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There is an interesting but troublesome parallel between the hierarchy cover-up of the clergy in Poland who cooperated with the communist secret police (NCR, Jan. 19) and the hierarchy cover-up of priests in the United States who sexually abused young children. Clearly, there is a bureaucratic predilection toward avoiding the confronting of grievous faults and sins within our own institutional bounds that is at unbelievable variance with the truths the church teaches. It is not that the cover-up propensity is unique to the church; it is just so much starker within an institution that preaches the opposite of how it all too often behaves.
TOM DINELL
Honolulu
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What the church hierarchy still has not internalized is that its refusal to acknowledge the sins of clergy -- be those sins of sexual abuse or sins of collaboration with communist secret police -- not only undermines the church’s moral authority but more critically undermines two longstanding central tenets of Roman Catholic theology: confession and forgiveness.
What priest would ever counsel a parishioner, “Hide what you did, don’t tell anyone. Just hope what you did wrong stays hidden.” That advice is not only morally reprehensible but also damaging to a person’s psyche and soul. Unfortunately, the current pope has not appeared to understand the connection between hiding inadvertent mistakes or deliberate sins and the erosion of one of the most sustaining and life-affirming sacraments offered to Catholics throughout the ages. At best, confession and penance can lead to reconciliation, a restoration of right relationships with God and with other people.
Most couples are counseled in pre-Cana classes that a sure road to the destruction of marriage is the keeping of secrets. Such sage warnings apply to the whole body of the church. The pope and clergy around the world would do well to embrace this moment -- albeit a late one -- as the perfect time to act on St. Paul’s advice to the Ephesians: “Living the truth in love, we should grow in every way unto him who is the head, Christ” (4:15). And Paul’s even more pointed words to the Colossians: “Stop lying to one another” (3: 9).
Instead of trying to convince the world they are different from other people, let our very human pope and the church’s shortest-serving archbishop show us that goodness and growth can come from confessing sins of our past.
KATHRYN L. WALDRON
Reading, Pa.
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With the embarrassing matter of the archbishop in Poland, does it not become clear that the manner of selecting bishops in Rome is broken? My understanding is that there are lots of dioceses without bishops here in the United States and nothing seems to be moving. We never hear of new bishops being appointed in the press. Through the grapevine, I heard one did get appointed in Iowa. We in the diocese of Belleville, Ill., are keenly aware that our own bishop got appointed outside the regularly identified process in the Code of Canon Law. This, we understand, happened because of some powerful brokers working the back offices on his behalf. Without even a modicum of delay, we got a bishop; now it seems to take years. His successor in Lake Charles, La., to my knowledge, still isn’t named, and it’s close now to two years. Has it all ground to a halt somehow?
(Fr.) DONALD A. BLAES
New Baden, Ill.
I am a 13-year-old Catholic girl who was adopted by two gay women at the age of 7. They have raised me as a Catholic, taking me to church, getting me baptized, receiving my first Communion and confirmation. Before I met them, I was not Catholic; now I am a well-formed Catholic. It has recently been brought to my attention that some of our bishops believe that gay people should be allowed to “participate” in Mass as long as they don’t “reveal” themselves to other church members. I was also informed that if you are gay it is sinful to take Communion. I don’t see any of this in the Bible or in the teaching of Jesus. Do you?
If we are all equal in the eyes of God, then we should all be able to go to Mass and be treated equally. People are people. We are the same: black or white, gay or straight. God created every one of us and we are who we are. Like the song says, “We are one in the spirit; we are one in the Lord.” If we are one in the Lord, it should not matter if you are gay. If it were not for my moms, I would probably still be in foster care or, even worse, in a group home. Before they came into my life I had been in seven different foster homes. I think women like my moms should be able to receive Communion like any other moms.
MORIAH FORD-GOWAN
Chico, Calif.
Thank you for Paul Winner’s illuminating report on the army’s School for Advanced Military Studies (NCR, Jan. 12). It is encouraging to know that such discussions and thinking at least are going on, whatever their influence on policy. I was struck by Mr. Winner’s statement that “Catholic thought regarding war arose from the church’s most influential doctrinal architects, Sts. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.” That certainly seems to be true for the institution. I suppose it is unrealistic to hope that “Catholic thought” regarding war (or any significant issue) might ever be said to arise from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
It may well be that Jesus’ teachings simply do not provide a realistic basis on which a functioning society can be based, and that Catholicism, as a religion that aspires to be embraced by ordinary people, cannot afford to push Jesus’ teachings too hard. If so, integrity would seem to require the church (us) to stop kidding itself (ourselves) about following Jesus’ teachings, and admit openly that his way (for example, “Love your enemies”) is simply too radical, and that we must look elsewhere for life’s guidelines.
DAVID J. WALKER
Wilmette, Ill.
John Allen reports on your Web site that at the recent meeting of the Catholic Academy of Liturgy in Toronto, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pa., said that changing pro multis in the Mass to “for many” may confuse the church’s teaching that Christ died for all. He argued that this and other proposed changes of the people’s parts during the Mass will not only confuse the faithful but will contribute to a greater number of departures from the Catholic church.
Our good people will not be leaving the church in great numbers over these changes and will not confuse the church’s teaching that Christ died for all just because pro multis will henceforth be translated “for many” instead of “for all.” The words “for many” have been in the New Testament for 2,000 years: in Matthew 26: 28 and Mark 14:24. The New Revised Standard Version, the Revised English Bible, the New American Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible, all translate pro multis as “for many.” I don’t know of any Bible in English (or any other language) that does not translate the incriminated words as “for many.” And yet, down through the centuries, people did not confuse the church’s teaching that Christ died for all and did not leave the church in droves over those words in the Bible.
Finally, the vitriolic reactions in the NCR Cafe, prompted by Bishop Trautman’s statements, over Rome’s “intransigence” on these matters demonstrate how much arrogance, contempt, sarcasm and smugness there still is among so many of our Catholic literati and intelligentsia.
(Fr.) GINO DALPIAZ
Chicago
The article by John L. Allen Jr. on Pope Benedict’s prayer in the Blue Mosque (NCR, Dec. 8) addresses an initiative that took place at Trappist Assumption Abbey in Ava, Mo. For a week last June, there was an extraordinary encounter between the monks and seven young Turkish Muslims, disciples of the Turkish intellectual and Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who stayed with us for a week. Mr. Allen points out the pope’s distinction between “multireligious” and “interreligious” prayer. It’s a valuable distinction and in retrospect I can say that the Muslims and the monks here instinctively chose “multireligious” prayer, yet we did not think or talk in those terms. During the week of living together, there were no theological or theoretical religious discussions at all; instead, a sustained and respectful sharing of humanity and of prayerful presence. The Muslims spread their prayer rugs on the tile floor of the monastic chapter room. There they met five times each day, beginning at 5 a.m. and ending at 10 p.m. Always, there was at least one monk present, kneeling or sitting on the prayer rug, praying in his own Christian way, or simply letting the beauty and mystery of the chant wash over him. The Muslim guests attended faithfully the seven prayer times of the Christian monks.
On several occasions the two groups met together simply to read and to listen to texts from one or the other tradition, New Testament and Quran, Sufi poets and Christian mystics. Those who know Assumption Abbey know that we are anything but progressive or cutting edge. We are, though, thoroughly Catholic and Benedictine, giving us both a secure identity and a ready openness to “the other,” whether the other be Assemblies of God seminarians, Muslims, or, as was the case last week, a conservative rabbi.
(Fr.) MARK SCOTT, OCSO
Ava, Mo.
John Allen’s article on the church and the Mafia (NCR, Dec. 29) only partly explains the waning power of that organization in Sicily. The murders of Judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borselino galvanized most Sicilians against the mob. (The airport in Palermo is named after them.) In the last few years, the Mafia leaders Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano have been taken into custody and are imprisoned in an undisclosed location lest there be attempts to free them.
It is also to be noted that there is an anti-Mafia center in Corleone, founded by Gino Felicetti, who spent many years of his life in England and who speaks fluent Italian with a Cockney accent. The center has an extensive library that includes photos, newspaper articles and the complete transcripts of the trials of Mafia figures. It is the further purpose of the center to educate Sicilians away from their fear of or acceptance of the Mafia as a normal part of the Sicilian way of life. Since the apprehension of the two leaders was anything but glamorous, and poverty is decreasing, some say the back of the Sicilian Mafia has been broken. Others maintain that there is a considerable risk for young men without skills or education who might be tempted to join.
AARON W. GODFREY
Stony Brook, N.Y.
I’m a Vietnam veteran and I now realize the worldwide influence of Martin Luther King Jr. and how like Jesus he was. Initially he worked to bring attention to racial discrimination in the United States. He broadened his scope to include the working poor, then went further and spoke out against U.S. imperialism, oppression and war. He stated very clearly, in both his words and actions, that violence is not the answer. Like Jesus, he was killed.
Peace and love mean power to the people, and that threatens those in the military-industrial-political cabal. If Dr. King were alive, he would be speaking out for oppressed people all over the world, especially the people of Palestine, Darfur, Iraq and Afghanistan. He would be speaking out about the U.S. support of the death and destruction of these people and the weapons industry that profits from it.
ARNOLD STIEBER
Grass Lake, Mich.
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National Catholic Reporter, February 2, 2007