In an interview
with Jesuit magazine editors, Pope Francis I said it was time to restore some
balance to our God talk. The Pope
said for too long the Catholic Church has been very good at preaching what it
is against, with too little emphasis on what it is for. Regressive Catholics had to blanche
when Francis called for less rhetoric about abortion, contraception and
homosexuality and a return to the central message of the gospels. (Whatever you do for the least of your
brothers and sisters you do for Me.)
The Pope did not reverse any of the Church's positions on these hot
button issues. He didn't plough
any new theological ground. His
was a call to restore some balance to a message which had been buried under a
pile of judgmental and Pharasitic pronouncements about sexuality which ignored
the individual person and instead made the Church appear more concerned about
these issues, never mentioned in the gospels once, while ignoring the central
message Jesus says he came to proclaim.
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, titular head of the Catholic Church in
America, appeared on CBS to comment on the Pope's remarks. His praise for the Pope and his message
was effusive and enthusiastic. The
Pope was simply calling attention to Jesus' message according to Dolan. The Pope was calling Catholics to focus
on the real essence of Christianity and he, Dolan, welcomes the remarks. Really?
With the selection of Popes John Paul II and Benedict the XVI, the
Church has for over 30 years been trying to close the barn door, which was the
Second Vatican Council, after the theology got out. The American Church became a bastion of regressive
theology...bishops were picked not on charisma or lifestyle or fidelity to the
message of Jesus, but rather on their adherence to orthodoxy. The Church rarely found time to talk
about anything other than gays, abortion and contraception. Dolan, and his predecessor Cardinal
O'Connor, presided over an American church which seemed embarrassed by Matthew
25...puzzled by stories of Jesus eating with sinners, prostitutes and tax
collectors...oblivious to Jesus' insight that God wanted us to love our
neighbors as ourselves, forgive with no limit, turn the other cheek and
proclaim the Good News.
While the gap between the 1% and everyone else widened to Grand
Canyon-like proportions...while millions of Americans found themselves in need
of food stamps, unemployment insurance, Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid...while Wall Street, and the nation, lost themselves in the pursuit of
more and more riches and the poverty rate increased...while this nation engaged
in two immoral wars...the American church and its leaders were no where to be
seen or heard.
When a Catholic Republican Congressman, Paul Ryan, proposed a budget plan
for the House of Representatives which gutted funding for the poor...called for
an end to Social Security and Medicare as we know it...demanded tax cuts for
the 1% and increases in military spending, Dolan et.al had nothing to say. Even worse, when Catholic sisters
raised their voices in protest and attacked the proposal as a repudiation of
the Church's call for social justice towards the poor, not only did they
receive no support from the Church hierarchy, they, and fellow women religious,
were subjected to an inquisition questioning if they were somehow rogue or
renegade women out of control and in need of being reigned in.
While neither of his two predecessors had a discouraging word for a
nation which prized money and possessions over everything else, you couldn't
shut them up when sex was the topic.
American prelates were more than willing to enter the political fray
over the question of women and choice.
They could be counted on to condemn, hypocritically, any attempt to use
contraception to plan and manage a family's shape and size. They went to war with President Obama
when his new health care plan required them to make contraception available to
employees in their health plans, employees working in Church public
institutions. They formed political
alliances with the Ryan's and the very political forces leading the charge to
shred the social safety net while calling for lower taxes on the rich and
corporations.
In California, the Catholic Church spent hundreds of thousands of dollars,
not feeding or clothing people, but to help pass Proposition 8, which would ban
same sex marriages in the state.
This despite the fact no church would be obligated to participate in
such marriages. Dolan and Church
leaders visibly and vocally supported the Defense of Marriage Act as well as
any state attempts to control or sanction homosexuality.
While willing to publicly condemn any politician, including Ted
Kennedy, Mario Cuomo and John Kerry, who felt the matter of choice was up to
individual women...felt contraception was something which should be available
to all Americans...felt that what two people did in the privacy of their
bedroom should not expose them to discrimination, Catholic bishops went so far as
to state they would deny communion, the centerpiece of all Catholic liturgy, to
these men and anyone else who agreed with them. As they tried to stop Notre Dame from inviting President
Obama from speaking because of his position on choice...these same Catholic
leaders refused to criticize or sanction Catholic law makers who publicly and
consistently supported the death penalty, opposed increases in the minimum
wage, fought against regulations for clean air and water, and pushed a military
industrial complex which brought death and destruction in its wake.
The Pope now says "enough". Yes, the Catholic Church opposes abortion and thinks
homosexual sexual activity is a sin.
(However, the Pope recently asked how he could be expected to judge a
good person striving to get closer to God who also happens to be gay?) He emphasized in the interview the
strongest voices in the Church have to rise up in support of the least among
us. To be a Catholic means working
for justice...acting in a loving way towards others...working to improve the
conditions of those most in need.
Catholics must reject a culture of unregulated free-market capitalism
which prizes those who die with the most "stuff". A nation as rich as America cannot have
millions going to bed hungry, without adequate shelter and clothing. The Pope is calling for a restoration
of balance in the Church's emphasis and message, a balance long ago lost in the
name of ideological purity and Puritanism. For the Pope, a church which only engages its members when
it comes to sex is a church which has totally abandoned any claim to be called
followers of Christ.
Bravo - Matthew 25!
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