Jesuit Is Keynote Speaker At San Jose Dissidentfest

“Irreconcilable with the Catholic Faith”
Call to Action holding 3-day dissidentfest in San Jose
Call to Action, the dissident Catholic group described by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re as “causing damage to the Church of Christ,” began a three-day regional conference this morning in San Jose. Call to Action dissents from Church teaching on, among other things, homosexuality, women’s ordination, priestly celibacy, and contraception. The “10th Annual West Coast Regional Call to Action Conference,” with the theme “Rebuild My Church – Responding Creatively to Injustice,” is being held at the Wyndham Hotel. It is scheduled to conclude on Sunday, April 27.

According to a program announcement, the conference will feature various dissidents from Church teaching, including several so-called “women priests.” Victoria Rue, Juanita Cordero, Kathleen Kunster and Jane Via – who claim to be “women priests” -- are scheduled to conduct a workshop entitled “Women Priests at the Grassroots.” Fr. Brian Joyce, pastor of Christ the King parish in Pleasant Hill (Oakland diocese), is another of several scheduled speakers.

His talk will cover “Concrete Examples for Rebuilding a Parish -- How the vision of Vatican II can be explored and implemented in today's parish using sound theory and concrete examples.” Fr. Joyce became notorious in 2002 when someone videotaped a “Clown Mass” he was celebrating at his parish. The video has since been posted on YouTube and can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsC4wRPybpA. Rob Grant, described in the program announcement as “a driving force in the Bay Area liturgical scene,” will lead a workshop on “Why the Church has a Problem with Progressives.” The program announcement describes the workshop this way: “Why on earth would an otherwise intelligent institution be so wary of concepts as seemingly benign as women priests? Inclusive language? Collaborative leadership? Knowing the paradigms, assumptions and fears from which a person or a group operates is the first step to conversation and true engagement.”

Listed as “keynotes” are Fr. John Dear, who, says the program announcement, is “a Jesuit priest, peace activist, lecturer, and writer of approximately twenty books on nonviolence. In the course of his civil disobedience against war, he has been arrested more than 75 times;”

retired Bishop Remi De Roo, who, as a result of his participation in Vatican II “came to see how creative and life-giving these internal ecclesial tensions could become and grew to welcome the healthy diversity that is innate to authentic catholicity;” and Leo Keegan, who “has been working in area of liturgical renewal for over 25 years as consultant for parish, diocesan and National Conferences specializing in initiation rites, liturgical arts and ministry formation.”

In March 1996, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz excommunicated all Catholics in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, who were members of Call to Action (along with members or supporters of Catholics for a Free Choice, Planned Parenthood, the Hemlock Society, the Freemasons, and the Society of St. Pius X).

Call to Action’s Nebraska chapter appealed their excommunication to the Vatican. In December 2006, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, wrote to Bishop Bruskewitz that the Vatican was upholding his decision. “The activities of ‘Call to Action’ in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic Faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint,” wrote Cardinal Re. “Thus to be a member of this Association or to support it, is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic Faith.”

Link (here)

Imagine What Father Reese Would Say At The Mount After The Feeding Of The Five Thousand?

Thanks, Carl (From Amy Welborn)

Oh, sure, I’m a dreamer. But, really, it’s so pathetic. And, of course, there has to be an obligatory complaint issued by Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J.: But Benedict, however “charming,” is still stifling theologians who challenge ideas about Catholicism, says Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and former editor of the Jesuit-owned magazine America. Reese lost that job just after Ratzinger was elected pope; conservative Catholics had long complained that America gave too much voice to dissenting views on sensitive issues from sexuality to salvation. Reese, now a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, says Catholic theologians are concerned that

“the Vatican insists we continue to explain the gospel in the language of the 13th century.”

No, not at all, Fr. Reese: the Vatican simply asks that you proclaim the gospel in keeping with the clear teaching of the Church. And the comment about the 13th century is nonsense, as Fr. Reese has to know (and if he doesn’t, well…). Has he read anything by the Holy Father? For example, Pope Benedict wrote the following in Spe Salvi: A self-critique of modernity is needed in dialogue with Christianity and its concept of hope. In this dialogue Christians too, in the context of their knowledge and experience, must learn anew in what their hope truly consists, what they have to offer to the world and what they cannot offer. Flowing into this self-critique of the modern age there also has to be a self-critique of modern Christianity, which must constantly renew its self-understanding setting out from its roots. (par 22)

Read Amy Welborn's entire post (here)

Fr. Kelly Just Doesn't Like Working In Parishes, Seems To Like Prison Ministry

19 anti-nuclear protesters cited at Nevada Test Site

Associated Press - March 23, 2008 6:45 PM ET
MERCURY (AP) - Nineteen anti-nuclear protesters were cited for trespassing during an annual rally today outside the Nevada Test Site. They were among about 30 demonstrators who took part in the event sponsored by the Nevada Desert Experience outside the test site, 70 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A spokesman for the company that provides security at the test site says the 19 protesters were released after being cited by Nye County sheriff's deputies for crossing onto test site property. Among those cited was the Rev. Steve Kelly, a Jesuit who recently completed a five-month prison sentence for trespassing on an Army base in Arizona in November 2006. The Nevada Desert Experience has been holding the test site rallies around Easter since 1981.

Link (here)

A Disobedient And Destructive Jesuit Priest, A Playboy Ex- Priest, Ex-Catholic And Now?

ALBANY — As Gov. David A. Paterson found himself confronting the first crisis of his day-old administration on Tuesday morning, it was left to Charles J. O’Byrne, his trusted second in command, to contain the damage. It was an unenviable task: prepping the governor and his wife for uncomfortable questions that reporters would soon ask the couple about their extramarital affairs.

It was hardly a job that Mr. O’Byrne, a former Jesuit priest, a Kennedy family confidant and a onetime speechwriter for Howard Dean, could have imagined 10 days before, when he was laboring in obscurity as the top assistant to the lieutenant governor, a job far down in the capital’s pecking order.

Mr. O’Byrne has spent the last three and a half years directing Mr. Paterson’s career with the assurance of an aggressive strategist readying himself and his boss for more prominent roles in government. His skills have surely been tested: He had five days to oversee a transition after Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation, and now he must help negotiate a budget by the end of the month. The partnership is an unconventional one. Mr. Paterson is the casual and convivial heir to a Harlem political legacy, and Mr. O’Byrne is the no-nonsense and at times abrasive Irish Catholic from the Jersey Shore. Friends and colleagues say the contrast in styles is exactly what makes Mr. Paterson and Mr. O’Byrne mesh so well. “David, to a certain extent, needs a tough guy,” said Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democratic state senator who represents parts of Upper Manhattan. “Charles has helped channel his skills in a very productive way. They fit very well together, and it’s not something that you’d have predicted initially.” Even before he arrived in Albany, Mr. O’Byrne showed that he had few reservations about butting heads with powerful institutions. In 2002, the year he left the Jesuit order, he wrote an article in Playboy in which he described what he saw as hypocrisy and sexual dysfunction in the Roman Catholic Church. In the article,

he described the prevalence of what he called “boyologist” priests, ones who seemed, in his opinion, to take an unnatural interest in their young male charges. “I became aware that there was sex all around me — including relationships between Jesuits,”

he wrote. “I came to believe that living with such contradictions was at the core of our training.” In other newspaper articles, he has been quoted as estimating that 70 percent of the priests in his peer group were gay. Mr. O’Byrne is openly gay himself. Whether his comments about the church will become an issue for the Paterson administration is, of course, an open question.

Catholics, the largest religious denomination in New York, make up 39 percent of the state’s population. “Certainly it’d be in the best interest of the governor to have a good relationship with us,” said Dennis Poust,

the communications director for the Catholic Conference, the church’s official public policy arm in the state. He added that the conference was willing to look past Mr. O’Byrne’s past comments in order to have a productive relationship with the new governor. “We’d be looking to go into this relationship with a clean slate. And I hope that he’s willing to do that.” Mr. O’Byrne would not comment for this article. To this day, his 2002 article still stirs up resentment among Jesuits.

A member of the order who knew him when he was a member said Mr. O’Byrne clashed often with his peers. The Playboy article, (Disturbing) he said, “got very poor reviews even from people who are fond of Charles.”

But the Jesuit priest, who asked for anonymity since he did not want to speak publicly of a former colleague, also said that Mr. O’Byrne was “very committed to various social justice issues” and that “he had a desire to be part of the progressive arm of the church and its allegiance to the poor.” Mr. O’Byrne, who now has the title of secretary to the governor, started his career in New York politics as a policy and communications aide to Mr. Paterson in 2004, and has demonstrated a willingness to spar, several associates said in interviews. “Charles is an extraordinarily bright guy. He is a different breed of the kind of guy you usually see mucking around in politics,” said

one Democratic associate who has worked closely with Mr. O’Byrne in Albany and asked to remain anonymous so he could speak candidly. “But if he played sports, he’d be accused of unnecessary roughness.”

Mr. O’Byrne’s journey from a teenage volunteer on the city council campaign of his high school history teacher in Red Bank, N.J., to right-hand man to the governor of New York has taken many detours as he searched for a role that fit. He graduated from Columbia University Law School in 1984, and practiced law as a corporate litigator for several years at Rosenman & Colin, a New York firm. In 1988, he left to enter the priesthood.

Being a priest, he said in the Playboy article, was his “earliest ambition.” His first stop on the path to ordination was in the Archdiocese of New York, but he was expelled from his seminary program. He said in the Playboy article that the expulsion occurred after he complained about an atmosphere in the seminary that he thought “coddled” bigots.

The Archdiocese said it would not comment on individual personnel matters, which it considers private. In 1989, he formally joined the Jesuit order, with which he spent 13 years.

In that time, he was ordained, earned two master’s degrees in theology and assisted at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on the Upper East Side.

It was during those years that the Kennedy family came to rely on him during some of their darkest moments. He had been friends since law school with Stephen Smith Jr., the son of Jean Kennedy Smith, John F. Kennedy’s younger sister. He acted as a spiritual adviser to the family during the 1991 rape trial of Mr. Smith’s brother, William Kennedy Smith. In 1996, he officiated at the wedding of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. And three years later, he said Mass at the funeral of Mr. Kennedy, who died when his small plane, carrying his wife and his sister-in-law, crashed into the Atlantic. The Kennedys have also come to rely on him for matters other than spiritual guidance. According to Mr. O’Byrne’s statement of financial disclosure for the 2006 calendar year (his most recent), he is a trustee for the Jean K. Smith Trust, the Kennedy Smith Foundation and the Smith Family Trust. He also lists gifts in excess of $1,000 and trustee commissions from members of the Smith family.

Of leaving the Jesuits, “There was nothing sudden or dramatic about my decision,” he wrote. “Instead of a last straw there seemed to be an accumulation of straws.” He is now a practicing Episcopalian.

Mr. O’Byrne’s friends described him as someone who was always drawn to progressive politics, and so when he started working for the presidential campaign of Mr. Dean in 2003, it seemed like a good fit. Ethan Geto, who was Mr. Dean’s state campaign manager for New York, recalled that Mr. O’Byrne arrived “very eager to make a new life, extremely eager to make a break with his past.” Mr. O’Byrne proved himself a deft speech writer for Mr. Dean, a skill he carried with him to Albany. When the Dean campaign imploded in early 2004, Mr. O’Byrne found himself looking for steady work. Mr. Geto said he got a call from Mr. Paterson, who was then minority leader of the state Senate and needed someone to help with communication and policy work. “I said, ‘Boy, have I got the right guy for you,’ ” Mr. Geto recalled. Mr. Paterson hired him as a senior policy counsel and speechwriter in August 2004. Those who worked with him said he brought order to Mr. Paterson’s office, which had been known for lacking organizational discipline. Less than a year and a half later in early 2006, Mr. Paterson made Mr. O’Byrne his chief of staff. That he rose so quickly, associates said, was hardly surprising. In 1999, on the day Mr. O’Byrne conducted the funeral service for Mr. Kennedy, Peter Jennings of

ABC News asked Father Vincent O’Keefe, one of Mr. O’Byrne’s Jesuit colleagues, how Mr. O’Byrne was holding up. “He was preoccupied,” Mr. O’Keefe said in the television interview, “but he’s a very active man. He lives on this, and he can keep about 100 balloons in the air at once.”

David Gonzalez and Serge F. Kovaleski contributed reporting from New York.

Link to the New York Times article (here)

Previous posts (here) and (here)

Only Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J. Could Come Up With This Kind Of Hogwash

Spitzer Scandal About Crime, Not Sex
The Question: What does the Elliot Spitzer scandal say about our public and private morality? Should he have resigned?
The Elliott Spitzer scandal is not about sex, it is about crime. If prostitution were legal, he would be a sinner, but there would be no reason for him to resign. Many in the media have accused the Catholic Church of being obsessed with sex, but the media frenzy surrounding the Spitzer scandal makes one wonder who is really obsessed. Catholic moral theology distinguishes between personal and (All sin is committed by an individuals) social morality. Personal morality deals with actions by a person alone or with a consenting adult. Social morality applies to actions that have consequences on others. Normally we keep law out of personal morality. Some have even argued that prostitution should be legal because it is between (Are you father making this claim?) consenting adults. Most Americans (excerpt in Nevada) disagree because usually prostitutes are not really free in their choices.

They are exploited. Spitzer broke the law when he paid prostitutes for sex. Is this the worst crime a person can commit? (Spitzer advocated with a new proposed law to permanently legalize all abortion and continue the genocide of the unborn)

I think some of the people he prosecuted (bullied political enemies) on Wall Street committed bigger crimes and bigger sins. Certainly the people behind the current (How does he know this? Who is he talking about? This just left-wing gobbledygook.) credit crisis committed bigger sins and crimes. But we expect our government officials to observe the law, whether it applies to the taxes of domestic workers, the hiring of undocumented workers, drinking while driving, cheating on taxes, visiting a prostitute, etc. Spitzer committed a crime, but it was not a political crime like accepting a bribe or (torture is not a political crime) torturing (water boarding is not a sin, I that is what you are getting at?) a prisoner. Is it a crime for which he should be forced out of the office to which he was democratically (He transported hookers across state lines, he illegally took campaign contribution from his father) elected? Whatever the case, he made the judgment that he no longer had the credibility or support to govern and resigned. But what would have been the media’s response if the crime had been of similar legal (He has publicly admitted to committing adultery for over six years) weight but not sexual? Link to original article (here)

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Eliot Spitzer was elected to enforce the laws of the State of New York. As Attorney General he ruthlessly busted up prostitution rings. Even the those in the Democrat party think he should forced out of office. I would expect a Catholic priest would be able to make basic observations on moral implications of adultery and its consequences of the loss of Salvation that Spitzer is facing, not to mention the misery Spitzer has caused his family. I would also expect a priest to be able to stand up for the unborn children of New York.

More on Spitzer (here) (here) and (here)

Were Fr. Tom got his mixed up idea's from (here)

Castro Vs. Batista

I am absolutly over the introduction line to any article with "Fidel Castro, Jesuit educated"! as its attention grabber. Any literary introduction should start like this, "Fidel Castro, cold-blooded murder, totalitarian, hedonist, commie-rat, God-hater!" In this great article entitled, Fidel Batista! Fidel Castro Out-Thugs Fulgencio Batista by Larry Solomon . Solomon explores and refutes the leftist pro-Fidel crowd.

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Here is an excerpt.

But unlike today, Cuba's economy under Batista was powerful, both domestically and in exports, and it was becoming increasingly diversified. Under Castro, its economy is in tatters, nowhere more so than in the sugar industry that Castro once promoted so heavily.

Last summer, Castro announced a shut down of half of the country's sugar mills. "We had to act or face ruin," he explained. As he told NBC News just this week. "It cost us more to produce sugar than what we could sell it for."

But if Batista bested Castro in virtually every broad socio-economic indicator, he paled in comparison when it came to controlling either the electoral process or the populace. Castro executed thousands of political opponents after he came to power, imprisoned tens of thousands and caused hundreds of thousands to flee to exile.

Where Batista won a disputed election, a Castro election leaves no room for dispute: Castro allows no opponents, no opposing viewpoints to appear in the press, and, because that might not be enough, his political machine ensures a good turnout by keeping tabs on who votes and who doesn't: In last Sunday's national election, Castro managed a 90%-plus "yes" vote, not quite as impressive as Saddam Hussein's 100% but, among dictators, respectable enough.

Those who revile Batista often point to a decadent economy that relied on mafia-run casinos, prostitution and other demeaning jobs servicing tourists. Tourism was important under Batista - Havana was an east-coast alternative to Las Vegas, complete with the sex and gaming, and the same mafia owners - but never as important as tourism has become today.

Cuba's once diversified economy is gone and Castro is now putting all of his hopes in attracting tourists. To do this, Castro's Cuba now permits prostitution, it winks at sex tourism - tourist guide books even include sections on the country's once-taboo gay and bisexual scenes - and, as under Batista, the country unabashedly invests heavily in tourism.

Earlier this year, Castro inaugurated a US$100-million resort on the island's northeastern coast, broadcast nationwide, to underscore the importance the government places on the new five-hotel complex of 944 rooms able to house 1,500 tourists. Tourism is now Cuba's No. 1 source of foreign income, with 1.6 million visitors generating about US$2-billion last year. More tourists come from Canada than from other important sources of foreign exchange, chiefly Germany, Britain, Italy, France, and Switzerland. Castro, like Batista, is eyeing one other important tourist market. "Our friends from the north are not in this list," Castro said with a grin, referring to Americans that can't travel to Cuba due to U.S. government regulations.

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More on Fidel (here) , (here) and (here)

Fidel and Jesuits (here) , (here) and (here)

Marxist -Leninist "Liberation Theologian" Ernesto Cardenal and Fidel (here) and (here)

Ernesto Cardenals brother Fernado "Airport Jesuit" Cardenal, S.J. (here) , (here) , (here) , (here) , (here) and (here)

Bankrupt Morality Leads To Bankrupt Diocese

Diocese announces bankruptcy filing
by Megan BaldinoThursday, Feb. 14, 2008
FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- Facing millions of dollars in settlement costs from dozens of clergy sex abuse cases, the Fairbanks diocese announces it is filing bankruptcy. The announcement was made yesterday after bishop Donald Kettler told his staff and parishioners. Peter Kobuk is one Alaska resident who settled with Jesuit priests assigned to the Fairbanks Diocese. He spoke to Channel 2 News in 2004 and acknowledged being raped by a priest. Kobuk was raped at a church in St. Michael by Deacon Joseph Lundowski.

His case and 112 others were recently settled by the Society of Jesus Oregon Province, commonly known as the Jesuits, for $50 million. But a co-defendant in the case, the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks could not reach a settlement.

The diocese announced Wednesday it would file bankruptcy in order to help settle claims with more than 140 victims across the state. "We do acknowledge that wrongs were committed and the chapter 11 process is a way for us to start acknowledging that and allowing for some compensation," Hannon said. Ken Roosa, an attorney for dozens of the plaintiffs, says the bankruptcy announcement comes as no surprise to him or his clients, since the diocese's insurance company is refusing to pay. Roosa said everyone hopes bankruptcy will help bring closure. "So getting this series of bankruptcy hearings into court will give the judge, the case, a lot more leverage and control because the bankruptcy judge will have jurisdiction and control over the insurance companies as well as the debtors and the creditors of the clients," Roosa said. Everyone affected by this controversy -- victims, the diocese and attorneys -- hope this decision will pave the way toward closure from the sins committed by a few clergy decades ago.
Hannon also said that the catholic school in Fairbanks should not be compromised by the bankruptcy filing nor does it expect to lay-off any staff.

Roosa said attorneys have always felt the Jesuits and the church were equally liable.

The Diocese is looking at millions of dollars in payments to victims. This is a church with 40 parishes or missions and an operating budget of only $6 million dollars. So Hannon said this will be a complex and challenging time for the diocese.

The Fantasy Life Of A Screwy Ex-Jesuit

Phoenix author imagines changed Catholic Church in America
Lawn Griffiths, Tribune
Forty-five years ago, Robert Blair Kaiser was a young journalist covering the heady and historic Vatican Council II in Rome for Time magazine. Since then, the Phoenix journalist and Jesuit-educated Catholic has written 11 books, including four that deal with a call for church reform in the spirit of that council. Read Lawn Griffiths' Blog 'Beyond Belief' His latest, "Cardinal Mahony," Kaiser's first novel, takes the real-life 17-year Roman Catholic cardinal and archbishop of Los Angeles, Roger Mahony, and sets him in November 2008 for a tale of ecclesiastical power turned to give wide authority to lay Catholics.Mixing facts of the cardinal's troubled tenure over alleged cover-ups of priest sexual abuse cases, Kaiser has Mahony kidnapped from a California ski trail by three "liberation theologians," then transported in his own helicopter to a secret southern Mexican jungle compound. His captors are from a revolutionary group, Para los Otros (For the Others), which calls for sweeping changes in the church. In Mexico, Mahony is put on trial for his failings and sins as archbishop. It is broadcast live worldwide by satellite television, with Vatican officials especially glued to what is said. Six retired Latin American bishops serve as the jury. Just after Mahony is convicted on all counts, 590 million global viewers hear his fate: "We sentence Cardinal Mahony to become a Christian." Then moments later, Mexican commandos storm the compound blowing everyone away except Mahony, who suffers a head-grazing injury and is left unconscious. He wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital where he recovers, then embarks on a massive humanitarian mission as a transformed man. He also sets out to bring "democracy" to the Catholic Church in America despite Vatican objections."I will encourage the four million Catholics in the Church of Los Angeles to elect my successor," he declares, noting that his reforms could bring Pope Benedict XVI to put his archdiocese under interdiction, barring sacraments, Masses, Catholic burial and more. "Cardinal Mahony" (Humble-bee Press, $19.95, 256 pages) is filled with real people - 79 in all, people like filmmaker Michael Moore, news personalities Katie Couric, Bill O'Reilly and Matt Drudge, President Bush and influential Benedictine nun and author Sister Joan Chittister, a longtime critic of Vatican stands on social issues.In one chapter, he has American bishops gathering at The Phoenician resort in Phoenix for four spring days. "The word 'retreat' was a cover," he writes. "At the Phoenician, the bishops did what they had been doing at some of America's finest resorts for decades: ... gossiping in the sun, eating well, drinking well and (many of them) playing 18 holes every day."In his 2004 book, "A Church in Search of Itself," Kaiser first introduced the idea of an "autochthonous," or homegrown American church

"still in communion with Rome but on a model with the Maronites and
Melkites, which have their own priesthood (some married),"

as well as their own liturgy, language and polity, or form of governance. "Rome has never tried to rein them in," he said. They are "every bit as Catholic," he said.

Before Mahony was named to lead the nation's largest archdiocese, he was the bishop of Stockton, Calif., where Kaiser said he got to know the cleric well and interviewed him a half-dozen times.

The writer chose Mahony for the main character of his book because of his high profile. "He is kind of a media maven," he said. "There's a good Roger and a bad Roger," Kaiser said. After publication of the book, Kaiser left a signed copy at the archbishop's residence in Los Angeles, and he learned from a National Catholic Reporter review of the book that Mahony read it on a flight to Rome. Last July, under Mahony's direction, the Los Angeles Archdiocese approved legal settlements totalling $660 million to 508 victims of sexual abuse after four years of court battles. The payout was four times larger than in any previous U.S. diocese. It brought fierce calls for Mahony to resign or be removed. "Yes, we've made mistakes," he said at a press conference.

Kaiser, who studied 10 years to be a Jesuit priest but left three years short of ordination, argues that many Catholics are leaving the church or are weakly engaged because "they've lost their trust in the pope and their 'lord bishops.' "

He says because the church is theirs, they don't have to leave. "They just have to take it back, insist their lord bishops become servant bishops and do what Jesus told his Apostles to do: Listen to the people and serve the people." "Mainly this novel shows how we can get the change that everybody wants," Kaiser said in an interview. He conceives of a kind of American church "constitutional convention," like the one in 1787 in Philadelphia, creating a "constitution to supplant Roman canon law" with three branches, including a legislative branch with a House of Bishops and House of Commons, both filled by the election by voting Catholics.

"Autochthony isn't a heresy. It is just a restructuring of power," Kaiser insists. "I wrote this novel to help people imagine the possibilities of a listening, serving church," he said.

Kaiser, who was a contributing editor in Rome from 1999 to 2005 for Newsweek magazine earned a Overseas Press Club Award for his Time coverage of the Vatican Council (1962-65). He calls the pope "the world's last great monarch" who "makes the laws, he interprets all the laws, he enforces all the laws and puts his blessing on a particularly narrow kind of 'Roman theology' and no other."

Link (here)

Irish Jesuit Employee Becomes Eco-Terrorist

Man who set fire to Jesuit Order HQ faces further psychiatric tests
February 13, 2008
An environmentalist who caused more than €3 million worth of damage in an arson attack on the Irish headquarters of the Jesuit Order had his sentencing adjourned today. Noah Bunn, from Northampton in England, must undergo further psychiatric assessment before a judge will hand down a sentence for the Good Friday blaze.

The 26-year-old, a former clerical employee of the Jesuits and member of environmental group Friends of the Earth, previously pleaded guilty to arson at Eglington Road, Donnybrook, on April 6 last year. Bunn, who has a law degree from the University of Wales, told Gardai he started the fire because he believed the order were not using their moral authority to alert the world to the dangers of climate change.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard a psychologist and psychiatrist had submitted separate reports on the defendant, but that they had some discrepancies. Judge Katherine Delahunt was told that Bunn was now on a waiting list for the Central Mental Hospital. The judge said she was prepared to put the case back for a couple of months to see what the possibility was of having a further comprehensive report from specialists at the facility. She added that without a comprehensive report he would be facing a very serious sentence. Bunn's family had travelled over from Northampton for the short hearing. The defendant was remanded in custody until sentencing, which was adjourned to Friday May 2.

Link (here)

Suspension Of Disbelief: Weston Theology Professor Supports Pro-Abortion / Anti-Life Obama

Can be politically risky

"It's a powerful religious idea that he's sort of tied into," said Dominic Doyle, a professor of systematic theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge Mass."In hope, you approach God as merciful. . . . There's something about hope that resonates really closely with being present with people in their difficulties."

David Myers, a psychology professor at Hope College in Michigan, says the hope Obama speaks about is what "Christianity is all about," a call to wholehearted, spiritual change. "One thinks again of Martin Luther King Jr. -- only through spiritual transformation, he said, 'do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit,' " Myers said. Of course, inviting people to that kind of hope can be politically treacherous because it invariably invites a cynical response that says hope is nice and all, but what are your plans? "While [planning] is an important issue, that isn't what talk of hope fundamentally does," Jennings said. "What talk of hope fundamentally does is invite people to look up and look well beyond their current circumstances, beyond what seems to be possible or plausible, and to imagine that there is a power in the universe that is working to make something new possible." No matter how you parse it, that is a leap of faith. And the Bible says, as Obama well knows, faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not yet seen.

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Link to the full (here) Sun Times article.

Obama and abortion (here) , (here) and (here)

Obama and partial birth abortion (here) , (here) and (here)

Definition of Suspension of Disbelief

Blog Watch: The Bride And The Dragon

Flights Into Evolutionary Cosmic Myths...The Infection

"The Church is evolving into a higher form...the Church is seeking self-knowledge..."

--Paul VI, Dialogues, Apostle for Our Time Pope Paul VI

by Msgr. John C. Clancy.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger: "In Catholic milieus, the Second Vatican Council encouraged the accord with that general tendency [optimism toward the world]. Prior to it, the awakening of theology and an entire new understanding of Scriptures, the Fathers, Liturgy, and an openness in relations among divided Christians had raised a new enthusiasm for science. It had even set back the traditonal pragmatism of a great part of theology students. Such theological knowledge appeared to them as a promise of new possibilities for the faith, new roads for the Church."

The signal sent by Teilhard went further. In a bold vision, he included the historical movement of Christianity within the cosmic process of evolution from Alpha to Omega. This process was conceived as the Noogenesis, that is to say, the development of consciousness in the evolution of men, to form a Noosphere above the Biosphere.

"This means that evolution is henceforth understood as a type of technical and scientific development in which Matter and Spirit, the individual and the society constitute a global ensemble, a divine world. The conciliar constitution on the Church and the Modern World [Gaudium et spes] followed the same train of thinking. The Telhardian maxim: "Christianity means more progress, more of the technical"

was what encouraged the Conciliar fathers from both wealthy and poor countries to feel a more facile and concrete hope to translate and spread this notion rather than the complicated discussions about collegiality of Bishops, primacy of the Pope, Scriptures and Tradition, priests and lay people. (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Les Principes de la Theologie Catholique - Esquisse et Materiaux, Paris: Tequi, 1982, pp. 374-375).

Of Teilhard de Chardin, Sean Hyland writes:

"The French Jesuit Pere Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was one of the most well-known theologians of the 20th century. However, his writings were condemned several times by the Holy See...[the final time in 1962--SH] Teilhard denies the immutability of God:"

As a direct consequence of the unitive process by which God is revealed to us, he in some way 'transforms himself' as he incorporates us." (The Heart of Matter, p. 52-3; in Smith, op. cit.p. 104)"I see in the World a mysterious product of completion and fulfillment for the Absolute Being himself" ( The Heart of Matter, p. 54; in Smith, op. cit.p. 104)

"De Chardin.. attempted to create a fusion of Christianity and evolutionary theory, taught not so much Catholicism as New Age Hinduism, as his teachings were to all in intents and purposes, pantheism (the belief that God is everything). De Chardin was a New Ager, possibly one of the first Catholic clerics to fall into this error, and certainly the most influential. Clearly this view is in no way compatible with Catholic doctrine, and the history of his disputes with Rome bears this out."--

Teilhard de Chardin: Rogue Theologian Teilhard writes: “

"I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe. Thereby, too, my deepest pantheist’ aspirations are satisfied, guided, and reassured. The world around me becomes divine, And yet the flames do not consume me, nor do the floods dissolve me. For, unlike the false monisms which urge one through passivity into unconsciousness, the 'pan-Christism' I am discovering places union at the term of an arduous process of differentiation. I shall become the other only by being utterly myself. I shall attain spirit by bringing out the complete range of the forces of matter. The total Christ is consummated and may be attained only at the term of universal evolution.”

(Christianity and Evolution P. 128, How I believe; Teilhard de Chardin, p.81-82)In his book, Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic (1991),

Hans Kung writes that "participation in this new “ethic” (religion) will not be optional. He states, Any form of... church conservatism is to be rejected ... To put it bluntly: no regressive repressive religion - whether Christian, Islamic, Jewish or of whatever provenance has a long-term future ... Its ethics is to function for the wellbeing of all, it must be indivisible. The undivided world (sic) increasingly needs an undivided ethic. Post modern men and women need common values, goals, ideals, visions. But the great question in dispute is: does not all this presuppose a religious faith?... What we need is an ecumenical world order!”

[SH: read world government acting also as arbiter of religions in the new pantheon]---(emphasis added throughout above)Note: It is unseemly for a pope (as with JPII and Benedict XVI) to say they "believe in" the theory of evolution. A theory is not part of a Creed, and personal opinions are of no useful purpose to the Faithful. Moreover as Cardinal Ratzinger (today Benedict XVI) suggested (approvingly?) above, such theories can infect approaches to theology and metaphysics in general. And to speak of an "awakening in theology" in an evolutionary context which led to Vatican II seems a presumptuous assertion, to be sure. A theory should be bracketed as a theory, not entertained as a world view, especially in this case where these theories are under increasing multi-level critical scrutiny by many scientists with all the requisite bona fides, today, even if the philosophical / metaphysical presuppositions of much of the "science" establishment is threatened by such inquiry into their dogmas.

Link to the blog entitled The Bride and the Dragon this post is entitled, Flights Into Evolutionary Cosmic Myths...The Infection .

Photo is of de Charin in the field

Hat Tip MDV

Jesuit Says, Catch Me If You Can

Antiwar Jesuit given probation
ALBUQUERQUE -- Jesuit Fr. John Dear was sentenced Jan. 24 to six months of probation, 40 hours of community service and $510 in fines and fees for actions during an antiwar protest at the Santa Fe office of U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., in September 2006. Dear said in a statement sent to NCR that he would not pay the fine, do the community service or cooperate with the probation. Dear was told that he could not leave the state without permission and that he will be subject to regular drug testing. Dear received the harshest sentence of his five codefendants.

U.S. Magistrate Don Svet called Dear a “renegade priest” and “a coward,” according to an Associated Press report. “I’m not interested in making a martyr out of you,” he said. Dear used his time in court Jan. 24 to continue his protest against the Iraq war. “This war is unjust, morally sinful and just downright impractical,” he said.

Dear writes a weekly column on NCRcafe.org. He devotes his Jan. 22 and Jan. 29 columns to his trial. Dear told NCR that he expects a warrant for his arrest to be issued soon and he expects to do jail time.
-- Dennis Coday

Fr. James Martin S.J. Notes Improvement In Seminary Selection Process

Former gay priest finds new life in hospice care

Lawn Griffiths, Tribune
As a gay priest, Leonard Walker could no longer endure the Roman Catholic Church's growing hostility to homosexuality. But he wanted to leave quietly, "without notice and certainly without scandal."

In his final year at Queen of Peace Parish in Mesa, Walker commonly told his brother priests and friends, "I literally felt like a Jew wearing a Nazi uniform." Walker left the parish in November 2005, after 31 years as a priest. He objected strongly to a new Vatican policy to vigorously screen out gay men from getting into Catholic seminaries.

But his leaving was anything but quiet. His action generated wide news coverage, even in the international media.Now living in Kingman where he shares a home with a partner, the 59-year-old Walker recently reflected on his departure from the church and his life now. "It became impossible for me to any longer wear the 'uniform' of an institution that I had loved enough to leave home at 14," he said, and then devote 11 years of seminary and more than three decades as a priest in the Society of Divine Savior, or Salvatorians order. Walker found a job as a hospice chaplain in Mohave County and is assigned to about 20 hospice patients. On most days, he sees two or three, but "on tough days, it's up to five," he said. He regularly journeys to such small towns as Meadview, Chloride and Dolan Springs. "I have no regrets," he said. "I discovered my integrity, and that is worth everything. Being able to go into (hospice) ministry made all the difference in the world." I did not resign the priesthood as some protest or some political stunt to get the church to recognize me as a gay individual," he said. But his church "increasingly and aggressively became anti-gay," he said. The Diocese of Phoenix has not communicated with Walker since his resignation, said spokesman Jim Dwyer. Much of that is because he is a religious order priest, under authority of its own superior general, and otherwise "employed" by a diocese by what are called faculties granted by a bishop. Walker said the church has reversed itself from the 1997 U.S. Catholic Conference's pastoral message, "Always Your Children," which contains such statements as "homosexual persons who are living chaste lives should have opportunities to lead and serve the community" and "homosexual orientation cannot be considered sinful, for morality presumes the freedom to choose."

A close observer of the church, Jim Martin, associate editor of America magazine, a Jesuit national Catholic weekly, said the Vatican implemented its tougher rules in 2005. While he had no numbers about enrollment impacts, he said "people who are in vocation work have told me that people pulled out of the application process after that came out." How rigidly seminaries follow the screening rules varies, he said. One provision is that men who have homosexual tendencies must have been free of such feelings for at least three years before applying to seminaries. "Underreported is that it has prevented gay men who feel they can live celibate from even applying to seminaries and religious orders," Martin said. "So in a sense, it is a self-selection process." The policy was "dispiriting" for some priests, already suffering low morale from the American sexual abuse crisis, he said. Especially affected, Martin said, were celibate gay priests who "learn from the Vatican that your kind is no longer welcome, even though you have been working hard for the church and living chastely for a few decades."

For Leonard Walker, the policy maligned extraordinary priests and led "gay youth and struggling adults" to suffer depression, self-hate and suicidal thoughts. The priest said the grief he underwent from the abrupt departure from parish work could have been far more severe had he not found acceptance in the hospice field.

"I have been so well received to my surprise and shock," he said. He serves as a "nondenominational minister," and he makes it clear that he is not with the Catholic Church. "I live with my partner - he is retired, finally," Walker said. "He retired early at 55 and moved up here from Tucson, and now we are together. So, it is a very open, welcoming community, and I was surprised. Nobody would have expected that." A native of Chicago and ordained in 1974, Walker said, "I didn't come out to myself (as gay) until I was 30, and that was a real struggle because I was a very devoted son of the church."

Today, Walker says he feels "spiritually more whole, spiritually more centered" by serving a wide community where many find themselves alienated from "whatever church they have been in." "I have to trust God far more than I ever did as a priest where there was such security and insulation," he said.

Link (here)

Jesuit Priest, Tried, Convicted And Labeled A" Coward"

But Judge Svet would have none of it, calling Fr. John Dear, S.J. a "renegade priest," "a coward" and "no Gandhi." "Mr. Dear, you frankly are a phony," Svet said. "You preach nonviolence but you are the same man who took a hammer and a can of paint against a U.S. aircraft."

Link to the full article (here)

Tower of Fanatics

Just read this.

.

Fellow Jesuit provides profile of new superior general
Father Juan Masia, S.J.
Madrid, Jan 23, 2008 / 02:08 am (CNA).- In an article written for the Spanish daily “La Verdad” in the city of Murcia, Fr. Juan Masia, SJ, who worked in Japan with the newly elected Jesuit superior general, offered a personal profile of Fr. Adolfo Nicolas. Masia points out in his article that the election of Father Nicolas as superior general of the Jesuits “was foreseen years ago and it is no surprise to many Jesuits.”

“With the news of the election I received flood of emails asking for information about him. I have been silent for an entire day; I did not want to endanger him with enthusiastic praise that would stir up the anger of those who sit waiting with a shotgun to fire against hope from the tower of fanatics.

But tonight, I have made a decision,” Father Masia said. Writing from Japan, he stressed that the “news of the election of Father Nicolas, who for years was seen as a future superior general, has given great joy to the Society and was no surprise to those who awaited it and desired it for a long time. When Father Arrupe wanted to retire for reasons of age, before he became ill, there was already talk of Father Nicolas as a possible successor: open, but balanced; prophetic, but obedient; bold, but discerning.” “But, as John Paul II continued to live on, many people thought: ‘Father Nicolas’ time has passed’,” he added. “He speaks Catalan, English, French, Italian, Japanese and German,” said Father Masia,

“in these times of turning black the clock in the Vatican, the election of somebody like him to lead the Society is reason for much gratitude.”

“Those who know him closely know the trials he has endured with peace, elegance and faith. He knows Asia very well and Asia knows him,” Father Masia added. “Father Nicolas has been the provincial superior of the Jesuits in Japan. He has emphasized enculturation, the option for the poor, inter-religious dialogue, the protection of life and the environment, the inseparability of faith and the promotion of justice…and he is welcoming to very diverse people.” Father Masia also revealed that the new superior general

“was not rector of the Gregorian, even though Father Kolvenbach wanted him
to take the post, because the idea was vetoed by cardinals of a conservative bent.”

“His election undoubtedly was a step which the electors thought and prayed to God about, and they were careful not to campaign for him beforehand,” Father Masia noted. “It is said that he who enters a the conclave Pope comes out a cardinal, as has occurred with some of the candidates promoted on the internet by people outside the Society, but interested in seeing it reverse course.” Father Masia also said in his article that “since the Holy See still wants the superior to be elected for life, the Society has elected a 71 year-old, who will not be in office for more than approximately 12 years.” “Therefore I congratulate the Church of Vatican II, the Society, future vocations, but I do not congratulate him, although neither do I send him my condolences,” Father Masia wrote in conclusion.

Link (here)

Gobbledegook And Other Teilhardian Nonsense

As usual nothing about Jesus Christ.

It is Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit priest, paleontologist and explorer of the soul, whose life's work was the reinterpretation of Christianity in the light of evolution, who stands impatiently at the summit of man's quest for the ultimate truth ~ proclaiming to all that this primal urge to unite is god and love. As such, God is love, the ultimate life force ~ an evolutionary process with which we all participate as co-creators. To Teilhard, not only is love the most universal, the most powerful and the most mysterious of the cosmic forces ~ but it is also the primal and universal physic energy. And it is Teilhard who wrote in his last unpublished work " Le Christique " ( The Promised Land ) of the inevitable consequences when this truth appears: " Sooner or later there will be a chain reaction ~ for the truth has to appear only once, in one single mind, for it to be impossible for anything ever to prevent it from spreading universally and setting everything ablaze ." By fully surrendering to love that truth has not only appeared in my mind but I prove it every day, as a psychotherapist, by jump starting my clients hearts . I do that by having them take responsibility for love, rather than running away from it, and healing themselves in the process. As such,Teilhard's truth can be summed up with this axiom; The basic underlying and uniting force of the universe is a psychic energy field of love and soul consciousness ( the Unified Field ) which lies not only beyond time and space but ALSO beneath our deepest fears.

Link (here)

Your Time Would Be Better Spent Eating An Egg Salad Sandwich

Soap stars re-create trial of anti-war 'Catonsville 9'
Judith Salkin

The Desert Sun
On May 17, 1968, at the height of the Vietnam war, a dedicated group of Catholic anti-war activists broke into the Selective Service office in Catonsville, Md. Once inside, they gathered up hundreds of files, took them to the parking area and doused them with homemade napalm, destroying the draft information of 378 young men. The band of conscientious objectors included Father Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest; his brother, Father Phillip Berrigan, a Josephite priest; David Darst, a Christian brother; Marjorie Bradford Melville, former Maryknoll nun and her husband, Thomas Melville, a former Maryknoll priest; Mary Moylan, another former nun; artist Tom Lewis; John Hogan and George Mische. In the trial that followed that October, all nine were found guilty of destroying property of the United States and interfering with the Selective Service Act of 1967. The actions of the "Catonsville 9" were seen by some as a call to action to accelerate the end of the war. Heroes to some; anarchists to others. Throughout the trial, Daniel Berrigan took notes and eventually turned their story into a play written in free verse. This weekend, Desert Hot Springs resident and soap star Judith Chapman presents two performances of "The Trial of the Catonsville 9" at the Palm Canyon Theatre in Palm Springs. Calling from the makeup room at CBS studios in Los Angeles, where she plays Gloria Fisher Abbot on "The Young and the Restless," Chapman said she's excited about bringing "Catonsville" to the desert. "When I saw Tim Robbins' production last summer, I knew I wanted to do it in the desert," she says. "We're sold out for Saturday and about a third sold for the Sunday performance." Proceeds from the limited run will benefit Kiva.org, an Internet-based organization that gives micro-loans to people in Third World countries. For Chapman, the play's themes of civil disobedience and conscientious objection to war are as applicable today as during Vietnam. "Daniel Berrigan believed that truth rules the world and the world is exhaustively good," she said. To cast the production, which she is also directing, Chapman reeled in a who's who of daytime television stars that features eight of her "The Young and the Restless" castmates, including Vincent Irizarry, Christian LeBlanc, Emily O'Brien, Eyal Podell, Greg Rikaart, Michelle Stafford and Kristoff St. John. Other stars include Palm Desert resident John Callahan (Edmund Grey on "All My Children") and Ron Hale (Mike Corbin on "General Hospital"). Adding to the production's authenticity are a number of historical figures involved in the real Catonsville incident who will be on hand to talk to the audience before each performance, including Marjorie Melville and Philip Sandhouse, a friend of Daniel Berrigan. For Chapman, the whole reason for bringing the play back to the stage is to express her voice. "I feel so passionate about this," Chapman says. "Everyone needs to see this play; they need to stand up let people know we need to stop jeopardizing innocent lives. We need to say stop."
Link (here)

"Against The Grain" Two Jesuits

In a column for the National Catholic Reporter, Father John Dear expresses mixed feelings about the Jesuits and the future of the religious order: Here is an excerpt from the article that infuriated Father Dear so (Army chaplain sees job as forming ‘people of peace’, by Peter Feuerherd. Long Island Catholic Vol. 45, No. 52. March 21, 2007):

Read the full piece in "Against the Grain" (here)

Fr. John Dear S.J. "Jesuit's Cooperate With Evil"

A Jesuit Thaw?
Posted by: Diogenes
As the Society of Jesus begins its General Congregation in Rome, there are signs of a new openness to criticism of Jesuit policy on the part of Jesuits themselves. National Catholic Reporter columnist John Dear admits he has "mixed feelings about the Jesuits," the order to which he belongs, which are provoked by what he terms "our history of violence." Dear finds this culture of violence deplorably abetted by contemporary Jesuit endeavors:

The leading Jesuit publication, America, features regular ads paid for by the Pentagon to recruit priests to join the military in support of their killing campaigns.Too harsh, I think. The true nature of those chaplain ads is almost certainly not evident in their black and white proofs. But Father Dear has even more astringent remarks about Jesuit educational institutions:

On top of this, most of our [Jesuit] universities and high schools train young
people how to murder other people in an evil program called Reserve Officer
Training Corp, or ROTC. This work goes against everything Jesus gave his life
for, everything we stand for.

Read Diogenes full post (here) at CWN

This Is Exactly What Cardinal Rode Was Talking About

From Cardinal Rode's homily Link (here)

May those who, according to your legislation, have to oversee the doctrine of your magazines and publications do so in the light of and according to the “rules for sentire cum ecclesia”, with love and respect.

From America Magazine
How Theology Moves Along
By Sidney Callahan (here)

...........Today in the evolving theological story, contentious discussions are focused on the saving role of other religions. Cardinal Dulles refrains from detailing the still undecided ins and outs of the current fray, and concludes his essay with the hopeful words, "Perhaps some will reach the goal of their search only at the moment of death."
But why, it may be asked, should the Church's progressive journey toward greater inclusion not continue? I am inspired by another great Jesuit, Jacques Dupuis' work. He affirms that the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Word of God is "decisive" and "unsurpassable," but not "exhaustive." God's creativity is inexhaustible and works always and everywhere--in and out of human hearts and in other religions........

Read more (here)