Bishop William Callahan Going to La Crosse...

Yesterday morning, Bishop William Callahan was appointed by Pope Benedict to be the next bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse. He is currently an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The La Crosse diocese probably will not notice much a change from its two previous bishops, Burke and Listecki.

I find this to be a disappointing move on behalf of Pope Benedict. Callahan is almost as far away from the Vatican II mold of bishop as can be found. He views the Church in a state of persecution from the world at large. As such, it would be very appropriate for the closing hymn of his installation mass to be "Onward, Christian Soldiers," which he has referenced in the past. In contrast, Vatican II presents a vision in which the Church that can be in dialogue with the world. Nevertheless, Callahan does not see himself as a diplomat for the Church, but a soldier.

For those in La Crosse that really liked their previous bishops, they should be very happy with their new bishop. For those who did not like their previous bishops, I feel great sorrow. I would like to think that Callahan will be a bit less ostentatious in his conservatism and may have learned something from Timothy Dolan's style, but only time will tell.

A Faithful Catholic

Fr. Roy Bourgeois Keeping Busy...

Fr. Roy Bourgeois, who the Vatican excommunicated recently because of his involvement at the ordination of a woman, is keeping busy. There is a video on youtube that documents a talk that he gave recently to a group of faithful Catholics to hear about the calling of women to the priesthood in the Catholic Church.

The video is broken up into about two 9-minute segments:

Part 1 Part 2

As Fr. Roy states, "There will never be justice in our Catholic Church until women can be ordained." To paraphrase Fr. Roy, at present, women are sitting at the back of the Catholic bus. I thank Fr. Roy for his witness and his sacrifice in standing up for the rights of God. God has a right to call certain women to the priesthood. Who are we to deny God? And while I am sure that Fr. Roy will be all right in the end, his excommunication is taking him out of a world of security that exists for priests. That sacrifice is very admirable and appreciated. Once again, thank you Fr. Roy.

A Faithful Catholic

The Good and the Bad in the Jodi O'Brien Scandal at Marquette

I think that it is about time that I add my two cents about the Jodi O'Brien scandal at Marquette University. The obvious bad about the whole thing is that another lesbian is being publicly disgraced by a Catholic institution. This is made worse by Marquette lying about the whole thing. Anyone on the inside will tell you that Marquette (and Fr. Wild) were completely aware of her scholarly works on the issue of marriage before they offered her the job as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. It was only after pressure from Archbishop Listecki (who has been amazingly silent in the public realm regarding this issue and letting Fr. Wild take all the heat for it) and a few big donors that Fr. Wild changed his mind and rescinded the job offer.

The good... Marquette's lies illustrate it's own belief that if they were completely honest about her lesbian attribute being the reason that they rescinded the offer, they would lose public credibility. I wonder in retrospect if Fr. Wild would have rescinded the offer if he knew that there was going to be this type of student uproar and public scrutiny of him and Marquette. If you are not aware, the New York Times even picked up on this story early on. In any case, he wants to position himself as someone who would have no problem hiring an openly gay/lesbian person if they did not write about it in regard to Church teachings.

More good... a large contingent of students at Marquette, many of whom are Catholic, are standing up for the belief that a lesbian can be the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, which includes the theology department. It's reminiscent of the Young Catholics for Choice. It demonstrates that there is still a large contingent of young Catholics who are willing to engage in dialogue with the Catholic hierarchy, even when the hierarchy now wishes they would go back to pray, pay, and obey.

More good? I'm not sure how to interpret Listecki's silence. Is he afraid that if he speaks on this issue, all the pressure would go to him? Why is he content to let Marquette flail on its own? Why hasn't Fr. Wild thrown him under the bus with himself? Is Listecki worried he might get student protesters outside his home? It will be interesting to see if and when Listecki has anything to stay on this issue.

A Faithful Catholic

Diocesan Trustees...

In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, every parish is its own corporation. The five person board of directors for every parish consists of two bishops, the parish priest, and the two lay trustees. Although canonically, the priest is in charge of the parish, the two trustees have the ability to notice if anything is out of sync financially - one of the trustees' signatures is required on all the checks. In reality, you often have trustees who do not take this responsibility seriously, always trust the priest, or are incompetent. There are also some great trustees out there. Though it would be nice if parishes, who nominate and vote for the trustees, realized on a deeper level the serious and positive effects that this position can be for the parish community financially.

I think that this is a model that could be adapted to the diocesan level. A board of lay trustees, nominated and chosen by the laity in a diocese, would have full access to financial records. These lay trustees would then be at liberty to disclose any pertinent information to the general Catholic population. This method would have prevented scenarios such as Archbishop Weakland paying off a blackmailer and many U.S. bishops from paying hush money to cover up sexual abuse. And if these heinous actions had happened despite having lay elected trustees, then at least we have more blame to spread around and we could vote in better trustees. As of now, the laity are not allowed to vote in a new bishop. Just a thought...

A Faithful Catholic

Ratzinger... the better pope

In the opinion section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, there was a piece by New York Times writer Ross Douthat. Basically, he saw John Paul II as the charismatic pope who was "a weak administrator, poor delegator, and sometimes a dreadful judge of character." His protecting of Fr. Marcial Maciel is a case in point. In general, JP's charisma and good looks covered a litany of faults in the public square.

Benedict's handling of the the Vatican and dealings with pedophiles has been far superior. But he's also buried himself in a state of "retrenchment, resentment, and self-pity." And more importantly, he's still not doing enough. He has been tough on pedophiles since he became pope, he has not properly sanctioned any bishop.

To me, Douthat's article is right on. It may be cute for the Vatican to be willfully wrong on doctrinal issues, but claim no fault in the Church's handling of sexual abuse is crazy (see again Fr. Marcial). I wait in great interest to see if Benedict can be the pope I hope him to be.

A Faithful Catholic

Papal Drama Continues...

As reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Friday, 26 March 2010 (from the NY Times), Pope Benedict had memos sent to him concerning the pedophile, Fr. Peter Hullermann. This priest was supposed to be sent to treatment for his pedophilia in 1980, which he was. But he was also returned to active ministry within days of beginning treatment - obviously not enough time to be "cured" even in the pre-1985 world where many thought pedophilia could be cured.

According to Rev. Lorenz Wolf, judicial vicar at the Munich Archdiocese, many memos are never read by the archbishop of Munich and this MIGHT have been one of them. Also, maybe Hullermann's name had come up in conversation with Ratzinger, but he could not remember with any certainty.

This all smells very bad to me. How could any bishop say that they were not aware that known-pedophiles were being reassigned when they were not supposed to be? What about the special relationship that is supposed to exist between the bishop and priest. It is supposed to be like a father-son relationship. I do not think I am alone in thinking that this father allowed his son to be a wolf among sheep.

A Faithful Catholic

Old Wine Skins Falling Apart...

With the recent revelations of sexual abuse in Germany, which open the possibility of some responsibility being with the Pope's brother, and maybe even Benedict himself, it appears that clergy abuse of minors is not simply an "American problem." There are obviously mixed opinions at the Vatican regarding the situation. In the past week, http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/ has documented Vatican responses that vary from "that was in the past, we have control of it" to "we need to examine the role of women in the decision-making processes of the Church."

When the sexual abuse crisis was at its height in America in 2001, some in America wanted John Paul II to take the stand here in America as he was our bishops's boss. Now, with the new revelations that make themselves known everyday in Germany, could the German government be in position to call in Benedict as a material witness regarding his time as Archbishop of Munich and Freising?

I know better than to be overly optimistic regarding quick changes in the Catholic Church, but this scandal epitomizes the problem that is present with the current state of power relationships in the Church. One wonders if the those such as Benedict and his brother hoped that they would be dead before these German revelations came to light. In any case, the next few months will be very interesting...

A Faithful Catholic