The Heart of the Matter

Some perspective

As I have been reading, and listening to, news reports about the Catholic Church and molestations, I have thought that there needs to be some perspective on this terrible problem.  One account of molestation is one too many; and the devastation it causes is beyond measure.  From the way the problem is presented, however, it looks as if it were solely a Catholic Church problem.  What is still being ignored is the millions of young people outside of the Church that are still being abused.  What has happened in the Catholic Church is only the tip of the iceberg of what has happened, and  continues to happen, in our wider society. I suggest that the Catholic Church, though pressured into dealing with this problem, is the only institution that is confronting this horrible curse.  Here's some more perspective:

"The sexual and physical abuse of children and young people is a global plague; its manifestations run the gamut from fondling by teachers to rape by uncles to kidnapping-and-sex-trafficking. In the United States alone, there are reportedly some 39 million victims of childhood sexual abuse. Forty to sixty percent were abused by family members, including stepfathers and live-in boyfriends of a child’s mother—thus suggesting that abused children are the principal victims of the sexual revolution, the breakdown of marriage, and the hook-up culture. Hofstra University professor Charol Shakeshaft reports that 6-10 percent of public school students have been molested in recent years—some 290,000 between 1991 and 2000. According to other recent studies, 2 percent of sex abuse offenders were Catholic priests—a phenomenon that spiked between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s but seems to have virtually disappeared (six credible cases of clerical sexual abuse in 2009 were reported in the U.S. bishops’ annual audit, in a Church of some 65,000,000 members)."

 

This set of facts is is a short quote from an article by George Weigel in the March 29, 2010 issue of First Things.  Click here to read the whole article.  

 

So what did he pray for at the Western Wall in Jerusalem?

 

PRAYER OF THE HOLY FATHER 
BENEDICT XVI
AT THE WESTERN WALL 

Jerusalem

Tuesday, 12 May 2009

God of all the ages,
on my visit to Jerusalem, the “City of Peace”,
spiritual home to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike,
I bring before you the joys, the hopes and the aspirations,
the trials, the suffering and the pain of all your people throughout the world.

God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
hear the cry of the afflicted, the fearful, the bereft;
send your peace upon this Holy Land,

upon the Middle East,

upon the entire human family;
stir the hearts of all who call upon your name,
to walk humbly in the path of justice and compassion.

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him” (Lam 3:25)!

Brouhaha!

Say it ain't so! 

There has been a movement for years to gather back into the arms of Mother Church recalcitrant spin-offs, like the Lefebrevites who bolted from the Church in a reactionary rejection of the progressive nature of the Seond Vatican Council (1962-65).  So, this first step in reconciliation (by lifting the excommunication of 4 errant bishops) happens as news filters out that one of the 4 bishops was a Jew hater and revisionist.  Bam!  The stuff hits the fan.

The spokeman for the Catholic Bishops in America, Cardinal George of Chicago, published this response as of this morning:

Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the personal penalty of excommunication incurred by four schismatic bishops belonging to the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. This gesture on the part of the Holy Father was an act of mercy and personal concern for the ordained and lay members of this Society and was meant to coincide with the fiftieth commemoration of the convening of the Second Vatican Council.
    The Holy Father’s lifting of the excommunications is but a first step toward receiving these four bishops, and the priests who serve under them, back into full communion with the Catholic Church. If these bishops are to exercise their ministry as true teachers and pastors of the Catholic Church, they, like all Catholic bishops, will have to give their assent to all that the Church professes, including the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
    As is now widely known, one of the four bishops, Richard Williamson, has recently made some deeply offensive and utterly false statements about the Holocaust of the Second World War. Bishop Williamson has denied historical facts about the Shoah, in which six million Jews were cruelly annihilated, innocent victims of blind racial and religious hatred. These comments have evoked understandable outrage from within the Jewish community and also from among our own Catholic people. No Catholic, whether lay person, priest or bishop can ever negate the memory of the Shoah, just as no Catholic should ever tolerate expressions of anti-Semitism and religious bigotry.
    I make my own the words of the Holy Father spoken at the General Audience on January 28, 2009: “[May] the Shoah show both old and new generations that only the arduous path of listening and dialogue, of love and forgiveness, can lead peoples, cultures and religions of the world to the longed-for goal of fraternity and peace, in truth. May violence never again humiliate man's dignity.” We Catholic bishops in the United States are as committed as ever to building bonds of trust and mutual understanding with our elder brothers and sisters, the Jewish people, so that together with them we may be a blessing to the world.
/s/ Francis Cardinal George

A miraculous week

Think of what has been happening all within one week:

• A jetliner lands on water (the Hudson River) and stays afloat long enough for rescuers to arrive and get the 150 people to safety.  A little dip of the wing and the balancing act would have sunk the landing plane.  Miraculous!

• A most momentous holiday celebrating this history:  45 years ago a black reverend led a revolution with a dream - a dream that segregation, prejudice and racial hostility could be overcome - someday.  His was a dream that a subjugated people who had endured centuries of enslavement in this "land of the free" could take their rightful place as equals along side the descendants of their former slave masters.  And the most miraculous element of this dream being that all of this could be accomplished nonviolently. 

• The inauguration of the man whose election most fully represents the fulfillment of Martin Luther King's dream.  No wonder the air is thick with the thrill of it all, the joy of such a milestone for our nation, and a growing sense of solidarity with one another in our nation. 

It is truly a miraculous time!

In another part of India . . .

India is known for its pluralism and multi-ethnic harmony; but in an age of terrorism madness is like a cancer.

Raphael Cheenath is the Catholic Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, in India's troubled region of Orissa.  Archbishop Cheenath and other bishops in the region are leading an effort to halt the persecution of Christians at the hands of Hindu extremists.  The region is plagued with violence against Christians and with forced conversions, compelling Christians to “accept Hindu Samskaras under oath and under pain of divine punishment.”  The area has also seen the burning and looting of Christian homes, churches, and institutions.

The bishops have rejected attempts to characterize these attacks as an ethnic conflict:  “Hindu Fundamentalist groups have been trying to name the communal violence as an Ethnic Conflict between the Tribals and the Pano Christians. A cursory look at facts reveals that this conflict is a calculated and pre-planned master plan to wipe out Christianity from Kandhamal district, Orissa, in order to realize the hidden agenda of Sangh Parivar of establishing a Hindu Nation.”

The madness spreads.

Here we feast; there they grieve

As we enjoy our glorious 4 day Thanksgiving weekend, we also care about the suffering going on in Mumbai in India.  While others are suffering, grieving and terribly afraid, we ask the Lord to encourage, console, and give hope to the world.

It's a scary world out there; and we who are pro-life need to pray wholeheartedly for our newly elected president, that he may be given the grace to be the leader we need to face and conquer so much death and terror.  And may we all come to see the connection between a world of terror and a lessening in our reverence for life itself. 

So, here's what the American Bishops have to say

The US bishops of the have been meeting this week.  With the election of pro-choice President-elect Obama, they have come to an agreement on the approach bishops will be taking in regard to the new administration that will assume power on January 20, 2009.  It is as clear as it could be, worth reading in its entirety.  Here’s the document the bishops produced today:

   

Statement of the President of the

United States

Conference of Catholic Bishops,

Cardinal Francis George

“If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor; if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.” (Psalm 127, vs. 1)

     

The Bishops of the Catholic Church in the US welcome this moment of historic transition and look forward to working with President-elect Obama and the members of the new Congress for the common good of all. Because of the Church’s history and the scope of her ministries in this country, we want to continue our work for economic justice and opportunity for all; our efforts to reform laws around immigration and the situation of the undocumented; our provision of better education and adequate health care for all, especially for women and children; our desire to safeguard religious freedom and foster peace at home and abroad. The Church is intent on doing good and will continue to cooperate gladly with the government and all others working for these goods.

 

The fundamental good is life itself, a gift from God and our parents. A good state protects the lives of all. Legal protection for those members of the human family waiting to be born in this country was removed when the Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade in 1973. This was bad law. The danger the Bishops see at this moment is that a bad court decision will be enshrined in bad legislation that is more radical than the 1973 Supreme Court decision itself.

        

In the last Congress, a Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) was introduced that would, if brought forward in the same form today, outlaw any “interference” in providing abortion at will. It would deprive the American people in all fifty states of the freedom they now have to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry. FOCA would coerce all Americans into subsidizing and promoting abortion with their tax dollars. It would counteract any and all sincere efforts by government and others of good will to reduce the number of abortions in our country.

   

Parental notification and informed consent precautions would be outlawed, as would be laws banning procedures such as partial-birth abortion and protecting infants born alive after a failed abortion. Abortion clinics would be deregulated. The Hyde Amendment restricting the federal funding of abortions would be abrogated. FOCA would have lethal consequences for prenatal human life.

    

FOCA would have an equally destructive effect on the freedom of conscience of doctors, nurses and health care workers whose personal convictions do not permit them to cooperate in the private killing of unborn children. It would threaten Catholic health care institutions and Catholic Charities. It would be an evil law that would further divide our country, and the Church should be intent on opposing evil.

On this issue, the legal protection of the unborn, the bishops are of one mind with Catholics and others of good will. They are also pastors who have listened to women whose lives have been diminished because they believed they had no choice but to abort a baby. Abortion is a medical procedure that kills, and the psychological and spiritual consequences are written in the sorrow and depression of many women and men. The bishops are single-minded because they are, first of all, single-hearted.

            

The recent election was principally decided out of concern for the economy, for the loss of jobs and homes and financial security for families, here and around the world. If the election is misinterpreted ideologically as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by President-elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of crisis will be impossible to achieve. Abortion kills not only unborn children; it destroys constitutional order and the common good, which is assured only when the life of every human being is legally protected. Aggressively pro-abortion policies, legislation and executive orders will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans, and would be seen by many as an attack on the free exercise of their religion.

    

This statement is written at the request and direction of all the Bishops, who also want to thank all those in politics who work with good will to protect the lives of the most vulnerable among us. Those in public life do so, sometimes, at the cost of great sacrifice to themselves and their families; and we are grateful. We express again our great desire to work with all those who cherish the common good of our nation. The common good is not the sum total of individual desires and interests; it is achieved in the working out of a common life based upon good reason and good will for all.

    

Our prayers accompany President-elect Obama and his family and those who are cooperating with him to assure a smooth transition in government. Many issues demand immediate attention on the part of our elected “watchman.” (Psalm 127) May God bless him and our country.

A new day for the whole world

Even though my man lost, I am thrilled with the engagement of so many people, the conquering of the racial divide, and the hope for a new approach to the rest of the world.  So, I adjusted quickly and am now completely invested in wishing and hoping for the safety of Barack Obama and for the coming together of the nation to make for a successful presidency and a revitalized nation.

 

It’s time to get over the negativity and pull together for the good of everyone.  As for the naysayers, they, like the poor, will always be with us.  Let’s just not be counted among them.  We should all keep pressing for our issues, but Scripture tells us that we are to pray for our leaders and work together for the common good: First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. (1 Timothy 2: 1-2)

News blackout

The events at World Youth Day '08 in Sydney Australia seem to be given short shrift in our American media, but if you'd like a good recap of what has gone on there with a half a million people, check out the July 19th blog posting of Whispers in the Loggia

That particlar posting has links to all the main events and papal speeches and sermons given by Pope Benedict.  It also has some great pictures of the events.

This coming week I will be going on an 8 day retreat, so I will resume blogging in early August.  In the meantime, keep Jan Altevogt in your prayers.  Her upcoming surgery is more complicated than any of us wished.  No word yet on the exact date of the surgery.  She has given 5 years of her life in the service of our school community, so we owe her at least our prayers.

Rooted in history but moving forward

Did you see this picture (to the left) in the New York Times this morning?  Click it so you can see it more clearly.  It's a picture from the Papal Mass in Yankee Stadium on Sunday.  It's full of symbolism if you look carefully.  Notice that the pope is moving forward, like the Church, ever moving forward throughout history.  His crozier (staff) is leaning back, just as the Church ever hearkens back to the teaching of the apostles.  The people are reaching up to him; and he is reaching out to the people, a mutuality the Lord calls all of us to.  His face is full of joy, as are the faces of the people; and remember that joy is the surest sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  And then, there are the red shoes.  The man has class!