Blame the Victims

A priest friend of mine alerted me to the story about bishops in Spain who recently blamed women for the upsurge in domestic violence against them.

The AP reported: ``With women's deaths and beatings up dramatically in Spain, Roman Catholic bishops have triggered a storm of criticism by saying such domestic violence is "the bitter fruit" of the sexual revolution.

``The comments, released this week in a Spanish Bishops Conference treatise on family matters, drew a barrage of attacks from political parties, women's and social groups and the media.

``Almost every day, Spanish newspapers carry horrific stories about women dying or being beaten by their husbands or partners. At least 70 died violently last year, up from 52 in 2002, according to government figures. Rights groups say the 2003 figure is closer to 100.'' See complete article.

Title Nine for Catholic Seminaries

Blogger's note: One more time I hand this space over to share a response to the seminary column published in The Spokesman-Review Feb. 7. See below.

The Catholic diocese of Spokane wants to raise $9 million for a new college seminary, where young men will be trained to be priests. I have no problem paying to educate our clergy. A former seminarian and seminary professor, I am grateful to all who contributed to my education and supported my labors training future priests. But I cannot contribute to this campaign. It breaks a promise the U.S. Catholic bishops made to support the theological education and formation of women, and it spends millions on a handful of seminarians while offering nothing to train lay leaders who do the bulk of Catholic ministry.

In 1994 our bishops wrote a “Pastoral Reflection on Women in the Church and in Society.” The pope had just told Catholics they couldn’t even discuss the ordination of women, and the bishops tried to soften the blow by promising to find other ways for women to “exercise leadership in the Church.” “We welcome this leadership,” they claimed, “and we commit ourselves to enhancing the participation of women in every possible aspect of Church life.”

Women, the bishops argued, had already taken up the mantle of leadership in the Church. Women were presidents, administrators and faculty at Catholic colleges, universities and seminaries, chief executives of Catholic hospitals, executive directors of Catholic Charities, school superintendents, chancellors, archivists and members of marriage tribunals. Moreover, large numbers of Catholic theologians and scholars were now women, and in parishes around the country women had taken on 85% of the non-ordained ministerial roles.

The bishops promised to welcome and support the swelling ranks of women in leadership and ministerial roles. “Looking to the future,” they wrote, “we especially want to encourage women to pursue studies in Scripture, theology, and canon law.” For, as the pope himself had written, “qualified women can make a great contribution . . . for the good of the Church.” Indeed, the bishops said, “we need to seek ways to honor this call (to leadership) at every level of the Church.” And they committed themselves to “fostering community life where men and women are called forth and accepted as vital collaborators in the work of evangelization, social justice, teaching, administration, and governance.”

But where is our diocesan support for all the “qualified women” training for leadership and ministry in the Church? Where is our diocesan “Title 9” program, matching the millions spent on training men for the priesthood with millions for the women called by the bishops to “pursue studies in Scripture, theology, and canon law?” Where is our diocesan house of formation “where women and men are called forth and accepted as vital collaborators in the work of evangelization, social justice, teaching, administration, and governance?” In this diocese and around the country tens of thousands of women are training for ministry and service in the Church, tens of thousands of women who have cried out, “Here We Are Bishops, Send Us.” The bishops made a promise to these women. We need to keep it.

Since 1965 the number of college seminarians in this country has plummeted from 13,000 to 1300, and two more U.S. college seminaries will close this May, joining the legions of diocesan white elephants now serving as retreat centers, nursing homes or minimum security prisons. A survey of U.S. Catholic seminaries reports that Bishop White had 10 college seminarians last year, less than half the national average, and the diocese spends about half a million dollars a year to support this program. Meanwhile, the number of U.S. Catholic laity training for ministry has swelled to more than 35,000, and of the over 300 academic and professional programs training these future leaders, only 18 are attached to seminaries. Does $9 million to save a college seminary seem like a plan for the future?

If the Church of Spokane is to be a good steward with its limited resources we must invest in the people preparing to lead our children’s Church. Some portion of that investment should go to the 3400 major seminarians training to be priests, but a large portion must be invested in the more than 35,000 (63% of whom are women) studying to be pastors in the 3,000 American parishes without a resident priest, or to be pastoral ministers, catechists, theologians, canon lawyers and chancellors. Let us not be the last diocese in America to build a college seminary, but one of the first to build the Church of the future.

Patrick T. McCormick
Professor/Religious Studies
Gonzaga University
509 323-6715
mccormick@gonzaga.edu

More Dialogue

Blogger's note: Even though my newspaper column on the seminary ran more than 10 days ago, I continue to receive letters, e-mails and phone calls. I continue to be impressed with the writing, and the thoughtful, heartfelt thinking behind the responses -- from those who agreed with me and those who disagreed.
I got my permission from the authors of the following response to place their point of view on the blog. So here it is.

Response to Rebecca Nappi

We are writing to respond to your February 7th column regarding the article entitled “Time is wrong for seminary plan”.

We would like to address the following issues.

--“the solution to the shortage of priest is not building a new edifice hoping seminarians will come”.
The truth of the matter is that the seminarians are already here. Currently we have 20 bright, intelligent men who have answered God’s call and are studying to become priests.

--“the solution is allowing married priests and women clergy. That’s not likely to happen in my lifetime, if ever.”
Then why dwell on it? Instead, lets look at the ways that women do contribute to the church. For example, they serve as parish administrators, lectors, Eucharistic ministers, teachers in our catholic schools and religious education programs just to name a few. Our seminarians are formed to collaborate and work together with all laypeople – women and men alike.

From your article, one might be left with the impression that women are absent from seminary life and formation. We are just three of several other Catholic women who are actively involved in the formation of our future priests. Through our service on the Priestly Formation Council for the Diocese of Spokane, we assist in the screening process of seminary candidates, review seminary policies, and collaborate in the evaluation and promotion of all our seminarians at every level of their formation.

To support your position, you quoted Fr. Donald Cozzens who said, “Telling the truth is difficult. We are prone to denial.” Our truth relates to a current seminary building that needs to be replaced and a system for funding the large number of our seminarians that is lacking. Your conclusion of withholding support is very different from ours. We believe that others echo our search for truth and will join us in answering the call to support the “Here I am Lord, Send Me” campaign for the education and formation of our seminarians.

Kris Fisher, RN
Sr. Cathy Beckley, SNJM
Kathy Hicks, MA

The Dialogue: A Sample

My Saturday column (see post just below this one) generated 50 e-mails and about 20 phone calls. Also, some people responded directly to it on our Web site. See column on Web Site. And Read Replies on Web site.

About two-third of those who gave me feedback agreed with my view; the other third disagreed. I was surprised. I thought it would be the opposite.

What the e-mails had in common was this:
They were all wonderfully written and well-argued. Catholics can write! All that good education, I think.
One of the best examples came from Bernie Korth of Spokane. I asked Bernie if I could post the entire content of the e-mail sent to me. Permission was given. So here it is.

Dear Ms. Nappi,
This is only the third time in my life that I have responded in writing to a news article. In that respect, you should consider this letter a compliment. The first time was when I was 21 years old and on active duty in the Navy. My comments were printed in the Williamsburg, VA newspaper.
The second time was when I wrote a letter to Chris Peck. I don't remember the subject, but it was not published because it was too long. My intent in writing this letter is not to be published, and I request that you not publish this letter without my permission. Consider this as a "personal letter" to you as one Roman Catholic to another. I am a 62-year-old retiree. I was baptized a Catholic in Detroit, Michigan. I attended St. Philip Neri and St. Brigid elementary schools, and I spent one year at Salesian High School (Salesian Brothers). Personally, I never experienced abuse by the priests and nuns who taught me and nurtured my Catholic "Baltimore Catechism" religious education. To my knowledge, no abuse ever happened to my schoolmates. Until recently, I never knew anyone who had suffered abuse. I recently learned that a son of one of my friends was a victim of Fr. O'Donnell. I am as outraged as the next person that the abuse of young people occurred in the church, and I agree that justice
needs to be rendered to those responsible. The abuse of any young person,
whether by parent, minister, scout leader, or teacher is abominable. It's too bad that the media seems intent on singling out Catholic priests as society's primary child abuser.

Yesterday, I returned late from a road trip to the coast. Before I went to bed, I read your article. I can tell you that I was very angry when I first read it, and I continue to be angry today. Only last week, I attended one of the sessions you described where the Diocese of Spokane discussed fundraising for the training of seminarians. My wife and I will contribute to this fund, as we have in past parish and diocese fundraising efforts, and we will continue responding to future requests, as long as we are financially able to do so. Your article will not dissuade us. Thanks to your article, we most likely will increase our donation and perhaps there will be many like me who will contribute more. At the end of the day, you may well add to the endowment without having to spend even one "precious dime" of your own money, so don't lose any sleep over your non-contribution. You will have more money to spend on new outfits, SUV's or whatever suits your fancy. I am upset at your article because you took advantage of your employment to express your personal views on a subject that many non-Catholics are not aware of and have no reason to have an interest. What was the purpose, except to create another "pulpit" for all of those non-Catholics and lapsed Catholics who are so eager to point out what they see as failures by the Church.

What I personally don't need is another opportunity for my Protestant and non-religious friends to criticize Catholics during our morning coffee get-togethers. I'd rather talk about cars, boats, and the latest Craftsman tool catalog. Nor do I think that you need to feed the "frenzy" that seems so common today as the news media seeks to fill papers with more scandalous discussion. . How come you are not writing about all of the good priests that you and I have known in the diocese who have dedicated their lives to the Church. You know who they are! Rather, you prefer to mention unknown Jesuit academics, psychologist priests and others who may never have preached from a pulpit. Who are these guys? They have never given a homily at a mass that I have attended. Was this name-dropping intended to impress your reader, or did you simply want to include only those who would be portrayed as supporting your "personal agenda"? Your comments would have been more appropriate if they would have been published in the Inland Register. In that way, you would have reached the target market that I think you may be trying to reach.

The request for funds for the seminarians could not come at a better time.
We are privileged to have as many as 20 seminarians in Spokane, and as Catholics, we should feel blessed. In this age when so many of our young people are more interested in secular careers, MTV, wearing baggy pants, and the pursuit of material possessions, it is remarkable. If we want young men to commit to the church, we need to support them. When would you suggest is the right time for this fund raising effort? Would it be after we have chased away all of these young men because the press has already branded them as potential predators, even before they take their priestly vows? Is it to be only when we have accepted married priests and women priests? You think that it may not be in your lifetime? I suggest to you that it may not be in my lifetime, but you are younger and one or the other of these may happen in your lifetime. I was amused while listening to BBC during a 2003 visit to the UK. It seems that the wives of the clergy in the UK are trying to unionize. Because they are 24/7 as wives of vicars in the Church of England they feel that they should be compensated for the many hours they spend alongside their vicar husbands. They have to answer the telephone, make coffee or tea for visitors, and attend to all of the other duties that being the spouse of a vicar entails. Now they want to be compensated! The male spouses of the female vicars have joined the campaign. Where will it end? Perhaps your children and mine will have to deal with the same issue.

The time to invest in our young seminarians is now. I happen to know Lucas
(Luke) Tomson, who is currently at the American University in Rome. He is a fine young man and he will make a fine priest. I hope to be present at his first mass. As fellow Catholics, we need to "step up to the plate" and show Luke and his fellow seminarians that we are ready to rebuild the Church. We need to give him and his colleagues the facility and the tools to learn their profession. You say you respect Bishop William Skylstad?
How can you say that when you have just written an article that may only serve to distract and inhibit his efforts? In the meantime you provide fodder to those looking for ways to not participate. Do you really think that you have contributed anything to the future good of the Church?

I think that I will skip this week's coffee "klatch" with my Protestant and
lapsed Catholic friends. I don't need any more stress at my age. As for
you, I would hope that you pray that when the day arrives (and it probably
will) when we are able to recruit women to the priesthood, that some "forward looking" Catholics were willing to make a contribution in 2004 to insure that they had a suitable seminary.

Yours very truly,
Bernie Korth

Let the Conversation Begin

Blogger's Note: I've pasted in my column from Saturday Feb. 7 on a proposed seminary in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane. Have received more than 50 phone calls and e-mails on this and may post some of the responses in this blog, especially from folks who disagreed with me. All were so eloquently written and argued and my hope is that the column will generate some good dialogue.
So here it is.

Rebecca Nappi
The Spokesman-Review

Catholics throughout the Spokane Diocese are being asked to donate money to build and maintain a new Bishop White Seminary. The present one, on Gonzaga University's campus, is in disrepair. Catholics are also being asked to fund an endowment for the education of seminarians. Total price tag: $10 million.

In church bulletins, Catholics have been urged to "consider prayerfully how you will respond."

Here is my response: I cannot donate a dime to this cause. Not a dime.

As a woman who loves the church and respects and likes many priests, this response saddens me. But I have two reasons for it.

Reason One: The timing is terrible. As Catholics we are trying to move forward from the past few years of relentless revelations about sex abuse by priests. Much healing has happened. Much remains.

Last month, the diocese announced it had spent nearly $1 million in settlements, legal fees and counseling for sex-abuse victims. More lawsuits and counseling expenses are likely as victims continue to come forward.

The Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, former head of Catholic Charities USA, said in a recent talk in Spokane that the healing from the sex-abuse crisis will take generations. To rebuild public credibility, the church cannot just acknowledge its mistakes and forge ahead, he said. Instead, all church members must bear "modest witness" to the crisis and "convey that you carry the sense of the burden" for healing that crisis.

The diocese hired a national professional fund-raising outfit to raise $10 million in a diocese that could ultimately spend that much paying for past sins. This is forging ahead too fast. It is not a modest response.

Reason Two: The seminary will not be a place for women. The 16-page booklet outlining the "Here I am Lord, send me" campaign shows women in only three photos. In one, women are seen in the background in a kitchen.

The kitchen is no longer where Catholic women do all their work in the church. Women now fill many key positions in parishes here. An ex-priest I know wishes that one day all women working in parishes would go on strike to provide a wake-up call.

To be fair, a video about the project includes an interview with an articulate Catholic woman explaining her support. And the seminary will include space for parish meetings. So women will be in the building at times.

But asking me to donate money to build something that excludes my entire gender is like asking me to pay dues to a country club where women aren't allowed on the golf course.

I am not anti-priest. I grew up with Monsignor Oakley O'Connor. He called us St. Charles kids "little philosophers," and we learned how to live up to that name. My father brought to dinner intelligent priests who discussed war and politics with me when I was 10. They treated me like a peer and even pointed out my errors in logic.

In college and graduate school at GU, brilliant Jesuits taught me theology and philosophy. I'm currently on a Catholic speaker-series committee with a Jesuit so forward-thinking I've nicknamed him The Prophet. And I'm also collaborating on two books with the priest who presided at my wedding. Finally, I have much respect for Bishop William Skylstad, especially for his leadership through the sex-abuse crisis.

But this seminary campaign seems like an old answer to modern problems in the Catholic Church. We have a critical priest shortage. The solution is not building a new edifice hoping the seminarians will follow. The solution is allowing married priests and women clergy.

That's not likely to happen in my lifetime, if ever. So it's probably an error in logic to withhold support for the only system we currently have to educate priests.

But that's what I'm doing because of words spoken by priest, theologian and psychologist Donald Cozzens last April at GU. Cozzens believes that for true reform to take place, Catholics must find the courage to "speak the truth in love" to themselves, fellow church members, pastors and bishops. He calls this redemptive honesty.

"Telling the truth is difficult," Cozzens said. "We are prone to denial, to not seeing the elephants in the room."

This $10 million campaign looks like the elephant in the room. I cannot ignore it. I cannot support it. This is the truth as I see it now, a truth prayerfully considered.

To see this story on our Web site. Here's the link.

Cardinal Issues

George Weigel, author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, wrote a fascinating op-ed piece in the Washington Post recently.

He looked at the issues that will frame the election to choose a successor to Pope John Paul II. Think that abortion, homosexuality and women's ordination will be the topics the cardinals will "sort themselves out" around?

Wrong, Weigel says.

The hot topics will be:
Collapsing Catholicism in Europe. "Catholic practice in Western Europe is at historical lows. That crisis is one result of a radical secularization that dissolves a people's sense of responsibility for the future."

Radical Islam. "The cardinal-electors know that there are two culturally assertive religious communities with global reach in the world -- Catholicism and Islam -- and they know that radical Islamism is an implacable enemy of religious freedom, the centerpiece of the Catholic Church's approach to world politics for a quarter-century."

Biotechnology. "The Catholic Church welcomes the new genetic knowledge and its capacity to advance the arts of healing. The Catholic Church also teaches that attempts to remanufacture the human condition by manufacturing (or retrofitting) human beings end up dehumanizing us. How to shape the global debate about the new biotechnologies so that humanity gets to the 22nd century without finding itself ensnared in Aldous Huxley's brave new world is a mega-issue bearing hard on the next conclave."
Read entire article.

Four-Star Column

John L. Allen Jr., the Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter, is always interesting to read. He gives an insider view to the workings of the Vatican. His most recent column is filled with great info.

First item: Allen writes that "senior managers in the Vatican are frequently appointed with little regard for expertise in their area of responsibility. The president of the Council for Health Care, for example, has no background in medicine; the prefect of the Congregation for Education is not an educator. The latest entry on this list is Cardinal Francis Stafford, an American appointed in October to head the Apostolic Penitentiary, a key church tribunal, despite the fact that he has no advanced training in canon law."
The logic in appointing non-specialists? Allen says it is "to ensure that Vatican departments are run according to the moral and theological principles of the Catholic church. If you have a man who understands the big picture, this theory runs, he’ll be able to acquire (or subcontract) whatever expertise he needs."

Next interesting item: Allen saw the Pope in his meetings with Vice President Cheney. Described the Pope as "strikingly robust."

One more interesting item: Belgian Fr. Gustaaf Joos, a newly chosen cardinal and Pope buddy, said this recently: "I am willing to write in my own blood that of all those who call themselves lesbian or gay, a maximum of five to 10 percent are effectively lesbian or gay. All the rest are just sexual perverts." Joos told the Belgian reporter: “Don't hesitate to write that down. I demand you write it down. If they (homosexuals) come to protest on my doorstep, I don't care. I will not open the door."

Check out entire Allen column.

Priest Shortage: Take Two

We're learning a new computer program here at the S-R. When searching for a lost story in the system, we have been taught to be sure to look in the right "basket" of stories. If we narrow the search too narrowly, say open the business basket and look for a lost sports story there, we will miss the story for sure. The missing story is most likely in another basket. We just have to widen our search.

The priest shortage can be solved easily by looking into other baskets. The Roman Catholic Church, in my opinion and in the opinion of others, has narrowed the priest basket too, too much. Only men allowed. And only men who say they will remain celibate.

Oh, the other baskets the church could draw upon. All those married deacons. All those married lay folks, all those women. Sigh.

Found two good articles that articulate this well. Thomas H. Groome, professor of theology and religious education at Boston College, and author of "What Makes Us Catholic: Eight Gifts for Life," wrote in a 2002 Boston Globe essay:

"In the mid-'70s, Pope Paul VI set up a blue-ribbon commission of eminent Catholic scholars to investigate the question of women's ordination from a biblical perspective. Their resounding conclusion was that it would not be "contrary to scripture," a most significant finding that opened wide the theological debate. The commission also noted that women in the early church performed functions of ministry that later were reserved for priests.

"It's true, of course, that women were excluded from priesthood throughout Christian tradition, though there are historical rumors of notable exceptions. But remember that the church's cultural context also barred women from the trades and professions, from owning property and from all public work. Who would wonder that they were excluded from priesthood and why repeat such 'tradition'? Clericalism needs to break down; priesthood needs to break open." See complete article.

And a FutureChurch article provides an interesting compilation of statistics and news bites that speak to the priest shortage and the obvious solutions. Two telling excerpts:

"Canadian Bishop Peter Sutton of Keewatin-Le Pas in the Northwest Territories has petitioned the Vatican to ordain married deacons to the priesthood to help with the severe shortage of priests. The diocese has 19 priests to serve 35,000 Catholics and now sees lay-led Sunday liturgies and funerals as inevitable. The diocese of Mackenzie, also in the NW Territories has 20,000 Catholics and only 8 priests (Davenport Messenger 5/11/2000)."

"In a small workshop session at the January Asian bishops' meeting, one bishop told of a fellow bishop who decided that the only way to bring the Eucharist into a large priestless section of his country, was to ordain two married men. Which he quietly did some years ago. (National Catholic Reporter 2/28/00)"
See complete fact list.