Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

In today’s Enquirer (article by Dan Horn)–my emphases and comments.

Catholics stand together during Sunday Mass to recite the “Profession of Faith,” a creed that defines precisely what it is that makes them Catholic.

“We believe in God … We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ … We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.”

The prayer covers a lot of ground, from God’s creation of the Earth to Christ’s birth and crucifixion to the promise of life in heaven. Most churchgoing Catholics memorized the words as children and consider the creed a statement that unites them in a common belief.

And yet, when they walk out of church at the end of Mass, they still find plenty about their faith to argue about.

The arguments have been passionate in recent weeks as Cincinnati’s Catholics debated Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk’s decision to punish Sister Louise Akers for publicly supporting the ordination of women priests.

Pilarczyk told Akers she could not teach in archdiocesan schools until she renounced her stance on the issue. A week after she refused, a parish priest in Westwood dismissed a volunteer religion teacher, Carol Egner, for writing a letter to The Enquirer supporting Akers and her position on women priests.

The decision to punish the teachers not only rekindled debate over the ordination of women, but also highlighted a long-running tug-of-war between traditionalists and progressives over the future of the Catholic Church.

“What’s happening with Akers is not an isolated case,” said John Allen, an author and columnist who covers the Vatican for the National Catholic Reporter, an independent weekly newspaper. “It’s a small piece of a much bigger picture.”

The struggle within the church has intensified in the past few years as conservative Catholics, energized by the appointment of Pope Benedict XVI, pushed for stricter adherence to church teaching. They have praised a Vatican investigation of women’s religious orders, welcomed a return to traditions such as the granting of indulgences and cheered Pope Benedict’s declaration that Catholics must “not seek to adapt the faith to the fashions of the age.”

They also supported Pilarczyk’s decision to get tough with Akers over the ordination of women, which some consider a vestige of a liberal theology that took hold in the 1960s and 1970s after the Second Vatican Council.

The council, also known as Vatican II, launched reforms that some theologians now say were misinterpreted as an invitation to change the central teachings of the faith to better mesh with the changing secular world.

“Vatican II wasn’t intended to set off a liturgical civil war, but that’s what we got,” said Rich Leonardi, a Cincinnatian who writes the conservative Catholic blog Ten Reasons. “There was a tendency to think the church should just go with the flow, to move with the world rather than to move the world.

“That ship has sailed. There’s no intensity around that movement any more.”

Catholics who favor reform dispute Leonardi’s take on their views, saying they remain active and committed to changing their church from within. They acknowledge, however, that they face more challenges today than they did just a few decades ago.

“I do think there seems to be a trend among bishops around the country to get much more hard-line about women’s issues,” said Christine Schenk, director of FutureChurch, which favors a “discussion” about women’s ordination but has not endorsed the idea.

“It’s a mystery to me, but talking about women’s equality in the church is threatening at some level.” (Oh. Puh-leaze. Genesis doesn’t say “male and female he created equally” It says, “Male and female he created them.” Each gender is unique, and each has unique gifts. They are not interchangable things. For more–read the Theology of the Body. Even a brief summary will suffice.)

Dealing with dissent

Conservatives have gained momentum in the past decade among the laity, in seminaries and in the church hierarchy. They have taken to blogs, TV and radio and have become more active in church affairs and in secular politics.

That was evident earlier this year when bishops and thousands of lay Catholics publicly opposed President Barack Obama’s speech at the University of Notre Dame on grounds that his pro-choice stance conflicted with Catholic teachings.

“What we’re living through right now is a kind of reaction against what was seen as an excessively liberal period,” Allen said.

From the outside looking in, divisions within the church are not all that visible because polls show America’s 70 million Catholics tend to hold views similar to those of the general population.

But those polls also show that Catholics who describe themselves as “orthodox” or who attend Mass regularly are more closely aligned with their church’s teachings on issues such as abortion, homosexuality and embryonic stem cell research.

These are the Catholics who have embraced what some call the “Catholic identity movement,” which calls for closer adherence to the traditions and teachings that separate Catholics from other Christian faiths.

“A watered down Catholicism that asks nothing of its members shouldn’t expect to get anything in return,” Leonardi said.

One of those teachings is the all-male priesthood. While not referenced in Scripture, it is based on sacred tradition passed down over 2,000 years and is specifically referenced in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

In other words, the male priesthood is non-negotiable.

“The church has no authority to ordain women,” said archdiocese spokesman Dan Andriacco. “It is not an open question.”

He said the discipline imposed on Akers and Egner is not part of a wider crackdown on dissent, as some fear, and the archdiocese has no interest in rooting out rank-and-file Catholics who don’t agree with everything the church does, including the 60 percent who tell pollsters they support ordaining women.

“There is no witch hunt,” said the Rev. Earl Fernandes, dean of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. “We’re a big church. We try to help each person to grow in faith.”

‘Spirit of openness’

Dissent is nothing new for Catholics. The church’s positions on birth control, celibacy for priests, the Latin Mass and a host of other traditions and teachings have been argued for decades, or even centuries.

Priests and bishops know not every Catholic will adhere to every teaching of the faith, and most say there is room on some issues for healthy debate, or at least for disagreement.

“We want to have a fundamental spirit of openness,” Fernandes said.

Church officials say Akers and Egner crossed a line because they are teachers who publicly challenged church teachings. Their argument goes something like this: Religion is about belief, and those who believe women should be priests don’t believe what the Catholic Church teaches. They believe what Methodists teach. (Ha!)

That doesn’t mean they have to quit the church, but it does mean they aren’t permitted to teach. (Exactement!)

“We want our teachers to be authentic,” Fernandes said. “We want our teachers to believe what they teach.”

Both Akers and Egner say they would not express their views on women’s ordination in their classes, and they consider themselves loyal to their church and to the core beliefs recited every Sunday in the Profession of Faith.

They say there should be room in their church for them to do the work they love, even if they disagree on the ordination of women.

“Catholics have a very long tradition of various beliefs and the ability to talk about them,” Egner said. “Sometimes things change.”

In Cincinnati, there’s things a-brewing, since the archibishop has told a nun she can no longer teach, due to her support for female ordination.

Now, a supporter of the nun’s, an OB/GYN who teaches 6th grade Old Testament at her parish, has been asked to stop teaching, because she, too, supports women’s ordination.

I was going to do a write-up about this, but, as usual, Fr. Z does it so much better than I. He also includes article links.

Today I went to noon Mass at St. Joseph’s downtown. I made a promise to myself to go more often, so…no day like today, right?

Usually I like to get there early so I can say my rosary (or most of it) in front of the tabernacle, in the Eucharistic chapel. There’s just something about praying my rosary there, in front of Jesus in the tabernacle, that makes it that much more special for me, and I feel so much closer to Our Lord. So this is an important time for me. I tend to work out big problems while doing this, too.

So I was praying, per usual, when I saw a nun and a little girl. I couldn’t tell what order the nun was with–I didn’t recognize her habit (grey head scarf/pieces, whatever it’s called now, a sort of lighter-gray, dark white dress, rope around the waist, wooden rosary also at waist). The nun, who looked about my age, was pointing things out to the little girl, and, when they reached the chapel, the nun showed her how to genuflect and make the Sign of the Cross. I’m guessing the girl was about three or four.

The sister and the child attended the Mass (today’s the feast day of St. Bartholemew, BTW), and I sat in front of her. During the peace we shook hands. She had the most radiant, calm, peaceful face. And she was very friendly and obviously patient, to take the little girl around like that.

Seeing a nun–in habit!–worshipping and teaching like that was a good insertion to my day. It also helped me stick to my resolve to be more prayerful, more in tune with God.

“God has brought you here to stretch you.” –Dr. Miletic

So today at around 5:00 I went back to school. 

A big box, delivered via UPS, was waiting for me in my apartment office. Inside was one spiral bound course text and two binders–one for Principles of Biblical Study I and one for Sacraments. I opened the box rather ceremoniously, with scissors, as opposed to my usual grab and tear open method. 

I read the course materials, the Distance Learning Guidelines and ‘how to submit assignments.” Biblical studies has no exams, just papers, which increase in the difficulty (the first was really just a worksheet!), culminating in a 10 page exegesis paper, which is basically a close reading of a Biblical text. Sacraments, on the other hand, has no papers, just a midterm and a final. I had to order the documents of Vatican II, which I should get on Saturday, so I decided to start Biblical Studies (211/511) today. 

I found a blue legal pad left over from my days at Cap, grabbed a mechanical pencil, and put the CD into my DVD player. Perched on my rocking chair I selected the first lecture. 

It was great. I felt like I was right in the classroom with them, on the first day of some balmy August. The professor, Dr. Miletic, is 1) VERY easy to understand , 2) wickedly intelligent and 3) very funny. My hand was flying over the notepad as I took notes. It was incredibly exciting, invigorating, astounding. 

He talked about the usual things–class expectations, the syllabus, the texts for the class. Then, since the class focuses on the Old Testament (OT), he talked about how it came into being–first in Hebrew, then translated into Greek by Alexander the Great around 330 AD. He discussed how the OT and the NT are intertwined, how you cannot really know one without the other. We even talked about the hypostatic union! (which is the idea that Jesus is both God and Man–he is an invisible, eternal person who also took on a finite human nature).  He was great. All the ideas flowed seamlessly into another. And then the class was over.

The assignments were: start the worksheet (asssingment 1–I actually finished it, go me!) Read 40 paragraphs of the CCC on Sacred Scripture (101-141), and then read Dr. Miletic’s handout on what we just read in the CCC (very helpful). Then, start reading Genesis. 

OK so I got through the first three things. CCC, handout, worksheet. Done. Filed the worksheet to be mailed in when it was due. 

Then I picked up my Bible. For my MA I’m using the Ignatius version since I love the RSV translation. I thought, well, I’ll just read until I get bored. Genesis is 50 chapters and I have weeks to read it. (We have a long time with Genesis. Then we’re reading like a book of the Bible every two days.) 

I picked up the pencil and notepad again and began to read. I read the whole thing, noting typology (where Jesus is prefigured in the NT), the covenant, and made a rough timeline–who was born when, who married who, when Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt. Which of Jacob’s wives had which of his 13 kids. 

When I was finished I wanted to go on to Exodus–much like I wanted to go on to the next lecture. But I didn’t. I typed up my notes (might come in handy later) and checked off the assignments. 

Tomorrow I’ve got my first Sacraments lecture. There’s no actual assigned reading, so I’m not quite sure how this will work, but whatever. We’ll find out. 

On the tentative schedule I made, I will be done with both these classes in mid-September. I have six months from the date the courses are mailed to finish, so my completion date was early-to-mid November. I LOVE being ahead! Basically I set it up like so: MWF–Sacraments; T Th–Biblical Studies. Now if Sacraments ends up being longer than 50 minutes, I’ll switch, but I think this will work well. Biblical Studies has a ton of reading with it, so I’ll probably need more time to get that all done as I get to things like “Numbers/Deuteronomy in two days”.

(did you know the Fourth Sunday of Easter was called Good Shepherd Sunday? I didn’t.)

This Sunday I attended Mass at my mom’s home parish, Church of the Nativity,in Baldwin, PA (a suburb of Pittsburgh).  Besides being the church where all my mom’s sisters were married, it’s also where I was baptized on May 9, 1982 (Mother’s Day that year). 

I hadn’t been to the church in awhile, and there were lots of changes, both cosmetically (new carpet, new pews) and liturgically–the tabernacle has been moved front and center, behind the altar, and the servers ring bells at the moment of consecration (loved that!). If, as Fr. Z tells us, we must “say the black and do the red”, then Nativity is well on its way. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Latin Mass there someday. There’s a group that says Rosary before every Mass, and they have a Divine Mercy icon to the right of the altar. 

The priest was a visiting priest–the Diocese of Pittsburgh does “priest swaps”, where local pastors switch churches for a weekend. I think it’s a good idea. This one was from St. Germain, which has merged with Nativity’s school to form St. Katherine Drexel Catholic School. All my mom’s siblings went to Nativity, and my grandfather taught music lessons there, so it’s sad to see the school merged with another. But the parish is 100 years old, so it’s a sign of the times (sadly). 

The priest told us about Good Shepherd Sunday, and connected the Gospel (from John 10) to the raising of Lazarus from the dead in Chapter 11–followers of Jesus are like the sheep who know their shepherd’s voice. Jesus only had to say to Lazarus, “Lazarus, come out!” and he did. We don’t need to hear a lot of words if we are in touch with Jesus’s voice. The priest then went on to discuss how shepherds and sheep-herding really worked (i.e., how the sheep had names the shepherds would call, how they would be rounded up into their pen, etc) and connected that with how Jesus cares for us. 

How much attention do we give our shepherd? We know that our shepherd laid down his life for us–his sheep. Real sheep don’t know that–they can’t intellectually figure that out. But we can.

Some of you long-time readers may remember my first silence retreat experience.

I didn’t take one last year, and I regretted it. Didn’t want to make that mistake again.

So, in April, I’ll be heading to our diocese’s St. Therese Retreat Center for a weekened of silence, prayer and reflection with women from throughout the diocese.

If you live in the Columbus Diocese, and would like to sign up, there’s still time! More information, and a printable, mailable registration form, can be found here.

I am very much looking forward to this, especially since it comes soon after my birthday. It will be a lovely time to pray and reflect.

or, The Lightness of Spirit After A Good Confession
Recently I’ve been trying to go to Confession more. Not that I’ve suddenly taken to committing adultery and coveting my neighbor’s goods, but I thought it would be a fruitful spiritual practice. My sins, as they are, are more of the omission type in nature–things I should have done, but didn’t–or things that are small, but erode the soul. Petty things.

But I hadn’t been in awhile. One of the things about doing shows is that time for Confession is usually time for rehearsal. Or time to recover from said rehearsal. So I hadn’t been.

Last Thursday I went to St. Joseph’s in downtown Columbus, and went. The Cathedral offers confession on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it’s about three blocks from my office. So down I went, on a lovely spring day.

There was a bit of a line, so I pulled out my rosary and prayed the Luminous Mysteries. As I prayed, the cathedral organist was practicing in the choir loft. More people joined the line. The sun found its way through the stained glass windows and fractured into rainbow colors on the old floor.

After I finished the mysteries, it was my turn.

My confession was short, and the penance even shorter. But the particular priest who was giving confessions that day did a marvelous job. Through his ministry I felt forgiven, cleansed, ready to head into the second half of Lent with a deeper purpose. The doubts and misgivings I’d had over the past few weeks seemed…lessened. Burdens lifted.

After I left the reconciliation chapel, I headed to the tabernacle to say my prayers.  I particularly love praying before this tabernacle–it’s in a tiny alcove, atop a marble slab carved with DaVinci’s Last Supper. Angels encircle the tabernacle, which is a brilliant gold.

I knelt on one of the prie-dieus and said my short prayers. Adoration that day was truly that–adoring the Godhead in the Eucharist. I wished I could stay for Mass and receive Him!

As I went back to my office, I felt renewed, lighter, happier…more at peace.

Is Notre Dame still a Catholic University, after inviting Barack Obama to give this year’s commencement address? A man who, in his first two months in office, has revoked the Mexico City policy, opened the flood gates for embryonic stem cell research, who wants to rescind conscience protections for health care workers, and has appointed fervently pro-abortion Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to the position of HHS secretary?

Some folks are a bit upset about this. I don’t blame them.

A lot of my relatives, and a few of my friends, went to or currently attend Notre Dame. Notre Dame is big in my family. But I don’t know if it can call itself a Catholic university when this is who is chooses to speak to its graduates at commencement.

If you want to encourage dialogue, then fine. Invite him to speak. But not at commencement. Commencement is highly symbolic. The speakers chosen are the faculty’s way of saying, this is someone you should look up to. This person has virtues, traits, and a character tha tare worth emulating.

Certainly the president has achieved a historic feat. But he is not, in any way, shape, or form, a strong proponent of Catholic theology. He does not embody what the Catholic church believes or teaches. Yet, he has been chosen.

I am disturbed by this.

But I’m back! Sometimes I run into dry spells on this blog. I don’t just want to randomly write things–I want them to have some heft, you know? This isn’t the blog where I just mindlessly spill about my day (although I don’t really do that at the Bucket, either..)…

Anyway, here are some links/thoughts…

This is a great piece from Fr. Z on one of my favorite Saints, St. Gianna Molla. If I was getting confirmed today I would pick her. For those unfamiliar with her story, she was an Italian doctor who was diagnosed with a uterine tumor while pregnant, but she would not have a surgery that would remove it, since it would endanger her child’s life. Instead, St. Gianna gave birth to a healthy baby girl, even though St. Gianna died shortly after. The daughter became a doctor, like her mother.

Also from Fr. Z, the Pope’s address to Young People at Yonkers. This was the only speech of his I was able to hear live while he was in the US (since I do not have cable at my apartment, sigh…I could only watch snippets whilst I was at my parents). This was truly a remarkable speech.

Side note re: music. I can’t believe someone complained about the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” being sung when the Pope was welcomed at the White House.
1) The Pope asked for it!
2) It is said to be one of the Virgin Mary’s favorite hymns (as told by the visionaries at Medjuorgje–it’s on the tape “Sounds of Medjuorgje”, which my dad played over and over in the car when I was a kid).
3) (I think it was) The Army Choir sounds AWESOME when they sing this! When it was sung (twice!) at Reagan’s funeral, I just loved it. They do a fantastic job. Why shouldn’t we sing one of the best songs we have?
4) It’s a true, honest-to-God Americanhymn. Let’s give him the good stuff!

And I have to say, I loved watching GW with the pope. He has had so many Catholics on his advisory boards, working in his administration, etc.–and we can’t forget the appointments of Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justice Alito!

I just read this from Fr. Z.
I actually said “eeeek!” as I read this. Scary stuff.