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New monsignors to be announced soon in Chicago?
(POSTED: 8/1/10) A number of Chicago-area priests apparently have been named "monsignor" by the pope -- an old-school honor that many local clerics do not look favorably upon.
In an Aug. 1 column in the Catholic New World, Cardinal Francis George confirmed what ChicagoCatholicNews.com reported back in February: that he is behind efforts to resurrect a tradition that fell out of favor -- at least in the Archdiocese of Chicago -- after the Second Vatican Council.
George pushed the issue despite the fact many of his priests (including some of those rumored to be recipients) are opposed to the designation -- in part because they see it as another clergy caste, somewhere between regular priests and bishops.
"The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has recently named a number of archdiocesan priests as his chaplains," George wrote in the column. (Papal chaplains typically carry the monsignor title.)
"When I wrote to the pope to request these honors at the beginning of the Year for Priests, I explained that a few of our priests hold positions that traditionally are held by priests who have been honored by the pope but that there are also the vast majority of priests who minister faithfully and dedicate themselves constantly to the Lord and his people."
"I asked that a few of our priests be honored, most of them quite elderly, who would represent all their brothers. Some will not want to be honored because of their humility; but sometimes humility means accepting an honor that is not just for the individual but for everyone else as well."
"A few in the archdiocese might object to anyone receiving papal honors because they want to distance this local church from the Holy See. But alienation is not a virtue."
There's some irony in George's move -- that he wants to honor priests at a time of massive turmoil in the Church due to the priest sex abuse scandal. It's worth noting the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is holding its national convention in Chicago this weekend.
George did not return a phone call placed by a ChicagoCatholicNews.com reporter on Friday.
Here's a list of existing Chicago monsignors:
Robert Dempsey--previously worked at the Vatican, now pastor of St. Philip the Apostle in Northfield
George Dobes--retired military chaplain, now works for Archdiocese of Washington tribunal
Joseph Mroczkowski--retired, formerly involved in music at Quigley seminary and Holy Name Cathedral
George Sarauskas--previously worked for Catholic bishops conference
Robert Trisco--works at Catholic University of America
Ken Velo--President of Big Shoulders Fund, former head of Catholic Church Extension Society
Richard Zborowski--pastor of St. Theresa Church in Palatine who has raised money for seminaries in Poland
By ChicagoCatholicNews.com
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com
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NEW COLUMN: The Working Catholic, by Bill Droel
(POSTED: 7/29/10) I occasionally help an autoworker and his family with food donations and gas for his 2002 Chevy. He is battling cancer and his wife has a chronic illness. Over coffee the other morning I was surprised to learn that he borrowed $3,600 in order to pay medical expenses. The loan company requires monthly payments to a total of $4,200 and holds title to the home in case the autoworker defaults.
I am angry. First, that the family made a mistake. Second, that all these months after the economic fiasco predators are still pulling the same stunts -- while I watch my retirement savings languish in under-performing mutual funds.
From 1776 until 1978 most states in our country capped loan interest somewhere between 6 percent and 12 percent, with a few exceptions. The current predicament follows a 1978 Supreme Court decision by which a national bank can charter in either of two states without any cap and can thereafter operate without caps in all the states. Further, a 1980 congressional act dispenses savings banks and other financial companies from usury limits, specifically prohibiting states from regulating interest rates that involve real estate. The purpose of financial business thus changes. Instead of providing credit to homeowners, manufacturers and service companies, the purpose is making more money itself, regardless of tangible goods and real services. Legal payday loan stores, ballooning credit card rates, adjustable or balloon mortgages, tax return schemes and the like all mushroom through the 1980s and beyond.
The current recession could have been avoided to the benefit of investors and the working poor, had people listened to some lonely crusaders some 30 years ago, writes Gary Rivlin in Broke USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty Inc. (Harper Collins, 2010).
Kathleen Keest, working for a Boston consumer agency in 1985, began to sense a major problem as she assisted one credit-gouged family after another. William Brennan, an ex-seminarian and attorney for Atlanta Legal Aid, thought he was combating an isolated rotten apple when in 1991 he defended an 80-year-old woman against Fleet Bank. In the early 1990s Bruce Marks of Neighborhood Assistance Corporation in Boston began an often one-person protest outside banks and at stockholder meetings on behalf of defrauded families.
Unfortunately, the prophets' voice was not heard.
I should not have been so surprised that even after the near collapse of the world economy predators are still exploiting an autoworker with cancer and thousands of others. William Brennan was initially surprised that his landmark victory over Fleet Bank and the resulting 1994 Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act did not stop the predators. But Brennan and the others realized the battle continues.
The Industrial Areas Foundation (637 S. Dearborn St. #100, Chicago, IL 60605; www.10percentisenough.org), a 70-year-old national network of community organizations, has launched a "Ten Percent Is Enough" anti-usury campaign. IAF's material, which refers to religious tradition, suggests that they understand legal victories and legislative changes are insufficient. A solution must include moral change.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) says usury is unjust in itself because it pretends to sell what does not exist and evidently (at least to St. Thomas) leads to unacceptable inequality. While the Church gradually loosened total prohibition on charging interest, no legitimate authority exists to justify the rapacious and deceitful interest rates of today. Debts that last a lifetime transform people from creditors to indentured servants, stripping them of economic power and imperiling their sense of citizenship.
By Bill Droel, an instructor and campus minister at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills. He edits a newsletter on faith and work for the National Center for the Laity (P.O. Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629).
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Meatless Fridays making resurgence among some Catholics
(POSTED: 7/26/10) Several years ago, after hearing her pastor talk on the subject, Catherine Baranke decided to abstain from eating meat on Fridays.
"It's not a huge sacrifice, but at least it's something you can do to show your belief or your faith," said Baranke, a 34-year-old youth leader at Annunciation of the Mother of God Byzantine Catholic Parish in Homer Glen.
Baranke isn't alone in newly embracing one of the Church's older traditions -- which waned considerably after the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.
A growing number of young adults appear to be going meatless on Fridays in Chicago and elsewhere, according to interviews with Church officials and regular members.
And it seems -- at least in some instances -- to be tied to a larger resurgence of the more traditional aspects of the faith, such as the Latin mass, which also became less common after Vatican II modernized aspects of the Church. (Meatless Fridays actually were not done away with, but other forms of "penance" were allowed, except during Lent.)
Young adults "don't have the same hang-ups [as the older generation] about the authority of the Church," said the Rev. Dennis Paul, parochial administrator of St. Isidore Parish in Bloomingdale. "They didn't have the Catechism force fed upon them."
So they may look upon the traditions differently, with more enthusiasm or longing or seriousness.
"Youth is a very brief part of one's life and we have such a youth-oriented culture," said the Rev. Richard Simon, pastor of St. Lambert Parish in Skokie and a host on the Catholic network Relevant Radio. "I think people are beginning to realize you're only young for so long and you have to deal with the ultimate questions."
Skokie resident Corrina Gura, 27, gave up meat -- not just on Fridays, but every day -- five years ago after converting to Catholicism. She doesn't just eat fish -- the common substitute for meat in the old days -- but an array of items.
For Gura, project coordinator at the Pro-Life Action League, "it's a good way of reminding ourselves that it's important to not always have everything that you want."
Chicago native Matt McDonald, 36, recently returned to the Friday fast after giving up desserts for years instead. He gave up meat on Fridays again when he started dating his wife Julie 18 months ago.
Although he moved to Napa, Calif., with Julie, Matt McDonald travels for business. He said sharing in the Catholic tradition with Julie, 35, connects them even when he is away.
"It was just kind of a connection thing that we were both making that sacrifice," Matt McDonald said. "It made me think deeper about how during Lent all Catholics are not supposed to eat meat on Friday and that connection that we all have."
Whatever the motivation for abstaining from meat -- a practice that dates back centuries -- the practice pleases the Rev. Thomas Loya of Annunciation of the Mother of God.
But, "to abstain from meat on one day of the week is very, very minimal," Loya said. "So it's kind of very telling where we're at spiritually that something like this would be noteworthy."
By Marisa Grigaliunas, for ChicagoCatholicNews.com
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com
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Church Reporter: Priest in business of "helping same-sex-oriented people calm their urges and live chaste lives"
(UPDATED: 7/22/10) Speaking at the monthly Catholic Citizens of Illinois luncheon on July 9, Fr. Paul Check pressed one of the hottest social-climate buttons around, converting same-sex people to opposite-sexers -- in their behavior if not in their orientation.
As recently installed national director of Courage, which performs chaplain services for 12-step programs in 100-plus U.S. dioceses, including Chicago and overseas, he's in the business of helping same-sex-oriented people calm their urges and live chaste lives according to Church teaching.
Their work "is not directed toward the change in sexual orientation," he said in an interview. "That is the work of mental health professionals. We do work with them, but from the standpoint of the spiritual and moral helps of the Catholic Faith." The work of Courage, he said, is effecting "the change to interior chastity or chastity of the heart."
As the Courage website has it, "By developing an interior life of chastity, which is the universal call to all Christians, one can move beyond the confines of the homosexual identity to a more complete one in Christ." It's a goal fraught with contradiction for some and vigorously challenged by others.
In Oak Park, for instance, the normally quiet and near-universally welcomed gay and lesbian community rose as one to condemn a local coffee-shop proprietor for planning to host a speaker who had written a book on the subject. This was a Missionary Baptist preacher, Rev. Cornelius Williams, who was to talk up his book, Transition: From Homosexual to Preacher. They were successful in preventing his appearance.
Father Check, a priest of the Bridgeport (Conn.) diocese based now in New York City, offered some basics in how to understand same-sex attraction. Don't use "homosexual" as a noun, for one thing, nor "gay" nor "lesbian." Be careful to distinguish a person from his actions. How you act is what matters, not your inclination. How you act ultimately determines what you are.
Among risk factors for men (not determinants), he cited a high level of emotional sensitivity, a tendency to risk-avoidance, and lack of hand-eye coordination.
Among precipitating causes the most common is "sexual trauma, for which the numbers are very high." He said, "One third of young men who self-identify as homosexual were abused. It's a way to raise the [distress] flag."
Family environment has its own precipitating factors. For the boy, "the father may be emotionally unreceptive, disengaged," offering "no response or a severe response to the son's lack of interest in what he, the father likes." There's a lack of "shared delight" between father and son, as in the feeling, "We're doing this together. I like it and I see you like it too."
All in all, "something intrudes on the [boy's] need for the father's affection."
Another factor is that the mother is emotionally "overinvolved." Male clients of one veteran therapist, asked when they feel most masculine, were silent, unable to remember.
But "always felt that way" from a client does not mean "born that way," he said. A genetic predisposition puts people at risk without deciding the matter.
Indeed, the problem "can be caught early," he said. The boy in his teens may say he's homosexual, but it's "too early to know." It's important to give him a chance to avoid becoming a same-sex practitioner, among other reasons because as such he would be "a thousand times more likely to get AIDS."
Same-sex-attracted women find themselves in a "more fluid" situation, in which the emotional need comes first, before the genital. A family-originated precipitating factor: "A mother's love is missing, and men are seen as dangerous."
Asked about the missing-father syndrome common in the inner-city family, he noted that "homosexuality is deeply embedded in black and Hispanic communities because of this problem," adding something that also goes against prevailing activist wisdom: "Overall, [only] 2 to 3 percent of men and half as many women have the problem." Gay activists commonly claim 10 percent.
Fr. Check spoke at the Catholic Citizens monthly luncheon at the Union League Club to 45 or so people. He was given his new job as Courage director by his bishop. He succeeds the Courage ministry's founder and long-time director, Fr. John Harvey.
Courage was started in 1983 by New York City Cardinal Terence Cooke as a ministry to "modern-day lepers," as Cooke described men and women drawn to the same sex. The national Courage conference 2010 is set for July 29 to Aug. 1 at St. Mary of the Lake seminary in Mundelein. Deadline for registration is July 20. Call (212) 268-1010 or email NYCourage@aol.com for information.
Fr. Check described the Courage ministry by recalling the Gospel account of the woman caught in adultery. To her Jesus said two things after none of the Pharisees condemned her: "Neither will I condemn you," followed by "Go and sin no more," thus encapsulating his "great [dual] message" -- the "call to compassion" and "the call to conversion."
He recommended three web sites:
* Courage, at CourageRC.net, with its interest-group online listing for "Encourage," the Alanon-like grouping of family members of the same-sex-attracted -- where Fr. Charlie Becker is named as the Chicago group priest.
* Catholic Therapists -- CatholicTherapist.com;
* The National Association for Research and Treatment of Homosexuality -- NARTH.com.
By Jim Bowman
He was religion editor for The Chicago Daily News, 1968 to its closing in 1978, and since then has written many books and articles, including his Bending the Rules: What American Priests Tell American Catholics (Crossroad, 1994). He blogs at www.blithe-spirit.com and elsewhere. www.jimbowman.com has the links.
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Mother Teresa's relics draw hundreds in Chicago, including Cardinal George
(POSTED: 7/19/10) Becky Escolar used to pray for the chance to see a glimpse of Mother Teresa in person.
Even though the nun died in 1997, Escolar felt she got a glimpse on Sunday as she stood before the nun's hair, blood and other possessions during their visit to Chicago over the weekend.
"With these relics here, I feel her presence," Escolar, a 59-year-old Chicago resident, said. "It's like reminiscing of her when she was alive."
The Missionaries of Charity, an order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa in 1950, organized a tour of the items -- which also included worn sandals and a rosary -- in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the nun's birth this August.
In Chicago, it was an emotional experience for hundreds of people who venerated the relics at the Roman Catholic parishes of St. Procopius, 1641 S. Allport St., on Saturday and St. John Cantius, 825 N. Carpenter St., on Sunday.
"I was very moved by the number of people who, as soon as they kissed them, burst into tears," said the Rev. Sean O'Sullivan, pastor of St. Procopius.
Cardinal Francis George made a brief appearance at St. John Cantius Sunday afternoon, taking a look at the relics as visitors stood back and snapped photos.
At the same parish, Anna Santillan, a 53-year-old Niles resident (pictured above), prayed before the relics on behalf a sick friend.
"We came to ask her to see if she can help him," she said. "It's been breathtaking and incredible to come into contact with someone who did such good things and was here in Chicago from so far away."
Mother Teresa -- a nun of Albanian descent who dedicated her life to helping the sick and poor of Calcutta, India -- was beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II and stands as a candidate for sainthood.
Sunday evening Mother Teresa's relics were also on display at the sisters' house at 2325 W. 24th Pl., which is one of two convents she opened in the city.
The relics are expected to move on to Minneapolis and Winnipeg, Canada, followed by potential stops in Memphis, Baton Rouge, Houston and Dallas, according to the Missionaries of Charity.
By Katie Drews, for ChicagoCatholicNews.com
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com
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L’Osservatore Chicago: Reasons for staying in church
(POSTED: 7/18/10) I couldn't believe I couldn't remember her name. I was in retrieval mode all day yesterday. In her day she may have been the best-known Sister in Chicago.
The Chicago police loved her. It had always been a hard duty to find an abandoned baby. But when she ran St. Vincent's Orphanage, a policeman who found a newborn on a church step or under a park bench knew he could take the child to St. Vincent's in full knowledge that it would be cared for.
I was reminded of this beloved Chicago nun when I read the story in The New York Times of the Sister at St. Benedict's Day Nursery in Harlem who was fatally struck by a fleeing minivan driven by a robbery suspect eluding the police.
Like the Chicago nun, Sister Mary Celine Graham was famous for taking in children. For them she was teacher, director and surrogate grandmother. "She made everyone feel important," reporter Trymaine Lee quoted the head Sister at St. Benedict's as saying. "She was very gentle and caring, with a good sense of humor. But her big legacy was that she would take a child, take a true interest in them, and develop that child into who she knew they could be."
The insightful Franciscan, Father Joseph Nangle, wrote in the current Sojourners magazine that he takes hope from people who retain the capacity to claim the Church as their own despite the disaster that envelops it.
Knowing of Sister Mary Celine and the Chicago Vincentian nun, and the thousands of nuns -– and lay people like them -- is what makes it possible for all of us to maintain "Christ's peace at the core of [our] beings," in Father Nangle's words. "Their assessment of [the current] tragedy, abiding good will, and determination to remain Catholic inspire me to continue as a priest in our flawed institution."
Ah, it comes to me. That wonderful, wonderful Chicago nun was Alice. Sister Mary Alice.
Margery Frisbie, a graduate of Mundelein College, has raised lots of kids and written lots of columns. She is the author of several local histories, two graphic histories published in Europe, and An Alley in Chicago, the Life and Legacy of Monsignor John Egan.
Contacts: margeryfrisbie@sbcglobal.net or info@chicagocatholicnews.com
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Mother Teresa's relics headed for Chicago this weekend
(UPDATED: 7/14/10) Mother Teresa's relics -- including strands of hair, drops of blood and a rosary -- are expected to visit Chicago this weekend in honor of the 100th anniversary of the nun's birth.
The Missionaries of Charity, an order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa in 1950, hastily organized a tour of the items across the Midwest after the relics finished a similar trip along the East Coast.
The showcased objects, also including a tattered pair of sandals and a crucifix, "will bring Mother's presence very much to life," said one of the sisters. "She was a special gift from God for our time."
Mother Teresa -– a nun of Albanian descent who for decades served the sick and poor of Calcutta, India -- was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her charitable work.
In life, she visited Chicago several times.
Mother Teresa was born in August 1910. Following her death in 1997 at age 87, she was beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II and is one step away from sainthood.
In Chicago, her relics are expected to be on display for veneration at the Roman Catholic parishes of St. Procopius, 1641 S. Allport St., on July 17 and St. John Cantius, 825 N. Carpenter St., on July 18, according to the Missionaries of Charity, and priests at those parishes.
Sunday evening they also will be presented at the sisters' house at 2325 W. 24th Pl., which is one of the two convents Mother Teresa opened in the city.
(The relics also are expected to make a stop at a parish in Gary, Ind., this weekend.)
Those who have already seen the relics have described it as "a really moving experience."
"It was inspirational for many people to see these actual relics from a saint that we knew," said the Rev. Peter Lyons, pastor of St. Wenceslaus Church in Baltimore. "Some would touch them, some would press them to their heart, and some knelt in prayer."
The Rev. Jack Ahern, pastor at Boston's Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish, said the relics drew 1,500 to 2,000 visitors to the church, despite little publicity.
"Most people found it very powerful," he said. "Much more powerful than I had imagined."
The Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, director of the Mother Teresa Center in Mexico, said that people honor -- not worship -- Mother Teresa's relics "to remember her, look to her as an example . . . and ask her to intercede and pray on our behalf."
Many Catholics also seem to like having the "close connection to the physical presence of a saintly person," said Timothy Matovina, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the Univeristy of Notre Dame.
Cardinal Francis George's press secretary declined to comment.
By Katie Drews, for ChicagoCatholicNews.com
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com
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The X Files: Peacebuilding, and lessons from 50 high schoolers
(POSTED: 7/12/10) While the U.S. Supreme Court was busy dismantling Chicago's handgun ban, Jon Burge was (finally!) being held to account for his record of torture, and the Vatican was trying to wiggle out of its responsibility for the abusive behavior of a former Chicago high school teacher and priest, in another corner of our city 50 Catholic teens quietly -- well maybe not so quietly, how quiet can a group of 50 teenagers be? -— committed themselves to the peacemaking mission of Jesus.
Catholic Theological Union's Peacebuilders Initiative brought about 50 high school juniors and seniors together for a weeklong intensive program in the theology and ministry of peacemaking. After their summer immersion at CTU, the young Peacebuilders create "peace projects" which they implement with help from adult mentors in their own neighborhoods and schools. One teen from St. James Parish in Arlington Heights a few years back, for example, created a shared retreat experience for the elementary school kids of St. James School, and the children of their sharing parish on Chicago's West Side, St. Malachy. A young woman from Nazareth Academy created a Christmas prayer service and choral concert featuring the academy's student chorus and the women of St. Martin de Porres shelter choir, Harmony, Hope and Healing.
I had the joy of being with the Peacebuilders for a morning on Catholic social teaching. Through the lens of the beloved Lukan parable, The Good Samaritan, we imagined together what it takes to create a community of Good Samaritans over time amid the complexities, inequalities and injustices of the real world. It is often said that Catholic social teaching is the Church's best-kept secret, but among these 50 students at least the only secret is the teaching part. They may never have heard of an encyclical, but they readily intuited the principles and values at the heart of the tradition. The dignity of the human person, and the call to solidarity rose quickly to the surface in their small group conversations. But I was especially impressed by their sensitivity to the principle of participation, their recognition that social justice cannot truly be achieved unless and until everyone has a seat at the decision-making table. Perhaps because they are so often dismissed or excluded themselves, these teens grasped immediately that charity of the Noblesse oblige variety isn't charity at all. Real love of neighbor must include removing barriers to participation in the economic and political life of the community. In fact, in the imaginative scenario we played out, they insisted that the victims of violence, the Samaritan, the leaders of Jericho and even the perpetrators of the violence must all be brought together to bring peace and justice to the city. Interestingly, I've noticed that adults working with this scenario usually don't even notice when someone's been excluded. Adults seem more comfortable with the coalescence of power in the hands of a few.
Being with these students for a few hours was a great reminder of the message the revered historical theologian and premier documentarian of the Second Vatican Council, Rev. Joseph Komonchak, gave to us who graduated from CTU in May. Komonchak reminded us that despite the manner in which the depressing headlines and pervasive narrative of the day might depict it, the Church is not a franchise operation. The Church is the Body of Christ, flesh and bones human communities in specific places doing the work of Jesus. The Church is where we, flattering peacemakers with the fire of the Holy Spirit, are. The understanding of faith and justice articulated by the Peacebuilders of Hyde Park is self-implicating and prophetic. Participation is a non-negotiable.
Claire Noonan is director of the St. Catherine of Siena Center at Dominican University in River Forest. She recently completed her doctorate in ministry from the Catholic Theological Union, and also is a graduate of the Jesuit School of Theology. She has nearly two decades of experience in university ministry, adult faith formation and social justice education. She writes from her home in Wicker Park.
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Guest Commentary: School vouchers, and tough choices for local families
(POSTED: 7/6/10) When we were looking for our first home before our son was born, my wife and I wanted to be sure we moved to a place with an excellent school district. Although my son is now just 2 years old, I must confess we are already thinking about his future education. With that in mind, I took a special interest in the recent school voucher debate in Illinois.
Proponents of the measure argued that parents should have a choice of where to send their kids to school and that a viable government voucher program would make that possible. Detractors cited evidence from a 10-year experiment in Milwaukee that showed no conclusive improvements with a sustained school voucher approach. Teacher unions vehemently opposed the idea, warning that under-privileged kids not able to afford private schools even with voucher subsidies will be left behind. The bill ultimately passed in the Illinois Senate, but did not find approval in the Illinois House.
Helping some families who would benefit from subsidies and are able to come up with additional funds to cover tuition costs and transportation to school doesn't sound like a bad thing. However, the process has to be fair. Very legitimate questions remain about private and parochial schools' interest and ability to serve up to 30,000 additional students even if all were given the choice and could afford to attend.
This controversial debate has given me a new perspective on what parents today are going through in choosing a school for their kids. Finances and logistics must certainly play a major role, but they can't be the only considerations. What about parents who want their kids to attend parochial schools not only for an excellent education, but also to receive spiritual formation that is important to their core values? Should parents simply agree to "go along with the program" if they approve of the quality of education their children are receiving and not consider equal access or religious values?
I grew up in a small town and attended public schools, but considered attending a parochial high school in a neighboring city. A voucher subsidy would have made a difference for me at the time and I have often wondered how a more formal Catholic education might have informed my life. My family is now fortunate to live in an area with a solid public school system as well as excellent private and parochial school choices. We have our own choice to make in the near future. If this measure can find a good compromise it could provide excellent opportunities for both underprivileged kids and families who might not have considered a private or parochial school education.
The debate over school vouchers is far from over as Illinois must first deal with its huge state budget issues. Our lawmakers need to find a way to make education a top priority. Private and parochial schools are not the answer for all kids, but parents should be able to carefully consider the benefits of different school approaches. Few issues are more important -- for our children, our state and for the future of our country.
By Dan Pawlus, vice president of communications for Interfaith Youth Core and a regular contributor to The Faith Divide on the "On Faith" blog of the Washington Post. He is also co-host of "30 Good Minutes," a weekly interfaith television program on WTTW 11 (PBS) in Chicago. Dan is a parishioner and part of the music ministry at Old St. Patrick's Church in Chicago.
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From the Portico: Ailing kids meeting pope; a Chicago chaplain returns from war; and the "Faithful Departed"
(POSTED: 7/5/10) An ailing northwest Indiana boy was in the news late last year for asking the Make-A-Wish Foundation to facilitate his wish: meeting the pope.
An unusual request, we're told, with most kids wanting to hit a Disney theme park or something along those lines.
But certainly not a unique request.
"We have completed eight pope-related wishes since 1995; it's the earliest one we could find in our records," said Jessica Miller of Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois. "We did have a little girl meet the pope . . . the first week of June and we do have one pending that's on hold because . . . the child has been sick and the parent has been sick."
"It takes about six to 12 months [usually for a request to be fulfilled] because the pope has certain times he meets with audiences, and you have to coordinate that with the child's health and any medical treatments they have."
The turn-around for the northwest Indiana child -- Andrew Birlson, of St. John -- ended up pretty quick, with the request being approved in September by the non-profit's board, and the meeting with Pope Benedict XVI taking place in November.
The Make-A-Wish chapter that includes Indiana also has another child in the pipeline wanting to meet the pontiff, an official said.
Back from Afghanistan, for now
The Rev. Matt Foley, formerly of St. Agnes of Bohemia Parish in Little Village and most recently an Army chaplain serving in Afghanistan, is back in the U.S., and was visiting town recently.
But he expects to head back to the war zone at some point.
"I'll be at the 82nd until October, then I go over to Special Forces," Foley said in a telephone conversation. "I'm sure I'll probably end up going [back over to Afghanistan], but I don't have any orders to be deployed at this point."
"That's the hope; I'd like to get back there, it's good ministry, it's needed."
For regular readers of ChicagoCatholicNews.com, you'll know that Foley has sent us dispatches over the past year that we've shared with you. We hope to resume that if and when he returns to Afghanistan.
Some lessons for Chicago
A book called The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston's Catholic Culture came out in 2008 and is due for a paperback release this summer.
It's about the sex scandals the rocked Boston's archdiocese, but it also may hold some lessons for Chicago.
It's written by Phil Lawler, who studied for a time at the University of Chicago and now is the editor of Catholic World News.
We chatted recently, and what follows is an edited Q and A:
Q: Tell me about your book?
A: It's looking at two different things: the decline of the public influence of the Catholic Church . . . in Boston -- but I mean for Boston to be a sort of object lesson. And it's also about the abuse crisis, my argument being that the scandal in Boston was not the cause of the public decline, it was more a symptom of a disease that has been in the Church for quite some time.
That disease being that people were more concerned with the public appearance than with the reality of the faith, and they had built up the public appearance, the political clout, at the expense of the solidarity that gave them that clout to begin with.
Q: More concerned with appearances than what's important?
A: Right, I mean, I ask myself the question ... why would you do this, in terms of this scandal? Why would a bishop protect somebody preying on children, and think he was doing it for the good of the Church? . . . The simple answer is the bishop is just a moral monster, a horrible person. But they aren't.
I know some of these bishops, I know some of them well, I knew Cardinal Law well, he was at ground zero here, it wasn't that he was bad, it's that he developed a strange idea of what is the good of the Church. I think an awful lot of bishops share that idea.
Q: Why?
A: Well, that's what I spend 211 pages on, how this developed, and I think it's a matter of leadership that has gone off course over a period of decades -- not months, years.
Q: Why, because it's such a bureaucratized system?
A: I think there are a lot of factors. There's always a temptation to pay more attention to the bricks and mortar because they're easily quantifiable. You can't readily tell which of your pastors is a saint, but you can tell which one is balancing the budget. So the ones who balance the budget tend to move up the ladder.
And then I think part of it is the Church sort of coming of age. This is where the Boston example is so instructive. A century ago, the beginning of the 20th century, the Boston Catholics were still, I won't say an oppressed minority, but oppressed, fighting for a share, a fair share, and they fought that fight very effectively and won. Once they were in power -- this is not just bishops but the whole community --there's a temptation to consolidate, enjoy life and build and manage problems rather than solve them.
Q: Do you see this as a problem in Chicago?
A: Absolutely, I think it's a problem everywhere. I argue in the book that the Boston example is particularly striking because what happened in the century was like a rollercoaster in terms of prestige of the Church: from nowhere to running [things] to nowhere again.
And I think part of it is that what the Church teaches these days is quite controversial on a lot of hot-button issues, and if you're trying to consolidate your position and . . . preserve your power . . . the temptation is to soft pedal those issues to avoid confrontation, and that doesn't work because everybody still knows what the Church teaches even if it's not being taught.
And it looks as if the Church's leaders don't have the courage of their convictions, they don't have the sort of institutional cohesiveness that makes the Church a powerful force in society.
Q: What's the end effect in Boston? Does this mean people are leaving the Church in droves?
A: Yes, yeah, the Church is now a whipping boy. Politicians who identify themselves as Catholics compete over who can say nastier things about Church teachings, people are leaving churches in droves, and it's at a real low ebb.
Q: Will it bounce back?
A: Yes, the point I make at the end of the book is what the net result is likely to be is a replay of the last century. It will be a smaller church, but the people who are left will be, they'll have a stronger sense of identity. They will have made a choice, it's no longer something you stumble into, particularly the clergy. They're under fire now, if you're going into the priesthood now, you're not going in to be comfortable.
I think in time the people who remain in Church will be more one in mind and there will be a lot more solidarity and that solidarity will breed social influence. But it will take time.
Q: Do you have a thought on the "poor-me" attitude put on by some Church leaders in U.S., claiming anti-Catholicism?
A: Absolutely, it's something I've said myself, the Boston Globe was instrumental in exposing this scandal and I think the Boston Globe has an anti-Catholic bias a mile wide . . . but motives aside the truth was the truth.
And I did get tired of people saying this was all anti-Catholic. And the other argument you get is there is abuse in other denominations, which is true but doesn't make it relevant.
Q: Anti-Catholic claims seem crazy in a city like Chicago, where the Catholic Church has incredible power . . .
A: I'll grant you that it sounds crazy to have anti-Catholicism in that situation, but I think it can happen, because you've got a lot of people who identify themselves as Catholic who are hostile to the teachings of the Church.
One point that I made in the book is everybody thinks Catholics constitute the largest voting bloc in Massachusetts. . . . I think the biggest voting bloc is ex- Catholics, and if you think about people who grew up Catholic and left the faith, obviously there's a reason they left. I'm not going to say they're anti-Catholic, but obviously they're not in sympathy with the Church, and I'm sure that's true in Chicago, to some extent at least.
A full press
Lawler also underscored the importance of what we do here at ChicagoCatholicNews.com, saying: "I think there's an urgent need for objective Catholic journalism -- that is, people writing about Catholic affairs who are not employed by the bishops, who don't answer to the diocese or archdiocese or whatever, so it's not just a house organ."
"It's a necessity because the diocesan press doesn't have that kind of credibility."
The Catholic New World is the Archdiocese of Chicago's official publication -- and they've been trying to hammer the point home in recent weeks that we're not them and they're not us. They've been running disclaimers online and in print.
By all means there should be no confusion.
ChicagoCatholicNews.com is an independent site not affiliated with the Church or the archdiocese.
Our mission: cover news about the Church -- and of interest and importance to Chicago-area Catholics -- honestly, fairly and without bias.
From the Portico is an occasional column -- written by ChicagoCatholicNews.com editor Robert Herguth -- that focuses on the people, policies and inner-workings of the Catholic Church in the Chicago region.
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com
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L’Osservatore Chicago: A "prophetic" priest who went against the tides
(POSTED: 7/1/10) I love belonging to a quirky Church, one with the insouciance to say "sorry about that" to Galileo 400 years after the fact.
It's almost a given in our Church that to be acknowledged a saint, or "right" in Galileo's case, you must first be condemned by some holy office. So it is hardly a surprise that the Brooklyn priest who may be the borough's first saint was condemned for his advanced views when he was alive.
The story of Monsignor Bernard Quinn is small bore compared to the scandal about Galileo. But it is very much the story of our time.
It is incredible that it should be so, but what Msgr. Quinn was championing during the Depression was some consideration for Brooklyn's blacks. For his pains, he "encountered sharp resistance from some fellow priests," according to a June story in The New York Times. What Quinn proposed was ministering to Brooklyn's growing population of blacks, many of them fleeing the Jim Crow South or migrating from the poor Caribbean countries.
The Times quoted the 1929 newsletter of an outspoken antiblack pastor who thought that "negroes should be excluded from this Roman Catholic Church if they become numerous."
Monsignor Quinn took issue. "It seems to me that no church can exclude anyone and still keep its Christian ideals." He went on to establish St. Peter Claver, the first church for black Catholics in Brooklyn and the diocese's first orphanage for black children.
A lay theologian at the Catholic Theological Society meeting last month said a prophet hears and heeds "the laments of suffering people of God and the groans of a chaotic and damaged world."
To my mind, a priest who championed racial equality at a time when discrimination against blacks was "ubiquitous, even in the Catholic Church," as the Times reporter wrote, was prophetic.
And cause enough for calling up, in the Church's good time, the lovely title of saint.
Margery Frisbie, a graduate of Mundelein College, has raised lots of kids and written lots of columns. She is the author of several local histories, two graphic histories published in Europe, and An Alley in Chicago, the Life and Legacy of Monsignor John Egan.
Contacts: margeryfrisbie@sbcglobal.net or info@chicagocatholicnews.com
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Church From Below: Cardinal George's health care rebuke "must yield to a more nuanced approach"
(POSTED: 6/28/10) At a recent meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in St. Petersburg, Fla., Cardinal George, USCCB president, reportedly aimed a particularly strong rebuke at the Catholic Health Assn. and Sr. Carol Keehan, its president and CEO. "Sr. Carol and her colleagues are to blame for the passage of the health care bill," he said, adding that it was the intervention of the health association "and other so-called Catholic groups" in the healthcare debate that "provided cover for those on the fence to support Obama and the administration."
Before the vote, George and the USCCB lobbied strenuously for the defeat of the bill, claiming it was "fundamentally flawed" and would allow taxpayer funding for elective abortions. Yet on the eve of the vote, the Catholic Health Assn., with the support of dozens of women's religious orders, declared the bishops' analysis was wrong, that the bill would not permit taxpayer money for abortions and that it would, in fact, make historic new investments in support of pregnant women. The bill, they insisted, was clearly a "pro-life" document.
Indignation over this repudiation of episcopal authority was still hot at the Florida meeting, with George claiming the CHA action weakened the moral voice of the bishops in the U.S. and "created the dangerous precedent of a parallel magisterium to the bishops." The accuracy of George's remarks, as quoted by the Catholic News Agency, were quickly challenged by a USCCB employee.
A debate over who was right, who was wrong and what was or wasn't misquoted will likely go on for months, but the intensity of George's reaction suggests there is more here than a misunderstanding about the implications of a bill in the U.S. Senate. Ever since the latest priest abuse scandal erupted, there has been a continuing discussion about the institutional church's loss of its moral authority. It was not just the ongoing revelation of crimes by clergy that infuriated the public. It was the tardy reaction of bishops to take action, the cover-up of abusive incidents, the reluctance to report predator priests to civil authorities, the moving of guilty priests to new parishes, even new dioceses where they continued to have access to youth, the blaming of the scandal on the press and even the victims themselves, the apologies that were often not apologies and the fact that only one bishop resigned (and he, Cardinal Law) to take a high position in the Vatican. To be sure, the bishops conference established strict new regulations in 2002 to prevent such a deluge of betrayal ever again. But the bishops have done themselves no favors as they still battle in many dioceses to prevent records of priest abuse from becoming public, lest their catastrophic financial losses grow.
How, many have been asking, can the bishops speak with authority about anything in the wake of the abuse scandal?
The health bill disagreement and the clergy abuse scandal have no direct relationship; they concern very different matters. But you don't have to dig very deep to see the entangled roots. It is unthinkable that 10 years ago (or even five years) an established Catholic body (consisting overwhelmingly of professed women religious) would publicly contradict the united voice of the nation's Catholic bishops on a serious moral issue. It's not unthinkable any more. And Cardinal George's very public reaction suggests he realizes the potential long-range implications of this credibility drain. He sees the chickens coming home to roost. George's initial reaction -- to assert episcopal authority as supreme -- must yield to a more nuanced approach. Unraveling trust can't be won back by proclamation; this isn't our grandfathers' Church any more.
Robert McClory is an associate professor emeritus at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, a longtime writer with the National Catholic Reporter and the author of seven books, including Faithful Dissenters: Men and Women Who Loved and Changed the Church.
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com
Note to readers: The name of the column has changed from Elder Hostile to Church From Below.
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