EDITORIAL A telling record of fearful
authority
About-face on liturgical language
Rome reverses translation principles spawned by Vatican
II NCR, Jan. 14
Bishop shuts down womens series NCR, March
17
And so it went, on one level at least, the first quarter of the
Jubilee Year. While the church was trying to engage the world in lofty
understanding of the Christian mission in the world, in global justice
concerns, in debt forgiveness and human rights, internally, the march to
exclude, to squelch thought and creativity, continued.
Certainly Catholic Christians around the world continued to do
marvelous work, and many of their stories appeared on our pages. NCR
will continue to chronicle that walk of faith, often taken these days under
increasingly difficult circumstances. It is in that walk of faith -- undertaken
by countless ministers, lay and clerical, men and women, among the poor and
marginalized, teachers of our children, among those who see the gift of faith
best used in a broad embrace of humankind, without regard for gender or sexual
preference -- that we see the greatest hope for the future of the church.
Vatican wants inclusive translation pulled NCR,
April 7
Gramick on conscience in Lincoln
I forbid you from speaking in this diocese --
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz NCR, May 5
These paths lead to Rome
Six cardinals who got to the curia by supporting right-wing
governments in Latin America, opposing liberation theology NCR,
June 2
Some would argue that the real church is those very people who are
spreading the word and works around the world, in the most unlikely places and
in the most creative ways. They would say that the stream of disciplinary
pronouncements from Rome represents a tiny portion of the church and should be
kept in perspective. Making much of what Vatican players say and do merely
legitimizes their misuse of authority and power.
Others would argue that ordinary Catholics remain largely
unaffected by Roman machinations.
It is hardly a secret, however, that what is being taught in
theology classes has been affected by the specter of theologians, well-known
and obscure, being hauled in before the Congregation of the Doctrine of the
Faith and censured. We know that educators are doing things differently or
avoiding topics altogether. They tell us, quietly, that they are.
Nor would the above analysis be of comfort to those stuck with
bishops like Bruskewitz, admittedly an extreme even among extremists, or to the
countless church workers who increasingly are monitored by self-appointed
orthodoxy police. Those at the top have created an atmosphere that allows the
most reactionary forces within the church to run roughshod.
Chair will not have famed theologians name
Schillebeeckx called in for clarification NCR, June
30
Rome targets another Jesuit
His book about Jesus avoids traditional formulas, won
praise NCR, Aug. 11
Some would argue that the record stacks up to a too simply
dualistic view of things, someone referred to it as Manichaean
reporting. It is, indeed, discomfiting to look down the record and
understand that this church has come to such a crimped and stingy sense of
itself and, by connection, of Christianity itself.
But it is disingenuous to want to somehow make nobler than it is
the struggle for simple power, the raw tug in two different directions, that is
at the heart of the matter.
The record shows in stark terms who is rewarded and who punished
these days.
Weave in all the complexities -- the competing strains and forces
that have shaped the church in the modern era -- and it still is difficult to
get beyond the fact that what is happening today more often than not
contradicts the spirit of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) as that council
was expressed in documents, as the church had begun to live its understanding
of that council, and as those present during its sessions best understood
it.
Interfaith monologue
Other religions gravely deficient, Vatican
says NCR, Sept. 15
Democratic bumper stickers raise ire of priest in Arlington
35-year parishioner told she has no business
receiving Communion because of party affiliation NCR, Nov. 24
Pittsburgh bows out of major education meeting
If Sr. Joan Chittister is speaking, teachers cant go,
priest says NCR, Dec. 22
Well, you get the idea of how silly things can become. These
episodes are not the product of a church with an inspiring vision. They are the
trickle down of a suspicious bureaucracy working out of fear and determined to
keep change at bay. We will continue to keep the record as a kind of compass,
convinced that fear will not win in the end, and aware that not too long ago we
were inspired to a far healthier understanding of ourselves as a people of
God.
Pope John XXIII, who called the Second Vatican Council, the
reforms of which some seem to be furiously running from these days, had these
words posted over the door of a study long before he became pope: Pastor et
Pater (Shepherd and Father). They were, according to biographer Peter
Hebblethwaite, a reminder of how his authority should be exercised.
How desperately that reminder is needed in Rome today.
National Catholic Reporter, January 5,
2001
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