Parish Closings and Married Clergy [except Catholic] Welcomings

A recent article by Don Horkey in The Polish Times of Detroit titled "Polish-American Parishes in the Middle of Archdiocesan Restructuring Plans" came to me by way of a friend as a forwarded email from Tony Kowalski.

The jist of the article is the closing and combining of Polish American parishes in Detroit by Archbishop Allen Vigneron. The article highlights the attitude of the "administrators" [as Anthony Padovano call the bishops] who whistle in the dark faced with the fact of declining numbers of priests--which they choose to ignore to the detriment of good people who are denied Eucharist by episcopal blind-sightedness. All the while these "pastors" accept married Episcopal priests and Lutheran ministers priests into service while ignoring the plethora of married priests who would gladly serve in parishes--and all this after years of claiming as one reason for celibacy in the Western Church the inability of a married priest to truly dedicate himself to the service of God's People.

Thank God for the dedication of the Society of Christ in serving the Polish-American people of Detroit. I hope they don't "burn out".

While I regret my Dad never encouraged us to learn the Polish he spoke to his parents as he grew up, I treasure the ethnic background I share with those who suffer from the short sighted policies of administrators like Archbishop Vigneron. Most of those people, unlike their administrator, would probably welcome a married priest.

U.S. LGBT Policy vs Official Church Attitudes

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Human Rights Day speech, delivered on December 6th in Geneva on Gay Rights is a forthright expression on the part of our administration! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/06/hillary-clinton-gay-rights-speech-geneva_n_1132392.html

While our citizenry still have much to learn about the rights of all, it's sad that Clinton's statement is more positive than our Catholic Catechism in its expression in par 2358 when it states about homosexuality: "This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition." Couched as it is in demeaning language of tolerance at best, the call for non-discrimination sounds patronizing at best. This is not the expression proclaimed by those called to minister to all God's people. Most of us would proclaim belief in the all-embracing Jesus of the Gospel. If even science is showing us that there is documented evidence of homosexual and bisexual behavior in non-human species in our world, would not that same Jesus today wisely still say, "Love one another as I have loved you." And his outstretched arms still embrace us all.

Hans Küng to the Bishops

A friend just emailed me the "Letter to the Bishops" sent by Hans Küng in April 17, 2010. http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=15996 Those of us who were at the American Catholic Council in Detroit in June, had the delight of hearing Anthony Padovano engage Hans in a conversation reiterating some of the points he made in his letter over a year before.

Seems the venerable bishops have not heeded Hans' counsel and will twiddle their thumbs while they await the "great equalizer" who like Rome "hurries slowly" to put in the grave both those who enthusiastically push for reform and those who clutch adamantly to the security of a past full of tradition.

That those who advocate for "holding the line" draw the line at some point within the past few centuries is always a puzzlement. In some deluded twist of thinking, they seem to forget that, while we don't always like to admit it, Vatican II [Dei Verbum http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651118_dei-verbum_en.html par. 9] makes clear the value of both Scripture and Tradition. Seems the tradition of the "clutchers' extends only back to Vatican I and the 1860's.

If only those clutchers could recognize that tradition. more than clinging to the cherished tenets of the past, is giving birth to a child.