2nd Anniversary

This week hails the second anniversary of this blog. I think I have accomplished most of what I have wanted on it. I have tried to give honest and coherent commentary on the issues facing the Catholic Church in Milwaukee and in the world. At times I have also addressed doctrinal issues, which is difficult to make interesting on a blog.

At this point I am anticipating Benedict's third encyclical, which is supposed to cover social issues and be released in June. This document was originally slated to be released at the end of last year, but has been constantly delayed. It is thought that the worsening world financial crisis has caused numerous revisions of the document. I will be intrigued to see if after the release of this document, the U.S. bishops begin to spend any serious ink on the financial crisis.

A Faithful Catholic

Breaking News!!!

In breaking news, Milwaukee Auxiliary Bishop William Callahan has been elected by the archdiocesan College of Consultors to serve as the diocesan administrator of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee until a new Archbishop is installed.

St. Paul/Minneapolis - New Dark Chapter in Sexual Abuse

According to the U.S. bishops news service, the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis is withholding the names of those priests that have been accused of sexual abuse, but have never been charged civilly or criminally. The Archdiocese has stated that they want to be prudent and wait for a court ruling on the matter. Basically, they are not going to divulge the information unless they are forced to, just like many other dioceses across the country. The Archdiocese has currently moved for a protective order for the remaining names until the Second Judicial District Court has ruled on the admissibility of the information.

I can guarantee that if the judge rules that the information is admissible as evidence, they will not disclose it without a fight. And here we see another sad case of an diocese not doing what is right in the hopes of saving a few dollars. I do not like name calling... but these guys are a bunch of scumbags.

A Faithful Catholic

Easter 2009

Happy Easter All!

New life and resurrection. But what is the resurrection? St. Paul states that with the resurrection, Jesus had a spiritual body and many of the disciples do not immediately recognize Christ in his resurrected body.

Hence, it is fair to say this is not a resuscitation of his old, dead, earthly body. And if his old body was missing, this points to a body that has been transformed by God, the Father (or Mother). This is a taste of the resurrection that we hope for. But at the same time, we know that it is completely different and almost unrecognizable from our present state.

With this is mind, it is probably foolhardy to imagine a heaven where we will walk around chatting with our old relatives and friends. With a beautiful understanding and manner, Benedict XVI, in his encyclical Spe Salvi, described heaven as "plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists."

In any case, Happy Easter, let us look joyfully towards the day where we will be born to eternal life.

A Faithful Catholic

Reiki No More! Reiki Never Again!

Above, I replaced the word war with Reiki in JP II's phrase. It simply is sad that in this time of economic crisis, during this time of war and rocket launch testing, the US bishops are worried about Reiki. Reiki is a type of massage from Buddhist Japan that is supposed to heal a person by focusing the "universal life energy." Hence, they believe that Catholic institutions and its representatives (hopsitals & chaplins) should not practice Reiki.

They find this conept of the universal life energry problematic because they do not believe that it falls into the two acceptable healing methods: divine miracle or natural medicine. They make a good point in stating that at the moment there is no scientific evidence that Reiki heals people, but I think there may be another way to understand the universal life energy. According to Einstein, E=mc2. Everything is energy; it is the basic building block of all life. I am not saying that I support Reiki. I just think that the bishops are wasting their time.

Abortions are on the rise because of the economic crisis. Finance is also the primary reason for divorce in the United States. Maybe if the bishops had that data they might decide to address the issue of the economy.

A Faithful Catholic

Abortion is still Numero Uno

Right before leaving office, President Bush implemented conscience protection provisions for healthcare providers who do not want to be involved in abortions. Now some bishops, like Cardinal George of Chicago, are rallying to keep them in place, with no mention of the fact that Bush obviously put them in place to make trouble for the Obama presidency. It's hard to believe Bush would have put these provisions in place if John McCain had been following him.

While Cardinal George compares it to the conscientious objection that Americans can make towards military service, that is not the case. It is similar to selective conscientious objection, which states that a person already in the military should be able to decide to fight only in just wars. While this is official Catholic teaching, the bishops are not pressing for this. A true comparision to regular conscientious objection would mean that people have the right not to enter the medical field.

In truth, I do not have a major problem with medical conscientious objection, I think it is basically a good thing. My concern is that the U.S. bishops have basically made the seemless garment cover fertility to birth and then skip to one's death bed. They have all this other teaching on economic rights, selective conscientious objection for military service, etc., but they have become a one issue religion. It's as if the U.S. bishops read John 3:16 as: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that anyone against abortion who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

A Faithful Catholic

Morlino fires Woman for Private Thoughts

Ruth Kolpack, the pastoral associate of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Beloit, WI was fired recently by Robert Morlino, the bishop of Madison. There were allegations that she discussed the possibility of women's ordination and giving communion to non-Catholics. She denies that this was ever done in her role as a lay minister, but that she may privately hold views that dissent from Church teaching. Basically, she never publicly advocated for these positions.

The crux of the matter is that she was ultimately fired for refusing to denounce her master's thesis, which argued for inclusive language in the liturgy. Because of all the attention around this incident, Morlino will be meeting with her parishioners in April, where she has worked for 26 years.

Fr. Andrew Nelson, a Milwaukee priests and the former rector of St. Francis Seminary, where she graduated, found the situation very unfortunate because he knows that Kolpack is an extraordinary individual. He even went on record with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel saying, "This might be a sign of a certain antagonism toward lay women in ministry in the church, and I feel so bad about that."

In a certain sense, I think that is a sign that if Morlino were to come to Milwaukee as the new archbishop, the priests here will not be silent like the priests in Madison. Another odd issue here is that Morlino fired the woman and not the priest of the parish.

A Faithful Catholic