Dear John,
The crux of Catholicism's internecine struggle is authority and power and by extension "the nature" of authority and power.
To begin, the bible is not "literally" true.
Any appeal to definitive authority based on biblical text is not possible.
Tell me, did God say the following? “A man might have a son who is stubborn and refuses to obey. This son does not obey his father or mother. They punish the son, but he still refuses to listen to them. His father and mother must then take him to the leaders of the town at the town meeting place. They must say to the leaders of the town: ‘Our son is stubborn and refuses to obey. He does not do anything we tell him to do. He eats and he drinks too much.’ Then the men in the town must kill the son with stones. By doing this you will remove this evil from your group. Everyone in Israel will hear about this and be afraid." Deuteronomy 21: 18-21 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+21%3A18-21&version=ERV
My God never said that.
Yes, the passage is contained in the Bible but it is not the word of God.
At its best, the church is an ongoing conversation around a festive table, a table that focuses true believers' passion for washing one another's feet. (Done any of that lately?)
Despite the Monolith of Immutability that contemporary Catholicism inherited from centuries of Medieval Dominance, the church is not an unchanging "rock."
Indeed, we do disservice to God's work by pretending that Revelation is not ongoing.
Change occurs. And it occurs in fundamental ways.
Usury, for example, was a grievous sin for centuries. A most grievous sin; a sin whose sanction formed early Christendom's economic life, a life that flew in the face of Capitalism.
Nowadays, Christians are so eager to dance to every Capitalist piper that every priest and nun practices usury with the credit cards they carry. Imagine. This once grievous sin has been so normalized in Catholic culture that bishops, cardinals and popes do not even think about it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury
So much for "immutability..."
Currently, the church is bent on reinforcing its image of immutability, and understandably so. For only this image invests Catholic hierarchy with The Essential Power to manipulate "subsidiary communities" whenever they challenge The Monolith. (I will note parenthetically that when schism occurs, it is always worse than accommodation. The most destructive action the church ever took was the excommunication of 16th century protestant leaders.)
Recent Vatican announcement concerning the unacceptable heterodoxy of American nuns spotlights their "silence" concerning every human being's "right to life from conception to natural death."
The Vatican's redress goes on to say that "issues of crucial importance in the life of the church and society, such as the church's biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of (the nuns') agenda."
It is a source of constant wonder that the bible makes no reference to abortion - and that Jesus himself said nothing (not a single word) about abortion or homosexuality.
Despite this sepulchral silence, abortion and homosexuality have become red button bedrock for Catholic "orthodoxy."
But given everything Jesus did say during his ministry, it is curious - if not bizarre - that the church trumpets "sex-and-gender orthodoxy" while paying little (or no) attention to clearcut statements like "love your enemies," "turn the other cheek," "pray for those who persecute you," "put up your sword" and "Woe unto you Pharisees."
If a priest were to homilize the necessity of "loving jihadists" we would immediately witness the first stoning of modern time.
But fear not. A central mission of institutional Catholicism is to "shepherd the faithful" into submission.
In part, the church achieves docility by making "moral pronouncements" that will "rally the troops." And of all available options, sturm und drang over sex-and-gender is the most dependable crowd-pleaser.
Marvelously, the church rattles on about topics Yeshua never mentioned while ignoring, overlooking, downplaying or nudging-into-oblivion the master's actual teaching - teaching that threatened political and ecclesiastical regimes.
"No need to go there!" says the man behind the curtain.
No siree Bob!
In particular, Jesus was strikingly vitriolic in his treatment of Pharisees, who were, ironically, the Jewish practitioners closest to Yeshua in philosophical outlook. (Simultaneously, Jesus was singularly forgiving of whores, adulterers and traitorous tax collectors.
Jesus did not part company with his fellow Pharisees over teaching as much as hypocrisy: they "talked the talk but didn't walk the walk."
It was Pharisaic custom to drone on about legal detail: they made sure The Law was always "front and center."
But their contempt for "the spirit of The Law" was what made Jesus utter this remarkable comment: "You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then you make that convert twice as much a child of hell as you are." Ouch! (You may read the entire "Woe Passages" in Matthew 23 and Luke 11, verse 37 through the end. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2023&version=TNIV /// http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+11&version=NIV)
Is it not convenient that organized Christianity has managed to "cage" "The Pharisees" within the first century A.D. when, in fact, they have always alive and well, and typically central to the church.
I readily confess my own "inner Pharisee" as central to me. How about yours?
There are two kinds of people in religion; those who want to do good, and those who want to prevent evil.
If there are enough of the former, evil tends to evanesce.
But if those believers dedicated to the prevention of evil dominate, then The Body Politic -- no matter how righteous and pure its luminaries seem -- will go to hell.
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.” Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton
At bottom, do we intend to teach compassion and mercy whose measure is loving our enemies and doing good to those who persecute us?
Or, is our central purpose the validation of judgmental suppositions having nothing to do with Jesus' actual words?
The Catholic church will not revive until it abandons its fondness for sex-and-gender issues devoid of Jesus' own teaching and embraces instead his actual teaching as epitomized in Matthew 5 and Luke 6. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A43-48&version=NIV http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+6%3A27-35&version=NIV
Seriously John...
Where would we find the greatest number of "cafeteria Catholics?"
I do not know for sure, but I would start my search in Church on Sunday.
Pax on both houses
Alan
An aside...
***
April 19, 2012
Citing doctrinal problems, Vatican announces reforms of US nuns' group
Citing doctrinal problems, Vatican announces reforms of US nuns' group
Archbishop Sartain gave the homily during the annual Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington last October. (CNS/Leslie E. Kossoff) |
By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Citing "serious doctrinal problems which affect many in consecrated life," the Vatican announced a major reform of an association of women's religious congregations in the U.S. to ensure their fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women's ordination and homosexuality.
Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle will provide "review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work" of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Vatican announced April 18. The archbishop will be assisted by Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., and draw on the advice of fellow bishops, women religious and other experts.
The LCWR, a Maryland-based umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women's communities as members, represents about 80 percent of the country's 57,000 women religious.
In Silver Spring, Md., the presidency of the LCWR issued a statement saying it was "stunned by the conclusions of the doctrinal assessment of LCWR by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Because the leadership of LCWR has the custom of meeting annually with the staff of CDF in Rome and because the conference follows canonically approved statutes, we were taken by surprise.
"This is a moment of great import for religious life and the wider church. We ask your prayers as we meet with the LCWR National Board within the coming month to review the mandate and prepare a response," the statement said.
A spokeswoman for the LCWR said its leadership would not be granting interviews until after a wider consultation with its members in May.
The announcement from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith came in an eight-page "doctrinal assessment," based on an investigation that Bishop Blair began on behalf of the Vatican in April 2008. That investigation led the doctrinal congregation to conclude, in January 2011, that "the current doctrinal and pastoral situation of LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern, also given the influence the LCWR exercises on religious congregation in other parts of the world."
Among the areas of concern were some of the most controversial issues of medical and sexual ethics in America today.
"While there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the church's social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States," the doctrinal congregation said. "Further, issues of crucial importance in the life of the church and society, such as the church's biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes church teaching."
The Vatican also found that "public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the bishops, who are the church's authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose."
According to the Vatican, such deviations from Catholic teaching have provoked a crisis "characterized by a diminution of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration."
But the congregation's document also praised the "great contributions of women religious to the church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor, which have been founded and staffed by religious over the years," and insisted that the Vatican "does not intend to offer judgment on the faith and life of women religious" in the LCWR's member congregations.
During his tenure as the Holy See's delegate, which is to last "up to five years, as deemed necessary," Archbishop Sartain's tasks will include overseeing revision of the LCWR's statutes, review of its liturgical practices, and the creation of formation programs for the conference's member congregations. The archbishop will also investigate the LCWR's links to two outside groups: Network, a Catholic social justice lobby; and the Resource Center for Religious Institutes, which offers legal and financial expertise to religious orders.
The doctrinal assessment was separate from the Vatican's "Apostolic Visitation of Religious Communities of Women in the United States," a study of the "quality of life" in some 400 congregations, which began in December 2008. The visitation's final report was submitted in December 2011 but has not yet been published.
- - -
Editor's Note: The text of the Vatican's doctrinal assessment of the LCWR will be available in Origins, Vol. 41, No. 46, dated April 26, 2012.
END
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Citing "serious doctrinal problems which affect many in consecrated life," the Vatican announced a major reform of an association of women's religious congregations in the U.S. to ensure their fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women's ordination and homosexuality.
Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle will provide "review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work" of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Vatican announced April 18. The archbishop will be assisted by Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., and draw on the advice of fellow bishops, women religious and other experts.
The LCWR, a Maryland-based umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women's communities as members, represents about 80 percent of the country's 57,000 women religious.
In Silver Spring, Md., the presidency of the LCWR issued a statement saying it was "stunned by the conclusions of the doctrinal assessment of LCWR by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Because the leadership of LCWR has the custom of meeting annually with the staff of CDF in Rome and because the conference follows canonically approved statutes, we were taken by surprise.
"This is a moment of great import for religious life and the wider church. We ask your prayers as we meet with the LCWR National Board within the coming month to review the mandate and prepare a response," the statement said.
A spokeswoman for the LCWR said its leadership would not be granting interviews until after a wider consultation with its members in May.
The announcement from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith came in an eight-page "doctrinal assessment," based on an investigation that Bishop Blair began on behalf of the Vatican in April 2008. That investigation led the doctrinal congregation to conclude, in January 2011, that "the current doctrinal and pastoral situation of LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern, also given the influence the LCWR exercises on religious congregation in other parts of the world."
Among the areas of concern were some of the most controversial issues of medical and sexual ethics in America today.
"While there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the church's social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States," the doctrinal congregation said. "Further, issues of crucial importance in the life of the church and society, such as the church's biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes church teaching."
The Vatican also found that "public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the bishops, who are the church's authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose."
According to the Vatican, such deviations from Catholic teaching have provoked a crisis "characterized by a diminution of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration."
But the congregation's document also praised the "great contributions of women religious to the church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor, which have been founded and staffed by religious over the years," and insisted that the Vatican "does not intend to offer judgment on the faith and life of women religious" in the LCWR's member congregations.
During his tenure as the Holy See's delegate, which is to last "up to five years, as deemed necessary," Archbishop Sartain's tasks will include overseeing revision of the LCWR's statutes, review of its liturgical practices, and the creation of formation programs for the conference's member congregations. The archbishop will also investigate the LCWR's links to two outside groups: Network, a Catholic social justice lobby; and the Resource Center for Religious Institutes, which offers legal and financial expertise to religious orders.
The doctrinal assessment was separate from the Vatican's "Apostolic Visitation of Religious Communities of Women in the United States," a study of the "quality of life" in some 400 congregations, which began in December 2008. The visitation's final report was submitted in December 2011 but has not yet been published.
- - -
Editor's Note: The text of the Vatican's doctrinal assessment of the LCWR will be available in Origins, Vol. 41, No. 46, dated April 26, 2012.
END
Copyright (c) 2012 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 ·
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 ·
No comments:
Post a Comment