Month: March 2012

Birth Control, Bishops and Religious Authority

From “Roma locuta est, causa finita est”  (Rome has spoken , that settles it” to “Populus . . . ” (The people have spoken . . . ), opines a Notre Dame philosophy prof in NY Times.  via Birth Control, Bishops and Religious Authority – NYTimes.com.

Or as the Cardinal Newman Society writer has it, Jesus told Peter, “upon this poll I will build my Church.”

And that man in the White House has decided to take this poll.

I do not recall his being asked, however.

Wheeling Jesuit University office raided by Feds

J. Davitt McAteer’s, to be exact.  He heads several govt.-sponsored on-campus programs, is high-profile mine-safety expert, took over WJU as acting president when Rev. Julio Giulietti SJ was peremptorily ousted in August of ’09, serving in that capacity until February of ’10.

Charleston Daily Mail:

Wheeling Jesuit University acknowledged Wednesday it’s cooperating with federal investigators who seized records from the offices of J. Davitt McAteer, the school’s vice president for federally sponsored research programs and a prominent critic of the coal mining industry.

The files were removed Feb. 15, but spokeswoman Michelle Rejonis said she didn’t know which federal agency was involved.

Wheeling Jesuit has many federally sponsored programs, including collaborations with NASA and a center that helps commercialize new technologies, Rejonis said, so it works with several agencies. Many of those agencies have an Office of Inspector General, an entity that investigates fraud, waste and abuse.

Chris Zumpetta, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wheeling, also declined to identify the agency involved but acknowledged there is “an ongoing investigation.”

 

Who’s in charge church-wise? Anyone?

In a letter to the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park & River Forest, The Mass belongs to the Church, not the priest, I take exception to the publisher’s taking vigorous exception to a bishop’s enforcing liturgical rules.

[Bishop Edward] Braxton [of Belleville IL] had no choice. Once apprised of the situation, he nixed the practice. What was he supposed to do, poll the congregation?  . . . .

[A] priest wants to remake the Mass, the center of Catholic worship? Braxton is supposed to say go ahead, suit yourself? If he has authority in any area, it’s in worship.

Unless you don’t like authority in the first place, or at least not in the church.