Forgiveness: Seventy Times Seven

As the threat of another beheading looms in Iraq, I turned to the book Seventy Times Seven written by Johann Christoph Arnold, author, elder and leader with the Bruderhof, a spiritual commune.

Fr. Stan Malnar loaned me the book. I noted him in the blog below. It was a life-opening book of discovery with much wisdom on forgiveness, a timely message during this war time, during the continued healing from the sex-abuse crisis.

Here's an excerpt:
"We all know bitter people. They have an amazing memory for the tiniest detail, and they wallow in self-pity and resentment. They catalog every offense against them and are always ready to show others how much they have been hurt. On the outside they may appear to be calm and composed, but inside they are bursting with pent-up hatred.

"These people defend their indignation constantly: they feel that they have been hurt too deeply and too often, and that somehow this exempts them from the need to forgive. But it is just these people we need to forgive most of all. Their hearts are sometimes so full of rancor that they no longer have the capacity to love."

A Tale of Two Sundays

Two Sundays ago, my husband and I stopped in a rural church for Mass on our way out of town. The church folks were very welcoming, but the priest's homily sounded as if lifted from the punitive 1960s. He went on a riff about how people who don't go to Mass every Sunday are lazy, etc. He seemed like a nice man, though, and he's probably exhausted because he probably covers more than one or two parishes. But still...

In contrast, last Sunday, at St. Al's, The Rev. Stan Malnar, a physician and priest, presided at Mass. In his homily, he talked about the Iraqi war. His homily was so eloquent and powerful, the church grew entirely quiet. I started taking notes, but not soon enough. Here's just some of what he said:

"War unleashes the darkness in the human heart. War has its own momentum. It teaches us how to kill and leaves behind resentment that can last for generations."

The antidote, Malnar said, is "to see the human face of war." The human face of the soldiers, the Iraqi civilians and prisoners.

More Communion Stuff

I wanted to better understand the reasoning of the clergy who favor the Communion ban for Catholic politicians who are pro-choice -- and maybe even for the voters who vote for them.

I find it an alarming issue that will certainly divide Catholics even more. I also see it as one more way certain members of the heirarchy are trying to grasp tight to the power in an institution in which the laity grows more powerful -- and outspoken -- everyday. One older woman Catholic, a Catholic since birth, told me today she'd leave the church if the clergy began telling people how to vote.

Anyway, to read the argument on the other side, I found this essay at National Catholic Register's Web site, written by Father Thomas D. Williams, dean of the theology school at Rome’s Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University.

Here's an excerpt:
"When Church leaders take a strong stand on a particular issue (in this case the moral gravity of abortion), they send a clear message to the faithful that certain moral matters are non-negotiable and that certain actions will provoke consequences. This message reaches beyond the persons directly involved and touches everyone who hears of it.

"I can understand that some bishops would prefer to avoid confrontations at the altar rail, yet this teaching moment may involve some lessons that won’t be learned any other way."

Read entire article.

The Pope and the Frosty Swiss

Pope John Paul II traveled to Switzerland recently. The reception was not exactly warm -- at first. The country is drifitng away from its Catholic roots, along with several other European countries. John Allen of National Catholic Reporter writes:

"Switzerland is a microcosm of the “ecclesiastical winter” besetting much of Europe. The country has a rich Catholic past, centered especially on famous monastic foundations such as the Abbey of St. Gall and Einsiedeln. Despite the impact of the Protestant Reformation, officially speaking, some 44 percent of the 7.7 million Swiss remain Catholic.

"Yet rates of church attendance hover around 16 percent, and they fall off more in urban areas. Anti-clerical prejudices run deep, and under the impact of secularization, there is a widespread indifference to institutional religion. Vocations to the priesthood are scarce, and the Catholic church has virtually no influence on public life. Just two days ahead of the pope’s visit, for example, the national parliament in Bern approved a bill for civil registration of same-sex unions."

There were protests in the streets for the pope's visit and newspaper headlines were downright cutting.

Yet some things did thaw. "Saturday night, John Paul rocked and rolled with 13,000 screaming young Catholics in Bern’s Ice Palace, normally used as a hockey rink. The enthusiasm was palpable, although the largest and most vocal contingent seemed to be composed of Poles. The next day the pope celebrated an open-air Mass in Allmend field before a crowd that organizers estimated at 70,000."

The pope told the young people: “I too, like you, was once 20 years old. I liked to play sports, to ski, to act. I studied and I worked. I had desires and worries. In those years that are now far away, in times in which my homeland was wounded first by war and then by a totalitarian regime, I was searching for the sense to give to my life. I found it in following the Lord Jesus.”

It's a fascinating article. Read the whole thing.

The Eucharist Is Not a Sword

Kudos to Bishop William Skylstad of the Spokane Diocese for his commentary on the recent news that some bishops and priests will deny Communion to certain political leaders and maybe even those who vote for them!

In the June 10 issue of the Inland Register, Skylstad writes:
" Some bishops have stated that they will deny Eucharist to Catholic politicians who have supported abortion legislation. Eucharist is God’s gift to us, God’s presence among us. It is a most precious part of our Catholic heritage. I strongly oppose using Eucharist as a weapon.

"I am not alone in this opinion. Similar views have been voiced by Bishop Wilton Gregory, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.; Bishop Donald Wuerl, Bishop of Pittsburgh and co-editor of The Teaching of Christ: A Catholic Catechism for Adults; and other bishops, both nationally and globally.

"As a bishop, I believe we are called to persuade, not to bludgeon. We have at our disposal so many opportunities and means for sharing the Gospel of Christ. We have neither need nor call to take God’s gifts – God’s plowshares, if you will – and turn them into weapons of divisiveness and anger."

Read entire article.

The Argument for Exiting

In an editorial this week, America magazine urges the Bush administration to set a clear deadline for bringing all the troops home. The sooner the better.

The editorial begins: "The United States went to war in Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction and depose Saddam Hussein. No weapons have been found; Saddam is under arrest. The time has come to declare “mission accomplished” and announce a deadline for bringing the troops home. The administration has made a mess of its Iraq campaign, and it will be difficult and costly to disengage, but disengage we must. The nation must not be allowed to sink any deeper into the military and moral quagmire that is Iraq. There are no longer any good options available. An orderly exit is the least costly alternative for both the United States and Iraq."

Read it all.

The Prez and the Pope

The mainstream news reported the meeting of the president and the pope in very mainstream ways.

I watched it from the frame of Born-Again WASP meets the Byzantine World of the Vatican. Wow.

Let's see. Wonder what Bush et al thought of all the Vatican bigwigs who wear those long black robes and the beanies. They were everywhere.

Wonder what Bush was thinking as the pope read his speech in words that were barely understandable. Bush had that frozen look of someone who is watching a school play and the inexperienced actors are blowing their lines right and left. The Vatican men just acted as if this was business as usual. It was.

I wondered, too, about Laura Bush's black chapel veil. It seemed to harken to the Jackie Kennedy Catholic look of the 1960s. I don't know if head covering is a requirement for women when they have an audience with the pope. We women have not had to cover our heads in church for decades.

I know modest dress is required in the Vatican, as it should be, but I'd love to know if Laura thought that was what she was supposed to wear. So she did.
(By the way, I thought she looked very elegant.)

I also sense that it felt very electric in that room. No matter one's personal feelings about the pope or president, I've heard that when you actually meet either one in person, there is a certain profound feeling that demands respect and awe.

Wish I could have been there.

Anna Quindlen on the Communion Issue

In the May 31 edition of Newsweek, columnist Anna Quindlen has done the best job explaining why many Catholics are so outraged about the priests and bishops who say they would refuse communion to Democratic candidate John Kerry due to his pro-choice stance.

It goes against tradition: "Too many bishops seem to have missed key seminary lessons: the ones on the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas that civil and moral law are often two different things."

It's hypocritical: "Why were known pedophiles permitted to give communion for years, while people of conscience at odds with Vatican teaching (not church dogma) are prohibited from receiving it?"

It's inconsistent: "Now we have cafeteria clergy, picking and choosing which prohibitions they emphasize and which politicians they damn. What of the pro-life policies of a living wage or decent housing? The church is opposed to the death penalty, yet no bishop has suggested he will deny the sacrament to those who support capital punishment."

Read the entire article. It's excellent.