All The Pope's Men

I love The Tablet, a British journal that considers itself a "paper of progressive, but responsible Catholic thinking, a place where orthodoxy is at home but ideas are welcome." It always has something thought-provoking to say about the trends and reforms in the church.

Came across this great review of John Allen's book "All the Pope’s Men: The inside story of how the Vatican really thinks."

An excerpt: "Allen's 'top ten Vatican values' are instructive. Authority is an expression of community and tradition: the assumption of the Curia is that 'power ennobles, because it flows from Holy Orders and draws on the grace of the Sacrament' - which is also, incidentally, the main reason it is not particularly women, but lay people in general, who fall far below the top rungs of decision-making. But few believe that ordination inoculates a man from being naïve, stubborn or simply wrong; the Pope's fiercest critics, he points out, are just down the corridor from him.

"He is also particularly good on the bella figura, the importance which the Vatican no less than Italians attach to keeping up appearances. This means steering clear of embarrassments and disagreements, which can result in a failure to face up honestly to problems (not least the sex abuse crisis). But it is also an attitude that life is a kind of art, and that efficiency and results are not the only goods. Beauty beats speed; formality trumps directness; the law's ideal must be upheld - even if privately those who fail to meet it will be compassionately dealt with."

"The Vatican sees itself as cosmopolitan ('officials have to think not just how something will play in Peoria, but in Pretoria and Peking and São Paulo') and objective, proud to be above the fray of local passions and insulated from lobbies and cultural pressures. Vatican officials do not see themselves as imperialists imposing their will on local Churches, but as defenders of the 'simple faithful' against avant-garde theologians, experimental liturgists, or bishops who believe themselves above canon law. Which helps to explain - although Allen does not mention it - why the Vatican takes seriously objections from self-appointed orthodoxy police in dioceses: not because it helps the Vatican to impose a line on local Churches but because it believes it is defending the 'simple faithful'. But sticking up for the little guys is selective, he observes. 'Since in general most Vatican officials tend to be theological conservatives, the populism of the Holy See tilts to the right.'"

Tucson's Bankrupt, too

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson declared bankruptcy Sept. 20. I was away from the office when it happened and didn't blog it, but I want to get it on the record here now. The purpose of this blog is to mark the church milestones that will lead, by necessity, to a Vatican III of some sorts.

These bankruptcies are big news in the scheme of things.

Tucson is the second diocese to do this. See story.

The Archdiocese of Portland was the first. (By the way, archdiocese is just the name they give to a big diocese.)

The cost of the sex-abuse scandal was a factor in both bankruptcies. The good that might come out of it is this might mean less secrecy all the way around in all dioceses, because financial details can come out in court.

Christian Science Monitor has a good story on that. Read here.

An African Pope?

John Allen of National Catholic Reporter just returned from a trip to Africa. Read his column about it.

If and when there is a Vatican III, Africa will be a huge player as Catholicism is spreading and rooting there in some very interesting ways. Some even suggest Africa would be the place to hold Vatican III to reflect how much the church has changed since Vatican II.

Allen spoke with Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a'Nzeki at his Nairobi residence on Sunday evening, Sept. 12. Here's an excerpt from his interview

Allen: "What do you make of the so-called "sects," small independent Protestant movements, that are growing rapidly in Africa."

Archbishop: "They come out forcefully, but they don't seem to keep their stamina. They seem to burn out quickly. … There is too much dancing and emotion, usually without a moment of reflection. Whereas traditionally, like in the area where I was born, when we met for worship there was a moment for talking, for chatting, and then a moment came when no one talked until the leader does this business around the tree, pouring water or oil or what have you, and then he sits down and starts talking. Even the children would keep quiet at that moment. This is traditional African religion. In the Catholic church, we have the moment when the priest prays, the consecration, when nobody else talks, so it's familiar to Africans."

Allen: "What is the relationship with Islam?"

Archbishop: "We worked together until a debate arose over the new constitution. The Muslims wanted Islamic religious practices inserted, and there we differed. They wanted their Islamic legal system, the shariah, their courts, to not only be recognized but financially supported. We wanted a clause that would recognize all religions and their rules, for example canon law, provided that religious law does not work in conflict with the national constitution. They walked out of the meeting, but we are trying to get them to come back. … Really, apart from areas where there is a heavy Muslim population, in Kenya we have no fight."

Allen: "Some say that the Catholic church has stood in the way of solving the AIDS question because of its opposition to condoms."

Archbishop: "For me, a condom is not the answer. In fact, in this country I would say without fear that the use of condoms has been the greatest means of increasing the cases of AIDS. … In this country, to provide a young person, a young Kenyan, with a condom is a license. It's like saying, "my son or daughter, you are free." And they do it."

Allen: "Many have talked about the idea of an African pope. Is the African church ready to produce a pope?"

Archbishop: "It's possible, if there is one who could be elected by the cardinals. Why not? Whoever thought there would be a pope from Poland?"

Have They No Shame?

Been out sick for a week, and reading an article by Reese Dunklin of the Dallas Morning News made me feel even more ill. Seems priests accused of sexual abuse, and some who covered up the scandal, have found refuge in Rome. I couldn't find a Web link to the entire story, but here's an excerpt:

"Here in the heart of Catholicism, church leaders are giving refuge to priests who face allegations of sexual abuse in other countries.

"The Dallas Morning News located the men – some of them admitted abusers – as part of a yearlong investigation into the global movements of accused priests.

"Some are stationed in the comfort of their religious orders’ world headquarters. One strolls by St. Peter’s Square en route to his job. Another leads English-language tours at ancient church burial grounds. And until recently, one man was serving his house arrest across the street from the Vatican. The priests would not discuss their cases at length. Their supervisors said they did not assign the men to Rome to help them elude law enforcement or victims. The goal, they said, was to give the priests a place to live and work away from children.

"It’s not the worst place in the world; that’s true," said the Rev. Michael Higgins, the Passionist order’s American leader. Last year, he sent to Rome a priest who had been investigated, but not prosecuted, on abuse claims. "But it’s not a reward."

"A former top administrator at a Catholic college near the Vatican said placing accused and even fugitive priests in Rome was "very detrimental" – especially at a time when the church is trying to restore its battered image.

"I don’t think they understand taking those people over there is a scandal," said the Rev. Lawrence Breslin, a retired priest who was the second-in-command at Pontifical North American College. "Rome is the center of the church. People see it as a holy place. It is not a place for harboring criminals."

Ministering to the Stricken

The Catholic priest who ministered at the Russian school massacre gave an interview to the Catholic News Service that is enlightening and sobering.

Here's an excerpt:
"Having been a priest for 22 years, I should perhaps have been better prepared, but having watched car after car bringing little children's bodies for burial, I'm deeply shocked," said Father Janusz Blaut, pastor of the Catholic parish in Vladykavkaz, capital of the North Ossetia province.

"The church's task will be to calm emotions and discourage people from answering evil with evil. But it won't be easy to convince a father who's lost his wife and four children -- not by some natural catastrophe, but through a human act of terror," he said.

Read article.

Protest at St. Albert in Boston

When Vatican III finally happens, one trend that might be noted is the way that lay people stopped acting like sheep -- finally. One example from today's news.

Parishioners at St. Albert the Great in Boston crowded a courtroom to try to stop the archdiocese from seizing and selling off the church's assets.

The parish was closed Sept. 1 by the archdiocese, one of the casualties of the clergy sex-scandal that pressed the finances of the Boston Archdiocese.

Here's an excerpt from boston.com.
"More than 150 parishioners crowded into a courtroom in Suffolk Superior Court, standing in the back and alongthe sides, with the overflow sent to the balcony. The parishioners had rented three buses to take them from their embattled Weymouth parish to the courthouse for the first round in a legal battle that pits them against their archdiocese.

"The parish has filed a lawsuit against the archdiocese, saying the church belongs to them, not to the hierarchy. Despite the closing, parishioners have refused to leave the church, maintaining what they call "an eternal prayer vigil" since the final Mass was said Aug. 29."

Read the whole article.

Prayers for the Little Ones

The scene of the scared and naked Russian schoolchildren haunts the world this week. Pope John Paul II prayed for them, too.

The article in Zenit reads, in part: "The Holy Father began with a meditation in which he contemplated Mary as a child, and asked: "How can one not think of the many defenseless little ones of Beslan, in Ossetia, victims of a barbarous kidnapping and tragic massacre?"

"They were inside a school, the place where one learns the values that give meaning to history, culture and peoples' civilization: reciprocal respect, solidarity, justice and peace," he said.

"Behind those walls, instead, they experienced outrage, hatred and death, evil consequences of a cruel fanaticism and an insane contempt for the human person," the Pope added."

Read article

In Search of a Pope

Atlantic Monthly has an excellent article in its September issue titled "In Search of a Pope" by Paul Elie. Only a snippet of it is available on the magazine's Web site. See here.

He mentions several "candidates" for the next pope. He also does a great analysis of the current pope.
Here's an excerpt:
"Where the experts expected the papal role to diminish, John Paul has surprised them by taking it to the people. John Paul has made his entire pontificate a pilgrimage -- one full of implications for the pilgrimage of the ordinary believer.

"Through his trips he has made clear that the whole world -- not just a certain 108 acres within Rome -- is pilgrim territory. In recent years, by carrying on in public even though he is physically diminished, he has acted out the central Christian belief that it is in suffering embraced in faith that redemption is to be sought."