Saturday, June 5, 2010
Israeli thugs do it again!
The criminal state of Israel has again committed piracy on the high seas with the tacit blessing of the United States. Can we expect to hear condemnation from the pulpit?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Latest from CAN:
Hi Friends of CAN,
Please join us this weekend for Women Led Prayer on Saturday and on Sunday for a 1:00 pm Vigil at the Cathedral.
* Please join us for inclusive, creative, Women Led Prayer at 11 am on Saturday, May 22nd, at 1077 S Newstead (CTSA). See you then! The next Women Led Liturgy will be June 26th at 11 am.
* Responding to the Spirit, We are called to Renew our Church: Join FOSIL and VOTF for a prayer vigil at the Cathedrals on Pentecost Sunday 2010 (May 23rd ): St. Louis at 1:00 P.M.; Belleville, 3:00 P.M.
As Catholics we struggle with feelings of betrayal and mistrust because of the despicable behavior of churchmen complicit in the sexual abuse of minors, now witnessed worldwide. So on Pentecost we will pray very simply, asking the Spirit to renew the face of our Church.
Our prayer will also be one of thanksgiving for all those who continue to serve as faithful ministers of the gospel, priests and religious men and women of integrity; we support them fully and join them as co-workers in faith.
We gather together in prayer, seeking a new perspective of church for the future, and we encourage area clergy, religious and laity to join us on this Pentecost Sunday as we listen to the Spirit within each of us. We cannot simply cower in the face of today’s scandalous headlines, but like the early disciples, must listen to the voice of the Spirit calling us to speak out with the openness, honesty and integrity so needed in our Church today. Our common prayer offers hope for a renewal of our church. The prayer vigil, lasting approximately 30 minutes, will be a familiar service of the Word, to include an opening song, Scripture reading, a brief commentary, prayers of petition and a closing song.
* The next CAN Book Group is "The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East" by Sandy Tolan. We are meeting to discuss the novel on Tuesday, May 25th from 7- 8:30 pm at CTSA(1077 S Newstead). More information about this novel available here http://www.left-bank.com/book/9781596913431 Our summer book group is "Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama" by Tim Wise. We will meet on Tuesday August 10th to begin our discussion. Both books are available at Left Bank Booksat a discount. E-mail can@catholicactionnetwork.org if you are planning to join us for either Book Groups.
* This Week is Harvey Milk Week see http://stlmilk.wordpress.com/ for events. “What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us.” -Anne Kronenberg, his final campaign manager.
--
Peace,
Megan Heeney
Please join us this weekend for Women Led Prayer on Saturday and on Sunday for a 1:00 pm Vigil at the Cathedral.
* Please join us for inclusive, creative, Women Led Prayer at 11 am on Saturday, May 22nd, at 1077 S Newstead (CTSA). See you then! The next Women Led Liturgy will be June 26th at 11 am.
* Responding to the Spirit, We are called to Renew our Church: Join FOSIL and VOTF for a prayer vigil at the Cathedrals on Pentecost Sunday 2010 (May 23rd ): St. Louis at 1:00 P.M.; Belleville, 3:00 P.M.
As Catholics we struggle with feelings of betrayal and mistrust because of the despicable behavior of churchmen complicit in the sexual abuse of minors, now witnessed worldwide. So on Pentecost we will pray very simply, asking the Spirit to renew the face of our Church.
Our prayer will also be one of thanksgiving for all those who continue to serve as faithful ministers of the gospel, priests and religious men and women of integrity; we support them fully and join them as co-workers in faith.
We gather together in prayer, seeking a new perspective of church for the future, and we encourage area clergy, religious and laity to join us on this Pentecost Sunday as we listen to the Spirit within each of us. We cannot simply cower in the face of today’s scandalous headlines, but like the early disciples, must listen to the voice of the Spirit calling us to speak out with the openness, honesty and integrity so needed in our Church today. Our common prayer offers hope for a renewal of our church. The prayer vigil, lasting approximately 30 minutes, will be a familiar service of the Word, to include an opening song, Scripture reading, a brief commentary, prayers of petition and a closing song.
* The next CAN Book Group is "The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East" by Sandy Tolan. We are meeting to discuss the novel on Tuesday, May 25th from 7- 8:30 pm at CTSA(1077 S Newstead). More information about this novel available here http://www.left-bank.com/book/9781596913431 Our summer book group is "Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama" by Tim Wise. We will meet on Tuesday August 10th to begin our discussion. Both books are available at Left Bank Booksat a discount. E-mail can@catholicactionnetwork.org if you are planning to join us for either Book Groups.
* This Week is Harvey Milk Week see http://stlmilk.wordpress.com/ for events. “What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us.” -Anne Kronenberg, his final campaign manager.
--
Peace,
Megan Heeney
Monday, May 17, 2010
Don't expect accountability from the last feudal system in the West
by Donald Cozzens on May. 17, 2010
* Examining the crisis
Miters somewhat askew, the recent queue of bishops from Ireland to Germany, and beyond stepping forward to offer apologies for sexual abuse by their priests is unprecedented for the European Catholic church.
Even as the apologies pile up and policies for dealing with abuse allegations are tightened and meetings with victims are promised, something remains amiss that takes the heart out of the bishops' mea culpa.
There is no real accountability for bishops who abetted sexual abuse by failing to remove predator priests from access to children or for bishops who failed to comply with civil laws requiring reporting of abuse of minors.
Nor will there be soon.
Two explanations surface; one might be considered divine, the other, thoroughly human.
Bishops are jealous men. They are jealous of their responsibility as divinely appointed teachers of the Catholic church. To their way of thinking, anything that might weaken their God-given, divine authority as teachers and guardians of the faith merits immediate and fierce resistance. From this point of view, calls to hold bishops accountable save to the pope himself, offend the dignity of the bishops' office and are framed by Vatican officials as attacks on the church. Instead of accountability, we are told that mistakes were made, sometimes tragic in their consequences. But, it is explained, they were mistakes made in the best interests of the church. Anything more, the Vatican fears, would undercut the authority of the bishop's teaching office and diminish his credibility.
The other explanation rests on more humble, though still lofty, grounds. Bishops are princes. We need but look at their ermine-trimmed robes and catch the ring of their courtly titles, "your excellency," "your grace," "your eminence." As elite members of the last feudal system in the West and one of the last absolute monarchies in the world, we shouldn't be surprised if bishops, as princes of the realm, are answerable only to their sovereign, the bishop of Rome.
If the hierarchy's royal accruements were simply vestiges of their medieval past, they might be harmless enough. But these episcopal conceits have forged a culture of privilege, secrecy, and exemption that is now exposed as a detriment to both their teaching and pastoral roles.
Even armchair psychologists can imagine how insular the life of royalty inevitably becomes -- and how dangerous the royal power can be even in the best of men. A sobering insight follows: It remains exceedingly difficult for anyone in power to feel the pain of others, even the pain of young victims abused by their pastors. It's the exceptional bishop who maintains real contact with members of his flock, who listens to the laity as one disciple to another, who lets the pain of the abused rend his heart. Sadly, it appears that it's the exceptional bishop who puts the good of the children ahead of the good of the institutional church.
More than a half century ago, the Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich wrote that any religion that took upon itself the right to judge the values and mores of the world must be ready to subject itself to the same standards of judgment by which it judged the secular sphere. If a religion failed to do so, he warned, it rightly stood subject to the judgment of the world.
Then, Tillich added, this is the particular danger of the Catholic church.
[Fr. Donald Cozzens, author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood, is writer in residence at John Carroll University, a Jesuit university near Cleveland, Ohio.]
* Examining the crisis
Miters somewhat askew, the recent queue of bishops from Ireland to Germany, and beyond stepping forward to offer apologies for sexual abuse by their priests is unprecedented for the European Catholic church.
Even as the apologies pile up and policies for dealing with abuse allegations are tightened and meetings with victims are promised, something remains amiss that takes the heart out of the bishops' mea culpa.
There is no real accountability for bishops who abetted sexual abuse by failing to remove predator priests from access to children or for bishops who failed to comply with civil laws requiring reporting of abuse of minors.
Nor will there be soon.
Two explanations surface; one might be considered divine, the other, thoroughly human.
Bishops are jealous men. They are jealous of their responsibility as divinely appointed teachers of the Catholic church. To their way of thinking, anything that might weaken their God-given, divine authority as teachers and guardians of the faith merits immediate and fierce resistance. From this point of view, calls to hold bishops accountable save to the pope himself, offend the dignity of the bishops' office and are framed by Vatican officials as attacks on the church. Instead of accountability, we are told that mistakes were made, sometimes tragic in their consequences. But, it is explained, they were mistakes made in the best interests of the church. Anything more, the Vatican fears, would undercut the authority of the bishop's teaching office and diminish his credibility.
The other explanation rests on more humble, though still lofty, grounds. Bishops are princes. We need but look at their ermine-trimmed robes and catch the ring of their courtly titles, "your excellency," "your grace," "your eminence." As elite members of the last feudal system in the West and one of the last absolute monarchies in the world, we shouldn't be surprised if bishops, as princes of the realm, are answerable only to their sovereign, the bishop of Rome.
If the hierarchy's royal accruements were simply vestiges of their medieval past, they might be harmless enough. But these episcopal conceits have forged a culture of privilege, secrecy, and exemption that is now exposed as a detriment to both their teaching and pastoral roles.
Even armchair psychologists can imagine how insular the life of royalty inevitably becomes -- and how dangerous the royal power can be even in the best of men. A sobering insight follows: It remains exceedingly difficult for anyone in power to feel the pain of others, even the pain of young victims abused by their pastors. It's the exceptional bishop who maintains real contact with members of his flock, who listens to the laity as one disciple to another, who lets the pain of the abused rend his heart. Sadly, it appears that it's the exceptional bishop who puts the good of the children ahead of the good of the institutional church.
More than a half century ago, the Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich wrote that any religion that took upon itself the right to judge the values and mores of the world must be ready to subject itself to the same standards of judgment by which it judged the secular sphere. If a religion failed to do so, he warned, it rightly stood subject to the judgment of the world.
Then, Tillich added, this is the particular danger of the Catholic church.
[Fr. Donald Cozzens, author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood, is writer in residence at John Carroll University, a Jesuit university near Cleveland, Ohio.]
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Technology undermining Catholic church structures
Technology undermining Catholic church structures
By Thomas C. Fox
Created Apr 27, 2010
I toured China for three weeks in late 1998. Computers hooked to the expanding Internet were being set up in hotels frequented by tourists. While public Chinese access to electronic information was still in its infancy then -- and still largely restricted to foreigners -- I remember thinking to myself that the country was facing another revolution and that accessible information would be its catalyst. Secretly I was cheering it on.
The Chinese leadership today continues, as best it can, to battle the free flow of information. Government censorship continues, but reports out of China indicate those efforts are failing. As in the case of Iran, Myanmar, North Korea and other dictatorships, efforts to limit and control information in the age of the Internet with the explosion of mobile phones and Twitter accounts are on the losing side of history.
Some might cry foul, using the examples of modern thugs as a jump point into the situation within our own church today. Allow me this defense: I deal here not with personalities as much as I do with structures and systems. My broadest point is that the old top-down, one-voice-serves-all model of government and the information system it employs is anachronistic, dead as a functioning model.
People want give-and-take, understandable explanations. They want information to be a two-way street. Above all, they expect accountability. When all they get are press releases, you cannot expect them to be satisfied. No, they will be suspicious, they will question, they will most often not give you the benefit of the doubt. And this is what has happened, what is happening, as the Vatican tries to manage the current phase of the sex scandal that has rocked the Western world.
But there’s more. As noted above, the Internet has decentralized information and allows it to be sent globally in an instant. It occurred to me the other day that this latest round of church sex abuse reportage, which began in Germany three months back, is the largest eruption since 2002 — and the first such eruption since blogs and social networking and news sites matured on the Internet.
Remember how for much of our lives we heard it said that things change slowly within our church, over centuries, if at all. Well, in an age requiring rapid response to remain part of any ongoing conversation, this approach increasingly works against us. It was one thing when news of a papal action took weeks or longer to get across the globe. Today news assessments take place within minutes. To be influential one needs to be fast, nimble and flexible, like it or not.
One recent example supports the point. By the time Pope Benedict XVI issued his long awaited response on sex abuse last month to the Irish church, the story had already migrated to Germany and beyond. When his letter omitted any reference to the German situation, many in Germany were hurt. Others were offended.
Another related church matter that pitted old and new ways and technologies occurred in the final hours of the health care debate in Washington.
The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, attempting to present one voice on the bill as they saw it relating to abortion, came off, in the eyes of many observers, as out of step with a quickly changing political scene. Meanwhile, they found themselves making judgments based on faulty and perhaps outdated information. On the other hand, Network, the Catholic women religious lobbying group, used electronic technology to rally members of their organization and to spread word of their analyses. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, in turn, used the Internet to seek voluntary signatures in support of the bill. The bishops and the women appeared to be working out of two opposing authority models, one vertical and the other horizontal. The second, the invitational assessment model, it turned out, won the day — and the legislation, leaving the bishops in the dust, and with some upset and perhaps not quite yet understanding what or how it happened.
Even the old monarchies of Europe are now grounded in constitutions. The Enlightenment, new understandings of human dignity, public education, the liberation of women, access to information and, now, instantaneous global transmitting systems have rendered ineffective governing models. Is it any wonder our church’s prelates feel besieged?
By Thomas C. Fox
Created Apr 27, 2010
I toured China for three weeks in late 1998. Computers hooked to the expanding Internet were being set up in hotels frequented by tourists. While public Chinese access to electronic information was still in its infancy then -- and still largely restricted to foreigners -- I remember thinking to myself that the country was facing another revolution and that accessible information would be its catalyst. Secretly I was cheering it on.
The Chinese leadership today continues, as best it can, to battle the free flow of information. Government censorship continues, but reports out of China indicate those efforts are failing. As in the case of Iran, Myanmar, North Korea and other dictatorships, efforts to limit and control information in the age of the Internet with the explosion of mobile phones and Twitter accounts are on the losing side of history.
Some might cry foul, using the examples of modern thugs as a jump point into the situation within our own church today. Allow me this defense: I deal here not with personalities as much as I do with structures and systems. My broadest point is that the old top-down, one-voice-serves-all model of government and the information system it employs is anachronistic, dead as a functioning model.
People want give-and-take, understandable explanations. They want information to be a two-way street. Above all, they expect accountability. When all they get are press releases, you cannot expect them to be satisfied. No, they will be suspicious, they will question, they will most often not give you the benefit of the doubt. And this is what has happened, what is happening, as the Vatican tries to manage the current phase of the sex scandal that has rocked the Western world.
But there’s more. As noted above, the Internet has decentralized information and allows it to be sent globally in an instant. It occurred to me the other day that this latest round of church sex abuse reportage, which began in Germany three months back, is the largest eruption since 2002 — and the first such eruption since blogs and social networking and news sites matured on the Internet.
Remember how for much of our lives we heard it said that things change slowly within our church, over centuries, if at all. Well, in an age requiring rapid response to remain part of any ongoing conversation, this approach increasingly works against us. It was one thing when news of a papal action took weeks or longer to get across the globe. Today news assessments take place within minutes. To be influential one needs to be fast, nimble and flexible, like it or not.
One recent example supports the point. By the time Pope Benedict XVI issued his long awaited response on sex abuse last month to the Irish church, the story had already migrated to Germany and beyond. When his letter omitted any reference to the German situation, many in Germany were hurt. Others were offended.
Another related church matter that pitted old and new ways and technologies occurred in the final hours of the health care debate in Washington.
The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, attempting to present one voice on the bill as they saw it relating to abortion, came off, in the eyes of many observers, as out of step with a quickly changing political scene. Meanwhile, they found themselves making judgments based on faulty and perhaps outdated information. On the other hand, Network, the Catholic women religious lobbying group, used electronic technology to rally members of their organization and to spread word of their analyses. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, in turn, used the Internet to seek voluntary signatures in support of the bill. The bishops and the women appeared to be working out of two opposing authority models, one vertical and the other horizontal. The second, the invitational assessment model, it turned out, won the day — and the legislation, leaving the bishops in the dust, and with some upset and perhaps not quite yet understanding what or how it happened.
Even the old monarchies of Europe are now grounded in constitutions. The Enlightenment, new understandings of human dignity, public education, the liberation of women, access to information and, now, instantaneous global transmitting systems have rendered ineffective governing models. Is it any wonder our church’s prelates feel besieged?
Monday, April 19, 2010
When will it end?
Here are two recent headlines from NCR:
For Benedict, Malta was a break in the storm
Munich vicar general reportedly says he took the fall for Ratzinger
For Benedict, Malta was a break in the storm
Munich vicar general reportedly says he took the fall for Ratzinger
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
CAN Schedule:
Hi Friends of CAN,
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful Easter time weather! Please join us this month.
* Women Led Prayer- Saturday, April 17th at 11 am. Join us at CTSA (1077 S Newstead). All are invited!
* Our next Book Group will be on the novel The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan. The book is available at Left Bank Books- let them know you are with the CAN Book Group and you will receive a discount- the book will be under $12.00. We will meet to discuss the novel on Tuesday, April 27th from 7- 8:30 pm at CTSA(1077 S Newstead). More information about this novel available here http://www.left-bank.com/book/9781596913431 E-mail can@catholicactionnetwork.org if you are planning to join us for the Book Group.
* May Day Events: Join CAN and many others on May 1st from 11:30am - 1:30 pm to March for Immigrant, Civil and Human Rights. The March will be from the America Center (11:30 am) to Kiener Plaza (noon). There will be interfaith prayer, Puppetistas, music and call to action. Afterward from 1-10 pm there will be a May Day Festival on Cherokee Street. This will include a street fair of progressive groups, a screen filming, a rally and much more. More information available http://www.facebook.com/events/edit/index.php?new&step=2&eid=110478172308129#!/event.php?eid=200734103711
For more information see www.catholicactionnetwork.org. See you this month!
--
Peace,
Megan Heeney
Catholic Action Network
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful Easter time weather! Please join us this month.
* Women Led Prayer- Saturday, April 17th at 11 am. Join us at CTSA (1077 S Newstead). All are invited!
* Our next Book Group will be on the novel The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan. The book is available at Left Bank Books- let them know you are with the CAN Book Group and you will receive a discount- the book will be under $12.00. We will meet to discuss the novel on Tuesday, April 27th from 7- 8:30 pm at CTSA(1077 S Newstead). More information about this novel available here http://www.left-bank.com/book/9781596913431 E-mail can@catholicactionnetwork.org if you are planning to join us for the Book Group.
* May Day Events: Join CAN and many others on May 1st from 11:30am - 1:30 pm to March for Immigrant, Civil and Human Rights. The March will be from the America Center (11:30 am) to Kiener Plaza (noon). There will be interfaith prayer, Puppetistas, music and call to action. Afterward from 1-10 pm there will be a May Day Festival on Cherokee Street. This will include a street fair of progressive groups, a screen filming, a rally and much more. More information available http://www.facebook.com/events/edit/index.php?new&step=2&eid=110478172308129#!/event.php?eid=200734103711
For more information see www.catholicactionnetwork.org. See you this month!
--
Peace,
Megan Heeney
Catholic Action Network
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Catholic Sisters Support Passage of Healthcare Bill
Washington DC: NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, released the text of a letter to Congress supporting healthcare legislation from organizations and communities representing tens of thousands of Catholic Sisters. This letter, which is being delivered to each Member of Congress today, comes just days after a statement in support of passing healthcare reform by Sister Carol Keehan, President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association.
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