Insurrection or Politics?
Whenever I would go to meetings in DC, including the WOC Board, I would get a thrill seeing the Capitol dome, as I see it tonight. I remember being inside with a class I took to Washington near the end of my teaching career. We took photos and listened for echoes in statuary hall. We sat on those leather seats in the gallery. We had waited on lines to get in and we listened to an elderly guide explain the seriousness of what happens in this building he loves.
Nothing has been as serious as what happened today. I’ve studied threats to the capitol in 1812 and to the city from the Civil War to 911. Being urged to attack a building is one thing. To attack a building with people inside is criminal. All our elected national leaders, all except the President, were threatened. And the President was doing the urging.
In a long article published yesterday, Massimo Faggioli criticized the politicization of the Church “in the sense that political divisions among its own members tend to dominate everything. They dominate not only the crafting of careful public statements by those who work in and for the Church, but also the very process of forming ideas, worldviews and opinions.”
What we read —which NCR, the Reporter or the Register, for example. Whether we think ecclesial leaders speak eloquently or vapidly. Look at their responses today in NCR and America. Which impress us? Bryan Massingale applying the anti-racist frame means more to me than prayers for peace and calm.
Faggioli says: “It’s politics in the sense that the political order comes first as key to all other questions: ecclesial, theological and spiritual…Indeed, political survival is now the very wiring of Catholic leadership and is much more decisive than possessing intellectual, spiritual or even managerial skills.”
What about us? Do our core moral values lead us to our politics? To the ideas we have and the leaders we follow?
What about our bishops? Do we, like Faggioli, distrust their motivations? Do their aspirations trump their theology? He published this yesterday:
The silence of the shepherds
As a national body, the bishops have said nothing about how Trump — a president many of them saw as an ally in the “culture wars” — has posed a threat to the Republic.
Their silence is due, in part, to a kind of constitutional agnosticism. It is also partly out of fear that they might send a political message too uncomfortable to stomach for Catholics who voted for Trump. And it’s due, in good measure, to the political sympathy many of the bishops have for the outgoing president.
In Trump’s assault on the rule of law, with flagrant attempts to overthrow an election and institute authoritarian rule, the US Catholic leaders’ efforts to remain neutral show a detachment that absolves the extremists.
They also display the culture limitations and lack of leadership in the generation of clerics currently in power in the Church…
On top of all the huge challenges facing an institutional structure struggling to make sense of itself in the wake of momentous and all-encompassing changes nationally and globally, it is urgent for the Catholic Church to assume a new matrix of understanding that gets rid of the mantras of right-wing ideologues that have led to this perilous politicization of the faith…
In the Catholic Church in the United States, one of the most important Churches in the world, the structures of ecclesial conversation have all but broken down.
And it’s here, unfortunately, where Pope Francis’ promise of synodality looks like nothing more than a mirage.
Is this politicized or moral? Do we trust our bishops? Do we trust ourselves?
8 Responses
Glad you (and Massimo Faggioli) are urging the bishops to question their support of this most dangerous president. Who is Massimo Faggioli and where was his article published? Hope that you will let us all know if any of the bishops begin speaking out.
Interesting view. My Catholic Church pointed our vote towards President Trump. It was marvelous. The failure of the other side is in refusing to accept that Trump, putting his character and use of words aside, actually accomplished a great deal for the Kingdom of God. His first concern with America first was to stop obvious dike leaks like protecting country’s borders from attack, building military regarding world threat to our citizens, improving relations with middle east (biblical) and shutting down leaders seen as a global and national threat. He brought jobs to America by opening our borders to foreign manufactures. The next four year had he been elected and had the other side’s political threats and bullying ceased, his focus was on the interior of the United States of America. He has worked for the good of the people, had people been awake. He has been blamed for everything political. Even satan does not get that much credit. God chose the United States new King and the new party in control. Good king, bad king. It’s all scriptural. For the 50% that won their new government, I look forward to listening to the new administration that scripturalIy that I am called to pray for and to respect even if I don’t like their character etc. I look forward to listening to the sounds of the people hoping their administration suits all their neediness. God responses to the cries of his people. Trump voters nor the Republicans have lost. Politics is a crap shoot, too much ego and a need for tern limits in Congress.
FYI, a superb critique of patriarchy:
From Pornography to Agriculture: Challenging Hierarchy
Robert Jensen, MerionWest, 4 January 2021
https://merionwest.com/2021/01/04/from-pornography-to-agriculture-challenging-hierarchy/
Your vision says we are all welcome but purging blog replies expresses that all voices are not welcome. The greatest issue I have with leadership in the Catholic Church is women. I have been wanting to be a priest since I lived across my church in 6th grade. I thought when I returned to the Catholic Church 40 years later the discussion of women priesthood would not be a discussion but actual be reality. To this day, more women than not, as a collective voice do not want women priests. I was listening to the Democratic leader from Hawaii that was not reelected share what she has noticed about women’s identify in the real world. Take Palosi’s remark, Amen and A-women at the end of a congressional prayer. Ridiculous and insulting to basic intelligence. She was stating that women in leadership is not getting the respect it deserves. Basically, it is still a man’s world. Then another friend of mine recently shared she will never vote for a women president. I don’t think she is alone may the other person be female or male many folks are not going to vote for a women as president. So does change in church or in political organizations require men to change their point of view? Or is it women as a collective being that needs to change its view about women in leadership? I have a faith based graduate degree in servant leadership. In order to be a very good servant leader, we need to remove our biases and see good on both sides of a cause. Blinders and bias block true servant leadership and loving one’s neighbor.
I have a question about your organization. Are you supporting women as Catholic clergy for spiritual reasons? Or is your platform more political and it’s power base? Recently, I have met some Episcopal women priest. One woman was a pastor of 25 yrs as a priest and the others were much younger, priest for 3-5 years. As the younger priest commented, the boy’s club still exists in her church. She consciously has to work at embracing her femininity and spiritual gifts as a women as she serves in a man’s world. Engaging with the mature retired woman priest, I felt like I was talking to a woman that has learned how to wear man’s pants and do man’s politics. What reason are more Catholic women and some Episcopalian women not wanting women as priest or even deacons (more Catholic opinion). Most interesting is women fill most of the pews of many churches and yet, they don’t want women as clergy. I don’t get it. Maybe one of your authors can write about women in our churches. The men will not change if women as a collective whole don’t want woman priest. They will permit men to get married before they give a women a place on the alter. One reason, Catholic women as with women of other Christian faiths, don’t want women as clergy.
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https://international.la-croix.com/news/signs-of-the-times/the-tragedy-of-all-pervading-church-politics/13578
Helen, this is the link to Faggioli’s article in La Croix International. He is on the faculty at Villanova.
Thanks!
CARTA ABIERTA A NUESTRO HERMANO FRANCISCO,
OBISPO DE ROMA.
Ref: PIDO SER RECONOCIDA COMO HIJA DE DIOS.
Medellín, enero 10 del 2021
Muy apreciado hermano Francisco:
Nuevamente me atrevo a escribirle por este medio, que creo es más directo y fácil, que reciba esta comunicación y no se quede perdida en el trasteo del correo por el Vaticano.
Pertenezco a la Asociación de Presbiteras Católicas Romanas (ARCWP, siglas en inglés).
Ud. varias veces en sus intervenciones ha reconocido los dones, valores y buenos servicios de la mujer al servicio de la Iglesia. Además, somos más de la mitad de las mujeres a quienes nos interesa y queremos la Iglesia. No nos hemos retirado de la Iglesia, no hemos renunciado a nuestro Bautismo.
Mucho le agradecería, si me pudiera explicar por qué la Jerarquía, hasta la fecha, se sigue refiriendo a nosotras, como personas no dignas de representar a Cristo en la tierra, y por lo tanto no podemos ser ordenadas presbiteras, según el Decreto de Graciano (1.140). Dice este monje que: “las mujeres deben ir con la cabeza cubierta, porque no son la imagen de Dios”, protocolo que se sigue cumpliendo, de manera especial en el Vaticano, en algunas Audiencias. Algunas religiosas, se cubren su cabeza, el resto no nos la cubrimos, pero duele profundamente el que se nos diga que “no somos imagen de Dios”.
Dicho Decreto, no ha sido abolido dentro de la Iglesia, se nos sigue aplicando, sin referirse a él. Cuando en la Iglesia se preguntan por la ordenación de mujeres, se refieren a este Decreto: “solo pueden ser ordenados, hombres bautizados” Canon 1024. Por el hecho de estar reclamando la abolición de este Canon, para que nuestro Bautismo sea reconocido plenamente, se nos trata de marginar y castigar
Hermano Francisco, en nombre de las mujeres de nuestra Iglesia, le pido humildemente que seamos reconocidas como hijas de Dios, creadas a Imagen y Semejanza de Dios (Génesis 1,26-27).
Ud. con su cargo, su testimonio y compromiso puede abrir muchos caminos de Justicia, Reconciliación y Paz. La institución eclesial, no puede estar al servicio del sistema patriarcal, opresor y dominante, sin manifestarse ante los feminicidios, abusos sexuales, y la situación de violencia que vivimos no solo en Colombia, sino en el mundo entero.
En nombre de María de Nazaret y María de Magdala, Apóstola de los Apóstoles, mujeres creadas a imagen y semejanza de Dios, a través de ellas, hemos recibido también el mensaje del ángel: “no tengan miedo” Mateo 25:5-10. Mensaje que recibimos y seguimos anunciando
su Pascua de Resurrección, en la población de Galilea, que nos muestra su sufrimiento, dolor y muerte, añorando la Esperanza, la Justicia, en cualquier lugar del mundo donde hay migrantes, desplazados, marginados, racismo, y toda clase de discriminación.
Cuente con mis oraciones, pido sus oraciones, para lograr ser reconocida como hija de Dios.
Bendígame, hermano Francisco, aprovecho de desearte un buen año 2021 y muchas bendiciones para su ministerio.
Su hermana en Cristo,
Olga Lucia Álvarez Benjumea
Presbitera ARCWP