The Heart of the Matter

Why can't girls be priests?

Every year at this time teenagers write a formal letter to their pastor asking to receive the sacrament of Confirmation. One such letter came to me asking why girls can't be priests. Here's what I wrote back to her:

 

Girls and the priesthood – Back in the days of the apostles, Jesus broke down barrier after barrier, bringing all kinds of people together. There is no sexism or prejudice in Jesus. Jesus included women more than anyone in His time; and He used images of women in His parables and teachings. He had a very profound understanding of the role of women, especially by his unique name (in the Gospel of John) that He used for Mary, His Mother: woman!  He saw Mary as the New Eve, the new woman who would be mother to everyone in the Church. Think of when from the Cross He said to the Beloved Disciple (who represents every disciple of Jesus), “Behold your mother.” 

 

The image of mother and father are very strong in Jesus’ teachings about who God is and who we are. He reveals to us that we have such a loving and strong relationship with God that we can call Him, Abba (which means Daddy or Father). And He reveals to us that we, collectively, are His (Jesus’) bride and together we can call Mary our Mother.  

 

All of this is involved in the ministry of priesthood.  The priest at Mass stands before the community “in the person of Christ.”  And the assembly stands together as the Bride of Christ. If we confuse things and choose at this late date (2000 years into our being Church) to mess with these primordial images of God as Father, Jesus as Groom and us as the Bride, and Mary as our Mother, then we wind up creating our own religion, not the religion that was started by Jesus.  I hope this helps enough to show there’s more to the priesthood than being old fashioned.

Oh, that Notre Dame flap!

The University of Notre Dame has waded

into a very sticky thicket.  When the university decided to invite President Obama to be the main speaker at this year’s graduation, it was also decided to give the president an honorary doctorate of law degree.  This decision came a few months after the university had decided to give their highest honor, the Laetare Medal, to former Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon. This morning she announced in an open letter to the university president that she is declining her award. Her reasons are detailed in her letter, below. Mary Ann Glendon, a pro-life feminist, is a Harvard Law Professor, former US. Ambassador to the Holy See, and teaches and writes on such topics as bioethics, comparative constitutional law and human rights in international law. Here’s the text of her open letter:

April 27, 2009
The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C

President
University of Notre Dame

Dear Father Jenkins,

When you informed me in December 2008 that I had been selected to receive Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, I was profoundly moved. I treasure the memory of receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1996, and I have always felt honored that the commencement speech I gave that year was included in the anthology of Notre Dame’s most memorable commencement speeches. So I immediately began working on an acceptance speech that I hoped would be worthy of the occasion, of the honor of the medal, and of your students and faculty.

Last month, when you called to tell me that the commencement speech was to be given by President Obama, I mentioned to you that I would have to rewrite my speech. Over the ensuing weeks, the task that once seemed so delightful has been complicated by a number of factors.

First, as a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I could not help but be dismayed by the news that Notre Dame also planned to award the president an honorary degree. This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops' express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions “should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles” and that such persons “should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution’s freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it.

Then I learned that “talking points” issued by Notre Dame in response to widespread criticism of its decision included two statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event:

• “President Obama won’t be doing all the talking. Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be speaking as the recipient of the Laetare Medal.”

• “We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about.”

A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision—in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.

Finally, with recent news reports that other Catholic schools are similarly choosing to disregard the bishops’ guidelines, I am concerned that Notre Dame’s example could have an unfortunate ripple effect.

It is with great sadness, therefore, that I have concluded that I cannot accept the Laetare Medal or participate in the May 17 graduation ceremony.

In order to avoid the inevitable speculation about the reasons for my decision, I will release this letter to the press, but I do not plan to make any further comment on the matter at this time.

Yours Very Truly,

Mary Ann Glendon

You are my witnesses - Homily for April 26, 2009

Have you ever been given a summons to appear in court as a witness at a trial?  It’s a bit intimidating. You might be called to be a witness for the prosecution, or for the defense.  You might be called to bear witness for a cause you like defending, or you may be a hostile witness who does not want to bear witness for either side. One attorney may lob you soft balls so you don’t have to stress about your answers, while the opposing attorney may try to trip you up in your words and have you coming across as silly, or as confused, or worse, as a liar.

            It’s a serious matter, being witness.  It’s in this serious sense of bearing testimony that we hear in the reading from Acts and in the Gospel about the apostles’ being witnesses to the Christ event.

            They had been with him for three years. They heard what he taught and saw what he did. They witnessed miracle after miracle and saw everything turn from “hosannas” to cries of “crucify him!”

And then they saw him raised from the dead; they heard his voice; they touched him; and ate with him so they knew that he was truly risen from the dead. And they were commissioned by him to be his witnesses and spread the Good News throughout all the world.

            Eventually nearly all of them were called upon to bear witness to him be enduring one form of torture or another and dying for him.

            Do you know that the word “martyr” is the Greek word for witness? So, a martyr’s death is the ultimate form of bearing witness to the Risen Lord.

            Now let’s look at how to bear witness to Jesus, truly risen from the dead.  It’s a spiritual technique that can be the most important thing to do for our spiritual growth, and it only takes about 15 minutes to do.

            Place yourself in the presence of the Lord and look over the day.  Begin by thanking the Lord for the day, and then say to the Lord, “Help me Lord to see the day as you see it.”

            Some people do this as an examination of conscience by looking over the day to see where I went wrong.  One can do that, but I suggest instead to look over the day and see where the Risen Lord was present in your day. What do you recognize as a graced moment in the day?  

            It’s so easy to let the events in life come and go, without reflecting on how truly present the Lord is in our lives. If we do this daily, then we become more apt to see the Lord in life.  When that happens, we can bear witness to him more effectively by being conscious of him. And the more we do this, even daily, we become more conscious of Him as we encounter each event in life.  Then we can let him prompt us, even as we are going through the day,

We then can allow him to guide us in our actions and in our words even as they are happening.  

This, to me, is the more effective way to bear witness to the Risen Lord.  Some people want to fall silent when the moment is just right for some kind of effective witness to the Lord. If we are conscious of the Lord then we are more apt to let him put into our hearts the right reaction, the right words and the right spirit.

            Martyrs can get their courage to give the ultimate witness to Christ only by being very, very aware of Him.  This little spiritual technique, if followed every day, can make each of us the best possible witness for Christ, perhaps even equal to that of a martyr.

A lesson on how to handle our economic downturn

Yesterday our transitional deacon and I were invited by an Eritrean family to join them for their Catholic Coptic Easter dinner.  They invite me every year. It’s always an eye opening experience: a different culture and a view into values that many of us Americans do not seem to have. They are a poor family, certainly in comparison to what most of our Boulder families possess. But they are rich, far richer than what we generally see, in substance, in what they value.

            The mother and father have a large family of nine living adult children. They secured an excellent education for their children (in our parish school before going on to high school and college), yet they are materially poor and live in a very modest home.

            Despite the absence of the material things, they have each other, and they long to be with each other.

            As we left after a sumptuous feast, the dad walked me and our deacon out to our car. This dad lost most of one arm and all but the thumb and forefinger of his other hand, I think from a land mine (that’s another story). He talked about how grateful to God he is for all of his children and how much he loves to hold a baby in his arm. He and his wife are both deeply grateful people who take delight in their riches: their now 4 sons and 5 daughters. They are very familiar with suffering, but they have something most American families don’t have: an absence of loneliness and an insight into what the Church calls, “the rich blessing of children,” lots of them, and abiding sense in the providence of God.

Homily for Sunday, April 19, 2009 (Divine Mercy)

In the 1930’s there was a poor, little-educated young nun in Poland who started receiving revelations from Jesus encouraging her, indeed compelling her, to teach the world about Divine Mercy.  These personal revelations can be read in what is now published as the Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska.  As you read through the pages you will see that Faustina had visions of people in Purgatory, people relying on the prayers of the living to help them.

            The main gist of her mystical experiences relate to Jesus as the One bringing Divine Mercy before He comes as Judge.  In other words, before we die, if we are repentant, we can rely on the Lord Jesus as the all-merciful One, but when we die, though, we meet Him as Judge.

            This is consistent with our creed which says, “He (Jesus) will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”  Or again, Paul tells us in Romans, 14, “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’ So, then, each of us shall give an account of himself to God.”

            I find it very interesting that this saint of mercy also tells of purgatory, that phase of transition to eternal life whereby we come to terms with the unforgiven elements of our lives.

            St. Faustina is no maudlin Pollyanna wanting everybody to be complacent about the evils we do.  Look at our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.  That description of the Church is not one we’d use today to describe how we all relate to one another within the Church.  We are a far cry from the idyllic days when everyone lived in common and no one was in need.  St. Faustina is also not some little easygoing nice nun saying everything is swell.  No, the picture of Purgatory ensures that her messages about Divine Mercy are intimately tied in to how well we keep the commandments, or as our second reading said, “For the love of God is this: that we keep His commandments.”  

            The very title “Divine Mercy” implies that there’s something to look at with the mercy of forgiveness.  If one does not think there is anything to be forgiven, then there is no capacity to drink in the streams of mercy that await the one who asks for forgiveness. The very hard truth of today’s celebration is that there is all the mercy one could need waiting for us if we but ask the Lord for that mercy and learn to trust in that mercy.  But if one does not seek out the Lord’s mercy, justice demands an accounting.  That’s what the image of Purgatory conveys: that in the end there is justice for the victims of injustice.

            In Jesus, justice and peace shall kiss.  Justice and mercy are two sides of the same coin; and that double sided coin is what buys us peace, the peace that the world cannot give.  Without acknowledging our sins, there can be no forgiveness because there would be no capacity to take mercy in.  This is the underlying truth of the commission Jesus gives the Church: whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you retain, they are retained.

            In justice we simply must acknowledge our need for mercy.   Mercy is given freely if we acknowledge ourselves as sinners in need of mercy.  If we know we need mercy; then we can be merciful to others. If we know mercy and are merciful, then we experience freedom - even in the midst of all that bears down so heavily upon the still fractured picture of the redeemed human race.   

The reason the idyllic picture of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles does not describe the Church of our time is because of unrepented sins, and the unrepented sins of others like you and me.

So, let us acknowledge our need for mercy, then abide in that mercy and learn the freedom from fear and the peace of mind that leads us to say: Jesus, I trust in You.

Phew!

I am sure every Catholic pastor loves Holy Week: confessions, the Chrism Mass, the services of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and the cast of thousands on Easter Sunday. But I am also sure every pastor loves a bit of down time in the week after Easter. So, I say, phew!

The beauty of Holy Week, the Triduum and Easter is that the expanse of our Catholic faith is dynamically entered into liturgically within a few short days.  Even if one were a cloistered monk with little experience of being with thousands, the liturgical events from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday are thrilling and exhausting at the same time. To grasp the scope of what our Savior has done for us, to come face to face with the humility of Christ's self-emptying on the cross, to enter into these events has more meaning and becomes more profound every year. Each year the meaning of the Eucharist, the power of the cross, and significance of the Easter Vigil with the joy of the Resurrection take on an ever greater importance.  Words fail in describing the reality we express liturgically. I'm 61 and I am only beginning to understand the length and breadth and height and depth of God's love for us.

A peaceful prayerful protest

This picture, to the left, shows a very common event in our town: people peacefully praying outside of a local abortion clinic.  In the doctor's own words, here is a description of what goes on there:

Earlier this year [2003], I began an abortion on a young woman who was 17 weeks pregnant. Because of the two days of prior treatment, the amniotic membranes were visible and bulging. I ruptured the membranes and released the fluid to reduce the risk of amniotic fluid embolism. Then I inserted my forceps into the uterus and applied them to the head of the fetus, which was still alive, since fetal injection is not done at that stage of pregnancy. I closed the forceps, crushing the skull of the fetus, and withdrew the forceps. The fetus, now dead, slid out more or less intact. With the next pass of the forceps, I grasped the placenta, and it came out in one piece. Within a few seconds, I had completed my routine exploration of the uterus and sharp curettage. The blood loss would just fill a tablespoon. The patient, who was awake, hardly felt the operation. She was relieved, grateful, and safe. She wants to have children in the future.

Are Catholics giving up on Obama?

When the election was held a hefty majority of Catholics were in support of the election of President Obama.  Most of the pro-life howls of the coming doomsday seemed hysterical and overblown.  Yet, since the inauguration, the support from Catholics for our new president has taken a nose dive.  According to the Pew Research Center the president's disapproval rating has jumped from 21% to 40% among white, non-Hispanics in this short period of time.

What's the reason?  The worsening economy?  More importantly and significantly, the reason seems to be the increasingly hostile stance the administration has taken to issues that Catholics see as foundational and extremely serious.  Catholics know we live in a democratic nation that has to accommodate to people of all stripes.  The ongoing compromise on the abortion issue has been to allow abortion but not to have the taxpayers pay for it, and not to force participation in it by people, who, like us, consider it evil.

Even though candidate Obama made clear his intentions, most Catholics who supported him probably thought he'd be somewhat attenuated in his extreme pro-choice stance.  The facts are turning out to be that the consciences of pro-life health care providers are being trashed by a push to force health care providers to perform or refer abortions to those who will perform them.  And our tax dollars will indeed be spent on abortion.

Even the more liberal Catholics will not like the conscience to be trampled upon.