Since his election in March, Francis has delivered sharp and unscripted remarks on everything from homosexuality to atheism to his unlikely election to the seat of St. Peter.

Anyone who bet the 76-year-old Jesuit from Argentina would become Supreme Pontiff likely won a lot of dough, Francis joked on Sunday.

We're wagering this pope's got a few more surprises up the sleeves of his white cassock.

Meanwhile, here are six eye-openers Francis has uttered thus far.  

1) There's a "gay lobby" inside the Vatican.  . . . .   Only the pope knows exactly what he means. The Vatican has clammed up, refusing to explain. 
 2) All atheists go to heaven?  . . . .   Many American atheists say they appreciated the olive branch from the pope, however unclear his remarks may have been. 

3) "I didn't want to be pope."   . . . .  "I didn't," Francis answered. In fact, "a person who wants to become pope doesn't love himself. And God doesn't bless him," the pontiff said. 

4) Sleepy prayers .  . . . .   "Sometimes I doze off, the fatigue of the day makes you fall asleep, but God understands," Francis said. 

5) Christians should mind their own beeswax.   . . . .   Gossip, the pope said, is like honey. It tastes sweet at first, but large doses deliver stomach aches.  
6) Throwing food away is stealing from the poor.  . . . .  "This culture of waste has made us insensitive even to the waste and disposal of food, which is even more despicable when all over the world many individuals and families are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. "  

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A meeting with Pope Francis designed as reflection on the last Synod of Bishops turned into a group reflection on strengthening the synod itself and the way the world's bishops assist the pope.

Meeting Thursday with members of the ordinary council of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis said there needs to be greater reflection on "the church, the mother church, with all its nuances, including that of synodality."

Pope Francis said each of the eight cardinals he named in April to advise him on the reform of the Roman Curia mentioned the need to "find a path for coordination between synodality and the bishop of Rome."

The work of the world Synod of Bishops, which has gathered bishops at the Vatican every three or four years to discuss a theme and make recommendations to the pope, "has to take a new path that expresses its uniqueness when united with the Petrine ministry," he said. "This is a big challenge." 

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From the moment of his introduction to the world as Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has resembled Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, or Pope John XXIII, more than any other Pope since Pope John's death 50 years ago. The first resemblance is that both were 76 when elected. Roncalli's electors wanted a short-term ­compromise candidate. He turned 77 less than a month after his election, reigning barely another 54 months before succumbing to cancer; yet, the much beloved Pope John unquestionably changed the lives of Catholics and of countless others.  

Three months into his papacy, Roncalli stunned the cardinals who had elected him, by announcing his intention to summon an ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Only 20 such general councils had met previously. Pope John's Second Vatican Council greatly renewed the Catholic Church and significantly redirected Catholics towards social justice and dialogue with others.

Pope Francis, who will turn 77 in December, is indeed a man of social justice and dialogue, thoroughly formed in the principles and teachings of Pope John's Vatican II. Rumoured to have come second behind Benedict XVI in 2005, he already represents a change in direction for the Catholic Church and a correction of the immediate past, as did Pope John XXIII. Pope Benedict had just turned 78 when he was elected, but his papacy, by contrast, is already judged as eight additional years to the long papacy of John Paul II. 

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Weeks after authorizing a continued investigation of American nuns, Pope Francis told a group of nuns and priests from Latin America not to worry if they found themselves under similar scrutiny.

The pope's purported remarks came during a meeting with top officials of the Latin American Conference of Religious (CLAR) on June 6.

During the meeting, Francis seemed to refer to the Vatican investigation of an American nuns' group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, while telling the Latin American delegates not to worry should they find themselves the target of a similar investigation.

"They will make mistakes, they will make a blunder, this will pass! Perhaps even a letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine (of the Faith) will arrive for you, telling you that you said such or such thing. ... But do not worry. Explain whatever you have to explain, but move forward."

 

A report that Pope Francis privately acknowledged the existence of a "gay lobby" inside the Vatican offers a sensational example of his unvarnished speaking style and a reminder of the challenge that style poses for the papacy in the age of digital communications and vanishing privacy.

On the other hand, an acknowledgment that the Catholic Church's central administration is troubled by factionalism and personal failings must be less than startling to anyone who has been following the news lately.

But the context of the headline-grabbing comment is a series of remarks most illuminating for what they reveal: not about divisions within the church, but about Pope Francis' vision of its harmony and unity.

Pope Francis' words to the leaders of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Men and Women Religious, or CLAR, as originally reported on a website in Chile, have not been denied by anyone who was there.

A statement from CLAR -- issued after the Chilean report -- described the leaked account of the June 6 Vatican meeting as a "summary based on the memories of the participants" and a reliable record of the pope's "general meaning," though not a verbatim transcript. 

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In an unprecedented gesture, Pope Francis received and talked for a hour with the leadership of the Confederación Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Religiosas y Religiosos (Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Men and Women Religious -- CLAR). They conversed sitting in a circle as equals, as it was in the first communities founded by Jesus...

In this simple atmosphere of trust, Francis encouraged CLAR's leaders not to be afraid to continue to bring their mission to the limits and the frontiers..."Courage! Advance towards new horizons! Don't be afraid to run risks going to the poor and the newly emerging subjects on the continent," said Pope Bergoglio who, at the end of the meeting, emphatically thanked religious life for being a "sign of and witness to the Gospel" in many places in Latin America and the Carribbean.

We are offering our readers -- exclusively -- this brief synthesis of that historic meeting that took place in the Holy See. 

Audience with Pope Francis  CLAR, 6/6/2013

Pope Francis has welcomed the Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Rev Justin Welby in Rome, the first time the two church leaders have met.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church said the two men shared a common desire for social justice, peace and the promotion of Christian values in areas such as marriage.

He added that he was grateful for the "sincere efforts" of the Church of England to understand why his predecessor Benedict XVI set up the ordinariate for disaffected Anglicans who wish to be received into the Catholic Church.

. . . . 

Welby was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England, and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, in March, days after the inauguration of Pope Francis. The Pope said the closeness of their inaugurations meant that they always had a "particular reason to support one another in prayer".

Welby was accompanied on his visit to the Vatican by the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales.  

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"The Pope is very pleased for having met with a wise man", was the official report from the Holy See following the 45 minute private audience of Francis with Uruguayan president Jose Mujica, the longest so far with a head of state. Although Mujica is a declared atheist and did not attend the inauguration of the first Latin American pope last March, he did request an interview with Francis, which took place on Saturday.

Wearing a blue shirt with no tie, a green sweater and a dark jacket, Mujica, 78, was received very warmly by the Pope and before they walked into for their private meeting, they took a few minutes to remember Uruguayan theologian and writer Alberto Methol Ferré, 'a common friend' recently deceased and who for decades was an advisor to the Vatican.

"He (Methol) opened our minds" said Mujica, with the Pope adding "he helped us to think"

The meeting as programmed started at 11:00 hours sharp and 38 minutes later Francis, private secretary Alfred Xuareb walked in but the two leaders continued talking in a display of great chemistry and coincidence on the many issues they addressed.

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+Geoffrey Robinson

+Pat Power

+Bill Morris

 

. . . . 

Bishop Robinson, 75, was the architect of the Towards Healing protocol introduced in every diocese except Melbourne in 1996. Abused as a child, he headed the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference professional standards committee for a decade until he retired in 2004 because he was so disillusioned.  

 

On Tuesday, his new book For Christ's Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church ... for Good, will be launched in an inner-Sydney church. The petition, at www.change.org/forchristssake, was opened in Australia a fortnight ago without any publicity, and already has more than 10,000 signatures. Backed by two other progressive Australian bishops, the recently retired Pat Power of Canberra and Bill Morris of Toowoomba, it will be launched in Europe and the US soon.    

 

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Bishop Robinson's website was recently updated by ARCC past Vice President Ingrid Shafer.

Pope Francis, The Vatican: For Christ's Sake Stop Sexual Abuse.... for good!  

Sign petition here.

Even as they professed their innocence, a Catholic priest and an ex-parochial schoolteacher got long prison terms Wednesday in the serial sexual assault of a 10-year-old altar boy in the late 1990s.

Common Pleas Court Judge Ellen Ceisler exceeded sentencing guidelines in handing out punishment to the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, and Bernard Shero, 50, saying their crimes called for long terms. She sentenced Engelhardt to six to 12 years in prison and Shero to eight to 16.

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The International Criminal Court has rejected a longshot request by clergy sex abuse victims to investigate former Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican cardinals for possible crimes against humanity.

The tribunal, based in The Hague, told attorneys for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests that "there is not a basis at this time to proceed with further analysis."

. . . .

Pam Spees, senior staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said her group was confident it could collect enough evidence as new abuse victims come forward to press the tribunal to reconsider.  

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His final farewell unfolded as if he had choreographed every song and step. With people in the pews belting out the Celtic hymn "Lord of the Dance," the Rev. Andrew Greeleywas carried out of Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood for a private burial.

Hundreds of mourners, including Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, theologian Martin Marty, comedian and former parishioner George Wendt and about three dozen clergy, nearly filled Greeley's first and only full-time parish on Wednesday to give him a traditional Irish Catholic send off.

. . . .

"Who became the first voice about abuse in the Catholic Church? Andrew M. Greeley, because he believed in courage and he had the freedom to pursue it," said the Rev. John Cusick, who delivered the homily for his mentor. "If on May 30, 2013, the Catholic Church and the world lost an honest voice, doesn't it behoove us to be that voice?"

Greeley, 85, was found dead May 30 at his home in the John Hancock Center, several years after suffering a near fatal brain injury when he fell getting out of a cab.

Cusick recounted seeing Greeley in the hospital days after the fall in November 2008. Doctors had drilled a hole in his head to relieve pressure in the brain. MirroringGreeley's own impish sense of humor, Cusick said he teased his mentor that if his critics could see him, they would say they always knew he had a hole in his head.

Cusick said Greeley's friends and millions of others knew that, in fact, Greeley had a "holy head" who saw the sacred and divine in ordinary, everyday life. He added thatGreeley's boundless energy, quick wit and intellectual curiosity surpassed most minds, and his courage trumped most backbones.

"Andy taught me, a priest, the most contemporary of sins is always the oldest of sins - mediocrity," Cusick said. "Worrying more about fitting in than speaking heart and soul."  

 

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Dr. Bernard J. Cooke is an internationally renowned theologian, author, and lecturer. He was born May 31, 1922 in Norway, Michigan, and passed away on his ninety-first birthday in 2013 at the Village at Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.  He is survived by his wife Dr. Pauline Turner and daughter, Kelly Turner-Cooke, his brothers David Cooke (wife Leann) of Elk Grove, CA, Tom Cooke (wife Margaret) of Oakland, CA, as well as, many nieces and nephews. 

 

Dr. Cooke published over twenty books and lectured in many countries, including Canada, France, Spain, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Ireland, and East Africa. He recently taught grateful residents of the retirement center where he and his wife lived.   Dr. Cooke's areas of professional specialization were sacramental theology (religious symbol and ritual), New Testament, religious psychology, and history of theological method. 

 . . . .

He was the Chairman and a Professor in the Department of Theology at Marquette University, where in 1963 he inaugurated the first PhD program in the nation to train Catholic laypeople for careers in theological scholarship and teaching. He went on to hold faculty positions at the University of Windsor and the University of Calgary in Canada, and in the U.S. at the College of the Holy Cross, where he retired as Loyola Professor of Theology in 1990. A tireless and inspiring teacher, Dr. Cooke also held visiting professorships at Santa Clara University, Loyola University New Orleans, the University of the Incarnate Word, and the University of San Diego.

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Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan, whose work on behalf of the poor and downtrodden for Catholic Charities in Brooklyn and Queens earned him national recognition, died on Friday as a result of injuries from a car accident. He was 83.

Bishop Sullivan, who lived in Brooklyn, was critically injured in a three-car collision on the Long Island Expressway on May 30 and was airlifted to Nassau University Medical Center, where he died, according to a statement by the Diocese of Brooklyn.

"We mourn the passing of Bishop Joseph Sullivan," said Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio, the leader of the diocese. "During his tenure, Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens became a nationally recognized provider of social services. Even in retirement, Bishop Joe continued to serve on many boards for Catholic hospitals and health institutions. He epitomized the best of our church's teaching and the fundamental option for the poor. He was an outstanding priest."

In addition to his work with Catholic Charities, Bishop Sullivan played an instrumental role in the formation of St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers and served as chairman of the Social Development and World Peace Department of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

His work often brought him in touch with the city's most frail, neglected and impoverished citizens, and for more than five decades he was an advocate on their behalf. In the late 1980s, as whole neighborhoods were being ravaged by AIDS, drug abuse and crime, Bishop Sullivan went to Washington to testify before Congress about the plight many people were facing.  

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President Obama on Friday nominated Ken Hackett, former head of Catholic Relief Services, to be the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

It's a savvy move, picking a Catholic whose career in the church has been dedicated to alleviating suffering as America's representative to a pope whose has made helping the poor a priority for his pontificate.

Hackett replaces Miguel Diaz, who left the post last November to teach at the University of Dayton. Diaz is a theologian, which was a first for the U.S. ambassador, and that also seemed to make sense in that Benedict XVI, whose retirement led to the election of Pope Francis last March, is a renowned theologian.
. . . . 
Hackett seems very much in synch with Francis. He is also familiar with Rome and Rome with him, and he has contacts across the U.S. church and is highly-regarded for his career at CRS - even if CRS is not a favorite of influential political conservatives in the American church.   

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Pope Francis took a first big step in reforming the troubled Vatican bank on Saturday by tapping a trusted prelate to help oversee its management, in a sign he wants to know more about its activities.  Francis signed off on naming Monsignor Battista Ricca as interim prelate of the Institute for Religious Works.

It's a key job that has been left vacant since 2011: The prelate oversees the bank's activities, attends its board meetings and, critically, has access to all its documentation. The prelate reports to the commission of cardinals who run the bank and is currently headed by the Vatican No. 2. That gives Ricca a near-direct line to the pope, serving as a bridge between the bank's lay managers and board members and its cardinal leadership.

Ricca is currently director of the Vatican hotel where Francis lives and other Vatican-owned residential institutes for clergy.  

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Pope Francis has appointed a management consultant him to advise him on reforming the Church, a leading Vatican observer has reported.
According to Sandro Magister, the Pope "welcomed enthusiastically" the idea of bringing in Thomas von Mitschke-Collande to assist him in streamlining the Roman Curia.

He said the proposal was made by Fr Hans Langerdörfer SJ, secretary of the German bishops' conference, and supported by Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, one of the group of eight cardinals advising the Pope.

Dr von Mitschke-Collande was the manager of the Munich branch of the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Last year he published a hard-hitting book in Germany called Schafft sich die katholische Kirche ab?, which can be translated as "Does the Catholic Church want to destroy itself?" or "Is the Catholic Church going out of business?"  

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You may think that Pope Francis is a simple man of the people, eschewing the fancy trappings of office out of devotion to the poor and a rejection of papal monarchism.

No way, says veteran Vaticanista Sandro Magister in yesterday's post on his blog, Chiesa:

His reticence in attributing to himself the name of pope and his preference for calling himself as bishop of Rome have made champions of the democratization of the Church rejoice. But theirs is a blunder.  

 

According to Magister, the man in white is actually a wolf in sheep's clothing. He's Bergoglio the Jesuit, playing by the rules of his order, governing as if were superior general of the Society of Jesus, the autocratic "Black Pope." 

. . . .
I'm no Vaticanista, but I know a media hit when I see one. And this is how the curiales are fighting back.

It's pretty clever to play the Jesuit card the way they have. For centuries, the Jesuits were emblems of Catholic deviousness - the elite operatives who grabbed the money, pulled the international strings, playing fast and loose with the rules of morality. Forget Dan Brown and Opus Dei. The Great Jesuit Conspiracy against truth, justice, and democracy is back!

But there's another way Jesuits figure in the history of the Church, and one more relevant to the struggle at hand. In 17th-century France, it was them against the Jansenists, Augustinian puritans who believed in a Catholicism of the Chosen, zealots who in the name of opposing centralized Roman authority worked for a smaller, more rigid Church.

Thus, in the name of democracy, Magister gives voice to the neo-Jansenists in the Vatican, those eager to tighten the screws of orthodoxy and to bar the door against anyone who does not meet their standards of conduct. They are no friends of democracy in the Church, and they don't like Francis' traditional Jesuit message of inclusion and advance. They feel the levers of power slipping from their fingers. And they're scared.   

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Since the Reformation, many of the names chosen by popes-Pius, Clement, Leo, Urban, even Benedict-sound quaint to non-Catholic ears. But the humble Francis of Assisi is a saint for everyone. 

. . . .

Francis succeeds two men of genius in his papal role. John Paul II was the liberator who stared down communism by the force of his courage and prayers. Benedict XVI was the eminent teacher of the Catholic Church in recent history. Francis appears now as the pastor, a shepherd who knows and loves his sheep and wants to lead them in love and humility. The new Franciscan moment is the season of the shepherd.

 

Catholics and evangelicals are the two largest faith communities in the body of Christ. Without forgetting the deep differences that divide us, now as never before we are called to stand and work together for the cause of Christ in a broken world.  

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Between 1,000 and 2,000 bikers are expected to fill St Peter's Square for the Pope's blessing - the highlight of a four-day event in Rome to celebrate more than a century of Harley Davidson.More than half a million Harley Davidson riders and fans from around the world are expected to head to Rome for the event taking place from 13-16 June . 

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Let us not imagine that saints are free from the vicissitudes common to human life, which includes moments of happiness and frustration, dangerous temptations and courageous stands. It was no different with Saint Francis, portrayed as «the always happy brother», courteous, who lived a mystical union with all creatures, whom he considered his brothers and sisters.
. . . .
Beginning in the Summer of 1220, he wrote several versions of a rule that were all rejected by the gatherings of the fraternity. They were too utopic. Frustrated and feeling useless, he decided to renounce leadership of the movement. Filled with anguish and without knowing what else to do, he found refuge in the woods for two years, visited only by his intimate friend friar Leo.  He waited for a divine illumination that would not come. Meanwhile, a rule was drafted that was marked by the influence of the Roman Curia and the Pope, turning the movement into a religious order: the Order of Friars Minor, with defined structure and purposes.  

 

Francis, with pain, humbly accepted it. But he clearly stated that he would no longer discuss it, but would continue giving examples of the primitive dream. Law triumphed over life, power confined charisma. But the spirit of Francis remained: the spirit of poverty, of simplicity, of universal brotherhood that inspires us to this day. Francis died amidst great personal frustration, but without losing his happiness. He died singing Provencal songs of love and the psalms.  

Francis of Rome will surely face his own «great temptation», no less than the one of Francis of Assisi. He has to reform the Roman Curia, an institution that is about one thousand years old. In it, the sacred power (sacra potestas) has fossilized into an administrative structure.  At any rate, it is a question of administering an institution with a population as large as China's: one billion, two hundred million Catholics. But one must immediately be warned: it is difficult for love and mercy to co-exist with power.  It is an empire of doctrine, law and order, that by its nature includes or excludes, approves or condemns.

Where there is power, above all in an absolutist monarchy such as the Vatican State, there always arise anti-power intrigues, career climbers, and power disputes. Thomas Hobbes in his famous Leviathan (1651) saw it clearly: «power can not be guaranteed other than by seeking more and more power». Francis of Rome, presently the local bishop and Pope, must intervene in that power, marked by a thousand tricks, and sometimes, by corruption. We know from previous Popes who also proposed to reform the Curia, the resistance and frustrations they had to endure, including suspicion of the physical elimination of a Pope by people of the ecclesiastic administration. 

Francis of Rome has the spirit of Francis of Assisi: he is for poverty, simplicity and relinquishing power. But fortunately, he is a Jesuit, with a different background, and endowed with the famous "discernment of spirits" of the Jesuit Order. Francis of Rome manifests an explicit tenderness in everything he does, but he can also show an unusual vigor, as befits a Pope with the mission of restoring the morally bankrupt Church.

Francis of Assisi had a few advisors, dreamers like himself, who did not know how to help him. Francis of Rome has surrounded himself with advisors chosen from every continent, persons of age, that is, with experience in the exercise of the sacred power. 

This Pope must acquire a different profile: one that is more nearly of service than command, more divested of than adorned with the symbols of palatial power, with more of the "flavor of the lamb" than the perfume of the flowers of the altar. The carrier of the sacred power must be a pastor before he is the carrier of ecclesiastic authority; he must preside more in charity and less with canonical right, he must be brother among his brothers, but with different responsibilities.

Will Francis of Rome face his «great temptation» inspired by his namesake of Assisi? I believe he will know how to have a firm hand and that he will not lack the courage to follow what his "discernment of spirit" dictates is necessary to effectively restore the credibility of the Church, and return the fascination with the figure of Jesus of Nazareth.  

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Belgian cardinal Godfried Daneels - who recently turned 80, losing his eligibility to vote in the Conclave as well as his position in Rome's various Congregations - has come under the spotlight for some controversial statements he made regarding same-sex unions and the protests held by Catholics and non-Catholics against the "Taubita law", France's same-sex marriage law.
 
"I think it's a positive development that states are free to open up civil marriage for gays if they want," Cardinal Daneels apparently told Dutch language newspaper De Tijd. He added, however, that such unions should be given a different name than marriage. In the eyes of the Church, a union between two people of the same sex is not "real marriage". Real marriage can only be between a man and a woman. "But insofar as it is legal" "the Church does not have a say" in such laws, he apparently added.
 
Belgian French language newspaper L'Echo also quoted the cardinal saying that the French should obey the law and not oppose same-sex marriage. 

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Catholic, anti-abortion Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad could soon find himself in an uncomfortable position: He may have to sign off on payments for every Medicaid-funded abortion in his state.

 

A bill requiring that authorization is sitting on the Republican's desk after moving through the statehouse. If Branstad signs it, Iowa is likely to be the only state that would have the unique requirement.

. . . .

Branstad said he is likely to approve the legislation, which impacts reimbursements after the abortions, not authorizing the procedures ahead of time. 

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Just months after becoming the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign, reports are surfacing that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is in poor health with diminished stature and energy.

 

After a brief hiatus at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Benedict returned to live in a converted monastery on the edge of the Vatican gardens last month. Already, some of his visitors have commented on the former pope's physical deterioration.

"Benedict is in a very bad way," said Paloma Gomez Borrero, a veteran Vatican correspondent for Spain's Telecinco television network who visited the former pope in late May. "We won't have him with us much longer."

Cardinal Joachim Meisner, the archbishop of Cologne, Germany, and a personal friend of Benedict's, visited the former pope in April. "I was shocked at how thin he had become," Meisner said at the time. "Mentally, he is quite fit, his old self. But he had halved in size."

Vatican officials have admitted Benedict has weakened since stepping down, but they deny his physical condition has become critical. 

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Speakers at a conference in Oxford last week gave strong indications that the two Orthodox archbishops kidnapped near the Syrian city of Aleppo on 22 April had been killed.

A senior regional source said he thought Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi had been murdered on the day that they were kidnapped. The pair were intercepted while on a humanitarian mission in Syria to negotiate the release of two abducted priests. Their driver, a deacon, was shot dead at the scene.  

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So here we are with a curious turn of events. It's a little phrase that I haven't seen or heard from Vatican spokespersons nor from the right side of the Catholic aisle in about thirty-five years. "The Pope is wrong." Pope Francis talked about atheists and "doing good" and says that Jesus died for everyone, not just Catholics, and the responding Rev. Spokesman for the Vatican has come out and publicly stated that "The Pope is wrong. Atheists and indeed ANYONE who knows about the Catholic church and doesn't join it will burn in Hell." What? Extra ecclesiam nulla salus rears its ugly head again? I'm pretty sure Paul VI dealt with that many years ago in the first encyclical of his papacy. 

 

On the same page of articles spotlighting all the ways our new Pope is in error is one on why Francis is "wrong" and "misguided" about unfettered capitalism. "The Pope demanded more government control over the economy, decried the gap between rich and poor, and called on the world's leaders to end "the tyranny of money." This is most unfortunate, not least in that the Pope's comments are utterly self-defeating. Francis admirably seeks the alleviation of poverty and the mindfulness of the wealthy toward the poor. (I don't know about you, but when anyone writes that what someone seeks is "admirable", that's code for "now I've said the guy's goal is nice, I can trash him.") But his comments miss the mark in every way. Nothing in human history has done so much to alleviate human poverty as free market capitalism. Nothing. This shouldn't even be a controversial statement."   

 

Who is he trying to kid? This is like Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, claiming that his slash and burn budget is a model of Catholic social teachings. This is the way these guys roll; just make a bold, outrageous assertion, give no examples as proof and everyone is supposed to just say, "Wow, I didn't know that...must be true." Did anyone besides me read this morning's Gospel? I'm actually sure many of us read this morning's Gospel. Seems pretty incontrovertible.

 

"Go sell all you have...how hard it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God." Or how about "woe to you rich, you have had your reward." It seems to be conventional wisdom that people like my husband and me, Catholic Workers into simple living, are just JEALOUS of the rich because we are lamentably "unsuccessful" and we spend our time despising those who "have it made." Well, no, I think not.

From Where I Sit, I have spent nearly fifty years giving deep thanks daily that at fifteen, my inner ear discerned that awesome invitation to "come and follow Me"...doesn't get any better than that, does it?   

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We've heard recently of Catholic school employees being fired from their positions for various reasons (being in a same-sex relationship, or getting pregnant through IVF), which are usually accompanied by explanations about how behaviors are in conflict with official church teaching. That doesn't seem to be the case for San Diego second-grade teacher Carie Charlesworth, who was told she would not receive a teaching agreement for next year.

After an incident in which Charlesworth's abusive ex-husband appeared at the school where she taught and where their four children attend, the school decided that in the interest of safety, it could not allow her to continue teaching there, or any other diocesan school.'

Said the letter of termination (which points out to Charlesworth that "whether or not [she] is aware," her husband had a long history of violent behavior): "We feel deeply for you and about the situation in which you and your children find yourselves in through no fault of yourown....In the interest of the safety of the students, faculty and parents at Holy Trinity School, we simply cannot allow you to return to work there, or, unfortunately, at any other school in the Diocese."  

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The DUI charges against Worcester Bishop Robert McManus were dropped in a Washington County court room Tuesday. McManus had pleaded guilty in traffic court to refusing a breathalyzer test in exchange for a clear record. This was the Bishop's first offense.

Bishop McManus was arrested in Narragansett at the beginning of May for hitting a car and taking off. The police report describes him as having blood shot eyes and smelling of alcohol.

McManus was not in court on Tuesday when his attorney, William Murphy, was granted his clean record.

"He's sorry, he is remorseful for what has occurred, and again he's apologized to everybody for this, and you know it's behind him and the Bishop is going to move forward," said Murphy outside court.

The Bishop has not received any disciplinary action from the church.   

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The death of liberal Catholicism has been proclaimed so often in recent decades that few even bother to check to see if the body still has a pulse.

But a fledgling organization of priests believes the obituaries are premature, and as the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests gathers this month to discuss an agenda for church reform, its leaders are pointing to support from the laity as well as inspiration from the top: Pope Francis.

"For me, his papacy so far has been a lifesaver," said the Rev. Dave Cooper, a priest from Milwaukee who is head of the AUSCP, which will hold its second annual assembly at Seattle University from June 24-27.

Not that Francis is a starry-eyed liberal who is about to ordain women priests or turn the church into a representative democracy. He's not. Rather, it is the new pope's repeated exhortations for the church to engage the world, to be humble and open to dialogue, and above all to show people - including Catholics - a welcoming face that has buoyed Cooper and others in the AUSCP. 

. . . .

The AUSCP was started in August 2011 by about two dozen priests from 11 states who met at a seminary near Chicago with the goal of trying "to keep the best of Vatican II alive," referring to the landmark church council of the 1960s that opened Catholicism to the modern world.

Like similar groups of reform-minded clergy in Ireland, Austria and elsewhere, these priests were, as one put it, "more than mildly distressed by the ecclesial turn of events" in the past 30 years that has seen the Vatican and local bishops take strong measures to enforce orthodoxy and curb anything that smacks of dissent.  

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Download complete background information on the 15 RESOLUTIONS to be presented at the 2013 Assembly in Seattle.  

 

1. Be it resolved that the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests (AUSCP), share with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), its pastoral concern about the precipitous decline of active priests available to serve the People of God. We ask our Bishops, as Shepherds of God's people, to employ the power and the authority of their office and work to resolve the significant pastoral and sacramental challenges resulting from an expanding Church and a declining priesthood.

Calling their agenda "pointless," his dismissive remarks about the group, which has 950 members, highlight not only the generational differences between age cohorts in the American Catholic priesthood, but also the increasingly acerbic and derogatory tone that younger priests feel free to take in public when speaking about their elder brothers.

In fact, it would be hard to tell from Fr. Fox's remarks that he regards older priests as brothers at all, much less valued older colleagues in ministry. They are described more as if they are either enemies or a pathetic nuisance to be gotten out of the way. Younger priests such as Fr. Fox, confident that they hold the whip hand, now seem ready to snap it - on other priests.

This attitude toward older priests and indeed toward an entire generation of the Church as blameworthy targets to be attacked, is of course nothing new to blogs. Significantly, Fr. Fox writes in red letters in the midst of his blog post "Welcome Fr. Zeee....ians!"

All of this would be of little interest, except for the fact that Fr. Fox is director of priestly formation for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Generally, priests who are placed in positions of trust and authority in priestly formation are also regarded as role models for the young. (Fr. Fox, judging from his picture, is middle-aged.) Sadly, one reasonable inference may be that his Ordinary, Archbishop Schnurr, approves of his conduct and manner of expression and wishes to see it replicated in those who are drawn to the ordained ministry. Or does he? It's not always clear that bishops read the blogs of their priests or approve of everything they do.

Personally, I think this blog post illustrates a deplorable state of affairs in the priesthood today. Nothing of substance said here is new. But the spectacle of angry contempt speaks louder than the content of the argument.   

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Bob Schutzius responds

 

Dave,
 
Many thanks for the comments.  I am glad you understood that I had no intention of implying guilt to our Jewish brethren.  Jesus would not look kindly on that.   But, even though unintentional, I am sorry that some might take it that way, as you point out.  It was just the way it was.

Hardness of heart and absolute certitude among religious leaders was the same then as it is now, and some are persecuted today as then for challenging it.  
 
I accept in gratitude your reminder that I am shy on professional scholarship and am duly admonished to be more careful about making sure that I do not accidentally convey unintended nor easily misinterpreted ideas in the heat of the message.  Thank you to for the reference to the   E.P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism, and John Meier, A Marginal Jew:  Re-Thinking the Historical Jesus, Vol.4 (on Law and Love)..  I am currently into Gerry Sloyan's Jesus in focus: A life in its setting, but even this is 20 years old.
 
It is always good to hear from you and to learn from you, and would impose on you that you continue  to speak out whenever you encounter that which might lead others astray.

Gratefully,
 
Bob Schutzius  

Robert Schutzius, Ph.D.
ARCC Presidential Advisor 
ARCC office manager.   

We are aware that the Vatican worship congregation has pushed through this new translation according to the instruction  Liturgiam authenticam(2001) with great pressure, against the efforts of the German bishops and liturgy experts for a stylistically better and linguistically more comprehensible translation. ... 

 

 

 

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