Month: October 2007

The Catholic Worker rule

When the Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan wanted to say mass without vestments at a Catholic Worker farm in NY state, Dorothy Day stopped him with: “On this farm we obey the laws of the church.”  He had said, about the vestment requirement, “It’s only a law, and a foolish one at that.”

This is from the Jesuit Joseph Becker’s Re-Formed Jesuits: A History of Changes in Jesuit Formation During the Decade 1965-1975, which I am reading in connection with my book in progress, The Making of a Jesuit, 1950–1968, about which more later.

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Cure of Crystal Lake makes it to UK

The Crystal Lake (IL) pastor who suggested sending to hell or another parish the critic of his preaching has made it across the seas, with the added twist of THE RECORDED TELEPHONE MESSAGE:

A Roman Catholic teacher is suing his parish priest and diocese for “immediate emotional distress, embarrassment and humiliation” after a recording of his unflattering remarks about a sermon was played to his church congregation.

reports the London Telegraph. 

Replaying the message, in which former religious-ed director Angel Llavona said he had “seen poor homilies, but yesterday broke all records,” the priest, Rev Luis Rios, said at two masses, “This is the person in charge of religious education here last year. That’s why it is no surprise to me we had the kind of religious education we had.  That’s why we didn’t get altar boys. What should we do? Should we send him to Hell or to another parish?”

Llavona is suing for

at least $50,000 (£25,000) in damages, claiming he was defamed and so humiliated he had to change parish.

Actually, seminary professors should take this as a golden opportunity, seizing on it as an object lesson of the first water.

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Expulsion, ostracization, noteworthy editorial — Sun-Times today

Black Loyola Academy student expelled for flashing pic of half-naked girl friend, millions march, father prepares to sue.  Kid did bad, says dad, but not that bad.  School says he disturbed the “safe” learning atmosphere.  The safe part I don’t get.

Not millions but a few anyhow, from Farrakhan’s Million Man March, plus some from his Nation of Islam, which if they had a school and were true to their puritanism would have sent the kid packing.

Can Itchy Feet Pfleger be far behind these demonstrators at the Loyola Wilmette campus?  Will he call for the snuffing of some poor Jesuit?  More to the point, will Jesuits fold?

Comment by blogger: Canning the kid or not depends on how serious you think it is (plus of course who knows what else they have on him), how much tone matters in a school.  What to do about crudity.  It’s a cultural issue.

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Also today, yet another disqualified candidate for this blog’s Cure of Ars award for caring, feeling pastor is Rev. Luis Alfredo Rios, of St. Thomas the Apostle Church, in Crystal Lake, IL, who put a curse on a parishioner who questioned his sermonizing.  This pastor takes no prisoners. 

Again, I use exaggeration for effect: not a curse but a taking to task from the pulpit (where he’s miked and his listeners were not) and asking whether the complainer, present for this sermon, should be sent to hell or another parish.

One is reminded (at least one) of the St. Luke, River Forest pastor, in the 80s who denounced the veteran, church-loyal Sun-Times reporter (also present with wife, who taught in the parish school, and kids) for his role in the S-T series exposing Cardinal Cody as apparent diverter of church funds in support of suspected wife and son.

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Finally, we have the Sun-Times editorial that defends the anti-abortion demonstrators in Aurora but more significantly takes Planned [Non-] Parenthood to task for trying to put one over on them and the rest of us with their disguised building permit application, calling Aurora’s citizens “unfairly gagged” by the maneuver. 

There’s no denying that it was an end run around public dialogue. And that is wrong. Even though this newspaper is pro-choice, we are also big promoters of freedom of speech. In this case, those two causes collided.

It’s stuff like that which brings readers back to see what this paper is saying.

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DePaul’s Catholic hires

Pursuing info about DePaul while doing my Catholic hiring at Notre Dame story, I got this from Nicholas G. Hahn III, President of the DePaul Conservative Alliance and a Chicago Daily Observer contributor:

Thanks to the spiritual revival I helped usher in, DePaul just hired two very prominent Catholic scholars for the Catholic Studies program. 

What’s more, he has “heard rumors” that “more money has been allocated for yet another Catholic Studies hire search.”

Sounds good, even if “Catholic Studies” at a Catholic institution seems on its face redundant, at least in the humanities.

On the other hand, such a program can offer a meaty alternative for the Catholicism-interested, and the two hires seem up to that challenge.

One of them, Peter Casarella, headed a Center for Medieval and Byzantine Studies at Catholic U. and has written about

medieval Christian Neo-Platonism, contemporary theological aesthetics. St. Bonaventure’s Trinitarian theology of creation, the idea of emergence in contemporary physics and the Hispanic/Latino presence in the U.S. Catholic Church.

Is that meaty enough for you?

The other new man, Farrell O’Gorman, is a Flannery O’Connor specialist with a “critically recognized” novel to his credit, “Awaiting Orders” (Idylls Press, 2006). 

The America Mag reviewer said O’G “is trying to explore how a Christian message of hope and redemption can attain credibility,” which is a far cry from fiction readers are used to these days.

For what it’s worth, his doctorate is from N. Carolina-Chapel Hill, Casarella’s is from Yale.  O’Gorman comes from the Mississippi State U. English department.

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Aborting Aurora some more

Planned [Non-]Parenthood lies, and thousands die, or will in Aurora:

Without shame, Planned Parenthood confessed to intentionally avoiding public disclosure and transparency because of its perceived fear of negative public reaction. Equally shameless was how facilely Planned Parenthood defenders excused this end-justifies-the-means strategy,

says ChiTrib columnist Dennis Byrne today, not knowing, though maybe suspecting, that the city of Aurora was to give the OK to its new under-radar “women’s health center” this afternoon. 

Facile is PP’s middle name when it comes to misrepresenting its opponents, says Byrne, detailing its sweeping, discredited claims of anti-abortion violence. 

These claims were offered by ChiTrib columnist Eric Zorn as justifying “creative subterfuge.”  But they also are the basis for the libel suit protestors filed (also today) in Kane County.

“You cannot accuse the peaceful citizens of violent crimes and advocating violence simply because you disagree with their message,” said Tom Brejcha, an attorney with Thomas More Society of Chicago.

Byrne also noted that the Aurora protestors have been “legal and constitutionally protected” — a point of special interest in that Zorn’s drumbeat was all about legality:

In fact, the deceptions are an effort by Planned Parenthood to be sure the law is followed — to be sure their plans and proposals are considered as though they came from an organization engaged in lawful activity. Which, in fact, they do.

Ah, but protestors are also so engaged, are they not?

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Who’s to teach at Notre Dame, who’s not to: Is that the question?

“Catholic Enough? RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AT NOTRE DAME” in Commonweal is a serious response from John T. McGreevy, ND history chairman, to his colleague Wilson D. Miscamble, whose shot across the ND and especially history dept. bow is discussed in today’s Chicago Daily Observer’s “To Teach at Notre Dame–Catholics need not apply.” 

Miscamble’s “The Faculty ‘Problem’: How can Catholic identity be preserved?” (Subscription only) ran in the 9/10 America.

If this be lay-edited Commonweal vs. Jesuit-edited America, let us all make the most of it.

 

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