature, stated:

As a practicing Roman Catholic and attorney, I thank each of you for your daily work on behalf of our democratic form of government. A government based not on Halachah (Jewish), Shari’ a (Islamic), or Canon Law (Roman Catholic), but on Civil Law.

The Religious Coalition for the Freedom to marry includes a diverse group of religious leaders including Rabbi Darah Lerner of Congregational Beth El, Bangor’s Reform synagogue, who said her religion required her to speak out at the rally.

“I am participating because my tradition calls me to pursue equality and justice for all people,” she said. “Full equality under the law for gay men and lesbians requires the legal recognition of monogamous domestic gay and lesbian relationships. All loving couples should be included in the civil right and the responsibility of marriage.”

Pam’s House Blend blog has voting instructions and an open thread for comments throughout the day.

Voice of the Faithful: Progressive #Catholic Conference a success

This past weekend, the progressive Catholic group called Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) held its annual convention on Long Island.  Their slogan is “Keep the Faith, Change the Church.”  I reprint their press release below:

NEW ENERGY AT VOICE OF THE FAITHFUL CONFERENCE

October 31, 2009

Sr. Joan Chittister and Fr. Tom Reese inspire VOTF members at LI conference

Melville, NY – Over 500 members of Voice of the Faithful were encouraged to see the good within in the institution of the Catholic Church. It was the message given by Father Tom Reese, one of the distinguished speakers at this year’s event held at the Huntington Hilton on Long Island. He also asked members to avail themselves of the social justice opportunities within Church, to be mindful of the importance of prayer and scripture reading, and recognize the importance of being welcoming community within their own parish.

The day began with Sr. Joan Chittister offering a new insight into the nature of leadership within the Church. She emphasized that power and leadership are not synonyms and that people should lead they way the wish to follow. Sr. Chittister said, “real reform brings people together, does not pit one group against one another,” a message taken to heart by the VOTF members in attendance.

Priest of Integrity Awards were given to Fr. Joseph Fowler of Louisville, a tireless advocate for victims rights in Kentucky, and Fr. Donald Cozzens, a noted author and a long-time advisor to Voice of the Faithful. Both priests were greeted with a hearty reception.

Jason Berry, an author and investigative journalist, received the St. Catherine of Siena Distinguished Lay Person award for his work in bringing the sexual abuse scandal to light and his persistent quest for justice for survivors.

VOTF members were also asked by Margaret Smith of John Jay College, a dedicated researcher on the “Causes and Context Study,” for their help in solving the mystery around the abuse crisis: how could such a moral lapse not have been recognized at the time? Ms. Smith also reported that the dimming number of clergy abuse reports were a positive sign of change.

President Dan Bartley said to the members, “I am encouraged by your support. We have so much work to do, especially with new Voices in Action campaign. Your presence here is a testament to your hard work and dedication.”

VOTF is restructuring and expanding.  FY 2009 budget of $450,000 will be increased to $600,000 for 2010 and $700,000 for 2011.  It hopes to expand its membership by 30% to 45,000.  The organization plans to become more collegial, collaborative, and grass roots, emphasizing lay involvement, an expanded role for women, and actualization of the spirit of Vatican II.  Here is a web based slide show with voice that outlines their plans and goals of their “Voices in Action Campaign”.  If you don’t care to watch and listen to this fifteen minute presentation, the highlights include a five pronged plan that includes:

Meanwhile, another progressive Catholic group named Call to Action will hold its annual convention in Milwaukee next weekend.  Over 2,000 persons are expected to attend, and I plan to be one of them with live blogs from the convention floor.

Vatican call for #Anglicans to join #Catholics revisited

A couple of days ago, I posted on the reaction to the Vatican’s invitation to conservative Anglicans who disagreed with the Episcopal Church’s policy on gay and female clergy.  Here’s more blogosphere feedback.

A press release from Voice of the Faithful asks, IS THE ANGLICAN COMMUNITY GOING TO SOLVE THE PRIEST SHORTAGE?  Voice of the Faithful is a progressive group of Catholics who coincidentally are holding their annual convention this weekend on Long Island.

Susan Russell (recent past president of Integrity USA) links to an NPR audio and quotes Jim Naughton:

I think for Episcopalians, what we need to do in the wake of this announcement is to continue going out there and saying, look, we do offer very traditional liturgy, beautiful music, a style of worship that many people like. But we are a democratically governed church. We think men and women are equal at the altar, and we respect the dignity of gay and lesbian Christians. If that makes us outcasts, I think that that’s a status that we embrace happily. So if what we’re talking about here are people offering alternatives, I think Episcopalians offer that alternative to their Catholic brothers and sisters. 

Is Pope Benedict’s action dynamite under the logjam of stalled ecumenical discussions?  This is the question posted on America, the American Catholic Weekly.  In another post on the same blog, noted Lutheran theologian Martin Marty is quoted:

Bypassing forty years of Anglican-Roman Catholic conversations-cum-negotiations and blindsiding Archbishop Rowan Williams, the head of the seventy-million-member Anglican Communion, Vatican officials announced that they were taking steps to receive Anglican (in the United States, Episcopal) clergy through conversion into the Roman Catholic priesthood.  Headlines had it that Rome wanted to “lure,” “attract,” “bid for” or “woo” priests and congregations to make the drastic move, while the Vatican front man, as he fished for Anglicans, said he was not fishing for Anglicans….

And, a third post on the same blog suggests that the fine print over the acceptance of married Anglican priests into the Catholic church needs some clarification.

One Anglican cleric who blogs as Madpriest, dismisses the Anglicans who are receptive to the Pope’s invitation as “The Dying Gasps of Anglican Misogyny.”

Religion writer Julia Duin at the Washington Post raises lots of questions:

And which elements of the Anglican liturgy will these converts will be allowed to retain? Anglicans have multiple versions (1662, 1928, 1979 to name a few) of their Book of Common Prayer. Will they have to accept Roman Catholic theology on transubstantiation (the bread and wine really becoming the body and blood of Christ), on papal infallibility, on the bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven, not to mention the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary was born without sin?

Finally, Minnesota blogger, progressive Catholic Michael Bayly, dares to speak that which must not be spoken.  In a post entitled Keeping All the Queens Under One Roof, Bayly suggests that there is a subtext of closeted and repressed gay clergy in both the Anglican communion and the Catholic communion.

We’re not supposed to talk about this aspect of the drama in the Vatican. But there is as much an overlap of closeted gay priests and bishops with liturgical and theological orthodoxy as there is of closeted gay politicians finding ways to oppress other gays who are out and open.

Bayly quotes Chris Dierckes:

If personal experience and lifelong immersion in a sub-culture is any form of persuasive evidence, I can tell you that conservative Anglo-Catholicism — at the clerical level — is totally dominated by gay men. Mostly repressed. What used to be called when I was in seminary, the pink mafia. And the thing that is the initial trigger for this decision is the upcoming very likely to happen decision to ordain women as bishops in the Church of England (there have already been women priests there for about 15 years or so). Which has a certain irony in this case. If these Anglo-Catholics join the Roman Communion they can join up with very conservative Roman Catholic groups like Regnum Christi and The Legionaries of Christ, also totally dominated by closeted gay fellows. You don’t need to be Sigmund Freud to see the awesome tragic humor in a bunch of non-wife-having grown men wearing pink dresses (and in the Pope’s case super expensive fabulous Prada shoes!!!) telling everybody else they shouldn’t be gay.