ARCC SPOT LIGHTs

ARCC spot LIGHT- A Lesson from Success

 Sun Nov 15, 2009 4:44 pm

Learn from Success?

 

Our Catholic bishops were successful in the State of Maine in their support for the  referendum against same-sex marriages, and again in the House of Representatives' bill on Health Care which excluded any government funding of abortions.   A great deal of money from the Sunday collection went into their efforts.  The combined resources of the Catholic bishops and the Mormon leadership were able to convince the good people of Maine on the merits of their case.  One might question their tactics, but, be that as it may, democracy worked for them.

 

Members in the House of Representatives felt the same Episcopal pressure, and the great need for health care reform forced them to compromise.  Again the ethics of the biships' tactics might be called into question, if fully known, but again it would appear that democracy worked.

 

Hurray for the bishops!  Well, maybe!

 

We hope and pray that our good bishops learned an important lesson here.  Even under the pressure of high-power advertising, and whatever other measures used, it can be said that democracy worked in their favor and the voice of the people was heard and effective.

 

Might they just trust the Holy Spirit to speak through the voice of the faithful and use the democratic process to bring about needed changes in the Church?  Instead of mandating their own views from on high, might they ask and follow their Catholic people's vote on mandatory celibacy, contraception issues, women's ordination, restructuring of governance, and openly trust God's people?  Might they listen and learn from the greater magisterium of Church, the sensus fidelium, on these and other problem they face?  Could it be that they don't trust God enough to do this?

 

No doubt homosexual unions will continue in Maine, legal or not, and, unfortunately, abortions will continue without federal money, but at least the voice of the people was   heard and effective.  In the same way the faith and judgment of the Catholic people will always succeed, even if ignored, or suppressed by Episcopal attempts to manipulate and control it.  That is what Christ promised.

 

Would that they would learn that lesson!  

ARCC spot LIGHT - Investigate the Investigation

Tue Dec 1, 2009 12:56 pm

Investigate the Investigation
 

Perhaps the Spirit is offering women religious special teaching opportunities, kyros moments, in our day.  At the recent African Synod and at the gathering of Asia-Oceania Meeting of Religious (AMOR) in Asia and Oceania, women religious asked to be considered and treated by the hierarchy of the Church as the baptized members that they are--sharing in Christ's power as king, teacher and priest.

The place and importance of the laity is being stressed more and more as the priest shortage worsens but rarely are women religious counted as part of the laity.  If they are not part of the clergy, as the bishops emphasize, must they not be part of the laity?  And if they are, is not their active ministry in the Church just as valid as that of the cloistered religious who are not included in the Vatican investigation?  Are they not free to respond to the needs of the times in their own way and culture, or are they to be treated as "day laborers" in the Church, who labor under the bishops' command in schools, hospitals, seminary kitchens, etc.   Is that what the hierarchy expected of all dedicated religious women?
Many religious communities in the United States have been gifted with highly educated, well trained women religious willing and able to read the signs of the times and minister by bringing Christ's message to their community, especially when the bishops have failed to provide priests for their people.  Is not this what "the Church" expects of all the laity?

ARCC spot LIGHT- To the Suffering Church of Ireland

Tue Dec 15, 2009 3:01 pm

Brothers and Sisters,

 

We share your sorrow and anguish.  We, too, know and have experienced the soul shattering revelations about the institution we love and cherish.   Betrayal by those in whom we trusted and confided is a heart-breaker and a significant emotional event which forces us to re-evaluate our priorities, attitudes, and values.

 

This is a dangerous time for us Catholics.  Now is not the time to run and hide in despair or, in anger, to strike out against the guilty.  The spirit of Jesus is not found in either of these inclinations.  Most of the guilty are victims as well.  They share the same faith as we, but solemn oaths to authority and the lure of power has kept them silent and their conscience suppressed.

 

Who cannot see the working of the Holy Spirit through the signs of these times to rescue, purify, and renew our Church community?  It is not the time to stand by and let this guilty, evil system attempt to redeem itself so that it can continue with business as usual, confident that our memory will fade over time and our descendents will encounter the same incestuous problem.  Our faith is too important to let that happen again to our Church.

 

We can curse the darkness all we want, but without some sort of light to offer our anger is in vain.  You have an opportunity to restore the Church back to the community.  As you seek to offer a solution, ARCC urges you to study and consider working for the implementation of  a Universal Catholic Constitution for the Church  which can be found at  http://arcc-catholic-rights.net/constitution.htm  

 

Such a reform is long overdue and we offer this extensively studied and researched project as a needed, well prayed-over response.

 

We pray for you and look to you as the soil for reform in the Church from which your sons and daughters came here and so lovingly shared with us over the years.

ARCC spot LIGHT - ARCC's New Year's Message

Fri Jan 1, 2010 8:41 am

"Behold, I make all things new!" (Revelation 21:5)

As we begin a new year, and a new decade, we also begin a new era for our beloved Church.  The spiritual childhood rules of pray, pay, and obey no longer work for adult family members who surf the world for knowledge and have experienced the great joys and current sorrows of our very human Church.  Indeed, the Spirit has opened our eyes and pulled back the ecclesiastical Wizards' curtain, giving us a glimpse of smoke and mirrors at work.
 
Family is family and we cannot deny our origins, nor should we.  We owe who we are and our spiritual life to our beloved ancestors, some whom are still in control and authority.  Respect and love is due to them as we expect as much for ourselves in due time.

Trust in the judgments of our human spiritual parents has proven to be misplaced as sins of the contra-Vatican II reactionary clerical cast are continuously revealed.  These parental types still control our inheritance, and attempt to impose their dysfunction on us.  As adults, we leave the deteriorating cocoon of childhood rules, and with our spiritual  inheritance, we start anew.

We don't expect family approval.  Building on past truth and present reality, the task falls to us to preserve the good and work to prevent new mistakes.  A new organizational model and governance structure is needed in a new era. The Church is, "semper reformanda," made up of always-learning and ever-changing members of the Body of Christ that depends on adult members to make the changes so desperately needed to survive and grow.  It is an exciting time, but not as a spectator sport.  For a start, don't pour new money into old envelopes.

The Spirit calls us to "the realization of what is hoped for" and provides us with "evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1).  Do we deserve a better Church? Or, more aptly put, can we change our behavior so that the Church we deserve is better than what we have?  The task is difficult, but "God, whose power works in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine." (Eph 3:20)

ARCC spot LIGHT - Oath of Office

Fri Jan 15, 2010 10:30 am

Oath of Office

 

On occasions we take oaths.  Marriage vows, testimony in court, and oaths of office are examples.  In doing so we ask God to witness our sincere intention to remain faithful to the promises we make.  While binding, these oaths/promises are made to others and we bring God in to reinforce our serious intention to be faithful.  They are not promises made directly to God.

 

Our baptismal promises are the first and most fundamental promises we make directly to God and bind throughout life.  Subsequent vows/oaths are just that, "sub-sequent" (following after  and under) our Baptismal promises:

Do you renounce Satan? We do!

And all his works? We do!

And all his allurements?  We do!

These promises take precedent and prevail over all human oaths that may follow.

 

Now study carefully an oath of office that bishops and cardinals take:

"I [name and surname], Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, promise and swear to be faithful henceforth and forever, while I live, to Christ and his Gospel, being constantly obedient to the Holy Roman Apostolic Church, to Blessed Peter in the person of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, and of his canonically elected Successors; to maintain communion with the Catholic Church always, in word and deed; not to reveal to any one what is confided to me in secret, nor to divulge what may bring harm or dishonor to Holy Church;* to carry out with great diligence and faithfulness those tasks to which I am called by my service to the Church, in accord with the norms of the law. So help me Almighty God." 

 

In light of current revelations, the consensus (sensus fidelium) would judge that this oath in part attempts to prevail over the promises made directly to God at baptism.  Covering up clergy sexual abuse by bishops is one example of this.  There may be others.  What other secrets might be involved "that may bring harm or dishonor to Holy Church" and dishonor and shame to the people of God, but also require setting aside the Baptismal promises made directly to God? 

 

Baptismal promises are not displaced by oaths made to the Church, to humans, or human authority, nor do they permit mental reservation or hypocritical evasive tactics.  

ARCC spot Light - Roman Mental Reservation

Tue Feb 2, 2010 8:31 am

Mental Reservation

The temptation to deceive when the truth hurts haunts us all at times, hence the advice of Jesus: "But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes ' or 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil. (Matt 5:37)

The recent Murphy Report about clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland  (paragraph 58.19-21) explained that, "Mental reservation is a concept developed and much discussed over the centuries, which permits a churchman knowingly to convey a misleading impression to another person without being guilty of lying."  Cardinal Connell explained it as follows: "Well, the general teaching about mental reservation is that you are not permitted to tell a lie. On the other hand, you may be put in a position where you have to answer, and there may be circumstances in which you can use an ambiguous expression realizing that the person who you are talking to will accept an untrue version of whatever it may be -- permitting that to happen, not willing that it happened, that would be lying." (?)

The Irish hierarchy is sinking, and by calling these bishops to Rome, the Pope risks dragging himself into their mire and failing to find his way to higher ground.  If he does not condemn "mental reservation" as inappropriate in the context of child abuse, he will not achieve the kind of new beginning that is urgently needed for the Catholic Church in Ireland and beyond.

An internationally recognized authority on clergy sexual abuse, Fr. Thomas Doyle, O.P., has this to add:

"Under the present circumstances some claim that it is morally justifiable to lie in order to protect the reputation of the institutional Church.  The lie generally is formulated in either an active form such as denying that a person has sexually abused children, or in a passive form, such as failing to inform a pastor or a parish that an assigned priest or cleric is a known abuser.  In either case and under any guise there never fulfills even the most remote circumstances for applying mental reservation.  The concept of the “good of the Church” never allows for enabling sexual abuse or covering for sexual abuse since the "church” is hardly limited to the clerics or the hierarchy but includes the abused and the lay faithful susceptible to abuse.

"In short, mental reservation is an unacceptable and unapproved doctrine that some appeal to in order to justify lying.
 
"The concept of mental reservation is not and never has been included in Canon Law.  It has never been officially approved by Catholic Church authority but has been debated in years past by the scholars of the law and of moral theology."  (THE DOCTRINE OF MENTAL  RESERVATION,  Thomas P. Doyle, O.P., J.C.D.)

The short take on this is to listen very very carefully when anyone, especially those in high places, denies wrong doing.

ARCC spot LIGHT - Feed My People (maybe)!

Mon Mar 1, 2010 8:15 am

Feed (some) of My People!

Our Catholic Church holds that there can be no interdenominational agreement on receiving the Eucharist before full ecclesiastical unity is achieved.  Too often, this is equated with another matter, that of Eucharistic sharing, the act of making the Eucharist accessible to individuals of other traditions who are, by virtue of baptism, our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ, and who are present for the Eucharistic celebration, whether as occasional visitors or as spouses of the nearly 50% of Catholics in North America who have married across denominational lines.

This lack of Eucharistic sharing between believing and prepared Christians makes a mockery of the theology of sacrament which says a sacrament effects what it signifies.  If the Eucharist is the ultimate sacrament of unity, should it not be allowed to effect that unity as well as signify it?  Should it not be more generously shared with properly disposed persons of faith who by special circumstances find themselves at a Catholic liturgy and ask to share the Body and Blood of Jesus with this us?  In asking this, do they not meet all the criteria specified in the 1993 Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms of Ecumenism, Article 131,as well as Canon 844, Article 4 of the Code of Canon Law - a law too often required to be obeyed, too seldom generously applied?

Must we continuously tell such people of good faith that we are sorry but they cannot receive, cannot be healed by the ultimate sacrament of healing, cannot live the unity of their marriage at the Eucharistic banquet, cannot be united with us (and we with them) by the ultimate sacrament of unity?  Must we wait until such unity is officially proclaimed before we offer food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty?

Eucharist is not a prize for some theological winning team or some favored team member. It is food for the journey. And we all journey together: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God who is Father of all.  No Christian tradition has complete control over Eucharist.  Regardless of our interpretation, it is still Eucharist, the sharing of the bread/wine/body/blood of Jesus that He gave us to be again become a living, resurrected, presence amongst us.

If Jesus commands this in His memory who can make rules against it?  A thought to pray about during Lent!

ARCC spot LIGHT - Secrecy, the Chasuble of Pride

Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:33 am

Secrecy Veils Pride

Our Pope, priests, and especially bishops, must remember that their chasuble is a costume designed to project an image of power and authority while disguising the humanity, warts and all, of the person inside.  So our Church institution, like all major corporations, projects an image that intentionally covers human weaknesses and sometimes serious blemishes just like pancake make-up.

Image is of all importance.  What corporation or religion seeks to project an image of "Trying to be the one and only" or "Seeking truth"?  Pride drives compulsive "winners" to project an image of having arrived at unattainable excellence instead of pursuing it like other mortals.    

It is any wonder that the "Sacred Magisterium" does not admit of error, change, or even its shaded history, and demands secrecy in all matters revealing its humanity?  Don't blame loyal bishops for following orders to cover-up all that distorts the "Image."  They have been chosen for their absolute commitment to protect and project the Church's holy bride of Christ "Image" even if it entails great expense, suppression of conscience, deception, unlawful secrecy, chicanery, or possible jail time. 

Didn't Jesus use every opportunity to point out such hypocrisy in the hierarchy of his day, and in his own followers as well ?  Was he not tempted as we to seek power, control and adulation, offered by the prince of pride?  Jesus, the Son of Man like us, rejected these babbles of pride and their source.  Should we not expect to find a sincere effort to avoid such hypocrisy among all who claim to be his followers?

An important 5th mark of the Church of Jesus (besides One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic) is desperately needed - Humility i.e. candid truthfulness clearly recognized by openness, accountability, and the recognition that it is a human Church for humans.  Without humility, any institution including our Roman Catholic Church structure, remains a secretive facade projecting divine attributes of absolute truth, infallibility, complete trustworthiness - and guilty of human pride.

But then, Lent is the time to recognize why we can't cast the first stone. 

"Pride precedes a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).  True for all of us who make up the human Church.

ARCC spot LIGHT EXTRA - Formal Declaration

Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:50 pm

        Cry Out as if you had a Million Voices.
        It is Silence that Kills the World. - Catherine of Siena

Occasional words of wisdom become staples for rational living. One example is from Lord Acton: Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Another is from Edmund Burke, whom we can paraphrase slightly: All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

The time has come for us to declare that we have lost confidence in the hierarchical leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. This is a result of our recognition of the tsunami of corrupt behavior and secrecy that has resulted in systemic sexual abuse of young people by many clergy and religious. The perpetrators include the religious superiors, mainly bishops, who have enabled this to continue by covering up the criminal actions. It is obvious that the primary motivation of the leadership is to protect the presumed unsullied reputation of the institutional church, regardless of the consequences to mere human beings.

Therefore, we call for all clergy and religious, without exception, who have had personal knowledge of sexual abuse by others, and who did not take decisive action to stop it, to resign forthwith.   In addition, we call for the immediate abolition of the requirement for an oath of unquestioning obedience and a vow of secrecy by clergy and religious to their superiors. Such an oath of blind obedience has no place in a collegial organization. A vow of secrecy is antithetical to a true Christian community. Such practices are at the heart of the corruption of the present institutional church.