Items of Interest
Catholic theologian preaches revolution to end church's 'authoritarian' rule
Hans Küng urges confrontation from the grassroots to unseat pope and force radical reform at Vatican
The Guardian, Friday 5 October 2012 10.25 EDT via NCR Online
One of the world's most prominent Catholic theologians has called for a revolution from below to unseat the pope and force radical reform at the Vatican.
Hans Küng is appealing to priests and churchgoers to confront the Catholic hierarchy, which he says is corrupt, lacking credibility and apathetic to the real concerns of the church's members.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Küng, who had close contact with the pope when the two worked together as young theologians, described the church as an "authoritarian system" with parallels to Germany's Nazi dictatorship.
"The unconditional obedience demanded of bishops who swear their allegiance to the pope when they make their holy oath is almost as extreme as that of the German generals who were forced to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler," he said.
The Vatican made a point of crushing any form of clerical dissent, he added. "The rules for choosing bishops are so rigid that as soon as candidates emerge who, say, stand up for the pill, or for the ordination of women, they are struck off the list." The result was a church of "yes men", almost all of whom unquestioningly toed the line.
"The only way for reform is from the bottom up," said Küng, 84, who is a priest. "The priests and others in positions of responsibility need to stop being so subservient, to organise themselves and say that there are certain things that they simply will not put up with anymore."
Küng, the author of around 30 books on Catholic theology, Christianity and ethics, which have sold millions worldwide, said that inspiration for global change was to be found in his native Switzerland and in Austria, where hundreds of Catholic priests have formed movements advocating policies that openly defy current Vatican practices. The revolts have been described as unprecedented by Vatican observers, who say they are likely to cause deep schisms in the church.
"I've always said that if one priest in a diocese is roused, that counts for nothing. Five will create a stir. Fifty are pretty much invincible. In Austria the figure is well over 300, possibly up to 400 priests; in Switzerland it's about 150 who have stood up and it will increase."
He said recent attempts by the archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schönborn, to try to stamp out the uprising by threatening to punish those involved in the Austrian "priests' initiative" had backfired owing to the strength of feeling. "He soon stopped when he realised that so many ordinary people are supportive of them and he was in danger of turning them all against him," Küng said.
The initiatives support such seemingly modest demands as letting divorced and remarried people receive communion, allowing non-ordained people to lead services and allowing women to take on important positions in the hierarchy. However, as they go against conventional Catholic teaching, the demands have been flatly rejected by the Vatican.
Küng, who was stripped of the authority to teach Catholic theology by Pope John Paul II in 1979 for questioning the concept of papal infallibility, is credited with giving the present pope, Joseph Ratzinger as he then was, the first significant step up the hierarchy of Catholic academia when he called him to Tübingen University, in south-west Germany, as professor of dogmatic theology in 1966.
The pair had worked closely for four years in the 1960s as the youngest theological advisers on the second Vatican council – the most radical overhaul of the Catholic church since the middle ages. But the relationship between the two was never straightforward, with their political differences eventually driving a wedge between them. The dashing and flamboyant Hans Küng, by various accounts, often stole the limelight from the more earnest and staid Joseph Ratzinger.
Küng refers to the "heap of legends" that abound about himself and Ratzinger from their "Tübingen days", not least the apocryphal accounts of how he gave lifts in his "red sports car" to the bicycle-riding Ratzinger.
"I often gave him a lift, particularly up the steep hills of Tübingen, yes, but too much has been made of this," he said. "I didn't drive a sports car, rather an Alfa Romeo Giulia. Ratzinger admitted himself that he had no interest in technology and had no driving licence. But it's often been turned into some kind of pseudo-profound metaphor idealising the 'cyclist' and demonising the 'Alfa Romeo driver'."
Indeed the "modest'' and prudent "bicycle-rider'' image that pope-to-be, now 85, fostered for years has all but evaporated since his 2005 inauguration, according to Küng.
"He has developed a peculiar pomposity that doesn't fit the man I and others knew, who once walked around in a Basque-style cap and was relatively modest. Now he's frequently to be seen wrapped in golden splendour and swank. By his own volition he wears the crown of a 19th-century pope, and has even had the garments of the Medici pope Leo X remade for him."
That "pomposity", he said, manifested itself most fully in the regular audiences who gather on St Peter's Square in Rome. "What happens has Potemkin village dimensions," he said. "Fanatical people go there to celebrate the pope, and tell him how wonderful he is, while meanwhile at home their own parishes are in a lamentable state, with a lack of priests, a far higher number than ever before of people who are leaving than are being baptised and now Vatileaks, which indicates just what a poor state the Vatican administration is in," he said, referring to the scandal over leaked documents uncovering power struggles within the Vatican which has seen the pope's former butler appear in court. The trial ends on Saturday.
It was in Tübingen that the paths of the two theologians crossed for several years before diverging sharply following the student riots of 1968. Ratzinger was shocked by the events and escaped to the relative safety of his native Bavaria, where he deepened his involvement in the Catholic hierarchy. Küng stayed in Tübingen and increasingly assumed the role of the Catholic church's enfant terrible.
"The student revolts were a primal shock for Ratzinger and after that he became ever more conservative and part of the hierarchy of the church," said Küng.
Calling Pope Benedict XVI's reign a "pontificate of missed opportunities", in which he had forgone chances to reconcile with the Protestant, Jewish, orthodox and Muslim faiths, as well as failing to help the African fight against Aids by not allowing the use of birth control, Küng said his "gravest scandal" was the way he had "covered up" worldwide cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics during his time as the head of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as Cardinal Ratzinger.
"The Vatican is no different from the Kremlin," Küng said. "Just as Putin as a secret service agent became the head of Russia, so Ratzinger, as head of the Catholic church's secret services, became head of the Vatican. He has never apologised for the fact that many cases of abuse were sealed under the secretum pontificium (papal secrecy), or acknowledged that this is a disaster for the Catholic church." Küng described a process of "Putinisation" that has taken place at the Vatican.
Yet despite their differences, the two have remained in contact. Küng visited the pope at his summer retreat, Castel Gandolfo, in 2005, during which the two held an intensive four-hour discussion.
"It felt like we were on an equal footing – after all, we'd been colleagues for years. We walked through the park and there were times I thought he might turn the corner on certain issues, but it never happened. Since then we've still kept exchanging letters, but we've not met."
Kung has travelled widely in his life, befriending everyone from Iranian leaders to John F. Kennedy, and Tony Blair with whom he forged close links a decade ago, becoming something of a spiritual guru for the then British prime minister ahead of his decision to convert to Catholicism.
"I was impressed how he tackled the Northern Ireland conflict. But then came the Iraq war and I was extremely troubled by the way in which he collaborated with Bush. I wrote to him calling it a historical failure of the first order. He wrote me a hand-written note in reply, saying he respected my views and thankyou, but that I should know he was acting according to his conscience and was not trying to please the Americans. I was astounded that a British prime minister could make such a catastrophic mistake, and he remains for me a tragic figure." He described Blair's conversion to Catholicism as a mistake, insisting he should instead have used his role as a public figure to reconcile differences between the Anglican and Catholic churches in the UK.
From his book-filled study, where a portrait of Sir Thomas More, the 16th-century English Catholic martyr, hangs on the wall, Küng looks out on to his front garden and a two-metre-tall statue of himself. Critics have called it symptomatic of Kung's inflated sense of his own importance. He is embarrassed as he attempts to explain how it was a gift from his 20-year-old Stiftung Weltethos, (Foundation for a Global Ethic), which operates from his house and will continue to do so after his death.
Far from putting the brakes on his prolific theological output, Küng has recently distilled the ideas of Weltethos – which seeks to create a global code of behaviour, or a globalisation of ethics – into a capricious musical libretto. Mixing narrative with excerpts from the teachings of Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, Küng's writings have been incorporated into a major symphonic work by the British composer Jonathan Harvey that will have its London premiere on Sunday at the Southbank Centre.
Küng says the musical work, like the foundation, is an attempt to emphasise what the religions of the world have in common rather than what divides them.
Weltethos was founded in the early 1990s as an attempt to bring the religions of the world together by emphasising what they have in common rather than what divides them. It has drawn up a code of behavioural rules that it hopes one day will be as universally acceptable as the UN.
The work's aim is arguably high-minded – Harvey described the demanding task of writing a score for the text as an "awe-inspring responsibility". But Küng, who has won the support of leading figures including Henry Kissinger, Kofi Annan, Jacques Rogge, Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson and Shirin Ebadi, insisted its aims were grounded in basic necessity."At a time of paradigm change in the world, we need a common set of principles, most obvious among them the Golden Rule, in which Confucius taught to not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself," he said.
Weltethos will be performed at the Royal Festival Hall on October 7
Article
U.S. Catholic
Needs improvement: Readers rate the bishops' response to church sex abuse
Tim Foley
ShareThis
A progress report from U.S. Catholic readers says that bishops still haven’t learned all their lessons on the subject of sexual abuse.
Anger. Betrayal. Sadness. Disappointment. These are just some of the myriad of emotions felt by Catholics in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that broke in 2002. And a decade later—following a flood of additional details on cases of clerical abuse and cover-ups as well as new efforts to enforce transparency and accountability within the church—many U.S. Catholic readers still hold on to those same feelings of disillusionment.
“Ten years later and we are still seeing unresolved situations. What a shame,” says Mary Ann McCoy of Des Moines, one of more than 300 respondents to a U.S. Catholic reader survey on how the church has addressed the sexual abuse crisis. “It is still being handled poorly in some dioceses,” she says. “The bishops have failed us.”
Many readers expressed frustration over the lack of accountability on the part of church leaders who helped to cover up the abuse of minors by clergy and thus put more children in harm’s way. Eighty-seven percent of respondents say that bishops and priests who were involved in past cover-ups of abuse should be held criminally liable and forced to resign.
“Why should the offending priest be sanctioned but not the bishops who covered up the crimes?” asks Helen Welter of Indianapolis. Peter Waricka of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey takes a similar stance. “The church as a whole, and some bishops, have displayed what appears to be a disregard or disdain for civil laws and the civil rights of victims,” he says. “Abusers and those who covered up abuse should be subject to the full consequences of those civil laws.”
Others were discouraged by the way the church has treated the victims who have come forward. “The lack of sympathy for the victims is appalling,” says Los Angeles resident Kris Fuller.
Some readers pointed out that victims and advocacy groups like the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have been accused of attacking the church and even being vindictive for bringing lawsuits against Catholic dioceses and institutions where the abuse occurred. That’s not how Jack Sitterding of Hazel Crest, Illinois sees it. “Most victims/survivors coming forward do not do it for the money; they want justice,” Sitterding says. “They are not the enemy. The church should have more empathy for the people coming forward and treat them with respect.”
But while readers share a widespread disappointment in the way church leaders handled abuse cases in the past, they are more divided on the effectiveness of efforts to make the church safer for children today and more transparent in its handling of accusations against priests.
Of those surveyed, 55 percent say the bishops are less likely to cover up abuse cases today than in the past, and 34 percent say Catholic parishes and schools are now safer for children thanks to safeguards implemented in the last 10 years.
Paul Maina of Philadelphia believes that the scandal has taught the bishops a valuable lesson. “Bishops have become more careful than before,” he says, “and they have learned from their past mistakes that covering up has injured the church more than exposing the truth.”
Some readers acknowledge that responses from the church hierarchy have varied widely, and even though some bishops have earned their share of criticism, others deserve to be praised. “Some of the bishops are really trying and taking responsibility and working hard to keep children safe,” says B. J. Levad of Yakima, Washington. However, Levad adds, “Some of the bishops and priests are still stonewalling and doing the minimum.”
Tina Flynn of Arcadia Lakes, South Carolina believes the implementation of safe-environment training, which was mandated by the bishops’ 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, has gone a long way in raising awareness of the problem and helping to identify and prevent cases of abuse. “I can tell you that our Catholic churches and schools where I live are now some of the safest places a kid could possibly be,” she says.
For Bill Ramos of Oakland, California it is the willingness of individuals on the parish level to make such changes that is having the most positive impact. “At least we are beginning to address our shortcomings,” says Ramos. “Our parish is very serious about addressing sexual abuse, even with the laissez-faire attitude from the bishop.”
To readers like Nicholas Clifford of Middlebury, Vermont, however, ensuring the safety of children is only part of the solution. What still needs to be addressed, he argues, is the clerical culture that allowed the problem to go on for so long. “No one in authority has the courage to ask the big question,” says Clifford. “Were there ways in which the structures of church governance helped enable the crisis? And if yes, what do we do about them?”
When it comes to the church’s willingness to report accusations of sexual abuse to authorities, respondents credit pressure from outside sources—not a change in attitudes by the bishops—for improvements made since 2002. “Only because they are now bound by civil law to report cases are they forthcoming,” says Laurie Pascutti of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. “If not for that, in my opinion they would continue to cover up abuse cases for the sake of the institution.”
That view is shared by many respondents, as 80 percent say there is still a lack of transparency on the part of church leaders in handling sexual abuse cases. As evidence, several readers point to the case of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, who is facing criminal charges for failure to report to civil authorities a priest in his diocese who was in possession of child pornography.
“We have just seen in the last year that avoiding public scandal and protecting the institution is still leading to cover-ups by some of our bishops,” says Catherine Sims of Mundelein, Illinois. Rochester, New York resident Judy Conley worries that the public is still unaware of other cover-ups that may be taking place. “I think many of the bishops are still sweeping things under the rug,” she says.
As time goes on and pressure fades, readers like Dennis Egan of Green Bank, West Virginia fear that the bishops will slowly move away from recent efforts to be more forthcoming. “It would be naive to think any of the current move toward transparency is anything permanent,” he says.
The many troubling cases that have come to light in the past decade have changed the way many Catholics view the clergy. Roughly half of all respondents said their personal view of the priesthood has been diminished by the scandal.
“I can no longer look at a priest—any priest—without wondering what secrets he’s hiding,” admits Angela Stockton of Clermont, Florida. Others, like Anne Clifford of Ames, Iowa, feel that the abuse scandal shows that more scrutiny is needed in determining who is admitted to the priesthood. “My view of priests as a whole is not diminished by the sex abuse crisis,” she says. “But I am very concerned about the psychological screening and formation of men who are admitted to the seminary.”
Mike Ghiorso of Daly City, California feels that the crimes committed by some priests have unfairly cast all of the clergy in a negative light. “The vast majority of our priests have endured guilt by association and tragic treatment,” he says.
That’s also a concern of priests themselves. Father Tom Aleksa of Sheffield, Pennsylvania feels that the bishops should have done more to help innocent priests. “The bishops do not understand that the great majority of priests who have never done these bad things are suffering because of the actions of a few,” he says.
The lack of trust created by the abuse scandal has also presented a challenge to the faith lives of some Catholics. Many say they can no longer look to church leaders for guidance on moral issues.
“The crimes, the deceit, the unaccountability, the secretiveness, the immoral behavior by the hierarchy—all have served to make me question everything that they say and do,” says Edward Scahill of Mashpee, Massachusetts. “They have totally lost their moral authority, especially on matters relating to human sexuality.”
Readers like Barbara Miller of St. Charles, Illinois are still struggling to reconcile their personal faith with the actions of their church’s leaders. “I find the topic of sexual abuse within the church a very difficult one that makes me both angry and sad,” says Miller. “I love the Catholic Church, but… it will take me a lifetime to overcome the tragedy.”
Still, respondents like Tom O’Connell of Chehalis, Washington have managed to maintain their faith in spite of the church’s failings in dealing with sexual abuse. “Your faith should be strengthened in Christ as our redeemer,” he says, “and not weakened by the frailties of men.”
1. Since the sexual abuse scandal broke in 2002, I think that the bishops:
71% Should have resigned if at any time they allowed a known or suspected abuser to continue having access to children.
71% Should have found a way to pressure culpable fellow bishops to resign.
59% Have done the bare minimum and should be doing much more.
44% Have done a terrible job of handling the crisis and its aftermath.
33% Have done a good job of putting in new safeguards against future abuse.
9% Have done a good job of being transparent about past cases of abuse.
9% Have taken responsibility if they allowed abuser priests to continue having access to children.
2. I still think there’s a lack of transparency when it comes to dealing with sex abuse within the church.
Agree - 80%
Disagree - 16%
Other - 4%
3. The Catholic Church has lost at least some of its credibility to speak on moral issues as a result of the sex abuse crisis.
Agree - 86%
Disagree - 12%
Other - 2%
4. I was/I know someone who was abused by a priest.
Agree - 44%
Disagree - 53%
Other - 3%
5. My personal view of the priesthood was diminished by the sex abuse crisis.
Agree - 51%
Disagree - 36%
Other - 13%
Representative of “other”:
“I have not lost faith in the priesthood, but I have lost respect for the leadership of the church.”
6. The church has shown more concern for its public image as a result of the abuse crisis than it has for the needs of victims.
Agree - 77%
Disagree - 19%
Other - 4%
7. Those who should get credit for the church’s reform after the sex abuse crisis include:
80% Reporters who exposed the scandal.
76% Victim advocacy groups, such as SNAP.
63% Church reform groups, such as Voice of the Faithful.
56% Lay review boards.
28% Lawyers.
17% The bishops.
16% Other Representative of “other”: “The victims themselves.”
By Scott Alessi, assistant editor of U.S. Catholic. This article appeared in the June 2012 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 77, No. 6, pages 23-26).
No extra charge,
Jerry
The Tablet Feature Article
A very public rebuke
The CDF and women Religious
Phyllis Zagano - 28 April 2012The Vatican has confronted women Religious of the United States head-on with the demand that their leadership organisation conform and reform. The row, which has caused deep unease about Vatican intervention, exposes major divides in the Church
By publicly announcing the conclusions of one of its two scrutinies of US women Religious, the Vatican kicked a sleeping tiger. The general public reaction to the “Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious” is: are they kidding? Editorials, petitions, even a Twitter campaign chide the Vatican’s perceived attack.
The social-network campaigns and public support for the women Religious indicate both the esteem in which they are held by American Catholics and the influential role they play in Catholic life in the US, working in health care, education and social services, and giving voice to the voiceless. In fact, the doctrinal assessment reinforces the themes of the visitation of US women’s institutes carried out by the Congregation for the Institutes of Sacred Life and focuses on the major leadership organisation, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), and its officials, who were investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
In a tensely worded statement, the CDF criticised the 1,500-member LCWR that represents the majority of the 57,000 US women Religious, charging it to cooperate with three Vatican-appointed assessors or lose its official status as an officially recognised organisation. It has taken four years since CDF prefect Cardinal William Levada first said he was sufficiently concerned about the LCWR for the report to appear, and it’s apparent that the Church’s usual neuralgic issues – feminism, contraception, abortion, homosexuality, women priests, dissent, authority – have all played their part in this rebuke being meted out to the leaders of most of America’s women Religious.
Three areas of concern motivated the assessment: the content of addresses at LCWR annual assemblies, its policies of “corporate dissent”, and what the CDF terms “radical feminism”. Underlying these three general areas were the assumed LCWR stances on homosexuality, women’s ordination as priests, as well as “certain radical feminist themes” and “commentaries on ‘patriarchy’”.
The reforms that the CDF wants include revising LCWR’s statutes; reviewing its plans and programmes; creating new programmes; reviewing and offering guidance on liturgical texts; and reviewing affiliations with other organisations, especially Network, a social-justice lobby, and the Resource Center for Religious Institutes, an advisory group on civil and canon law.
According to the Vatican document, the LCWR presidency first learned of an investigation in April 2008. Then nearly a year later in March 2009, the conference received a letter announcing a “doctrinal assessment” to be conducted by Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio. Shortly afterwards, Bishop Blair and the American Mgr Charles Brown of the CDF met conference officers in the US. Among the documents examined was LCWR’s “mentoring leadership manual”– the conference sponsors training sessions for new leaders – along with information about Network and the Resource Center for Religious Institutes.
By January 2011, a meeting of bishop-members of the CDF and Cardinal William Levada had determined that the “doctrinal and pastoral situation of the LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern”, especially given the conference’s international influence; that the Holy See should intercede to reform it; and that the CDF should investigate possible canonical interventions.
Among the evidence particularly cited by the CDF document as deeply problematic was an address by the Dominican sister Laurie Brink, made to the LCWR assembly in 2007, in which she suggested that some Religious were “moving beyond the Church” or “even beyond Jesus”. Taken out of context by the CDF, Brink’s comment was “a serious source of scandal”, said the document, a challenge … to core Catholic beliefs … and is incompatible with religious life”. Brink said this option (of four) was “not Catholic Religious Life”.
In March this year, the conference officers learned they would receive the results of the assessment during their annual April trip to the Vatican. When it happened, the three members of the LCWR presidency – Pat Farrell OSF, Florence Deacon OSF and Mary Hughes OP – and LCWR executive director Janet Mock CSJ had five hours’ notice before the US Conference of Catholic Bishops released the report, which names Seattle, Washington, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, with Bishop Thomas J. Paproki (Springfield, Illinois) and Bishop Blair as the Vatican’s representatives to reform the conference.
The Vatican intervention falls well within canon law, as LCWR is one of two approved groups representing women Religious to the Vatican. The other, the Conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) is a smaller (168-member) and more conservative group representing approximately 8,000 women Religious. A few religious institutes belong both to LCWR, founded at the Vatican’s request in 1956, and CMSWR, approved in 1995. It is not inconceivable that if LCWR does not cooperate, the Vatican could order it to disband or, at the very least, revoke its official status.
The evident tension between the CDF and LCWR reflects the distinctions between the ways in which men and women perform ministry in the Catholic Church. The assessors – male clerics who are not members of religious orders or institutes – are in collision with the women Religious in a very fundamental way. The women are chided in the document as too devoted to social service and not devoted to matters of interest to the CDF – specifically questions regarding women priests, homosexuality and abortion. It notes specifically, for example, “the absence of initiatives” by LCWR members to promote the reception of the Church’s teaching, specifically mentioning John Paul II’s apostolic letter rejecting the ordination of women. But LCWR members see women Religious, like themselves, as answering a different call to ministry from priests and bishops who understand their work as more generally doctrinal.
It can be interpreted as a collision between what the Church says and what the Church does. Apostolic, or active, women Religious, while not clerics, can be seen to continue the ancient ministry of the diaconate. The different charisms of their orders distinguish their corporate emphasis – some are involved in education, some in hospitals, others in general social and pastoral work – but they all live lives dedicated to the Word of God in Scripture, to the liturgy, and to charity. The works they undertake colour their corporate statements, which often focus on the plight of the poor. As Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, put it, such social service is not simply social service, but is understood as an extension of the ministry of Jesus in the Church. Their lives reflect the simplicity of their call to live the Gospel.
At issue is the way in which the CDF and LCWR view the function and purpose of the conference, initially founded at the Vatican’s request to “promote the spiritual welfare of the women Religious of the USA; ensure increasing efficacy in their apostolate; foster closer fraternal cooperation with all Religious of the United States, the hierarchy, the clergy, and Catholic associations.”
But the CDF document argues that the “LCWR also has a positive responsibility for the promotion of the faith”, unarguably the primary responsibility of the bishops. This suggests that women Religious are responsible to bishops in much the same way as priests and deacons. But religious institutes of women are canonically approved organisations of lay women consecrated to a life of gospel values and service who do not, and cannot, preach except by their works.
The LCWR often speaks on their behalf. It is not a lobby group, but it has inserted itself into the national conversation about immigration, health care and similar issues. It did, for example, join Network in asking for a revision of the Affordable Health Care for America Act to address issues of religious liberty more broadly, although it has not joined the US bishops in pressing for further revision. It has not become involved in issues surrounding abortion or same-sex marriage, leaving those discussions to individual bishops and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Neither does it seem to have felt it necessary to present Catholic teaching on these issues to its leader-members.
The general public – Catholic and non-Catholic alike – will view this latest foray as an attempt by a hierarchy whose influence is waning to silence women and to bar them from the halls of power more permanently. That the halls of power have moved to social media seems both the cause and the promise of the Vatican’s actions. Overall, popular opinion clearly favours the women Religious, whose ministry is better known and more widely accepted than the pronouncements of a hierarchy apparently blind to the moral shortcomings of too many of its own.
(See The Church in the World, page 27 and Letter from Rome, page 30.)
Dr Phyllis Zagano is the senior research associate-in-residence in the department of religion at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
Catholic New World- They’ve committed their lives to God with no regrets
Ballet instructor Kerry Hubata, teacher Sonia Baldwin, Sister of Saints Cyril and Methodius Deborah Borneman, Brother James McDonald, and Father Andrew Torma don’t have much in common except they all lead “consecrated lives” in one form or another.
They were among more than 300 priests, brothers, sisters, consecrated laypeople and consecrated virgins at an annual Celebration of Consecrated Life Feb. 25, at St. Eugene Church, 7958 W. Foster.
This group took time from the event to talk about their vocations with the Catholic New World.
While there’s a growing interest in consecrated virginity, dating from the early church and revived by the Second Vatican Council, “it’s not an immensely popular vocation today,” said Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart Joan McGlinchey, archdiocesan vicar for religious.
She said there are six consecrated virgins in the Chicago area today, and another four waiting to take their vows.
According to the website of the U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins, “the vocation of consecrated virginity lived in the World is not a clerical or lay state of life, but a distinct form of consecrated life in the church.”
Hubata, the proprietor of the Evanston School of Ballet, thought she wanted to become a nun and tried three times to quit dancing and enter religious life.
“But every time I tried to give up dancing, it did horrible things to my personality. So I asked myself what God was trying to tell me,” Hubata said.
While she loved dancing and didn’t know of any orders of nuns teaching ballet, Hubata nevertheless wanted to make a vow of virginity as “a way of getting closer to God and the church,” she said.
When she learned 25 years later that the vocation of consecrated virgins had been revived, Hubata wrote to Cardinal George.
After an hour-long meeting he agreed to let her take the vow without the customary formation period.
Consecrated virgins are spouses of Christ, she said.
“It’s a huge responsibility. We pray the liturgy of the hours, try to get to Mass every day, and pray for the church and vocations,”said Hubata.
Making her vows in a public way has an effect on those around her, she said.
“I feel my connection with the church and the church to me is growing all the time. People who know me ask for my prayers. It’s very humbling,” she said.
Things were a little easier for Sonia Baldwin, a consecrated laywoman in an ecclesial movement who teaches religion to seventh- and eighth-graders at Everest Academy in suburban Lemont.
“I think God sought me out,” said the Regnum Christi member who worked for the archdiocese in her native Sydney, Australia, before coming here “wanting to do more for God for everything he’s done for me.”
Like Baldwin, Sister Deborah wanted to give her whole life to God, who she credits with steering her toward becoming a religious.
She was working in a veterans’ hospital when she began working with the poor, then got a job with the church.
“I wanted to live a life of abundant generosity,” she said, “Whenever I heard the hymn ‘Here I Am Lord’ I asked ‘What do you need today, Lord?’”
She said she has never had any second thoughts.
Neither has Christian Brother James McDowell, vocation promoter for the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers’ North American Province.
He said he became “enamored” with the legendary Irish teaching order while growing up in Butte, Mont., where the brothers taught.
“They were poor. We were poor. But they were joyful. I wanted to be an architect, but I figured that whatever the brothers were doing was what I wanted to do.”
Teaching is only a part of what being a Christian Brother is all about, said McDonald.
“It’s what you do outside of that. Living the Gospel values,” he said.
McDonald said he has a recent graduate from Chicago’s Brother Rice High School in formation right now, and another area graduate from St. Lawrence High School in Burbank, expressing serious interest.
But don’t let the seemingly small numbers fool you, McDonald said. He gets about 200 inquires every year from men who have obviously been talking to dozens of religious orders.
Missionary of the Sacred Heart Father Andrew Torma, is 37 years into his vocation and says he’s had a “very satisfying life” reaching out to people in ways he admits he himself will never know.
As his order concentrates less on overseas missions and more on stateside evangelization, Torma says one of the biggest challenges is bringing back people who have left the Catholic Church, often because of the sex abuse scandals or disagreements with some of the church’s beliefs.
“They may feel guilty some of their moral choices differ from the church’s position. Staying with it is growth, real growth,” he said.
After all, he added, the church is not a place for perfect people.
“That’s why I fit in,” he smiled.
Assistance Requested
St Leonard's Society
St. Leonard Community Services London is looking for donations for our Maison Louise Arbour. This is a home for women, sometimes with children, who have been in conflict with the law. The work done includes counseling, advocacy, reintegration programs and assistance with finding accommodation and work. Our website is www.slcs.ca
We are in need of household goods: furniture, dishes, pots and pans, cutlery, glassware, etc. Also, we are in need of women's clothing that would be suitable to wear to a job interview. We are well stocked with casual clothing and therefore have need for more casual business type clothing. We will pick up from your home if necessary.
If you have something to donate, please send me a description of your goods with your contact information (address, phone number etc.) and I will get in contact with the organization for you.
In advance, thank you very much for any help you can offer to this most worthwhile program.
Rosy Pellarin
rpellarin@rogers.com
519-858-3340
Bethesda Home (Salvation Army)
This is the final Sunday that our parish community will collecting donations for the Bethesda Centre, which is facing closure if they are unable to raise $1.5 million by May 31/12.
If you wish to donate, please make your cheque payable to The Bethesda Centre. Information concerning the Centre is available at
Donna Gray will be collecting the cheques this Sunday.
Articles
|
Former bishop of Northern Ireland, has recently called for an end to celibacy in the Catholic clergy. Read more:
Support Women's Ordination and Fr. Roy!
A report finds only 14% in the London diocese attend weekend mass
By mandate of Bishop Ronald Fabbro, CSB, Bishop of London, the Religious Life
More about Therese Koturbash.
|
Recommended Books
|
|
On Beind is a spacious conversation — and an evolving media space — about the big questions at the center of human life, from the boldest new science of the human brain to the most ancient traditions of the human spirit. The program began as an occasional series on Minnesota Public Radio in 1999, then became a monthly national program in September 2001, and launched as a weekly program titled Speaking of Faith in the summer of 2003. Podcast of Note
|
|
Fr. Roy Bourgeois received his second canonical warning from the Maryknoll leadership, threatening removal from the priesthood if he does not recant his support for women's ordination. His refusal to betray his conscience is calling the Church to greater justice and demanding an end to the culture of fear and bullying.
Worldwide support for Fr. Roy continues to build momentum. So far, we've gathered over 9,000 signatures from Catholics everywhere who know that in God's eyes there is neither male nor female. We are one.
We need your help in reaching our goal of 10,000 signatures by tomorrow night. Sign the petition and send this to 5 friends to prove to the Maryknoll leadership that Fr. Roy, as he said, is "not a lone voice crying out in the wilderness for the ordination of women."
Join the Women's Ordination Conference and justice-seeking Catholics around the world as we work to end sexism and promote the gospel of equality in the Church we love.
|