A Message from Archbishop Hebda Regarding President Trump's Executive Order on Immigration Ban

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Related Off-site Links:
Archbishop Hebda Joins Minnesota Faith Leaders in Opposing Trump’s Immigration Ban – Matthew Davis (The Catholic Spirit, January 30, 2017).
Trump Bars Refugees and Citizens of 7 Muslim Countries – Michael D. Shear and Helene Cooper (The New York Times, January 27, 2017).
Trump's Immigration Ban Ban Excludes Countries with Direct Links to Terrorism and Where Trump Has Commercial Holdings – The Real News, January 27, 2017).
Trump's Muslim Ban Triggers Chaos, Heartbreak, and Resistance – Ryan Devereaux, Murtaza Hussain and Alice Speri (The Intercept, January 29, 2017).
Judge Blocks Trump Order on Refugees Amid Chaos and Outcry Worldwide Michael D. Shear, Nicholas Kulish and Alan Feuer (The New York Times, January 28, 2017).
Judge Halts Deportations After Protesters Swarm Airports Over Trump’s Order Barring Muslims – Robert Mackey (The Intercept, January 28, 2017).
Donald Trump, the Refugee Ban, and the Triumph of Cruelty – Dylan Matthews (Vox, January 28, 2017).
Donald Trump Fires Acting Attorney General Hours After She Refuses to Defend His Immigration Ban – Leon Neyfakh (Slate, January 30, 2017).
Trump Refugee Ban Clashes With Faith-Based Groups' Religious Missions – Tom Gjelton (NPR News, January 27, 2017).
Pope Francis: You Can’t Defend Christianity by Being “Against Refugees and Other Religions” – Catholic News Service via Catholic Herald (October 13, 2016).
USCCB Speaks Out Against Trump’s Immigration Orders – Mary Pezzulo (Patheos, January 25, 2017).
Responding to Trump's Ban, Top Catholic Bishops Pledge Solidarity with Muslim Refugees – Michael O'Loughlin (America, January 30, 2017).
Bishop McElroy: Trump’s Executive Order is Rooted in Xenophobia and Religious Prejudice – Millennial (January 29, 2017)
Chicago's Archbishop Calls President Trump's Immigration Order a “Dark Moment in U.S. History” – Madeline Farber (Time, January 29, 2017).
LGBT Catholics Stand with Immigrants, Refugees, Visitors from Banned Countries — DignityUSA (January 30, 2017).
Twin Cities Clergy Join Protest Against Trump Immigration Ban — Jean Hopfensperger (Star Tribune, January 30, 2017).
A Message from Archbishop Hebda Regarding President Trump's Executive Order on Immigration Ban — The Progressive Catholic Voice (January 30, 2017).
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, James Martin Labels as "Appalling" President Trump's Plan to Demonize Immigrants — The Wild Reed (January 27, 2017).
550 Attend Mass Outside White House in Solidarity with Refugees – Teresa Donnellan (America, January 30, 2017).
How the Catholic Mood About the Trump Administration Shifted in Just a Week – Michael O'Loughlin (America, January 30, 2017).

100 Years Ago, Americans Talked About Catholics the Way They Talk About Muslims Today

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An example of how xenophobia has appeared
time and time again throughout US history.
By German Lopez

NOTE: This article was first published January 18, 2017 by Vox.

About a century ago, millions of Americans feared that members of a religious group was amassing an arsenal of weapons for a secret, pre-planned takeover of the United States.

The feared religious group wasn’t Muslims. It was, as Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce wrote in a great piece in 2015, Catholics:

Hatred had become big business in southwestern Missouri, and its name was the Menace, a weekly anti-Catholic newspaper whose headlines screamed to readers around the nation about predatory priests, women enslaved in convents and a dangerous Roman Catholic plot to take over America. . . .

America’s deep and widespread skepticism of Catholics is a faint memory in today’s post-Sept. 11 world. But as some conservative politicians call for limits on Muslim immigration and raise questions about whether Muslims are more loyal to Islamic law than American law, the story of Aurora’s long-ago newspaper is a reminder of a long history of American religious intolerance.

Today, there are calls for federal surveillance of mosques in the name of preventing terrorist attacks; a century ago, it was state laws that allowed the warrantless search of convents and churches in search of supposedly trapped women and purported secret Catholic weapons caches.

This may seem absurd today, but there was a real fear among Protestant Americans back then that Catholics were planning to take over the country. As Pearce reported, the fears led to serious violence: Lynch mobs killed Catholic Italians, arsonists burned down Catholic churches, and there were anti-Catholic riots. It was a similar sentiment to the kind of Islamophobia today that’s led many Americans to call for shutting down mosques, forcing Muslims to register in a national database, and even banning Islam.

The point of the comparison is not to say that the US faces the same problems today as it did a century ago, or that the discrimination toward Catholics back then and Muslims today is exactly the same. But when looking back at the history of the US, it’s easy to see a pattern of consistent xenophobia and fears of outsiders.


Xenophobia is a staple of American history

In response to terrorist attacks across the globe, much of the conversation has focused on refugees and immigration. This conversation has been tinged by xenophobia toward Muslims, with President-elect Donald Trump once calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US.

But this sort of rhetoric is not new to the US. As the Pew Research Center found, Americans have generally opposed taking in refugees even as they went through abhorrent, well-known crises. (Dara Lind reported for Vox that America even rejected some Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.)

Xenophobia has fueled other policies too. In the late 19th century, the US passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to stop the flow of Chinese laborers into the US. During World War II, the US put Japanese Americans in internment camps after the country declared war on Japan. Throughout the war on drugs, lawmakers have regularly tapped into xenophobic sentiments to prohibit certain drugs — such as when San Francisco banned opium smoking that was perceived as popular among Chinese immigrants, and when prohibitionists built up opposition to marijuana by fear-mongering about its use among Mexican immigrants.

Throughout all of these periods and policies, the public and lawmakers cited genuine policy interests: national security, keeping American laborers competitive in the job market, and preventing drug abuse. But underlying such policy stances were obvious signs that Americans were simply scared of foreigners who weren’t like them.

By and large, we tend to recognize the underlying xenophobia today, and that the policies it produced were wrong, bigoted, and self-destructive.

As Islamophobia rears its ugly head in the US again, it’s worth thinking about how we now look back on those moments of American history — and whether we’re making the same mistakes again.

What Is With the U.S. Bishops and Religious Liberty?

By Paula Ruddy

Are the bishops worried about religious liberty or about women using contraceptives? Being honest about this is tremendously important. The bishops’ moral authority is at stake as well as Catholic respect as citizens for the U.S. legal system. A nation’s legal system is only as strong as the people’s respect for it. We cannot afford the U.S. bishops’ tearing down the rule of law.

The case of Catholic non-profits before the Supreme Court illustrates the problem. Catholic bishops teach that the use of contraceptives is morally wrong. The U.S government leaves the decision about personal morality to individuals. It wants insurance companies who provide health care insurance through employers to make it free and easy to get contraceptives for those women employees who want them because reproduction is a factor in women’s health care.

Churches are exempt and don’t have to cover contraception for their employees. But Catholic non-profits – hospitals, social welfare agencies, and nursing homes – employ lots of women, Catholic and not Catholic, and they want to be exempt from offering coverage too. The government offered an accommodation. Their employees would still get coverage but the religious non-profits would not have to pay, arrange for, or implement. All they would have to do is notify the government or the insurer of opt-out.

The U.S. bishops have opposed the government all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court has to decide whether the free exercise of religion of the Catholics who run the non-profits is “substantially burdened” by the government’s requirement to notify them in accepting the accommodation.

Although the insurance coverage doesn’t require any woman to use contraceptives, it does make it free and easy for them to use them if they want. I think that is the point of the U.S. bishops’ opposition. They do not want to make it free and easy for women, Catholic or not, to use contraceptives. So it isn’t about the government forcing Catholics to do something against their religion, it is about preventing women from the free and easy use of contraceptives.

If the bishops valued liberty, they would honor the free consciences of women on the issue of their family planning. Instead they are interested in coercive prevention and getting the U.S. government to do the job. Positioning themselves as victims of religious intolerance is not honest. The dishonesty of it it destroys the moral authority of the bishops in the eyes of Catholics and all our fellow citizens. The Catholic bishops should pull the plug on the religious liberty campaign immediately.

But why do the bishops care so much about contraceptives that they are willing to do so much harm to prevent women from using them? I think they are dismayed by the sexual freedoms the U.S. government has recognized in the last 50 years and they are worried about the Catholic family. From the use of contraception in the 1960’s to gay marriage in 2015, one after another laws controlling sexual practices, reproduction, and marriage have been overturned in the U.S. The bishops may believe that people’s attitudes toward family is affected by the use of contraceptives. They may believe it is harder for Catholic families to raise their children within the boundaries of Catholic sexual morality in the sexually permissive contemporary culture.

If the Catholic family is the bishops’ concern, instead of tearing down respect for the U.S. legal system, they should ask three hard questions:

• How can we strengthen the Catholic family to internalize moral standards so they do not need the coercion of law? Legality is not a sufficient standard for morality.

• How shall we re-think our moral teaching on sexual practice so that it makes sense to Catholic families to live by? This is not accommodation to secularism. It is about being responsible.

• How do we partner with our fellow citizens, religious and secular, to build a mainstream culture of responsibility and healthy family living? This would require Catholic bishops to learn from the rest of society how to relate productively with people who think differently from them.

There is no time to lose in stopping the religious liberty campaign and asking the right questions.


Related Off-site Link:
Nondiscrimination Laws Merit Church Support – Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler (National Catholic Reporter, April 19, 2016).

See also the previous PCV posts:
• What is This Furor About Religious Liberty?
• Fortnight of Freedom: Hypocrisy of the U.S. Bishops
• Your Fist – My Nose
• Quote of the Day – June 4, 2012

The Historic Vatican Peace Conference

By John Dear

Note: This article was first published April 15, 2016 by HuffPost Religion.

This week, an historic gathering of 80 leading Catholic peace leaders from 20 different nations met at the Vatican to call for an end to the so-called just war theory and for a recommitment to the nonviolence of Jesus.

There has literally never been a gathering like this before in the history of the Vatican. It was sponsored by the Pontifical Office of Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International, the official global Catholic peace movement. Cardinal Turkson, head of the Pontifical Office and the leader behind Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, opened the conference by reading a long letter from Pope Francis to the participants. Cardinal Turkson participated in the conference, and approved the closing statement, which was then presented to the Pope.

For the first time, the Catholic Church is discussing abandoning the just war theory and officially returning to Jesus’ way of nonviolence to resolve conflict. The just war theory has been advocated for over 1700 years to justified many wars and killings. Every one of us who participated in the conference left Rome feeling hopeful that Pope Francis will help lead the Catholic church and the world to a new breakthrough toward peace and nonviolence.

Here below is the official statement from the conference, submitted to Pope Francis on April 13, 2016.

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An Appeal to the Catholic Church to Re-Commit to the Centrality of Gospel Nonviolence

As Christians committed to a more just and peaceful world we are called to take a clear stand for creative and active nonviolence and against all forms of violence. With this conviction, and in recognition of the Jubilee Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis, people from many countries gathered at the Nonviolence and Just Peace Conference sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Pax Christi International on April 11-13, 2016 in Rome.

Our assembly, people of God from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania included lay people, theologians, members of religious congregations, priests, and bishops. Many of us live in communities experiencing violence and oppression. All of us are practitioners of justice and peace. We are grateful for the message to our conference from Pope Francis: “your thoughts on revitalizing the tools of nonviolence, and of active nonviolence in particular, will be a needed and positive contribution.”


Looking at our world today

We live in a time of tremendous suffering, widespread trauma and fear linked to militarization, economic injustice, climate change, and a myriad of other specific forms of violence. In this context of normalized and systemic violence, those of us who stand in the Christian tradition are called to recognize the centrality of active nonviolence to the vision and message of Jesus; to the life and practice of the Catholic Church; and to our long-term vocation of healing and reconciling both people and the planet.

We rejoice in the rich concrete experiences of people engaged in work for peace around the world, many of whose stories we heard during this conference. Participants shared their experiences of courageous negotiations with armed actors in Uganda and Colombia; working to protect the Article 9, the peace clause in the Japanese Constitution; accompaniment in Palestine; and countrywide peace education in the Philippines. They illuminate the creativity and power of nonviolent practices in many different situations of potential or actual violent conflict. Recent academic research, in fact, has confirmed that nonviolent resistance strategies are twice as effective as violent ones.

The time has come for our Church to be a living witness and to invest far greater human and financial resources in promoting a spirituality and practice of active nonviolence and in forming and training our Catholic communities in effective nonviolent practices. In all of this, Jesus is our inspiration and model.


Jesus and nonviolence

In his own times, rife with structural violence, Jesus proclaimed a new, nonviolent order rooted in the unconditional love of God. Jesus called his disciples to love their enemies (Matthew 5: 44), which includes respecting the image of God in all persons; to offer no violent resistance to one who does evil (Matthew 5: 39); to become peacemakers; to forgive and repent; and to be abundantly merciful (Matthew 5-7). Jesus embodied nonviolence by actively resisting systemic dehumanization, as when he defied the Sabbath laws to heal the man with the withered hand (Mark 3: 1-6); when he confronted the powerful at the Temple and purified it (John 2: 13-22); when he peacefully but determinedly challenged the men accusing a woman of adultery (John 8: 1-11); when on the night before he died he asked Peter to put down his sword (Matthew 26: 52).
Neither passive nor weak, Jesus’ nonviolence was the power of love in action. In vision and deed, he is the revelation and embodiment of the Nonviolent God, a truth especially illuminated in the Cross and Resurrection. He calls us to develop the virtue of nonviolent peacemaking.

Clearly, the Word of God, the witness of Jesus, should never be used to justify violence, injustice or war. We confess that the people of God have betrayed this central message of the Gospel many times, participating in wars, persecution, oppression, exploitation, and discrimination.

We believe that there is no “just war.” Too often the “just war theory” has been used to endorse rather than prevent or limit war. Suggesting that a “just war” is possible also undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacities for nonviolent transformation of conflict.

We need a new framework that is consistent with Gospel nonviolence. A different path is clearly unfolding in recent Catholic social teaching. Pope John XXIII wrote that war is not a suitable way to restore rights; Pope Paul VI linked peace and development, and told the UN “no more war”; Pope John Paul II said that “war belongs to the tragic past, to history”; Pope Benedict XVI said that “loving the enemy is the nucleus of the Christian revolution”; and Pope Francis said “the true strength of the Christian is the power of truth and love, which leads to the renunciation of all violence. Faith and violence are incompatible.” He has also urged the “abolition of war.”

We propose that the Catholic Church develop and consider shifting to a Just Peace approach based on Gospel nonviolence. A Just Peace approach offers a vision and an ethic to build peace as well as to prevent, defuse, and to heal the damage of violent conflict. This ethic includes a commitment to human dignity and thriving relationships, with specific criteria, virtues, and practices to guide our actions. We recognize that peace requires justice and justice requires peacemaking.


Living Gospel Nonviolence and Just Peace

In that spirit we commit ourselves to furthering Catholic understanding and practice of active nonviolence on the road to just peace. As would-be disciples of Jesus, challenged and inspired by stories of hope and courage in these days, we call on the Church we love to:

• continue developing Catholic social teaching on nonviolence. In particular, we call on Pope Francis to share with the world an encyclical on nonviolence and Just Peace;

• integrate Gospel nonviolence explicitly into the life, including the sacramental life, and work of the Church through dioceses, parishes, agencies, schools, universities, seminaries, religious orders, voluntary associations, and others;

• promote nonviolent practices and strategies (e.g., nonviolent resistance, restorative justice, trauma healing, unarmed civilian protection, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding strategies);

• initiate a global conversation on nonviolence within the Church, with people of other faiths, and with the larger world to respond to the monumental crises of our time with the vision and strategies of nonviolence and Just Peace;

• no longer use or teach “just war theory”; continue advocating for the abolition of war and nuclear weapons;

• lift up the prophetic voice of the church to challenge unjust world powers and to support and defend those nonviolent activists whose work for peace and justice put their lives at risk.

In every age, the Holy Spirit graces the Church with the wisdom to respond to the challenges of its time. In response to what is a global epidemic of violence, which Pope Francis has labeled a “world war in installments,” we are being called to invoke, pray over, teach and take decisive action. With our communities and organizations, we look forward to continue collaborating with the Holy See and the global Church to advance Gospel nonviolence.

John Dear is an internationally known voice for peace and nonviolence. A priest, peacemaker, organizer, lecturer, and retreat leader, he is the author/editor of 30 books, including his autobiography, “A Persistent Peace.” In 2008, John was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and in 2015 by Sen. Barbara Mikulski. He has two masters degrees in theology from the Graduate Theological Union in California. John's website is www.fatherjohndear.org


Related Off-site Link:
Landmark Vatican Conference Rejects Just War Theory, Asks for Encyclical on Nonviolence – Joshua J. McElwee (National Catholic Reporter, April 14, 2016).

Pope Francis’ "The Joy of Love" Falls Short

By Gina Messina-Dysert

Note: This commentary was first published April 12, 2016 by Feminism and Religion.


It seems that Pope Francis has finally read Margaret Farley’s Just Love; and while he is taking steps in a positive direction, he still needs to spend time processing Farley’s words. With his new statement, Amoris Laetitia ("The Joy of Love"), Francis has called for us to begin to change our attitudes towards “the other” but is still unwilling to change the man made rules of the Vatican. He refuses to acknowledge that LGBTQ relationships are in fact just and maintains the idea of complementarity rejecting women’s roles and capabilities outside of the home.

The document was developed based on information gathered from the “Synod of the Family” and addresses married life, family life, singleness, the education of children and procreation. What is significant about Amoris Laetitia is the acknowledgement that “the church has proposed a far too abstract and artificial theological idea of marriage, far removed from the concrete situations and practical possibilities of real families.”

In Section 305, the document discusses “irregular family situations” that conflict with Catholic teaching such as divorce, civil marriage or remarriage. These “irregular family situations” exclude Catholics from receiving communion and is an incredible source of pain – a branding with a scarlet letter.

Parish priests are offered a solution in to this section in Footnote #351. It states, “the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.” With this, the priest may grant communion at his discretion in an effort to help those sinners “grow in the faith and life of the church.”

As a child of divorce – a very painful event because of the Church’s stance – I appreciate that Pope Francis is taking a more pastoral approach in recognizing the many ways family is possible. However, it is critical that the Vatican move away from language such as “tolerance” for the “weak” and instead focus on a message that encompasses love and compassion without judgement.

While many are praising Amoris Laetitia, and it may be a baby step in the right direction, it has continued the idea that those who make choices to be in healthy relationships or leave those that are not are sinners, not fully human. Likewise, it continues a highly negative tone for the LGBTQ community and does not acknowledge women’s value outside of marriage.

Pope Francis is working hard to walk the line between conservative and liberal Catholics. Perhaps instead of trying to please everyone, he should find courage to continue to consider his own blindspots, spend more time with Farley’s words, and recognize that the true message of the Gospels is not about tolerance, but about liberation for every person. “Jesus was all about opening the door to possibility — for everyone — in the name of good news — for everyone.”

Gina Messina-Dysert, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Religion and Gender Studies at Ursuline College and Co-founder of Feminism and Religion. She writes for The Huffington Post, has authored multiple publications and is the co-editor of the highly acclaimed Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay. Messina-Dysert is a widely sought after speaker and has presented across the US at universities, organizations, conferences and on national platforms including appearances on MSNBC, Tavis Smiley, NPR and the TEDx stage. She has also spoken at the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations to discuss matters impacting the lives women around the world. Messina-Dysert is active in movements to end violence against women and explores opportunities for spiritual healing. Connect with her on Twitter@FemTheologian, Facebook, and her website GinaMessinaDysert.com.

Remembering Terry Dosh, 1930-2016

It is with great sadness that the PCV editorial team shares news of the death of local theologian and church historian Terry Dosh.

Terry died earlier today, Thursday, April 7, 2016, after a long struggle with Parkinson's Disease.

A married priest and a well-respected church historian and theologian, Terry was a dedicated advocate for church reform for close to half-a-century.

Inspired by the vision of church launched by Vatican II, Terry began research on mandatory celibacy in 1962.

This led him to significant involvement over the next four decades with numerous church reform organizations, including CORPUS, the International Federation of Married Priests, Call to Action Minnesota, and various other Catholic organizations for renewal. He also helped found the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church (ARCC) in 1980, serving on its board for 24 years.

From 1975 until just a few years ago, Terry edited and published four church reform newsletters, the last being Bread Rising. He also taught church history, scripture, and justice and peace topics extensively in parishes and other forums throughout the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

Terry will be greatly missed by all who knew him, and our thoughts are especially with his wife Millie and their family.

Rest in Peace, Terry . . . And thank you for your scholarly and prophetic voice, one that has inspired countless people within the local church of St. Paul-Minneapolis and beyond.

_____________________________

NOTE: In 2010, Terry was a recipient of the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform's inaugural Adsum Award, presented at the Synod of the Baptized, "Claiming Our Place at the Table." For commentary and images, click here.

Also, to read Terry's April 2008 review of Karl Rahner's three-epoch theory of Christian history, click here.

In closing, here is Peter Shea's 1999 interview with Terry Dosh.





Related Off-site Links:
Terry Dosh, Married Priest Activist, Dies at Age 85 – National Catholic Reporter (April 11. 2016).
Terry Dosh, Who Led Movement for Married Priests, Dies at 85 – Maura Lerner (Star Tribune, April 11. 2016).
Voice Nearly Gone, His Life Still Speaks – Todd Svanoe (Everyday Heroes, 2012).

Images 1 and 3: Michael Bayly (2010).
Image 2: Courtesy of the Dosh family.

Bernard Hebda Named Archbishop of Twin Cities Archdiocese

Note: The following letter from Archbishop-Designate Hebda was released March 24, 2016 by the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

When I arrived in Minnesota for the first time last June, I was but a visitor – assigned as Apostolic Administrator to help with the operations of the Archdiocese until Pope Francis named a new Archbishop. In the nine months since then, I have been blessed to witness your deep faith and your commitment to Christ’s Church, His people, and the Eucharist. I consider many of you friends.

That is why it is with joy that I tell you of Pope Francis’ decision to appoint me as the next Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The Pope and the Holy Spirit evidently had different plans for me than I had anticipated, and I am humbled and honored to be named your shepherd.

I know from my nine months in the Archdiocese that there is much work yet to be done to overcome the significant challenges we continue to face, but I am firm in my conviction that the Lord is truly present here, even in our struggles. The exceptional staff and leadership team at the Archdiocese, along with our strong priests, committed religious, and dynamic lay leaders are all reasons for great hope. You all seem to work tirelessly to serve Christ and His people no matter where they are found and for that I am most grateful.

It has already been an honor serving you and I very much look forward to continuing to serve you and this vibrant community for as long as the Lord sees fit.

Now more than ever, I will be counting on your prayers and support. Be assured of my prayers for you, your families, and this local Church.

Sincerely in Christ,

Most Reverend Bernard A. Hebda
Apostolic Administrator and Archbishop-Designate
Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Related Off-site Links:
Archbishop Hebda Named Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis – Maria Wiering (The Catholic Spirit, March 24, 2016).
Interim Bernard Hebda Named Archbishop of Twin Cities Archdiocese – Tim Harlow and Jean Hopfensperger (Star Tribune, March 24, 2016).
Hebda Named Archbishop of Twin Cities Archdiocese – Tim Nelson and Riham Feshir (MPR News, March 24, 2016).
Feeling the "Bern," for Good – Pope Names Hebda as Twin Cities Archbishop – Rocco Palmo (Whispers in the Loggia, March 24, 2016).
No Longer Administrator, How Might Hebda Change as Twin Cities Archbishop? – Brian Roewe (National Catholic Reporter, March 24, 2016).

See also the previous PCV posts:
• CCCR Representatives Meet with Interim Archbishop Hebda
• Good News! – Interim Archbishop Hebda to Hold Listening Sessions on Leadership Needs
• Twin Cities Catholics Get Rare Chance to Make Archbishop Recommendations to Vatican

What is Pope Francis’ Intent for Divorced and LGBT Catholics? We May Be About to Find Out

By Michelle Boorstein

Note: This article was first published March 18, 2016 by The Washington Post. There is a connection to the local church of St. Paul-Minneapolis in that Massimo Faggioli, a church historian who directs the Institute for Catholicism and Citizenship at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, is quoted. Of course, what's glaringly absent from this article is any commentary from women, LGBT people or divorced Catholics.

Pope Francis has a reputation for opening the Catholic Church’s doors when it comes to concepts of family. The next few weeks may clarify just how far he intends to open them.

On Saturday, the Vatican says, Francis will finalize a highly-anticipated teaching document on family issues that has been 1 ½ years in the making — including two closely-watched meetings of top bishops. The document isn’t expected to be released to the public for a few weeks, but pundits, priests and laypeople will be flipping through furiously as soon as possible to see how Francis proposes bringing more fully into church life Catholics who are LBGT, divorced-and-remarried, and cohabiting outside marriage.

Based on recent hints dropped by the pope and other top advisers, expert church-watchers believe Francis will attempt the papal version of skating’s triple-axle: not changing orthodox doctrine on anything but altering practice and rules enough to give different types of Catholic families new affirmation that they are a legitimate part of the Church.

Francis has made many powerful gestures and comments in the three years since he was elected that have made him an icon. But the time and resources he has put into this Apostolic Exhortation on the family is unique, and experts say the standing of his papacy – and its future — may be riding on it.

“This the most important test for this pope to show us how he deals with dissent in the church, how he deals with divided issues,” said Massimo Faggioli [right], a church historian who directs the Institute for Catholicism and Citizenship at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic school in St. Paul.

Faggioli said the conversation Francis launched through the two high-profile meetings, called synods, at which he encouraged dissent, “was the most important moment in the church in the last 50 years. This was the biggest sign of hope that in the Catholic Church there are ideas and we can talk about it. No one before Francis ever had the courage to think about that.”

Since the pope launched this process in the fall of 2014, much focus has been on the practicalities, in particular whether he would create ways so that the millions of disaffected Catholics who are divorced and remarried outside the Church can fully return, including receiving the core ritual of Communion. Regardless of what happens – or doesn’t — with any specific changes to practice, experts predicted the goal of Francis’ paper will be to make a much more sweeping statement about the importance of families. It could be similar in its radical scope, some said, to the document the Argentinian Jesuit issued last spring about the environment.

“The document will identify the current stresses on family life from poverty, migration and war, as well as the hostile legal and cultural framework of contemporary Western society, which Francis calls ‘ideological colonization,’” Francis biographer Austen Ivereigh predicted earlier this month in a piece for the Catholic publication Our Sunday Visitor. Francis will rail against what he has called “destructive” ideologies based on isolating Catholics from the mainstream culture, Ivereigh wrote. “The exhortation will be an uplifting tribute to the enduring power and beauty of family life, offering support and consolation to those struggling against fierce contemporary headwinds to hold families together,” Ivereigh said.

John Allen [left], editor of the Catholic site Crux and a longtime Vatican writer, said Francis may be trying to make a change that is undramatic in the short term but impactful in the long run, similar to when Pope John Paul held the first World Youth Day in the 1980’s. Back then, Allen said, very few dioceses even had something called youth ministry. “It wasn’t even a category. The church didn’t even think about it,” he said. Now, the Catholic Church and other faiths pour huge resources into thinking about how to engage young people.

Allen predicted the document will get far more attention in the West, where culture war issues about marriage and sexual mores are more on the front burner. In much of the rest of the Catholic world – now the fastest-growing parts of the church are in Africa and Asia – the document will be read differently and be seen as less dramatic, he said.

Concretely, Allen predicted the paper “will have huge symbolic and media resonance but won’t change much on the ground.”

Bishops at the synods agreed that families need much more focus, including, for example, increased marriage preparation. But they were clearly divided on things like Communion for the divorced-and-remarried and what language to use to be more welcoming of gays and lesbians and families who live together outside marriage.

There are more than 5,000 bishops around the world, Allen noted, who already take different approaches on these topics. “If you were inclined to take a flexible position, you already were. If you were inclined to take a hard line, you were.”

Pope Francis appeared to tip his hat last month during a plane press conference on the way back from Mexico, when he was asked about divorced and remarried couples. “All doors are open, but we cannot say that these people can take Communion…integration into the Church does not mean allowing people to take Communion,” he said before citing with disapproval divorced couples who “go to church once or twice a year and say, ‘I want to receive Communion,’ as if it were some prize.”

However, Monday, Cardinal Walter Kasper [right], a prominent theologian whose work Francis has often cited, said in a speech in Italy that Francis will “definitively express himself on family issues addressed during the last Synod, and in particular on the participation of the divorced and remarried faithful in the active life of the Catholic community,” the National Catholic Register reported, citing the Italian paper Il Terreno. Kasper was quoted as saying the exhortation will represent “the first step in a reform” that will mark the “turning of a page” in the Church’s history “after 1,700 years.”

“We must not repeat past formulas and barricade ourselves behind the wall of exclusivism and clericalism,” Kasper told the audience, according to Il Terreno. The Church must live in the current times and “know how to interpret them,” he said.

A key topic that experts can’t predict is how Francis will deal with a concept the synods called “the internal forum,” or the moral process of examining one’s own conscience within the framework of the church that allows for a sense of repentance while maintaining involvement in church life. The second and most recent synod, in the fall, talked about how Catholics might use the internal forum in conversation with a priest and be able to come to Communion — even in untraditional situations.

How Francis handles all this could say a lot about his standing going forward.

“The hard right both in the church and outside hasn’t liked this pope from the start. This may be the hard left deciding it doesn’t either,” said Allen, who described Francis as a “doctrinal moderate and a pastoral revolutionary.” The pope “wants the most tolerant application” of church teaching, he said.

Faggioli said many Catholics are anxious for a more radical change.

“In three years there is a lot he has accomplished. But there is a lot he has not accomplished,” he said. The synods and the paper that comes from them constitute “one of the most important moments in his pontificate, and how he gets out of this moment of fierce disagreement, [what] comes out of that will say a lot.”

Even Tougher Battle Ahead for Maverick Priest the Rev. Mike Tegeder

By Jon Tevlin

Note: This op-ed was first published March 1, 2016 by the Star Tribune.

For years, the Rev. Mike Tegeder [right] publicly fought what many considered unbeatable foes: the Catholic Church hierarchy and former Archbishop John Nienstedt. Tegeder was one of the biggest critics of the church’s attempts to block gay marriage, a stance that frequently threatened his status as priest at his two Minneapolis churches, St. Frances Cabrini and Gichitwaa Kateri.

Nienstedt is long gone, gay marriage passed overwhelmingly in Minnesota and Tegeder remains a beloved figure in his congregations. But now he is publicly fighting an even bigger opponent.

Last month, Tegeder shared a message with his congregations on the meaning of Ash Wednesday: “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” Then he dropped the bomb: “This always has an impact for me but this year even more. On the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, I got a call from my doctor telling me that a CT scan of me came back showing lung cancer with metastatic growth into my ribs and spine and abdomen. It was a shock.”

An updated post expressed some optimism because the type of lung cancer was less aggressive than expected, but on Sunday Tegeder added more bad news: Tests showed a small patch of cancer on the lining of his brain.

Since Tegeder broke the news, his Facebook page has been flooded with prayers, photos of couples he has married and notes from the scores of people who have been helped and inspired by the maverick priest.

Usually an eloquent and talkative interview, this week Tegeder just sounded tired.

“I don’t feel too bad,” he said. “I’m going to Rochester [Mayo Clinic] next week to see if they can do anything. Doctors told me there’s probably not much they can do. You hate to hear something like that.”

At 67, Tegeder is a robust man who likes to ride his bike from his home in Richfield to his parish, Gichitwaa Kateri, a church that ministers to American Indians, just off Lake Street in south Minneapolis. So the cancer was a surprise.

“It hit me out of the blue,” he said.

“The funny thing is, I still feel fairly healthy,” Tegeder said. He said he may try some targeted therapies, “but this is not likely in my case. In some cases treatment is less beneficial than doing nothing.”

Ed Flahavan worked alongside Tegeder in the 1980s at another parish, St. Stephen’s. He was saddened to hear about Tegeder’s cancer.

“My experience working and living with Mike is that he is superbly pastoral and sensitive to people who come in the front door with whatever pain they had,” said Flahavan. “Mike is the kind of guy who, if you came and said you needed $25 to rent a truck because you had to move out of your apartment, he would help you move. He wouldn’t just give you the $25 and a nice speech.”

Tegeder has also been known to pick fights with institutional rigidity wherever he finds it, but particularly inside his own church.

“Mike is the guy who pulls the pin on the grenade and lobs it over the wall,” said Flahavan. “He’s got a singular heart.”

Tegeder was repeatedly threatened with dismissal by Nienstedt during the fight for marriage equality. During investigations into the church’s sex abuse scandal, a whistleblower claimed that Nienstedt even considered labeling Tegeder as “disabled” in order to silence him.

“I don’t need to prove anything,” Tegeder told me in 2012. “If [Nienstedt] wants to throw me out, I’m fine with it.”

Then Tegeder showed me his identification card — he had kept his bus driver’s license up to date in case he was ever dismissed from the priesthood.

While his crusade for marriage equality has put Tegeder in the news, it’s his dedication to people on the margins — drug addicts, the mentally ill — that has put him in people’s hearts.

Katharyn Dawson, Tegeder’s sister, lived with him for awhile and said 2 a.m. calls for help were not unusual. “He’s realistic,” she said. “Very compassionate yet very contemporary. It’s a unique combination of traits to help people.”

Dawson has seen evidence of her brother’s work in countless cards coming in to thank him, and more than 1,500 visits on his CaringBridge page.

The day after his diagnosis, Tegeder spoke to parishioners at the Ash Wednesday service. “We are not just dust, but we are stardust,” he said. We are on a blessed journey, headed in the same direction, some of us will get there sooner than others. In God’s time it is all the same.”


7/3/2016 UPDATE:
"Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant"

For the writings of Mike Tegeder at the PCV, see:
• "Trust Your Shepherds"
• What is the Lesson?
• Are You Serious?
• The Archdiocese and Fathers Conlin and Schüller
• Quote of the Day – November 8, 2012
• Quote of the Day – December 18, 2011
• "I Like McDonald's, Too; But Dioceses Are Not Franchises"
• Archdiocesan Pension Pitfalls

See also the previous PCV posts:
• One Courageous Parish Priest
• Pastor Mike Tegeder Challenges Archbishop Nienstedt's "Bullying Behavior"
• Local Catholic Priest Speaks Out on the MN Bishops' Anti-Gay DVD Controversy

"We've Become the New South"

By Joe Kruse

"We've become the New South." These words lodged in me like a thorn. The phrase comes back to me every time I see a statistic explicating the worst-in-the-nation racial disparities stitched into Minneapolis’s social and economic fabric. It comes back to me every time I think about Jamar Clark, who was killed this past Fall by Minneapolis police. Almost all the witnesses said he was handcuffed when he was shot.

In an article from last Spring, Anthony Newby, executive director of a local social change organization called Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, was quoted saying, "We've become the new South . . . We've become the new premiere example of how to systematically oppress people of color."

For years I understood Minnesota to be a bastion of liberal politics. I thought that our "progressive" ideologies saved us from bigotry and violent racism, things I often associated with the Deep South.

But recently I've come to understand more clearly the covert but brutal qualities of Minnesotan racism. Our racism is masked by colorblind language and "progressive" state and local policies that distribute wealth primarily within white communities. Our racism is propagated by fear of confrontation and awkward conversations around race. It thrives on the silence upheld by the myth of "Minnesota Nice." While the South had Jim Crow policies for decades that ensured the subjugation of people of color, Minneapolis has the over-policing of the Northside and other communities of color that result in systemic repression through mass incarceration. In our city black people and American Indians and nine times more likely to be arrested for low-level offenses then white people. (For more information, see the ACLU’s report about Minneapolis called Picking up the Pieces.)

In the face of these violent inequalities, I am honored that our community will be hosting the 2016 Midwest Catholic Worker Faith and Resistance Retreat in conjunction with Black Lives Matter (BLM) Minneapolis. Each year one Midwest Catholic Worker community hosts a gathering of Catholic Workers from all over the region who come to work on the hosting community's project or campaign.

This year the Minneapolis Catholic Worker is hosting the Faith and Resistance Retreat [April 8-12] and will be working with BLM Minneapolis to ensure that the work we will do at our retreat will benefit the organizing goals of BLM locally. We are so excited to offer up this tradition of our Movement to support the incredible work of BLM Minneapolis. [NOTE: For more information and to register for the 2016 Midwest Catholic Worker Faith and Resistance Retreat click here.]

It is very important that this retreat is led by organizers of color embedded in the BLM Minneapolis leadership. These brilliant organizers are overworked and underpaid. Part of our work is to pay them equitably for their time and expertise. To do that we need to raise $7,000, and we need your help! This money will both go to support the work that happens at our retreat, but will also go to support organizers who have been putting in countless unpaid hours leading historic direct action campaigns in our city. It is high time these folks get some compensation for their momentous social change work, and we are in the fortunate place to help make that happen. We also need funds to pay for food and housing for the Catholic Workers who are coming to Minneapolis for the retreat. Many of these people are committed to living lives of voluntary simplicity and without a place to stay, would not be able to afford a hotel or other accommodation.

So we ask, again, that you give what you are able. Whether its $10 or $100, all gifts make a huge different in the work that we will do. We find now that we are living in a revolutionary moment similar in scale and importance to what unfolded in the American South in the 1960s. Thanks to the work of BLM and other black liberation organizations, there has been a national awakening around the current state of American racism. Helping us put on this retreat, ensuring that these incredible organizers are compensated for their necessary work, will help maintain this social change movement.

We ask you join us in supporting the unfolding social transformation.

Thank you so much for your support.

Peace and Love,

Joe Kruse and the The Minneapolis Catholic Worker


NOTE: Please make checks out to the Rye House and put FARR or Retreat in the memo. Mail checks to 2204 10th Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55404.

Any questions? Call 302-729-3643.

A Shady Church Sex-Abuse Shell Game?

By Katie Zavadski

Note: This article was first published January 20, 2016 by The Daily Beast.

Archbishop John Nienstedt, accused of covering up
a major sex-abuse scandal, is moving to a new church
– and local residents are not pleased.

A battle is brewing in Battle Creek, Michigan, where residents are less than pleased that an archbishop accused of covering up a sex-abuse scandal has now embraced a second calling as a pastor in their town.

___________________

UPDATE: Nienstedt Leaves Michigan Diocese Amid Parish Turmoil

___________________

John Clayton Nienstedt served as the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis for 7 years but resigned this June, shortly after a prosecutor announced criminal charges and a civil suit against the archdiocese for allegedly covering up child sex abuse. Now Nienstedt has taken up a new post in Michigan, filling in for a sick old friend at St. Philip’s Roman Catholic Church.

A spokesperson for the Kalamazoo diocese told local papers that the arrangement between the archbishop and Father John Fleckenstein, who is ill, is just a simple agreement between friends. But detractors worry that the archbishop’s controversial past is getting a free pass.

Jennifer Haselberger served as Chancellor for Canonical Affairs in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. She was also the person who revealed how the archdiocese allegedly hid sex-abuse allegations.

Haselberger finds it plausible that Nienstedt and Fleckenstein didn’t expect the blowback in Battle Creek.

“[Nienstedt] doesn’t always have the most full perspective on things,” she said. “I can totally see this priest and this archbishop thinking, ‘What’s the big deal?’”

“He clearly doesn’t see himself in the same light as the majority of us do,” Haselberger said.

In a church bulletin, Fleckenstein announced Nienstedt’s arrival nonchalantly. “[O]ver the next few months I envision times that I will need assistance either for health reasons or that I may complete a couple of major projects for the Diocese in my role as Episcopal Vicar for Education,” Fleckenstein wrote. “Archbishop John Nienstedt, retired Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul will be joining us to assist in various pastoral ministries during this time.”

“He will celebrate some of the weekend and weekday Masses, visit the sick in the hospital, visit the sick and homebound, and celebrate Mass for the nursing home and assisted living facilities.”

Fleckenstein added that he expects Nienstedt, whom he’s known for 20 years, to move on in about six months.

But attorneys who represent alleged victims of priest sex abuse were not so generous in their assessment of the archbishop.

“For him to be ordered to another parish is the same sad story that’s been playing out for 30 years,” attorney Jeff Anderson told The Daily Beast. “It’s something they claim to have turned the page on, but time and time again they’re repeating the same pattern.”

"The entire nation's Roman Catholic child sexual abuse scandal just moved to Battle Creek," Patrick Wall, a priest and monk-turned-lawyer, told Michigan Live.

Charges filed by prosecutors allege that while Nienstadt was archbishop, the archdiocese ignored repeated abuse complaints against a priest who was convicted of molesting two boys. The former priest, Curtis Wehmeyer, was sentenced to five years for the abuse, but prosecutors said the archdiocese didn’t act on “numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct.”

Nienstedt also misrepresented his handling of other cases where priests were accused of sexual impropriety, according to prosecutors. Though he had testified that he was unaware that Kenneth LaVan, a priest accused of assaulting a teenage girl, was still in the ministry, documents later showed he had gotten consistent updates on LaVan’s position and, and even spent time with him socially as friends.

“My leadership has unfortunately drawn attention away from the good works of His Church and those who perform them,” Nienstedt wrote in a letter of resignation last summer. “I leave with a clear conscience knowing that my team and I have put in place solid protocols to ensure the protection of minors and vulnerable adults.”

But Nienstedt also faced allegations of child abuse and sexual misconduct himself. A boy accused Nienstedt of touching his buttocks during a confirmation ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Paul in 2009. The mother later reported the alleged incident to another priest, who alerted police and the archdiocese in 2013. Police declined to pursue charges against Nienstedt, and the archbishop affirmed his commitment to providing “safe environments for all children and youth.”

Another archdiocese investigation into Nienstedt focused on his alleged sexual conduct with seminarians, priests, and other men. Nienstedt called those allegations false, and “a personal attack against me due to my unwavering stance on issues consistent with church teaching, such as opposition to so-called same-sex marriage.”

Andrea Perry, the Youth Ministry Coordinator for St. Philip’s and two nearby Catholic churches, did not return a request for comment.


Related Off-site Link:
John Nienstedt's Arrival Angers Some Members of Michigan Diocese – Associated Press via The Star Tribune (January 20, 2016).

See also the previous PCV posts:
• Ex-Twin Cities Archbishop Nienstedt Takes Michigan Church Post
• CCCR Responds to the Resignation of Archbishop Nienstedt
• Perspective
• In the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, "Regime Change is Not Enough"

Catholic Leaders Stand With Obama on Guns and Demand Republicans Follow His Lead

By Sarah Jones


Note: This commentary was first published January 5, 2016 by PoliticusUSA.

This one is going to hurt Republicans, but it’s right on, because responsible gun measures are a moral issue. Catholics are praising President Obama for taking his announced executive action on gun control.

“President Obama’s executive actions announced today are a welcomed step forward towards ending the scandal of gun violence that continues to plague our nation,” began a statement sent to PoliticusUSA by Christopher J. Hale, Executive Director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

They cited Pope Francis calling out the only reason these deadly weapons are being sold to those who plan to inflict harm, “Pope Francis’s words to Congress last September continue to ring in our ears: ‘Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem.'”

The money changers are in the temple of Congress.

The Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good called on Congress to follow President Obama’s lead and take action, “Today the President has made a significant step towards doing so. Now it’s up to Congress to follow through so that the dream of the prophet Isaiah can become our nation’s lived reality: a place where spears and swords are beaten into ploughshares and pruning hooks and where peace and justice will prosper.”

The Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good is, according to Wikipedia, a non-partisan, Roman Catholic, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization which aims to promote “the fullness of the Catholic social tradition in the public square”.

According to their website (my bold), “Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good promotes public policies and effective programs that enhance the inherent dignity of all, especially the poor and most vulnerable. Our work is inspired by Gospel values and the rich history of Catholic social teaching as they inform pressing moral issues of our time. We accomplish our goals through public policy analysis and advocacy, strategic media outreach, and engaging citizens in the service of the common good.”

President Obama is on the right moral side of this argument, and as he likes to remind everyone, a majority of gun owners also agree so he has political will backing his executive action, if moral responsibility is not enough. Republicans have nothing but worn out, stale, debunked NRA talking points. As a nation, we need to stand up to the NRA and support our President in taking these important steps to putting human lives over profit margins.


Related Off-site Links:
Obama Unveils Presidential Plan to Cut Gun Violence – Bill Chappell (National Public Radio News, January 5, 2016).
Obama: “The Gun Lobby May Hold Congress Hostage, But They Can Not Hold America Hostage” – Jason Easley (PoliticusUSA, January 5, 2016).

Refugees Are On Their Way to Minnesota: Here's How You Can Help

Minnesota is one of the states that's accepting Syrian refugees.
There are refugees (from all over the world) on their way to MN as we speak!

The International Institute of Minnesota is helping to coordinate their arrival and gathering items that will make life a tiny bit easier.

If you're here in the Twin Cities and you're interested in helping, here's what they need and where you can donate:

Address: International Institute of Minnesota, 1694 Como Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108

Drop off times: 8:45 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Monday-Friday

Please Note: Only the following items are being requested at this time.

Baby Items: Diapers (only new); Wipes (only new); Baby clothes
Winter Clothing: Coats; Boots; Gloves; Hats; Scarves.
Household Items: Dishes; Glassware; Silverware; Tea kettles; Garbage cans (only new); Garbage bags; Bed linens (laundered); Blankets (laundered); Towels (laundered); Dish towels (laundered); Vacuums; Laundry baskets
School Supplies: Pencils; Calculators; Pens; Notebooks; Folders
Crayons; Backpacks
Other Items: Maps of the City; Gift Cards (only to Cub Foods, Target, Goodwill); Bus Cards

Also, if you're interested in working more closely with a refugee family, check out the International Institute of Minnesota's refugee mentorship program by clicking here.

If you would like to ship donations directly from your home to the International Institute's offices (or directly from Amazon.com), donations should be addressed to:

Bridget Ehrman-Solberg
International Institute of Minnesota
1694 Como Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108

Finally, if you'd like to donate money, click here.

How Catholic Leaders Are Defying Governors Who Are Trying to Block Refugees

By Leslie Caimi


Note: This article was first published December 8, 2015 by The Washington Post.


The Catholic Church is pledging assistance to Syrian refugees seeking resettlement in the United States, thwarting attempts by governors to prevent an influx of refugees from the war-torn nation.

On Monday night, the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis facilitated the arrival of a Syrian refugee family to the city, openly challenging Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s call to halt the arrival of refugees from Syria.

In the wake of the terrorist attack in Paris on Nov. 13, Pence joined 31 governors, primarily Republican, in objecting to the federal government’s program to resettle refugees from Syria in the United States, citing fears that there are gaps in the screening process for potential security risks.

Pence was among those state leaders who directed state agencies to suspend disbursing funds for services to refugees originating from Syria.

But Catholic leaders across the United States cried foul on plans to close the door on refugees from Syria, loudly reminding their respective communities of the humanitarian need.

The Chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on migration chided the governors for “using this tragedy to scapegoat all refugees,” in a statement on Nov. 17.

“They are extremely vulnerable families, women, and children who are fleeing for their lives. We cannot and should not blame them for the actions of a terrorist organization,” Bishop Eusebio Elizondo said.

Bishops from Chicago, New York, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and New Mexico were also among those who penned opinion pieces for local papers or open letters calling for compassion over overreaction.

“We must find a way to open our doors to them,” New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan wrote in a New York Daily News opinion piece about the need for a wide embrace of Syrian refugees.

Despite the church’s call to keep the door open to refugees, Pence met last week with local Catholic leaders to urge them to “defer from welcoming” a Syrian family seeking placement in the state until Congress passed new legislation providing more stringent security screening for refugees from Syria, Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin [right] said in a statement on Tuesday.

Tobin said he listened to Pence’s concerns “and prayerfully considered his request” but ultimately decided to proceed with assistance for the arrival of a Syrian family with two small children in Indianapolis on Monday night. The assistance came through “a public-private partnership between the federal government and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and its Migration and Refugee Services,” according to the statement.

“For 40 years the Archdiocese’s Refugee and Immigrant Services has welcomed people fleeing violence in various regions of the world. This is an essential part of our identity as Catholic Christians and we will continue this life-saving tradition,” Tobin said in a statement.

The refugee family was placed with relatives who live in the Indianapolis area, after fleeing Syria three years ago. The family of four underwent “extensive security checks” over a two-year period before they were approved for entry into the country.

A spokesman for Pence said that the governor “holds Catholic Charities in the highest regard but respectfully disagrees with their decision to place a Syrian refugee family in Indiana at this time,” according to a statement on Tuesday from the governor’s office.

Pence’s office said it would continue to suspend state participation in the refugee resettlement program for Syrians, which could include state funding for English language training, medical services, food stamps and employment readiness programs.

Greg Otolski, a spokesman for the archdiocese, told the Indianapolis Star that Catholic Charities would still apply for state benefits for the family. If the funding was denied on the basis that the family is from Syria, Otolski told the paper that Catholic Charities would be able to cover the resettlement expenses for the family.

“The family is entitled to the same benefits any refugees arriving in Indiana receive. We hope that the state will not single them out,” he told the paper.

Pence’s office did say the Indiana Department of Health would reimburse the cost of health-care screening for refugees, including those from Syria, by county health departments in the state.

In addition to Indiana, on Monday, Texas became home for a family of six from Syria despite opposition from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

Despite Abbott’s fervent objections, the family arrived in Dallas on Monday where they will live with relatives, a spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee, who assisted with the resettlement, told the Associated Press.

Re-Jesusing the Catholic Church

By Garry Wills

Note: This commentary was first published November 19, 2015 by The Boston Globe.


How can a church whose officialdom is worldly and corrupt present Jesus to the world? Pope Francis thinks it cannot. He once told people at the morning mass in his small chapel, “To be believable, the Church has to be poor.” He has spoken of personal revulsion at seeing a priest drive an expensive car. When he spoke of money as “the devil’s dung” (he was quoting a church father, Saint Basil), some took this as an attack on Western capitalism. But it was a more general message, part of his apology in Bolivia for the church’s role in colonialism. And when Francis looks around the Vatican, he finds the same devil-stench. In one of his earlier interviews as pope, he said, “The Curia is Vatican-centric. It sees and looks after the interests of the Vatican, which are still, for the most part, temporal interests.” He said to assembled Cardinals that some approach the Vatican as if it were a royal court, with all the marks of such courts — “intrigue, gossip, cliques, favoritism, and partiality.’’

That list of sins could be taken as a table of contents for the scandalous activities recorded in Gianluigi Nuzzi’s new book, Merchants in the Temple, a title taken from the Bible account of Jesus driving money lenders from the Temple court. Nuzzi is the journalist who received the “Vatileaks” from the papal butler, revealing the scheming and profiteering that occurred during Benedict XVI’s papacy. He demonstrates an equal access to secret documents and conversations in the papacy of Francis, which show a concerted resistance to papal efforts to make the Vatican bear at least some resemblance to Jesus, however remote.

The official church is wealthy and poor because it always overspends itself. It lives on display, favoritism, and unaccountability. Its fourteen personnel agencies create honorary posts for clients who will be subservient to their patrons. This is as true of the Vatican State Department as of the Vatican banks. We know of the scandalous and money-laundering Institute for the Works of Religions — commonly called the Vatican Bank. But another money manager is equally unaccountable — the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See.

In what is called Peter’s Pence, Catholics from around the world send money to be spent on the poor. But four-fifths of that money is spent on maintenance of the bloated Vatican itself. The official church owns large amounts of real estate inside and outside Italy, but these holdings drain as much wealth as they collect, because so many of them are given at low or no rent to prelates and their flunkies, who redecorate them to their refined tastes, using Vatican money to do it.

Francis, who handled financial scandal in the diocese he took over in Buenos Aires, knew that he could not get control of the Vatican unless he had a true audit of where all the money was going. So he set up a special body to find this out – COSEA (Commission on Organization of the Economic Administration of the Holy See). This commission hired outside auditors, internationally recognized experts, to go over the money in all the papal departments (dicasteries). But faced with this demand for records from lay experts, the skilled ecclesiastical maneuverers in the departments reported sluggishly, incompletely, or not at all. COSEA’s frustrations over this may be why their members leaked tapes of their meetings to Nuzzi and others. Indeed two of them (a monsignor and a lay woman) were arrested in early November by Vatican gendarmes for leaking — though these leaks are on the pope’s side, unlike the earlier leaks.

Controversy about the official church has normally centered on doctrinal disputes, over things like contraception and abortion. These are seen as struggles for the mind of the church. Francis is more interested in the soul of the church. Does the church really speak from prelates’ posh apartments in Rome and from bishops’ palaces around the world? In our trips to Rome, my wife has given up entering St. Peter’s, since she cannot find anything like Jesus in that riot of celebration of the great papal families, with monstrous large statues of past pontiffs in all their ecclesiastical regalia. Jesus did not wear expensive chasubles and jeweled mitres (or any ecclesiastical garments). What Francis is engaged in is less a matter of theological dispute than a re-Jesusing of the church. If he fails, we have failed Jesus.

Garry Wills, a professor of history at Northwestern University, is the author of The Future of the Catholic Church With Pope Francis.

Pope Says Fundamentalism is "Disease of All Religions"

.

Note: This article was first published November 30, 2015 by AFP via Yahoo! News.


Pope Francis said fundamentalism is "a disease of all religions", including the Roman Catholic Church, as he returned from a three-nation tour of Africa [right] in which he preached reconciliation and hope.

"Fundamentalism is always a tragedy. It is not religious, it lacks God, it is idolatrous," the Argentine pontiff told journalists on the plane back from the Central African Republic.

There, on the final leg of his first trip to Africa, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics called on Christian and Muslim "brothers and sisters" to end the sectarian conflict that has torn the country apart.

He was given a rapturous welcome by thousands of people as he visited a mosque in the flashpoint Muslim PK5 neighbourhood of the capital Bangui, on what was the most dangerous part of his 24-hour visit to the country.

"Together, we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God himself," he said.

Speaking later in the day as he flew back to Rome, Francis said Islam was not the only religion to suffer from violent extremists, such as the ones behind the deadly attacks in Paris which were claimed by the Islamic State.

"We Catholics, we have a few, even many fundamentalists. They believe they know absolute truth and corrupt others," he said, adding: "I can say this because this is my Church."

Francis also visited Kenya on his trip, where he denounced the . . . "barbarous attacks" by Islamic extremists in Nairobi, Garissa and Mandera.

The country has been hit by numerous deadly attacks since sending its army into neighbouring Somalia in 2011 after a string of kidnappings it blamed on Al-Qaeda's east Africa branch, the Shebab.

In Uganda, huge crowds celebrated as he honoured Christians martyred for the faith and hailed Africa as "the continent of hope".

But it was in Central African Republic, torn apart by brutal violence between mostly Muslim rebels and Christian militias for more than two years, that his visit appeared to have made the most powerful impression.

In extraordinary scenes before he held a papal mass at the capital's Barthelemy Boganda stadium, a group of Muslim rebels from the PK5 area leapt out of two pickup trucks, all wearing T-shirts bearing the pope's image.

As they pushed through the crowd in an area where Muslims usually do not dare to venture, people cheered and shouted: "It's over".

"We thought the whole world had abandoned us, but not him. He loves us Muslims too," said Idi Bohari, an elderly man.

The landlocked Central African Republic descended into bloodshed after longtime Christian leader Francois Bozize was ousted by rebels from the mainly Muslim Seleka force in March 2013.

The coup plunged the former French colony into its worst crisis since independence in 1960, and more than 100 people have been killed in the capital since late September alone.


Related Off-site Links:
Pope Francis: "The Mental Structure of Fundamentalists is Violence in the Name Of God" – Antonia Blumberg (HuffPost Religion, June 14, 2014).