Candidate Debates

Just thinking – what would happen if leadership Catholics, 10 at a time, were able to be on a national stage and asked hard questions that revealed what they are passionate about?

How do we get our information about church issues that matter to us? The written word. NCR, America, Commonweal – all have podcasts, but, relative to the words they churn out, insignificant. How many have you listened to? Maybe more than I have. Local lectures and Tipping Point national tours draw some. The large CTA conferences are becoming regional, though DignityUSA holds conferences every other year. How many smaller organizations can bring together a national audience? Women’s Ordination Worldwide did in 2015 – in fact, hosted an international audience – but WOC cannot repeat that regularly. We must rely on the written word.

Here are my ten candidates for that debate stage. I found their articles in the last week:

Catherine Buck in New Ways Ministry reports on the activities of  “the Interparish Collaborative (IPC), a coalition of parishes from the mid-Atlantic region who support one another in developing LGBTQ ministry.” They march in Pride parades – and dialogue with Cardinal Tobin.

Joan Chittister in The New York Times didn’t actually write the article, but I am putting her on the stage as the bishop (characterized by Marian Ronan) of Catholics who favor women’s ordination and church reform.  Once again, Joan is denied a platform by authorities who still don’t understand where the people are. She does not let them off the hook; when the organizers said she hadn’t really been invited, she produced an email rescinding the invitation. Transparency, please.

Francis X. Clooney in America responds to James Carroll’s critique of the priesthood by linking it to others by Gary Wills and Robert Orsi, all of which he finds rooted in personal reasons. Rather, Clooney emphasizes the sacramental role of the priest and concludes “Redeem the priesthood, yes. Reconnect it to the holiness of God, and begin seriously to imagine a Catholic Church in which any of God’s people may be called to this privilege and burden.”

Luisa Derouen in Global Sisters Report reflects on twenty years of working with transgender people by sharing stories that have the feel of great truth: “When I tried to get her [a trans woman] to take a break and eat some lunch, she immediately responded, ‘I’m not hungry for food! I’m hungry for someone to listen to me who won’t judge me.’”

John Gehring in NCR calls for “Catholic Bishops [to take] a year of abstinence on preaching about sexuality” and makes it a Catholic workplace issue by connecting the recent Vatican’s Education Congregation document to the firings of LGBTQ+ people in schools and churches.

Daniel Horan in NCR provides a deep theological introduction, following David Tracy and others, to what dialogue really is, in contrast to the Education Congregation document: “To move toward true dialogue would require consideration of a more diverse array of theological and philosophical sources in the Catholic tradition.”

Mary Hunt in Religion Dispatches sees in the Education Congregation document as a trial balloon for a more authoritative treatment by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. She finds what’s new is not what is written about same-sex relationships, “But in a pernicious way, all of that seems to fade a bit in this document which focuses pointedly on transgender and intersex people.”

Phyllis Zagano in NCR writes about deacons who rose as good administrators, even becoming popes, but who were left out of a clerical hierarchy that became restricted to priests who are indebted to their superiors, exemplified recently by the gift-giving West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield.

TWO KATES: Kate McElwee and Katie Lacz. Why not? I’m setting up this debate.  WOC’s executives continue to be creative, committeed – oops, committed and probably the other as well – and thoughtful. This week they set up the WOC-A-Thon to raise funds at the end of the fiscal year, which is infinitely less annoying than the public radio version. Board members are writing and recognized; they can sit in the front row at this debate, with all of you in the audience.