Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Some Of Australia's True Shepherds Are Saying Enough Is Enough

Archbishop Chaput is now the Chief Scribe of the Global Catholic Gestapo.  Oh wait, I mean Official Temple Police.


The National Catholic Reporter has issued an update on the situation in Australia with Bishop William Morris.  It seems Australian priests have had their fill of the Australian Church being dictated to by the Australian version of the Vatican Gestapo.  I have not lost sight of the fact that Archbishop Chaput has his own college campus version of Vatican Gestapo and that he was the visitator assigned by the Vatican in this situation in Australia.  I can't help wonder how Pope Benedict, who had to have seen how utterly ugly the Gestapo were in Germany, can be part of resurrecting this kind of thing in Catholicism.  But then maybe he and his were not intimidated by the thought of the Gestapo knocking on their door.

Australian priests offer support for deposed bishop

Tom Roberts, National Catholic Reporter,  5-3-2011  

 A national organization of priests in Australia issued a statement May 3 supporting Bishop William Morris of the Toowoomba diocese, while also decrying the influence of those who maintain a “restorationist ideology” and apparently agitated for the bishop’s removal. (The Australian Church has truly been plagued by self proclaimed 'true believers'.  They have been totally supported by Cardinal Pell.)

 According to a letter Morris wrote that was read at all Masses in the diocese May 1, Pope Benedict XVI forced him to retire following complaints by a group of dissidents in his diocese who took issue with a 2006 pastoral letter that dealt with a severe priest shortage facing the Australian church.  (I often wonder if these Australian true believers would be quite so vocal if they lived in the Australian outback instead of cities with parishes and priests.)

In the pastoral, Morris had listed some options, including ordination of women, that he noted were being discussed throughout the church. He said in the pastoral that the church might have to be open to such options as ordination of married men and women if the “primacy of the Eucharist” is to be maintained as a distinctive element of Catholic worship. Numerous accounts about the pastoral note that Morris conditioned the alternatives with “if Rome would allow.”.......

 ........“We are appalled at the lack of transparency and due process that led to this decision by church authorities,” said the statement released by the National Council of Priests of Australia.

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I am uplifted that Australian priests are standing up for one of their own.  I hope and pray it's a sign of things to come.  I have never for once believed the vast majority of priests were pedophiles or narcissists, but I have to admit I was slowly coming to the conclusion that a lot of them were terrified of acting on the demands of their priesthood when it came to their bishops.  Priesthood is a commitment which goes beyond saying Mass.  If one takes it seriously as a personal challenge, it really is about being 'in persona Christi'.  Christ took on His own version of the temple police and the institutional priesthood.  He had to because He came to demonstrate what they could be but were not.  They too could have done what He did, but they were either afraid of the price, or unable to understand what in the world Jesus was talking about.  It is always much easier to take the safe and very traditional path.

Roman Catholicism will continue to die if all of it's leadership opts for the safe and traditional path. I can see it might live on life support for quite awhile longer, but it's becoming more and more obvious that Roman Catholicism has little to do with Christianity and a whole lot more to do with control.  More and more I think of myself as a Christian Catholic, and not a Roman Catholic.  More and more I'm beginning to wonder if Roman Catholicism really is Christian.

7 comments:

  1. Politics as usual in the RCC. No Peace of Jesus Christ there in the Vatican. A priest can get a piece of a.s from a kid and be harbored, coddled, forgiven, live in a castle, cared for, but damn those priests that dare speak an opinion favorable to women - they are banned, excommunicated, silenced, gagged, thrown out and discarded!!!! It is just plain old sick and certainly not Christian for Chaput and Benedict to allow this to go on.

    The entire group of Priests in Australia are doing a great service by supporting Bishop William Morris.

    The RCC leadership in the Vatican is a great tragedy with many enablers. They have too much power and they have abused it. Like the Gestapo, they will be crushed. I pray sooner rather than later.

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  2. Christian Catholic and not Roman Catholic. Maybe you have hit the correct formula.
    The church of Pope Ratzinger and Bishop Chaput certainly doesn't look to me like the church of Jesus Christ.

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  3. Christian Catholic - that's a good term to describe me and many of my family and friends. We need to support Bishop Morris and the priests in Australia. If the priests here saw that happen, maybe they would be less afraid of making waves.
    As it is, I am hearing more and more priests speaking up about the treatment of women and gays in the Church. It's important when we hear a homily like this to make a favorable comment on it.

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  4. The term Christian Catholic goes back a very long way in my life. It's how one of my theology profs described the Vat II Catholic vision as opposed to the Vat I vision. He said what Vatican II tried to do was to put the Christian back in Catholicism. Unfortunately we all know now, that Roman is more important than Christian. :)

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  5. I invite you all to really read what the Australian Church is saying as a result of this episode.
    Here are some of the messages:
    1. The Australians who support Bishop Morris have the right view of what being Catholic is. The rest of us don't.
    2. No one has a right to criticize Bishop Morris or anyone else with these views - as if no one has a plank in their own eyes?
    3. The Pope leads an evil regime. Anyone who has read, watched or listened to the Pope knows that he is a lover of Christ who prays to the same Lord we do. Do you pray for him? with him? what does it mean to be Catholic if we don't? I've been reading an awful lot of hate across the blogosphere and the news, is that Christian Catholic?
    4. The Vatican is an evil regime out to quash freedom of expression. A thorough examination reveals in a church of 1.8 billion a very small percentage of quashing and reveals a wide variety of dissent that is tolerated.
    5.Few question Bishop Morris's claims. It is nice that he is trusted. I like friends like his but as an outsider I think his story should be questioned. For example - Bishop Morris claims he doesn't know the case against him - it must be about the 2006 letter. He hasn't seem Chaput's report. Yet, he admits to be in a five year conversation with the Vatican and has spoken to the Pope. I find it hard to believe that the conversation was one sided. I find it hard to believe that an intelligent man would know the meaning of each and every question they were asking.
    6. Everything leads back to the sex abuse scandal. The Vatican did nothing about it and how dare they now sack the Bishop for women's ordination. Given the sex abuse scandal, the decision to sack the Bishop was probably NOT taken lightly. The Vatican may be lots of things but they aren't that stupid. So, Bishop Morris must have said "things" against the Roman Catholic, but perhaps not the Australian Catholic Christian Church, that makes him not able to preach in the Roman Catholic Church. It must have been enough evidence to support a claim that he violated canon law.
    7. Lack of transparency is misdirection and we all know it. The Bishop is the disgruntled member of the organization whose right to privacy is being protected. Now, if you want all personnel laws in free countries to be abandoned - keep complaining. Of course they won't be abandoned and that's why we use them to complain and as a cover when we know the other side can't or won't tell all.
    8. The message also is that the Roman Catholic Church is afraid. I think quite the opposite. The Roman Catholic Church is saying - this is what we believe, why we believe it and its willing to be persecuted for those beliefs.
    9. Finally - to be Roman Catholic is not to be Christian - how often have Catholics heard that one,just seems to me it comes more often from Protestants for the reason that your professors have taught you - schism.

    I doubt you'll think I'm enlightened but I am sincerely saddened at the rhetoric and hate I have been reading for the past two days.

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  6. Hmmm...a christian catholic church? A catholic church where all are welcome, where priesthood isn't confined to celibate men, where primacy of conscience is celebrated, what happens in your bedroom is your business and the gospel of love is both spoken and lived?

    I know where that kind of catholic church can be found.

    As the apostle Philip said, "Come and see for yourself."

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  7. Anon, I found your comment in the SPAM bin, so I'm late getting it posted. Long comments wind up in the SPAM bin.

    If the Roman Catholic church was as strong as you say, it would have the strength to entertain the thoughts of the progressive wing of the Church. The fact it silences and punishes the left, but invites even the most schismatic of the right to come to the table, says it's weak and afraid.

    I don't believe I pray to the same Jesus that Benedict does because we are two different people formed in two different times and cultures. The difference is I don't expect Benedict to pray to same view of Jesus I do, but the Church seems to be demanding I conform to Benedicts' view. In point of fact, all too frequently it seems the Church is demanding Jesus conform to Rome's official view.
    When it gets to the point even Jesus must conform to Rome this truly defines a scared and weak church.

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