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Your editorial “Budgets, bishops and engagement with the world” ( NCR, Oct. 6) contains many salient points but in the last analysis is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of the proposed reorganization. You present it as a choice: Do we want a conference that is streamlined, cost-efficient, and better able to serve our needs, or do we want a conference that is engaged in the world? This is a false dichotomy. The purpose of the reorganization has been to help the bishops fulfill our roles better, not reduce or detract from our mission as shepherds of God’s people. The reorganization is about implementing the recommendations proposed by Archbishop Donald Wuerl’s Task Force on Activities and Resources, approved two years ago. That task force’s work was at the heart of the process used by the 14 bishop members of the Committee on Priorities and Plans.
The editorial asks three questions: “Is it a good time … to reduce their efforts toward interreligious dialogue? Should there be more or less funds spent on promoting a pro-life agenda? Will the bishops’ courageous advocacy of immigrant rights be lost in the shuffle?” The simple answer is that the bishops have never disengaged from the challenges of the modern world or of the contemporary church and are not about to start. The current proposal represents an effort to use most effectively the conference’s resources, both human and financial, to carry out our mission. We seek a focused and re-energized approach to the challenges that surround us.
(Archbishop) MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN
Washington
Santa Fe, N.M., Archbishop Sheehan is chairman of the Committee on Priorities and Plans of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley and seminarians demonstrated their piety in processing about in clerical garb with the desiccated heart of St. John Vianney in a reliquary. If it were the 12th century, I would be edified and hopeful that this would positively influence vocations. As it is, it seems both macabre and sad if our admiration for the deteriorating organ of that 19th-century holy man of Ars is presented as a symbol for the heart of priesthood today. On second thought however, perhaps it is key to understanding why priesthood today is in crisis. Our leaders are guiding us firmly backwards. The new expanded indult to celebrate the Tridentine Mass follows this reactionary approach. What’s next, the return of the amice, maniple and biretta? Who says we’re not a church on the move? Direction is apparently irrelevant.
DAVID PASINSKI
Fayetteville, N.Y.
The editorial, “There’s Foley, and all that’s gone before” (NCR, Oct. 13), well delineates the case of former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida and the mine field that it has become for Republican leadership. It also serves, unhappily, to focus renewed attention on the five-county diocese of Palm Beach, established in 1984, which, besides experiencing embezzlement by some of its trusted employees, has suffered the resignation of two of its first three bishops, in 1998 and 2002, for the sexual abuse of young men earlier and elsewhere. In a bit of exquisite irony, its fourth bishop, now the cardinal/archbishop of Boston, after declaring, according to The Boston Globe (Oct. 13) that “the priestly vocation is in jeopardy,” saw Pope Benedict’s recent elevation of two Boston pastors as bishops, together with the arrival in Boston of the preserved heart of St. John Vianney, patron of parish priests, to be hopeful signs.
E. LEO McMANUS
Venice, Fla.
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With regard to Mark Foley’s folly (NCR, Oct. 13), the ex-congressman’s actions are certainly reprehensible. However, he has not killed anyone, while President Bush’s mad misadventure in Iraq has caused 2,700 U. S. servicemen and women to be killed, 20,000 to be wounded, a great many of whom will be handicapped and/or subject to posttraumatic stress disorder for life, not to mention the many tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who have lost their lives. All this to be paid for by our children and grandchildren. We need a fresh Congress to reign in Bush’s scofflaw administration and to try to repair the enormous damage it has caused our country and its reputation.
EDD DOERR
Silver Spring, Md.
Cardinal Justin Rigali arranged for a remarkably pastoral event to take place in Philadelphia Sept. 15, inviting hundreds of the archdiocese’s priests to gather at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to listen to the stories of three people whose lives were seriously impacted by clergy sexual abuse of children. I commend him and his staff for taking this step toward healing in our church. Even more, I thank and admire the three people who stood in front of those priests and bishops and courageously told their stories of anguish to the peers and superiors of those who abused them. All of our bishops should have done things like this years ago and followed up with compassionate, honest restorative actions instead of covering up, denying and stonewalling. The victims and our whole church could have begun healing instead of suffering further wounding. Lawsuits would not have been necessary to force our bishops to pay attention. The credibility of our clerical leaders would have been enhanced instead of being damaged almost beyond repair. I truly hope other bishops and superiors of religious orders will follow this example of Philadelphia. It is not too late.
VINCE GRENOUGH
Louisville, Ky.
I read with interest your stories and editorial on stem cell research (NCR, Sept. 15). Some years ago I read a justification for abortion that said, in essence, we must sometimes prioritize one life above another. This made a great deal of sense to me, although it has not survived into today’s polemics. In a perfect world, we would never choose one life over another. In a less perfect world, the choice would be made only with full consent.
The exceptional person lays down his or her life for another. In today’s world, right or wrong, we give privilege to one life over another all the time. People will die in Iraq in my stead. For some it is a full choice. For others it is coerced by military orders, poverty, family expectations or other factors. We condone, if reluctantly, that some people must be killed in retribution for their crimes or for the safety of the community.
Is it too dangerous a step to say that one of the earliest stages of life, where there is potential but no guarantee of survival, should thoughtfully and reluctantly be prioritized lower than existing and suffering fully developed human beings? Recognizing that stem cells are human life, this situation would be analogous to today’s research with animals. We use them only as necessary, with respect, and mitigate their suffering. I believe this approach might lead to a more productive dialogue, because, of course, there is no such thing as refusing to prioritize.
MARY SHERIDAN
Honolulu
On Oct. 3, at the capital in Harrisburg, Pa., Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver gave the homily at the annual Red Mass for the legal community. This is the same bishop, remember, who fought tooth and nail to defeat the “look-back window” that would have given some measure of justice to hundreds of individuals sexually abused in his home state. He rationalized his position, saying the bill was “anti-Catholic,” when, in fact, it is anti-sex abuser, anti-molester, anti-rapist, and anti-pedophile. So he came to Pennsylvania saying that his choice as homilist in a Harrisburg church five blocks from the state house just as lawmakers are considering a dozen abuse-related bills had “nothing to do” with his aggressive denunciation of the statute window in Colorado. If anyone believes that then I have a bridge or two that goes over to Jersey I’d like to interest them in. Shouldn’t the hierarchy of our church “have a spine,” to use the bishop’s own words, in situations like the widespread sexual abuse of children and be accountable for past crimes, Bishop Chaput? Yo, Rick Santorum? Nothing to say on the matter? Going to blame it all on the liberals up in Boston?
(Sr.) MAUREEN TURLISH
New Castle, Del.
Colman McCarthy’s thoughtful piece about the late Steve Irwin’s mistreatment of animals was both gutsy and on target (NCR, Oct. 6). As a Catholic animal advocate and long time NCR reader, I’m delighted to see you publishing Mr. McCarthy’s consistently thoughtful pieces on animal issues. God’s purpose is spelled out in the Bible’s account of the Garden of Eden and in the visions of the prophets Isaiah, Amos, Micah and others. In every instance, God’s ideal is one in which there is no exploitation of other species. Leading oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau explained that Irwin would “interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things. Of course, it goes well on television. It sells. It appeals to a lot people, but I think it’s misleading. You don’t touch nature, you just look at it. And that’s why I’m still alive. I’ve been diving over 61 years — a lot more years than [Irwin] was alive — and I don’t mess with nature.” As Catholics we, of course, mourn anyone’s death, but we should also learn from such tragedies: Animals in nature should be left alone, not harassed and paraded across TV stages.
BRUCE FRIEDRICH
Norfolk, Va.
How refreshing to read Colman McCarthy’s column (“In praise of Hugo Chávez,” NCR, Oct. 13). Watching Chávez’s performance at the United Nations caused me to laugh. Once again I recalled the refrain from the 1960s or ’70s song, “I never expected to find the devil in blue eyes and blue jeans!” How apt for President Bush. Not that anyone is the devil, but the works and pomps of this administration are astoundingly evil. Violations of human and civil rights are being codified. Fear is a blinding force. So much for the freedom and democracy we are fighting for. The question now is whether the newly conservative Supreme Court will squash the nascent tyranny of the executive branch. Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion in the Hamdan case before the 4th Circuit Court, while nominated for the highest court in the land, is a bad omen. Meanwhile the applause Chávez received at the United Nations is a harbinger of America’s standing in the world.
MARY K. LUND
Minnetonka, Minn.
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National Catholic Reporter, November 3, 2006